Spice – How to make homemade pinto beans taste like canned refried beans

The heightened flavor of refried beans (over regular beans) comes from two components: the extra fat, and the Maillard (browning) reactions caused by the cooked beans shallow-frying in hot fat. Effectively, a crust forms where the mashed beans contact the fat. This crust breaks up later when the dish is stirred together.

If you can get them, try pinto beans rather than black.

Standard Refried Beans (from a can)

• Drain and rinse the canned beans.
• Heat your fat of choice (olive oil, lard, shortening) in a heavy pan.
• Mash 1/3 of the beans coarsely in a bowl, using the back of a fork and a little water, if necessary. You want the consistency of the mash to be somewhere between pancake batter and cookie dough.
• Add this mash to the fat in blobs of 1-2 tablespoons. The idea is to get as much surface area exposed to the fat as possible, because this is where the yumminess comes from, so, not a big blob in the middle of the pan. Preferably, many smaller ones.
• After a time, start stirring the bean mash and fat together, then mix in the reserved whole beans. Thin with water or broth.

Bonus:Roasted Garlic Refried Beans (from a can)

• Peel a couple of whole garlic cloves. Leave them whole.
• Put these in the fat as it heats. If the fat doesn't cover the cloves completely, you can either stir from time to time, or, better, tilt the pan so that the fat and garlic pool on one side.
• When the garlic cloves are the color of milk chocolate, remove them and add the mashed beans as above.
• Mash the cloves with the back of a fork and add them with the whole beans at the end.

This isn't the "quick" nor the healthy answer, but I personally do a twice-cooked system. I leave the juice from the can in the mix, and boil it down, which takes 15 minutes or so. Retaining the flavor of the canned fluid is essential, in my opinion.

Then I "fry" the dry-ish mixture which is beginning to separate in maybe 1 tbsp preheated lard per can of beans, stirring a lot at first. Lastly, very slightly simmer this on low heat for 1 hour or so, stirring occasionally. Flavor is awesome. Any kinds of beans can be prepared in this way, and it is similar (varying on oil and legume variety) to other paste concoctions created elsewhere.. such as in the middle east.

Note that this method negates the need for lots of "mashing". So, if you're more looking for less effort, than necessarily for "quick".. this could be your answer :)