Sweet and Smoky Beans
You can’t buy beans like these, they’re in a league of their own, beyond compare. They’re nothing like ‘baked beans’ either, for a start they’re not baked, instead these are rich, dark, smoky and sticky; beans like these should take centre stage.
This recipe is a sort of hybrid, a cross between Boston baked beans and Mexican drunken beans, however this recipe omits the bacon and instead relies on a few choice spices, a slug of molasses and a can of John Smiths to impart a tangy barbecue flavour. As it stands this recipe is vegetarian, but you could very easily omit the butter and swap the stock to make it vegan.
The ingredients list may look a little extravagant, but the only prep’ involved is cutting a solitary onion in half and crushing a single clove of garlic. The rest of the ingredients need only measuring out and adding to the pan.
Sadly but not surprisingly, ‘soaking beans’ is a long forgotten past time viewed with suspicion these days, but in reality is nothing more than filling a big bowl with cold water the day before and leaving the beans to soak overnight. (Older beans, i.e. those that are nearing their best before date on the packet, can take considerably longer to cook, so it’s worth rummaging to the back of the shelf and searching for those with the longest shelf life.)
And dried beans are cheap too, granted so are those in tins, but this sauce needs time for the flavours to develop and to thicken into a dark, savoury sweet sauce.
Ingredients
(serves 4 as a generous side dish)
300g dried cannellini beans soaked overnight in cold water
Small knob of butter and a splash of oil.
1 large onion
4 x cloves
1 large clove garlic
1 x star anise
1 x dried bay leaf or 2 fresh
40g black molasses or black treacle
25g tomato purée
1 x 440ml bitter/dark ale
500ml chicken stock
1 x tablespoon smoked paprika
½ teaspoon ground white pepper
2 x teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 x tablespoon soft dark brown sugar
2 x tablespoon sherry vinegar
Drain the beans and rinse in a colander.
Top the onion and halve it, leaving the base intact. Peel the two halves, then trim the root end to remove the hard, dried root stump. Stud the outside of each half (not the cut face) with two cloves each.
Melt the butter with the oil in a large saucepan, then gently fry the onion halves, cut face down until dark brown and caramelised.
Add the garlic and fry briefly, then add all the beer and half the stock. Increase the heat and add all the other ingredients except for the beans.
Bring the contents of the pan to a boil, then add the beans and boil hard for ten minutes. Turn the heat down, partially cover the pan with a lid, and let the beans simmer gently for two hours before checking.
Depending on the age of the beans, they may need up to another hour. Top the liquid level up as necessary with the extra stock, but without making the sauce too thin.
Once the beans are soft, check for seasoning and add salt as necessary. The onion can either be removed and discarded or stirred into the beans if it has started to disintegrate.