I was asked for the recipe so it just makes more sense to type it once and share with all. It is based on the black bean dish in the Southwestern Grill a great little cookbook, but with a few chef influenced changes.
Two cans of black beans, well rinsed Half an onion (red) 1 tablespoon Cumin (to taste though really) Jalapeno pepper 2 garlic cloves 1 Chipotle pepper salt and pepper 1 beer (lager works well, but a pale ale might be nice too) 2-3 strips of bacon (okay you got 4 use it) Directions In a large skillet cook the bacon well, rendering out all the grease, you want the bacon well done, but not burnt. Dice onions. Finely mince garlic and half jalapeno (also remove the seeds from the pepper, the beans will have plenty of flavor). By the time you are done with the onions and everything else your bacon should be finished. Remove the bacon for now, saute the onion, garlic, and jalapeno in the bacon grease, allow the onion to get tender, even carmelize a bit. Add half to three quarters of your cumin. Add the beans and half a beer to the mixture. (Yes you can have a slug of the beer if you like, but if your pan is like mine you can probably only add half the beer at one time). Break the bacon into fine bits, like at a salad bar and add back into the pan. Dice and add the chipotle pepper. Stir regularly, cook at medium heat covered, but with the lid cracked to allow steam to vent for 30 minutes or until beer is gone. Add salt and pepper. Mix. Taste then season as necessary. Enjoy! Note: I bought the canned chipotles in adobe sauce a while back, a little can goes a long way with a lot of peppers in it and sometimes there are no or few seeds in some of the peppers, again remove seeds as you like.
