Well, just to add to Alexandra's message, I first make what is called a "sofrito". I am not sure how sofrito translates into English, but basically this is the base, if you will, of the seasoning of most dishes in Dominican cooking.
To make the sofrito, I use garlic (about "tres dientes de ajo"...does anyone know how to say this in English?), ground black pepper, a bit of salt, and a bit of coriander. All this is then mashed in a mortar and pestle to form almost a paste.
In a sauce pot, heat some vegetable oil or light olive oil (about a tablespoon). I add a couple of branches of cilantro, oregano, about a teaspoon of tomato paste for added color, pimentos and onions. My folks never added olives to beans so I don't either. Lastly, I add the paste from the mortar and pestle.
Sautee all the ingredients on slow heat for about a minute or so until onions are clear, but don't let the garlic paste burn or get sticky!
Add beans and the bean liquid. If you cook dry beans yourself, the liquid is very flavorful! It takes a long time to tenderize dry beans thus canned beans are the next best thing. I like the Goya pink beans instead of the red kidney beans much better. Also, Goya makes a ready-made sofrito, but it contains monosodium glutamate as do most products in the Goya line :-(
Let beans simmer on low/med heat until the beans begin to thicken. You might want to mash some, but not all, of the beans to speed the thickening process. The beans should not be ultra thick, nor too liquidy. Voila, you have beans...Dominican style
Regards,
Natasha