Bacon and Tequila Pinto Beans

This recipe if from the Rick Bayless cookbook and it is incredible. If you are a bacon fan, which I happen to be, cooking this will make your house smell like bacon (fantastic!) This recipe is also great because it keeps pretty well for a week or so and gets better as the flavors are allowed to combine so feel free to make it a day or so before you're ready to serve it.

8 ounces pinto beans
1/2 cup cubed pork shoulder (or 2 ounces bacon)
4 thick slices of bacon
1 small white onion - diced
2 jalapenos (one if you don't like things too spicy) - seeded, stemmed, and diced
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 tablespoons tequila
1/4 cup roughly chopped cilantro

Rinse the beans thoroughly and put them in a medium sized pot (like a dutch oven). Cover them with 5 cups of water and remove any beans that float. Then, put in the pork shoulder or bacon. Bring the beans to a boil and then reduce the temperature to medium-low so you can keep the beans at a gentle simmer (partially covered). You'll need to cook them for about 2 hours stirring occasionally and adding water when necessary so that there's about 1/2 inch water above the beans.

Then in a fry pan, cook the remaining bacon until crisp. Then remove the bacon onto some paper towels and pour out all of the bacon grease EXCEPT for 2 tablespoons. Then, using the bacon grease, put in the onion and jalapeno and cook over medium heat until they're golden brown (10 minutes or so). Then, scrape the onions into the beans and season it with salt.

At this point, you want to cook the beans for 20-30 more minutes to let all the flavors come together. Also, you don't want to add any more water so don't worry that the water level will drop because this isn't soup.

Now, if you're serving this right now, crumble the bacon over top and stir in with the tequila and cilantro. However, if you're storing this, keep those additions off until right before you serve because that way, you'll taste the fresh tequila and have the crunchy contrast to the creamy beans.

Here's a note about rinsing the beans. I know it's tradition to soak the beans over night but Rick Bayless (highly acclaimed, James Beard Award winning chef) insists that soaking beans is unnecessary. Quoting from Mr. Bayless himself, "after having cooked almost 12,000 pounds of beans a year for most of the nearly ten years we've had Frontera and Topolobambo, I've learned quite a few things. Many are simple confirmations of what we've been taught all along - except one thing: I was taught to soak beans and I no longer do. Never having seen Mexican cooks soak beans, I've come to the conclusion that they know what is right. Soaking does practically nothing but reduce cooking time. Soaking doesn't really make the beans much more digestible, which is what we were all told. Yes, soaking and throwing out the soaking water does have some effect, the scientists now tell us, but nothing we should count on. What makes beans more digestible is a steady diet of beans, the diet nutrionists tell us we should have anyway" (241). So there you have it, from the man himself.