March 30th, 2010 | 
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We’ve cooked this before using tequila but when I saw Jen’s recipe using dark beer, I was interested to see what the difference was.
Knowing I would be home late from work tonight, Stephen and I cooked the beans yesterday with the intention of making the wraps when we got home and turning the whole lot into quesadillas. However, I wasn’t expecting to be home as late as 8pm and just couldn’t be bothered so intead we ate the beans on their own with some quickly made corn wraps.
Luckily, this worked out really well and we didn’t miss the extra frying required for quesadillas. It’s hard to know exactly how much of an impact the dark beer had without tasting the beans alongside a version made with tequila but we definitely noticed the addition of pickled chillies, something we didn’t use previously. When I tasted the beans last night, the chillies were almost over-powering in their brine-iness but they mellowed overnight to add a background warmth with no hint of vinegar.
The only other change I made was to add lots of freshly chopped corainder just before serving as we both enjoy the fragrant lift this gives to bean dishes.
Jen commented in her post that her husband had no idea this was a meat-free dish and I think it would have taken me a while to work it out if I hadn’t known, the paprika adds a real roundness that is (obviously) reminiscent of chorizo. It certainly smelt like there was chorizo in there and while it would have added something in the way of texture, so much of the flavour is lost in long cooking that I really think it’s worth leaving it out of this dish. Hang on, a dish just as good without meat? Surely not! That’s got to be a Dinner Diary first 
Posted in Food & Restaurant