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Mexican


1 spring epazote
1/2 white onion, chopped
1 tablespoon lard
1/2 tablespoon salt
1 pound dried black beans

Seasoning
3 tablespoons lard
� head garlic, broken into cloves
5 large dried avocado leaves
2 dried pasilla chiles, stems and seeds removed
1 white onion, thickly sliced
4 cups black beans with their broth
salt

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Meanwhile, add first 5 ingredients to a dutch oven. Pour in enough water to cover contents by 1 1/2 inches.

Turn heat to high and bring to a boil. Once boiling, cover the pot, carefully place in the oven, and let cook for 75 minutes, or until the beans are tender.

Place a heavy dutch oven over medium-low heat. Add garlic cloves, and cook, flipping often so they don�t burn, until they are lightly browned and very soft, about fifteen minutes. Set aside to cool, and then remove skins and place in a blender.

In the same pot, turn heat to medium and toast chiles until soft and fragrant, but not burned, about ten seconds a side. Let cool, and then chop and place in blender.

Toast avocado leaves until very fragrant, about 5 minutes a side. Transfer to blender.

Add lard to dutch oven (Note: I first did this in an iron skillet, but had to transfer the lard to a dutch oven because the beans took up more room. You might as well just start in the dutch oven). When melted, add onions and cook, stirring often, until onions well browned. Turn off heat. Remove with a pair of tongs, leaving as much lard in the pot as possible. Transfer onions to blender.

Add � cup of the bean broth to the blender. Puree for 30 seconds or so, and then add a cup of beans. Continue process until all the beans have been added. Continue to blend until it is �almost smooth.�

Turn the heat to medium-high for the dutch oven. When lard is shimmering, dump in the beans. Grab a wooden spoon and stir constantly, until beans have reduced down to a thick paste. The beans will splatter heavily, so be careful. You can partial cover the pot to keep the beans from splattering all over the kitchen. This will take 5 to 10 minutes. Make sure that none stick on the bottom. Season to taste with salt.

Serve beans with warmed corn tortillas.

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