Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Maple baked beans

I have been on a dried bean kick recently. I usually buy canned beans for the convenience factor, but after reading about cooking dried beans, I decided to give it a try. I've been cooking up large batches of chickpeas, black beans and white beans and storing them in the freezer. When I saw this recipe for maple baked beans in Barefoot Contessa at Home, I had to give it a try. I used a pound of small red beans, which worked perfectly. The beans are soaked overnight and cooked until tender. Once the beans are soft, they are combined with a sweet and tangy sauce that includes ketchup, brown sugar, ginger and maple syrup. The recipe calls for chinese chile paste, which I didn't have. I substituted hot sauce, and it worked fine. The beans, sauce and some diced bacon go in a low oven for 6 to 8 hours. I cooked mine for about 8 hours. This is definitely not a recipe that you can make on a whim, but I must say it was worth the effort.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

These were fantastic!!