Mexican Refried Beans with Chocolate Sauce

The name she gave the dish is Mexican Refried Beans with Chocolate Sauce. I suppose they could be refried since you cook them twice, but again there is no lard. And the sauce she talks about doesn't exist. It is a handful of unsweetened cocoa powder, that ain't no sauce. I would rename it if I was going to cook it more often or even ... again.

Maybe this? Habas negras rústicas con cacao?

Anyhoo, my wife wanted to try them and it is my job to make it all go. And speaking of go, here is what you'll need:

1 1/4 cups small black beans
2 red onions, roughly chopped
3 cloves garlic (I used 4)
1 tablespoon olive oil (I used what I needed to)
1 tablespoon butter (I tripled that)
2-inch chunk of fresh ginger, finely chopped or grated.
1 fresh red chile, seeded and finely chopped, or more to taste (which chile? who knows)
1 cup tomato puree
4 1/2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder or chocolate
Fresh Cilantro (der!)

This dish takes two days to prepare.

Soak the beans over night in cold water, remember to pull out any stones and to pull out any funky lookin' beans. Please change the water a few times. Finally put on the stove, with another change of cool water and bring to a simmer until tender.

Sautee the onions and garlic in olive oil & butter for about 10 minutes or until golden. Add the ginger and chile and cook 1 to 2 minutes more. I'm fairly knowledgeable about chilies. At least I can usually find what I need and prepare it correctly. And it makes me crazy when someone says, "get a green chile" or "get a red chile". In that case, I'm guessing they're rubes and are talking about Bell Peppers. I also found it tough to find "2 inches of ginger". I found the bin at my local Mexican Grocery and stood there for a moment fuming. The bin was filled to the brim with tons of great ginger ... all different sizes, widths & lengths. Would it have been so tough to say, "2 inches by maybe 1"? Or "2 inches by 6 inches?" I chose one that was about two inches by one inch.

Add the drained cooked beans and the 'mater puree. I added a few little tiny fresh tomatoes, cause I had them.
Season with salt & pepper, toss into the fridge in a covered bowl overnight for the flavors to pravelate.
The next day simmer for another hour (I'm guessing this is the refried part). I had to add a considerable amount of water at this point to get them to simmer. Just enough water to keep the beans simmering is what you need. That's it, you don't need 4 quarts er nothin'.
When you're ready to serve toss in the cocoa powder (that's the sauce part) and serve with tortillas, crumbly Mexican cheese (we used Cotija), the cilantro, lime juice & hot sauce. Of course you could add marinated chicken pieces to the party as well, I just bought a rotisserie chicken to make life easy.
I didn't like them. My wife did. I believe everything came out fine, I just wasn't thrilled with the ginger in there along with no richness ... such as a ham shank would have delivered. I suppose though that wasn't what this dish was about.

As you can see the final presentation just fell to pieces. It was later than our usual meal time, I wasn't thrilled with the beans and not only did the batteries begin to fail in my camera, but they were failing in my flash as well. This was literally the last shot of the night and I was unable to regroup for a nicer one.
After all is said and done, I believe it was a fine dish if that is what you're in to. You make your own decision.