Beans, Beans the magical fruit....
Recently, Derek cured and baked a fabulous Christmas Ham. I've been wondering what to have with it to round out a meal, although it is great on its own I think that it's better appreciated when served with complementing tastes. After doing some surfing (ok, I'm on Xmas vacay, so yeah) and realising that I've got some homemade BBQ sauce slowly dying in my fridge, I thought that baked beans sounded like a great option. Again, combining Smitten Kitchen and Epicurious, I've kinda come up with my own hybrid (pretty much based on what was handy, shopping is not an option today - it's New Years Day #1 and #2 I'm lazy)
I grew up with canned baked beans. They look pretty complicated when you look at them from the can (at least, they did to me when I was about
12!). Although, I'm not looking to repeat my canned bean tasting any time soon, I'm curious to see if homemade baked beans will taste as good with wieners as I remember the canned ones tasting. (I"ll let you know...)
12!). Although, I'm not looking to repeat my canned bean tasting any time soon, I'm curious to see if homemade baked beans will taste as good with wieners as I remember the canned ones tasting. (I"ll let you know...)Navy beans simmering comfortingly on the stove for about an hour and a half. Combining the ingredients for the sauce filled the house with this mustard, BBQ kind of smell... very cozy.
Here is the recipe for my Hybrid Baked Beans ;-)
2 cups of Navy beans (covered with double the amount of water and simmered for about an hour and a half)
1/2 red onion sliced thinly (could use more though)
5 slices of bacon chopped into rectangles
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup ketchup
1 cup BBQ sauce
3 lg tbsp molasses (I used dark)
3 tbsp mustard (I used grainy, dijon would work well too)
3 tbsp Worcestershire sauce (only Lea and Perrins of course!)
2 lg tbsp dark brown sugar
2 lg tbsp maple syrup
1 tbsp pepper sauce
salt to taste
water during baking
Nearing the end of the boiling period for the beans. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Using dutch oven (oven safe) begin to saute bacon, onion and garlic for about 5 min. or until bacon is cooked and onion sweats. Add remained ingredients to bacon mixture. Feel free to play here. I would have added some dark beer or cheap rum if we had in the house. You may want to add a little more water (some of the water left from the beans would work best) if the sauce looks too thick to hold up to a long baking time. I found that during baking I needed to add water about every 45 min. and I turned the oven down to 300 after 1 hr or so and then down to 250 after the second hour.
Bake covered for about 5 hrs or until beans are soft and squishy.
I have to put a big p.s. at the end of this. The beans tasted great - awesome, in fact. They did,
after all, exceed my memories of canned baked beans with wieners!! However, the beans that I used were probably a little old (about a year in the cupboard - although, if they are dried does it make a difference?). I should probably have boiled in the beans in water alone for about 2 1/2 hrs or ideally in a pressure cooker. I have baked the beans for a really long time and then even finished them off on the stove for a bit. I think that in future, since I don't have a pressure cooker right now, I would probably used canned Navy beans.
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