This week, with the days and nights being so very cold, Roy decided he would like to cook a warming winter meal. One of his favourite things is homemade baked beans, which I suggested he might want to teach you to make. After all, most children do not realise you can make baked beans, assuming they come in a tin because they are difficult to make. This is certainly not the case, baked beans are very easy to make, though they cook for a long time, and homemade taste the best!
You Will Need:
- 1 packet of dried beans (Roy likes cannellini beans) and water to cover
- 1 large onion
- 1 or 2 cloves garlic or to taste
- 800g tinned tomatoes (2 tins) plus 1 tin worth of water
- 1 tablespoon of Worcestershire Sauce
- 1 tablespoon of tomato paste
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon dijon mustard
- 1/2 teaspoon of dried chilli (or to taste)
- 1 teaspoon of ground ginger
- 2 teaspoons of smoked paprika
- 1 large smoked ham hock. If you prefer you could use speck, bacon and some bacon bones, or (if you can get them) smoked ribs.
- Optional: 1 tablespoon of maple syrup. This adds a depth of flavour which is very nice, but you need to use the real maple syrup which can be expensive. It still tastes great even without it.
Method:
- NOTE: Before you start, you need to decide how you want to cook the beans. You can make this recipe in a slow cooker (which is easiest), or in a pot in the oven.
- A slow cooker of beans can simply cook all day. Leave it on high for the first 4 hours and then turn it to low.
- In the oven, try to cook the beans for 3 to 4 hours at 160 degrees until they are soft. Check them as they cook and, if necessary, add more water.
- If you are cooking them in the oven, or want to cook them on low all day in a slow cooker, you will need to prepare the dried beans according to the directions on the packet. If you want to speed up the cooking time you can use tinned beans.
- Soak your beans overnight. To do this, put them into a bowl (the bowl of a slow cooker is fine), cover them with cold water, put a lid or tea towel over them (to stop anything falling in) and leave them overnight. This will rehydrate them a little and make them grow to about twice their original size!
- Rinse your beans. Tip them into a strainer and thoroughly rinse them off with clean water. This process of rinsing the beans eradicates their unfortunate effect on the digestive system.
- Put your beans into the slow cooker or pot.
- Cut up your onion (just roughly chopped is fine) and crush your garlic and add both to the pot.
- Add the tomatoes and water, the Worcestershire sauce, tomato paste, mustard, brown sugar, chilli, ginger, paprika and as much pepper as you like. DO NOT add any salt because this makes the beans hard and they take longer to cook and aren't as nice.
- Mix everything together thoroughly.
- Add your ham hock or meat. Just nestle the whole thing in among the other ingredients.
- Turn your slow cooker on or put the pot into the oven and leave to cook for a few hours, until everything is nice and soft.
- Using tongs, lift the hock out of the beans. Put the lid back onto the slow cooker or pot. The hock should be soft and easy to cut up now. Remove the skin and throw it away, and then use a fork and knife to shred the meat. Put the shredded meat into the beans and throw the bone out.
- Cook the beans for a bit longer.
- Serve with crusty bread or rice.