Baked Beans

Baked Beans

This recipe is a good fit for a rainy, homebound day; it takes a long time, but is very worth it. If it needs more selling, the large periods of inactive cooking time make it  the perfect choice if you (like me) are also juggling the demands of a 3 year old underfoot.

My husband and I were raised on Heinz baked beans. For those of you not from the UK, baked beans were most mothers "go to" side dish on a busy night and they were always the pairing with sausages. I think nowadays I'd find them too sweet, nevertheless, recently I have been thinking about them a lot.

So browsing through Mark Bittmans's Food Matters Cookbook, I was drawn to the Boston Baked Beans. American baked beans are a different breed, but I thought I'd give them a go. I mean they start with bacon; whats not to love? The verdict; my husband and I loved them. The girls were indifferent which blew me away, given my fond childhood food memories. I may have caught them on a contrary night; it wouldn't be the first! I'll keep you posted when the saved leftovers come out of the freezer for attempt #2

In the meantime, try them out for yourself (when you have a day at home...).

Baked Beans
adapted from a Mark Bittman recipe

Ingredients

8 oz bacon, cubed or thinly sliced
2 onions, chopped
1/4 cup tomato paste
1/4 cup molasses
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 lb dried white beans (confession; I used dried kidney as I was all out of white), rinsed
salt and pepper to taste


Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 300°F
2. Using a large oven proof casserole (I used a cast iron dutch oven) cook the bacon over a medium heat until crispy and the fat is rendered.
3. Remove the bacon from the pot and pour off most of the bacon fat, leaving approx 1 tablespoon 
4. Add another tablespoon of olive oil to the pot and the onions.
5. Cook the onions until soft and browned (approx 15-20 mins)
6. Stir in the tomato paste and cook for a couple of minutes
7. Add the cooked bacon, molasses and mustard
8. Then add the beans and enough water to cover everything by 2 "
9. Bring to the boil and scrape up all the tasty bits on the bottom of the pot while stirring
10. Cover the pot and transfer to the oven.
11. Bake for 1 hour then stir and check the liquid level. It should not fall below 1 1/2 ". Add more water if necessary.
12. Cover and bake for another hour, then check again. By this point the beans should be getting softer.
13. Keep checking every 30 minutes and when the beans are tender, remove the lid, increase the oven temp to 400°F.
14. Continue baking until the liquid reduces to the correct consistency (mine took over an hour to do this, Mr. Bittman suggests anywhere between 15 mins and an hour)
15. Serve and then freeze the leftovers

Enjoy!

A little bit of visiting Irish appetizer and an apperitif



Hi everyone, this is kat ate that's cousin and friend, visiting the U S of A all the way from Northern Ireland (best place in the world for anyone who's never visited and that's not just because I'm paid to say that - check it out for yourself http://www.discovernorthernireland.com/). 

Anyway, with a little coercion, I've persuaded kat to allow me to guest blog (am very excited) and share with you all my pre dinner concoctions from last night (a specified pre-trip kat instruction - no such thing as a free holiday anymore). 

I'd also like to take the opportunity to introduce you to Delia Smith - the godmother of British celebrity chefs - all great recipes start with a touch of Delia and in my experience following her recipes you can never go wrong.  My version of Frijolemole is based on one of Delia's recipes; its a variation on a hummus type dip and in the spirit of "kat ate that" I have:

a) tried to be healthy-ish (go easy on the chips); and,
b) improvised (which to be fair wasn't actually by choice; "she" didn't buy me all my ingredients)

So here goes....

My Frijolemole

based on (http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/cuisine/exotic/mexican/frijolemole.html),

Ingredients

1 tin chickpeas/ garbanzo beans (440g)

1 medium white onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

juice of 1 lime

1 fresh chilli

a few drops of tobasco sauce

fresh chopped coriander (cilantro for you American readers)

2 tablespoons soured cream (low fat

salt and pepper

1 red pepper finely diced

Directions

1. Fry the onion and garlic in a little oil for about 10 minutes until soft (do not brown)
2. Drain the tin of chickpeas and put in the food processor with some salt and pepper
3. Add the fried onion and garlic and the juice of the lime and blend to a smoothish paste (yesterday I added a splash of milk and a drizzle of olive oil while blending to soften)
4. Empty the puree into a bowl and add the chilli, tobasco, coriander, sour cream and salt and pepper to taste
5. Finally add the red pepper (the original recipe does not include red pepper but adds a chopped fresh tomato and 3 spring onions - however, as I said kat didn't shop properly so I improvised with a red pepper which actually was very tasty)

Serve with warm pitta bread (for health) and corn chips (for tastiness) - de-licious!

And then flavour with........

Boozeberry Fizz



Last week at home I was introduced to Boozeberries Irish Liquer - I will never look back and therefore feel is my duty to convert as many boozeberries virgins as possible - http://www.boozeberries.com/.

I (kindly) brought a bottle of the wild cranberry flavour with me under my oxter*. Last night we combined it with prosecco to create a (new to me) taste sensation (Joyce, you'd love it!).  Clearly, no recipe required.

Enjoy!

* colloquial Northern Irish for armpit

Super Bowl Food: Chili and Dip

Spinach Artichoke Dip

If there is one main theme of my blog, it would be that tasty food can pretty much always be pulled together without a special trip to the store.

On that note; I promised game day food this week and I shall deliver. However, Trader Joes were all out of sundried tomatoes (very rarely will I write anything negative about that store) so slight change of plan. I am serving spinach artichoke dip instead of the artichoke sundried tomato spread.

I love the concept of the flavors in spinach artichoke dip, but the traditional recipes are just too heavy and fat laden for me to enjoy. I've been making this version for a few years; Ellie Kreiger from the Food Network provided the base recipe; I usually like her approach to healthier eating.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ellie-krieger/warm-spinach-and-artichoke-dip-recipe/index.html

However, it did need a little more cheese, greek yogurt and a touch of nutmeg to make it feel a bit less "healthy". It's a fine balance, after all it's still gotta taste good!

My other offering for today's Game Day planning is Chili. It's largely based on one of Jamie Oliver's versions that pulled of the Food network site years ago; the recipe is no longer listed. Anyway, I added a few more veggies, less chili pepper and I used ground turkey this time. The original uses ground chuck.

I always get asked about the chili when someone else tastes it and I think it's due to unusual ingredients and method; it's got a cinnamon stick and sundried tomatoes in it and he recommends you cut up your veggies etc in the food processor. Altogether this gives a smoother texture, which I like and an interesting depth of flavor. I also added more veggies and wine; notice the theme? I believe one cancels the other out, but it's a step in the right direction!

The Chili is freezable for about 3 months; I usually make a double batch (see photo) and feeze in family sized portions.

Spinach and Artichoke dip



My 2 year old digging in

This yields a lot; enough for 10-12

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
3 cloves of garlic finely chopped or minced
1 (9 oz/ 255g) package of frozen artichokes, defrosted
1 (10 oz/ 283g) package of frozen spinach, defrosted and squeezed of excess liquid
1 cup/ 250ml reduced fat or non fat sour cream or greek yogurt
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1/2 cup/ 4 oz/ 115g reduced fat cream cheese
4 oz/ 115g shredded/ grated part skim mozzarella (or whatever good melting cheese you have)
1/2 teaspoon salt
pepper to taste
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg


Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F/ 190°C
2. Saute the onions, over a medium heat, for approx 4-5 mins. Add the garlic and cook for a further 3-4 mins.
3. While the onions are cooling, put the remaining ingredients in a food processor and process until smooth. Add the onions and pulse a further 4-5 times to mix.
4. Transfer to a lightly greased baking dish (I used 4 large ramekins, or you could use one large 8" square baking dish)
5. Bake for 15/20 mins until heated through but not browning on top.

This is delicious served with pita chips, or carrot sticks.

Enjoy!



Kat's Chili

Serves 6

Ingredients

2 medium onions

2 garlic cloves

olive oil

1/2 lb/ 225g carrots (washed not peeled)

2 teasponns chili powder

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin

sea salt and pepper

1 lb/ 455 g ground chuck (I used ground turkey this time)

7 oz/ 200g sundried tomatoes in olive oil

1 fresh red chile, deseeded (optional, swap in milder chile or omit)

2 (14oz/ 400g ) cans chopped tomatoes

1/2 cinnamon stick

1 glass red wine

2 (14oz/ 400g) red kidney beans, drained and rinsed well

Directions

1. Place the onions and garlic and carrots in the food processor and chop.
2. Using a deep heavy pan or dutch oven, fry up the onions, garlic and carrots in some olive oil until softened.
3. Stir in the chili powder and cumin and cook for a further 2 mins.
4. Add the meat and break up well. Cook until lightly browned
5. Food process the sundried tomatoes (without the oil) and chile and add to the pan
6. Add the tomatoes, cinnamon stick and wine.
7. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 1 hour before adding the beans.
8. Simmer for a further 1/2 hour then allow to sit and develop more flavor.
9. Test and season as necessary at the end; depending on your tomatoes and beans, there may already be enough salt without adding more.

Enjoy with the usual toppings, rice, cornbread, tacos etc etc etc!

Sausage and Bean Casserole



Perhaps I should explain for the Brits reading this; we're on to our umpteenth snow storm this month, it's completely baltic outside and it's just plain January for goodness sake! That's why there's so much comfort food on my blog so far, but I promise you, I do have more than comfort food in my bag of tasty treats.

Having said that, I just have to share one of my all time favorites; Sausage and Bean Casserole. I've been making this in various ways for years now but this is the tastiest. My family love it, my friends love it (it's my go to for a new and weary Mum) and most importantly I love it

The original recipe comes from Martha Stewart's Everyday Food:

http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/sausage-and-bean-casserole

However, as usual I decided to pack in more vegetables and fiber, and reduce the fat. The result is 2 meals for us; one for tonight and one goes in the freezer for a lazy or crazy day, depending on your definitions of the two.

If you're going to freeze it, leave off the breadcrumb topping until you bake it. It will take approx 1 hour and 15 minutes to cook from frozen.

Sausage and Bean Casserole

Serves 8

Ingredients

4 cups of fresh wholewheat breadcrumbs (from about 10 slices)

2 lb / 900g lean sausage (I used chicken sausage from Trader Joe's)

2 large onions, chopped

8-10 garlic cloves, chopped

1 lb / 450g carrots peeled and chopped quite small

2 celery stalks, chopped

1/2 cup / approx 6 oz /170g tomato paste

15 oz /400ml reduced sodium chicken broth

2 cups / 400 ml water

1 cup / 250 ml red wine

1 10 oz /284g  package of frozen winter squash, defrosted

1 teaspoon dried thyme

4 cans (each 14.5 oz / 400g) white beans, rinsed and drained



Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F or 190°C
2. Take the sausage out of the casings and break up into small pieces.
3. Place a large, deep, heavy bottom pan, on a medium heat and cook the sausage, onions and garlic for approx 15 minutes or until sausage is starting to brown.
4. Add the carrots and celery and cook for a further 5 minutes
5. Add the tomato paste, winter squash, broth, water, wine and thyme and bring to a boil.
6. Reduce to a simmer, add the beans and cook for a further 10 minutes
7. Stir in 2 cups of breadcrumbs
8. Pour the mixture into 2 medium sized (approx 3 quart) dishes and top with the remaining breadcumbs.
9. Bake for 30 minutes until bubbling and golden on the top

This is great served alone but a fresh crusty bread, and green salad are delicious alongside.

Enjoy!