Spicy Baked Beans

This recipe takes a long elapsed time, but the amount of work you have to do is not all that much, and totally worth the effort. It's great to make on a rainy winter day when you are home cleaning and doing laundry anyway. It's my adaption of Boston Baked Beans from the Joy of Cooking Cookbook. Spicy Baked Beans 1 kg dried, small white beans (navy, great northern ...) (2.2 lbs) 4 litres water (128 oz) Pick through beans for stones and mangled beans, and rinse. Put in a very big ovenproof pot with water (DO NOT add salt!!) Bring to a boil and simmer for 2 minutes. Skim the gunk off the top if necessary. Remove from heat, cover and let stand an hour. Bring back to a boil and simmer for 2 minutes. Skim the gunk off the top if necessary. Remove from heat, cover and let stand an hour. Bring back to a boil and reduce heat so that beans are barely simmering. Partially cover and simmer for about an hour or just until the skins are starting to burst.  Skim the gunk off the top if necessary. Pour beans, gently (so they hold their shape), into a colander and allow to drain. Return the beans to the pot with the following ingredients and enough hot water to barely cover them. 10 ml salt (2 tsp) 5 ml pepper (1 tsp) 250 ml molasses, the darker the better (8 oz, 1 cup) 500 gms double smoked ham, bacon or a mix of the two, diced (1 pound) 500 ml diced onions ( 2 cups) 1/2 bottle McIlhennys Chipotle Tabasco Sauce (or to taste) Stir gently (don't break up the beans) Bake, covered, in a 125c degrees (250F) oven for 6-7 hours until beans are tender and sauce is thick.  Remove the lid to help the liquid to evaporate near the end, if necessary. (nb. You can also do this in a crock pot instead of the oven. ) I make this big batch and freeze into individual portions. In Australia, where to get: McIlhenny Chipotle Tabasco http://www.usafoods.com.au/p2185/hot-spicy/mciihenny-chipotle-tabasco/ ... or try Thomas Dux stores.  Molasses: Health food or organic groceries, ocanada.com.au or usafoods.com.au.  The best bacon I've found, and the best double smoked ham, is from the Polish Deli in the Queen Vic Market for you Melburnians.

__________________ ttfn, Kaz 'Fairy Tales are more than true; not because they tell us dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.' G.K. Chesterton

http://kaz-justinpassing.blogspot.com/ by Kaz is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.