Cooking Mexican food in the UK - any recipes?

Wow! Thank you so much for those wonderful ideas and recipe suggestions. I'm certainly going to try that quesadilla recipe on the site you recommended for myself.

I may well go for the recommendation of carne asado - but there's so many lovely recipes on the site it will be hard to choose... I'll let you know how it goes!

Discovery refried beans are evil....

mmm . . . we had mole for dinner the other night.  good stuff!  I wouldn't recommend it for the uninitiated to Mexican; I just wanted to rub it in. 

I'm ok with using refried beans from a can - I usually get the Old El Paso ones.  Good for an easy Mexican meal.  But these are my favorite beans if I have time & the ingredients to make them.  I promised this recipe to VNP(eeps) a long time ago, but have yet to deliver, until now.  It's something I just kind of throw together not paying much attention to quantities (rather whatever looks/tastes right), but I've put suggested measurements in parenthesis after for those who want specifics.

Frijoles Barrachos (Drunken Beans) -- an old friend of mine also called them Chico Beans

Pinto beans (2 cups)
Water/beef stock (5 cups or more, to cover beans)
Beer (you want lager for this - 3 cups or I just pour in a bottle)
Salt pork (approx 4 ox - ham/gammon, bacon, pancetta, etc)
Chopped onion (1 1/2 med onions, or I alternate/mix with chopped green onion)
Garlic (6 cloves - sliced or mashed as you prefer)
Oregano (2 tsp)
Chopped jalapeno pepper (as much as you want/can tolerate)
Chili Powder (again to taste)
Cumin (to taste)
Vinegar - optional (1 Tablespoon, preferably cider vinegar)
Fresh cilantro (to taste)
Salt & pepper (to taste)

You can soak the beans beforehand or not.  If not, it will just take it longer to cook - say 3 hours.  Dry pinto beans can be tricky to source over here, but you do find them here & there.  If I can't find any dried pintos, then I'll use tinned ones - no major deal.  You can usually find tinned pintos.

Throw everything - except for the salt, green onion (if you're using it), and cilantro, into a stock pot.  Bring it to a boil, and then turn heat down & let it simmer for ages, until the beans start to go soft.  Don't add the salt until then.  I also wait to add the green onion & cilantro because they're more tender, but I'd want them to cook in the mixture for about 30 minutes to an hour at the end.  Then after you've tossed the rest of everything in, let it cook some more until you're happy with it.

Modify the recipe as you choose - leave out the pork & stock if you're veggie (substitute veg stock).  Some people don't like cilantro - ok leave it out, etc.  But you can't leave out the beer, or it just isn't right!  It won't be borrachos then!

You can eat the beans as is, put them in burritos, mix with rice - whatever!  I will use them in place of refried beans.