Thursday, July 15, 2010

Bastille baked beans

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.

A pot of Bastille baked beans. I call them that because I made them on July 14.

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.

11 comments:

  1. Bostonian here...love baked beans.

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  2. I wonder if those baked beans taste the same as Mexican-style re-fried beans that I just love!

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  3. You'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!

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  4. Yep, 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.

    ladybird- 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.

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  5. 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 :))

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  6. Walt, I might have already written this before but your pictures have been looking really amazing lately.

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  7. hahahaah!! 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!!

    Take care,
    Leese

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  8. What could possibly be less French than baked beans?

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  9. Beans on toast is one of my all-time favourites, especially if it's served with scrambled eggs and grilled black pudding.

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  10. The very first thing I learned in psychiatry was the number of people in the Bastille the day it was rated July 14th.

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  11. rick, naturally!

    chm, 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?

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