Needed something to take to a party Memorial Day weekend so I decided to try my hand at baked beans. I did a trial run early in the week using 1 cup of dried navy beans which turned out OK, then modified the recipe based on that. I was pretty happy with how the end product turned out so I am posting it.
Ingredients:
5 cups dried navy beans
1 lb bacon, cut to small pieces
2 medium onions, diced
9 cloves garlic or to taste
4 carrots, grated
1/2 cup molasses
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup maple syrup
5 t. prepared Dijon mustard - I used Grey Poupon of course
2 t. ground cumin
2 t. garam masala
1 t. dried mustard
1 t. salt, then to taste
1 t. Thai Fish Sauce
3 T. apple cider vinegar
1 cup V8 juice
Ground black pepper to taste
Prepare your dried beans according to your favorite method. I used the soak-overnight,-then-boil-for-1 1/2-hour method (actually, I over cooked this batch by about 45 min, but no worries). I tried the soak-for-an-hour-in-boiling-water method for the 1 cup trial batch and wound up never really getting the beans cooked through and soft. You want to be sure that your bean wind up thoroughly cooked and soft for baked beans, in my opinion.
In your cook pot of choice (I like a cast iron dutch oven) cook the bacon, rendering the fat. Add the onions, garlic, and carrots and saute until the onion is translucent. Remove from heat and add the beans, reserving the bean water.
In a separate sauce pan, combine all of the other ingredients, heating gently to fully dissolve the molasses and brown sugar. Pour this mixture over the beans, adding bean water as needed to fully cover the beans. Mix thoroughly. Bake in a 275 deg oven for as long as it takes. Add bean water as needed to prevent drying out. I baked mine for about 2 hours. The key is making sure the beans are fully cooked (mine were already overdone from the boiling step) with plenty of time to soak up the flavor from the sauce. If you do not overcook your beans it may take 4-5 hours of slow cooking, regularly making up the water volume with bean water (or just water if you run out of bean water). I actually transferred mine to a disposable aluminum roasting dish to bake them; this works well for taking them to a party or picnic where you don't want to have to chase up your dish afterwards.
Oh, yeah. Garam masala is actually just "mixed spice" so the composition might vary according to your source. I get mine at Echo Hill in Dryville. In this recipe, the key flavor contribution from the garam masala is clove, I think. If you do not have garam masala you could try to substitute 1/2 t. or so of ground clove. Thai Fish Sauce is made from anchovies. If you do not have it, you could substitute 2 or so finely chopped anchovies in the recipe. This is added for umami, not for fish flavor so don't overdo it!
Also, I didn't do it this time because I was taking this to share with others but I would normally add just a pinch of red pepper, not enough to notice any heat, just enough to add some sparkle and interest.
Take 2
ReplyDeleteIngredients:
2 cups dried navy beans
6 ¼ oz bacon, cut to small pieces
1 medium onions, diced
5 cloves garlic or to taste
2 carrots, grated
¼ cup molasses
¼ cup brown sugar
¼ cup maple syrup
3 t. prepared Dijon mustard - I used Grey Poupon of course
1 t. ground cumin
1 t. garam masala
½ t. dried mustard
½ t. salt, then to taste
½ t. Thai Fish Sauce
1 ½ t.. apple cider vinegar
½ cup V8 juice
2 Bay Leaf
Pinch Dried Red Pepper
Ground black pepper to taste
The astute arithmetician will note that the proportions between Take 1 and Take 2 are not uniform: beans are reduced 5 to 2 while other ingredients are reduced by 50% resulting in a higher sauce to bean ratio. Also, the maple syrup was not cut at all effectively doubling its proportion in Take 2. Both of these changes were beneficial. Take 2 also mentions Bay Leaf which, while forgotten in the recipe list, was also present in Take 1 and is highly recommended.
DeleteI thought Take 2 was superior to Take 1. We had them last night with hot dogs (Nathan's All Beef cooked in the baked beans on a Corropolese roll with yellow mustard, Clausen's dill pickle and a load of sauerkraut - now that's a hot dog!) and the last of the fresh asparagus.