RECIPE 2- BOSTON BAKED BEANS
BOSTON BAKED BEANS
This recipe is taken from THE ULTIMATE WOOD FIRED OVEN COOK BOOK, and is designed to be cooked in a cooling wood fired oven, where you bung everything in the pot, slide it it and leave it overnight. If you wanted to cook it in a different bit of kit I would suggest you start with a batch of cooked beans, then proceed. They would work brilliantly this way over an indirect fire in a kettle or kamado or in a Dutch Oven over a fire pit, but you would struggle to cook beans from dry on one of these. So replace the dried beans with a couple of drained cans of cooked beans.
So, in a wood fired oven:
I have made many versions of this recipe, using soaked, unsoaked and pre-cooked beans, and I am very happy to report that the best flavour comes from beans that are unsoaked and dry. Just chuck it all in the pot, slide it into the wood oven and go to bed, smug in the knowledge that brunch is sorted. All you will need to do is make lots of buttered toast, and maybe fry a few eggs to go on top.
You need a wood oven at 180°C (350°F), that is on a cooling cycle so you can leave the beans overnight.
SERVES ABOUT 4
What you need:
300g fatty piece of smoked bacon (use bacon offcuts), cut into 2–3cm chunks
200g dried cannellini beans
100g cherry tomatoes halved
1 onion, finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, crushed
1⁄2 tsp ground allspice
1 bay leaf
400ml boiling water
2 tbsp black treacle
25g dark brown sugar
1 heaped tsp English mustard
salt and freshly ground black pepper
What to do:
Put the bacon, unsoaked dried beans and tomatoes into a terracotta or earthenware casserole dish. Stir in the onion, garlic and allspice and tuck in the bay leaf.
Measure the boiling water in a jug, and set the tablespoon for measuring the treacle into it for a few seconds to get hot. Once hot, shake off the excess water and use the hot spoon to dip into the treacle and measure it out into the hot water – it should slide off without stickiness. Stir in the sugar and mustard until dissolved and season with a little salt and pepper. Pour over the beans, then cover the pot with a tight-fitting lid or snugly wrapped piece of foil.
Slide into a cool oven at the end of an evening’s cooking, with a starting temperature of a good 180°C (350°F) or thereabouts – and leave overnight. Check the beans in the morning – after a good 10–11 hours they should be glorious, and will happily sit in the oven keeping hot until brunch.
A reminder - if you are cooking in a regular BBQ or a Kamado, I would replace the 200g dried beans with a couple of cans of cooked drained beans and expect the cooking time to be much less - maybe 2-3 hours in an indirect BBQ at about 140-150C.