Contents

1. Ingredients
2. Bean sorting and soaking
3. Bean cooking and mashing
4. Nacho toppings and assembly
5. Time to eat

Ingredients

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Bean sorting

Bean soaking

2. Rinse beans in pan 2-3 times with cold water. Optionally, you may also discard any 'floaters'.
3. Cover beans with at least 1 inch of water in pan
4. Leave soak overnight [don't have overnight?? - see next]
5. Quick soak method: bring beans/water to boil, boil for ~two minutes, then cover and let soak for 2 hours.

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Bean cooking

Bean mashing

12. Dice other onion and dice garlic cloves [can be done at any point while beans are cooking]
13. Saute onion in large [big enough so you can add the beans later as well] frying pan until translucent. I usually use oil that I have previously used for frying taco shells, but you can use virgin oil, if you don't have any used oil. You can also melt in some bacon fat [What? you don't save your bacon fat?] for extra flavor. You can be generous with the oil, since any remaining will be absorbed by the beans.
14. Once onions have started to become translucent, add garlic [garlic burns easily, so keep heat low and stir often.
15. When beans are done, most of the excess water should have been absorbed.
16. Keep burner on under onion & garlic mix
17. Dump 1/3 to 1/2 of the beans into frying pan and mash to desired consistency. I like my beans with 'texture'. I dislike the usual restaurant fair that look like pureed baby food. If you have excess water in the bean pan, spoon out the bean. Save any remaining liquid from cooking the beans. You can add the 'bean water' into the bean mixture later, if it seems to be getting too dry.
18. Repeat above until all beans are mashed.

19. Once the mashed beans are hot, lower the heat to reduce the amount of sticking to the pan.
20. Add spices to taste -- Tabasco sauce, chili powder, cumin, coriander, black pepper
21. With low heat, you will need to stir every 5 minutes for about 30 minutes.
22. More liquid... When you dump the cooked bean into the frying pan, retain any water that the beans cooked in for possible use later. You can also [and probably should] add a little more oil after mashing. You can add either water or oil if the mashed beans appear dry. Each gives a slightly different texture.
23. A little sticking on the bottom of the pan is OK[hence the name 're-fried'], but be sure to scrape the bottom of the pan each time you stir it. If a lot sticks, you probably have the heat too high.
24. After mashed beans are cooked, they can be left to cool in the pan [beware of hungry 'nibblers' in the house]. Cooked beans can be refrigerated for later use. They will keep for about a week.

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Nacho toppings and assembly

26. Save any scraps for your 'bio' pile!

Assembly

27. Use your favorite plain [non-seasoned] tortilla chips
28. I use a small fork to place a little dab of bean mixture on each chip and press it down, being careful not to break the chip.
29. Place completed chips on pizza or other flat pan and repeat until the pan is full.
30. Next comes the cheese. Sprinkle the cheese over the bean topped chips. This makes a nice bed for the toppings. Reserve some of the cheese to sprinkle over the toppings.
31. I usually put toppings on in this sequence: tomatoes [drain them again to avoid excess moisture], the green peppers, scallions, and jalapeño peppers [I usually cut these very small]
32. Then sprinkle cheese over the top and drizzle a couple tablespoons of salsa all around.
33. If beans are just from the refrigerator, I like to bake the nachos a little first, then move them up to broil the top. Baking takes about 7-8 minutes and broiling only 1-2, to get lightly toasted on top. When baking, use 350 degree oven.
    
    

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Time to eat

Leftovers??

Having left over nachos is never a problem. Left over nachoes are a great snack the next day. To re-heat, pop them back in the oven for 8-10 minutes. Much better then in the microwave. Although if you are really hungry, they are not too bad cold!

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