Flaherty Wines

Flaherty is an Irish name, and Ed is of pure Irish decent… on his dad’s side. His mom, however, is Cuban. She immigrated to the U.S. in 1958, the year before Castro came to power. The family doesn’t eat a lot of Cuban food, though, other than the ubiquitous beans. I’m not exaggerating when I say ubiquitous. No matter what is being served for lunch or dinner (sometimes even breakfast)—whether it’s a side of salmon or roast chicken or take-out Chinese—there is always a bowl of beans on the side.

Amada typically uses pinto beans (porotos hallados, here in Chile). She makes her beans rather soupy, and she purees the seasonings, which then cook up into a yummy sauce. She also adds the cumin whole, whereas I like to roughly grind the seeds in a mortar. Finally, I’ve modified her recipe to use Chilean merquén. If you can’t find merquén, you could substitute chipotle powder or cayenne to taste.

We don’t typically serve these beans as a side dish, as in the original Flaherty household. Instead, we serve them as a main dish like chili, perhaps with corn bread on the side, or wrapped in a tortilla, or in a bowl with rice. You might garnish with cilantro, corn, diced bell peppers—whatever you have on hand, really.

Cuban-Irish pot beans

2 cups dried pinto beans
1 can tomatoes (320 g / 11 oz drained weight)
1 green or red bell pepper
1 large onion
3o r 4 cloves garlic
1 ají verde or serrano pepper
1 tsp whole cumin, lightly ground
1 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon merquén
1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)

Sort and rinse the beans. Cover generously with cold water and let soak overnight.

Drain the beans, cover with fresh cold water, and bring to a simmer. Meanwhile, combine the tomatoes (reserve the juice), bell pepper, onion, garlic, and ají (chili pepper) in a food processor or blender and process until finely chopped. After the beans have been cooking for 15 or 20 minutes, add the vegetables to the beans, along with the reserved tomato juice, the spices, and the salt. Continue cooking until the beans are tender (about an hour total cooking time).