Boston Baked Beans

Recipe for: BOSTON BAKED BEANS

Ingredients:

• 500g dried haricot beans
• 2 onions, roughly chopped
• 2 celery sticks, roughly chopped
• 2 carrots, roughly chopped
• 2 tblsp Dijon mustard
• 2 tblsp light muscovado sugar
• ½ tblsp black treacle or molasses
• 2 tblsp tomato puree
• 800g piece belly pork
• Handful parsley, roughly chopped

 Method:

1. soak the beans overnight.  Drain & rinse
2. put the beans in a large flame-proof casserole with 1.5 litres of water.  Boil for ten minutes, skimming off any scum
3. turn the heat down, then add the onion, celery, carrot, mustard, sugar, treacle/ molasses and tomato puree.  Stir everything to mix
4. bury the piece of pork in among the beans
5. cover tightly & cook in the oven for 2-3 hours until the beans & the pork are very tender
6. check half-way through & top up with a little hot water if the dish looks as if it’s drying out
7. take the pork out the pot & cut up into large chunks, then return to the pot & sprinkle with parsley

 What else you need to know:

1. the secret to this dish is very long, slow cooking.  The whole dish should hunker down into a fairly soft sticky mess.  Add more treacle and/ or tomato puree to adjust the sauce’s taste & consistency.  You can also make it less sweet by using less/ no sugar.
2. you can cook it without the pork piece if you just want the beans. 
3. Heinz – eat your own heart out!