Mombacho Café Black Beans

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp vegetable oil (your choice)
• 1 1/3 chicken stock
• 2 Cups black beans, rinsed and drained well
• 1 Orange, sliced
• 1 Tbsp Mombacho Café Nicaraguan Blend
• 2 Cups kale, rough chopped and packed down
• 2 Tbsp sherry vinegar
• Salt to taste
• Grated cheese for garnish: Cotija, Parmesan or Queso Fresco

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Directions

1. Heat oil in a pot to moderate heat.
2. Add Mombacho Café Cooking Base and sauté for 5 min until simmering.
3. Stir in Mombacho Café Spice Blend.
4. Add drained beans, chicken stock, orange slices and a couple pinches of salt.
5. Bring to a boil and turn down heat to medium or medium-low and simmer, uncovered, for approximately 1 hour until beans are tender
6. Add kale and increase heat to high to reduce liquid until the beans have a creamy consistency — about 5–10 minutes.
7. Add sherry vinegar and season with salt, to taste.
8. Garnish with cheese to serve.

Recipe Note

- The recipe calls for vegetable oil — but feel free to use bacon fat or lard, (Mombacho Cafe Cooking Base has bacon in it); any oil or fat will work here

- Homemade or store bought chicken stock is fine; It’s good to start with unsalted or lightly salted stocks so you can control the salt content yourself

- To rinse the beans, cover in water first, the “bad” beans will rise to the top for discarding; pour through a colander over the sink to drain

- There is no need to soak black beans overnight unlike other beans

- Cooking your beans in salted water does not keep your beans from getting tender contrary to what we were all taught, but acid does. I like to season the cooking liquid slightly and then add a touch of vinegar and salt at the end of cooking to balance flavors.

- Pack your kale down into the measuring cups to make sure you have enough

- Increasing the heat at the end to cook off extra liquid will make a nice, creamy sauce

- Salty cheese goes best with this dish, but feel free to use what you have on hand