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BBQ season is almost upon us, in fact already started for some. Here's a great recipe for doing your own baked beans, canned ones cant compare, and a big pot full feeds the hoards.

Ingredients:

1lb. white beans, small ones are better
75ml vegetable oil
a large chopped onion
a chopped green pepper
a chopped stick of celery
2-3 cloves of crushed garlic
120ml maple syrup
120ml tomato puree or a can of chopped tomatoes(I'd add puree to these)
2 tblsp black treacle
2 tblsp cider vinegar
1 tblsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 bay leaf
a good handful of chopped parsley

Method:

Rinse the beans and put them on a large bowl to soak in hot water, they will expand so use plenty of water. Soak for at least 2 hours or overnight.
Drain, put in a large pot with plenty of hot water, bring to the boil and simmer until just tender - 1 hour or so. (Do this in a pressure cooker to speed it up if you want)
Drain the beans, reserving the cooking water.
While the beans are cooking, heat the oil in a large skillet, add the onion, green pepper, and celery, saute for a few minutes, add the garlic and remove from the heat and set aside.
Preheat the oven to 180C
Whisk together 250ml of the reserved cooking water, maple syrup, black treacle, vinegar, mustard, tomato puree(or tinned tomatoes), salt and pepper, parsley and bay leaf.
Add the sauteed vegetables to the beans, pour over the maple syrup mixture, combine it well.
Pour into a large shallow casserole dish, cover tightly and bake for 2 and a half to 3 and a half hours.
Check regularly for the fluid level and top up with reserved cooking water.

I have cooked this in a large slow cooker and it turned out really tasty, plus its more economical.

Enjoy

Jen

Good news for lovers of beans:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4943486.stm

Eric

Good news indeed!

I've always kept this recipe for those large 'al fresco' gatherings. Maybe now I'll be able to bring it indoors!

Jen

Here's a black bean recipe for the slow cooker (crock pot). It fills the house with a wonderful aroma.

Slow Cooker Cuban Black Beans and Rice
Traditional black beans and rice is made slow cooker easy without sacrificing the spices and seasoning this dish is famous for.

1 pound dried black beans (2 cups), sorted and rinsed
1 large onion, chopped (1 cup)
1 large bell pepper, chopped (1 1/2 cups)
5 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 dried bay leaves
1 can (14 1/2 ounces) diced tomatoes, undrained
5 cups water
2 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil
4 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons finely chopped jalape�o chilies
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups hot cooked rice

1. Mix all ingredients except rice in 3 1/2- to 6-quart slow cooker.
2. Cover and cook on high heat setting 6 to 8 hours or until beans are tender and most of the liquid is absorbed. Remove bay leaves.
3. Serve beans over rice.

Note: This recipe was tested in slow cookers with heating elements in the side and bottom of the cooker, not in cookers that stand only on a heated base. For slow cookers with just a heated base, follow the manufacturer�s directions for layering ingredients and choosing a temperature.

And my favorite bean recipe.

Bigwheel�s World Famous Top Secret Prize Winning Pinto Beans

2 lbs. washed pintos
1/3 lb. salt pork..or few strips bacon..or pork hock (I use 1/2 lb of bacon, cut it into 1" squares and partially fry it first for the flavor enhancement of the Malliard effect)
1 onion
2 split and seeded japs or serrano peppers
3-4 garlic cloves
1 Tbsp. dry mustard
1 Tbsp. wooster sauce
3 Tbsp. chili powder (Try mix and match Ancho, Gebhardts, Chimayo, etc)
1 can extra Hot Rotel Tomatoes with Habs (I just use the diced tomatoes with diced green chilis. Beans are spicy enough without Habaneros, but then I'm a yankee)
salt and pepper to taste

Cover beans with 2" of water and soak 1 hr. Drain and refill to same level. Add the salt pork and bring to a rapid boil. Reduce heat and put on the lid. Simmer till nearly done but not quite then add the other stuff and cook another 20-30 mins. Once you add the tomatoes they dont tender up any more. Add water anywhere along the way if they get too dry. Veggies can be chopped..purreed or floated depending if your comp cooking or eating at home. If you feeding wimmen, chillin, or yankees you can use only half a can of the maters. If you want them smokey..stick them in the smoke in the coolest part of the pit with the lid off for at least a coupla hours.

Putting them in the BBQ with some hickory or cherrywood smoke going really adds to the flavor profile and makes them BBQed beans.

Good recipes BBQer, bean dishes are great with BBQ. Here's a recipe for Feijoada, I used to eat this most weekends when I live in Rio de J. and I've cooked it for the multitudes, you cant cook a Feijoada for less than 10 people. It's indisputably the national dish of Brazil, traditionally served on Saturday for lunch, and eaten with an accompanying tall glass of caipirinha (cant find cachaca in the UK though so white rum has to do). For all you who buy in whole pigs this is a great dish for using the ears and tails and the tongue(smoked), the authentic Feijoada always has a pigs tails and ears floating around. Most of us don't have those available so I've substituted with pork ribs.

2 and a quarter lbs small black beans
1 smoked pigs tongue, could be ox, in one piece
1lb beef jerky, in one piece
2lb pork ribs, in one piece
12oz fatty smoked streaky bacon in one piece
12oz sausages, I used Toulouse as Brazilian sausages have bacon in them
12 oz smoked chorizo
2-3 fresh bay leaves
5-6 cloves garlic, crushed
4 tbsp olive oil
Hang fire on the salt until you see what effect the bacon has.

If you buy the beans from a supplier of Brazilian black beans check them carefully for stones or you could be paying for your dentists next holiday in the Caribbean.
Wash the beans, put in a bowl and cover with water, leave to soak overnight. Rinse the jerky and the tongue, put in a separate bowl cover with water and leave to soak over night, change the water 3-4 times with the meat.
Drain the beans, put in a LARGE heavy pan, cover with water, bring to the boil, skim the surface scum, lower the heat, cover and simmer for an hour.
Meanwhile, drain the soaked meats, rinse again, and put in to a second large heavy pan. Add the streaky bacon and the pork ribs and cover with water. Bring to the boil, skim the surface, lower the heat and simmer for an hour.
Don't drain the beans, you want that black cooking liquid. Transfer the meat, with their cooking liquid to pan with the beans. Add the sausages, chorizo and bay leaves and more water to cover if needed, cover and simmer for about 30 minutes. Notice all the meats are left whole.
Heat the oil in a frying pan over a low heat and cook the crushed garlic for a couple of minutes, don't burn it. Ladle some of the beans from the big pot, and put them into the frying pan with the garlic and mash them with a wooden spoon, return this to the meat mixture as a thickener. Mash more beans if you want it thicker. Cook for a further 5 mins or so on a very low heat, and test for salt, now's the time to add it if needed.
Lift the meats from the pan and cut them into even sized pieces. Arrange them on a large platter keeping the types of meat separate. Spoon a ladle full of the beans over the meats, and put the rest of the beans in a large serving bowl.
Serve with white rice, a platter of peeled and sliced oranges, toasted cassava flour (farofa), I sometimes stir raisins and chopped banana in this. Kove, which is stir fried, thinly sliced greens with garlic and chopped smoked bacon, and a small dish of chilli oil, for those who like a kick in their food.

If you can get the Brazilian black beans (there used to be a supplier in Notting Hill) they are better because they produce a dark black liquid that permeates the meats, and the flavour is fabulous.

Muito, muito, bem

Try it, invite a crowd, you'll still be eating at midnight if the cachaca doesn't get you first!

Jen

Could someone educate me about what black treacle is? I'm guessing it's something like molassas, am I close?

Wow, Jenny, that Feijoada recipe has my mouth watering.

I was going to add that if you put a smoked ham hock in the black bean recipe it would make a full meal, but the Feijoada recipe has that beat hands down.

Thanks for the addition to my recipes!

Hi Mosler,
You could use black strap molasses instead of treacle, I prefer to use molasses in bbq sauces or bbq beans

Black strap molasses would be better, but its not so easy to find over here. Regular molasses is easily available though. The black treacle does a reasonable job in imitating the black strap molasses and adds a darker richness to the sauce.

Jen

Jen,

Holland & Barret for BS molasses.

Thanks for that, I never go I go in there thinking they just sold pills! Next time I pass I'll explore further.

Jen