Since Ken made a summery potato salad for lunch on Tuesday, I've had a craving for baked beans. Somehow in my mind those two things go together. So on Wednesday I made a pot of baked beans. I did cheat by using canned beans, but that's ok.
I looked at three recipes for beans, one for Boston, one for New York, and one hybrid that Ken made up a few years ago. Then I did my own thing. I'm not even sure I can reproduce the recipe, but here's a list of the things that went in: sautéed lardons, onions, and garlic, thyme, bay leaves, ground cumin, ground allspice, dry mustard, salt and pepper, Worcestershire sauce, chopped chilpotle peppers in adobo sauce, ketchup, tomato paste, and a dash of maple syrup. I mixed it all into the beans and added some of the bean liquid, then baked it covered in the oven for a couple of hours, turning the heat down after the first hour. I stirred it every twenty minutes or so and added more bean liquid to keep it from becoming a hardened mass.
We ate it with Ken's potato salad on the side. The only things missing were hot dogs and hamburgers. But that would have been gluttonous, I think, and even less French.
Bostonian here...love baked beans.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if those baked beans taste the same as Mexican-style re-fried beans that I just love!
ReplyDeleteYou've just given me an idea for tonight's supper. I think I still have a tin of Heinz baked beans in tomato sauce in the larder/pantry. I'll have them on toast, with a fried egg (sunny side up) on top. Can't wait!
ReplyDeleteYep, potato salad and baked beans go together here in Dixie. Your recipe sounds good, Walt and you didn't leave anything out:) We would replace the maple syrup with brown sugar maybe, but that's only because maple syrup might not be in our larder.
ReplyDeleteladybird- I admire the British idea of beans on toast, but have never tried that. I have a friend who grew up in Scotland who likes mushrooms for breakfast, which seems odd also.
Yumm-oh :) I like molasses, brown sugar, or maple syrup added to baked beans. I prefer none of the tomato-base or pepper additions, so mine looks darker brown :))
ReplyDeleteWalt, I might have already written this before but your pictures have been looking really amazing lately.
ReplyDeletehahahaah!! I almost asked you for the darn recipe before reading that you 'cheated!' Well, everything else you make is all home made- so cheating once and a while is quite okay-- esp. for the baked beans!!
ReplyDeleteTake care,
Leese
What could possibly be less French than baked beans?
ReplyDeleteBeans on toast is one of my all-time favourites, especially if it's served with scrambled eggs and grilled black pudding.
ReplyDeleteThe very first thing I learned in psychiatry was the number of people in the Bastille the day it was rated July 14th.
ReplyDeleterick, naturally!
ReplyDeletechm, I don't think they do, except maybe for the mexican chilpotles!
martine, I've never had beans on toast. I'll have to give it a try.
evelyn, I didn't add brown sugar; I don't like them too sweet.
judy, I prefer the spicier version to the sweeter version. :)
nadege, thanks!
leesa, it's quicker to use canned beans than to start with dried or even fresh beans. ;)
starman, Doritos?
jean, again, sounds like something I should try.
michael, and that number is?