Saturday, September 10, 2011

Make Your Own Week day six: Baked Beans

Breakfast: Boston baked beans on toast (The British Way)

Lunch: Avocado, seven grain salad and edamame salad from Sun Valley

Dinner: Spicy bean patties and salad a la putin!



The baked beans that we consume like they're going out of fashion (in the UK at least) are a far cry from the baked beans that people used to eat Back In The Day. Traditionally in the US, navy beans would be baked in a heavy pot overnight.

There are many different types of traditional baked beans, and this one is based on the Boston Baked Beans style, although I've taken the baking time down significantly, because who has time to leave beans to cook for 7 hours these days?

You'll need:
(Feeds a few)
2 cups dry kidney beans
1 onion, diced
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup crushed tomatoes
1/3 cup molasses
1 inch piece ginger, grated
1 tsp salt
oil

Method:
Soak the kidney beans overnight in water
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celcius
Fry the onion in the oil til browning, then add in the kidney beans, tomatoes, molasses, sugar, salt and ginger
Cook for 30 minutes, or until the beans are softening
Transfer the whole lot to a ceramic dish and cook for 1 hour

If you're using dried beans, don't use beans that have been hanging around your kitchen for a year or more. These will almost certainly not cook up properly.

You can double cheat by using canned kidney beans for this, but it does defeat the purpose a bit. However, if you're making your own beans to avoid the mad amounts of sodium in your average tin of beans, then a tin of no-added-salt kidney beans can work fine (yes Andy, I mean you!)

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