Easy peasy beany squeezy

One of our favourite meals is Boston baked beans. Served with fresh baked bread (seriously, I couldn't feel any more domestic when this meal is served) and whatever greens are lying around, it really is the perfect homemade-home meal. It has the added benefit of being insanely cheap - there's about £6 (a little under $9) worth of pork in there, about £2.50 (under $3) of other ingredients (mainly beans, to be honest) and it does about eight or nine adult servings and six kids servings (Teddy eats a lot for his age, but remember his age is only 20 months, so that's not a ton more, perhaps two or three adult servings). The recipe below is for half this quantity, as the amount I usually make requires something like a maslin (preserving) pan or a catering sized saucepan to fit it all in.

Boston Baked Beans

1lb dried haricot beans
1lb pork belly
1oz sugar
1tbsp black treacle
2tsp salt
1/4tsp black pepper
1 1/2 pts boiling water
3 large onions
2tsp cumin powder/ground cumin seeds
1 tin tomatoes (approx 1/2lb)

1. Soak dried beans overnight in cold water
2. Drain beans and boil in plenty of fresh water until beginning to soften. This can take anything from 30 minutes to 2 hours depending on how old and dry they are
3. Roughly chop onions and fry in a little oil on a low heat in a big pan
4. Meanwhile, chop the pork into bitesize chunks, toss into the pan after a few minutes
5. Mix sugar, treacle, salt, pepper and cumin with boiling water and pour on top, toss in the tomatoes here too (you can omit the tomatoes, according to my mother, but I think they're a nice addition).
6. Cook for 3-5 hours on a low heat. I stir it when I happen to walk past, but really it can pretty much be left to its own devices. it forms a bit of a skin, but this stirs in and dissolves very easily. You want it to be thick and stew-like, rather than soup-like. Add more water if it seems to be getting scarily thick and the spoon won't move.
7. Serve with just about anything - fresh bread and greens always makes for a nice farmhouse meal.

I normally make double this simply because the man at the farmer's market cuts his pork belly into roughly 2lb pieces. I also sometimes add a few more beans to bulk it out even more and make it even more of a cheapskate dinner if we're feeling a bit poor.

Comments

[koralee]

Thank you so much for visiting me..Boston Baked Beans which are homemade...yum! Thank you for sharing. xoxox

[Islay]

A pleasure! I'll promise to share more good recipes as long as you keep posting beautiful pics on your blog ;)

[sarah]

looks yum- as does the bread! Is it homemade?- would love to see the recipe if it is

[Islay]

Yes it is - I'll be sure to post the recipe this week sometime!

[Jo T]

Yum! That looks like it would be brilliant for a slow cooker :-)

I will add it to my recipe collection. (will have to adapt as hubbie doesn't eat tomatoes, but I have discovered that peppers plus c 100ml water and dark soy sauce is a good substitute)