There’s a recurring problem that I have when it comes to cooking. I don’t always read the directions. Well, I guess I DO read them, but only once, and then I start cooking as if I’ve done this a million times before only to glance back over the recipe and realize that I’ve missed a couple of really important steps. Like, I should have started thawing something out last night and I now need it to be un-frozen right this second. Or, the recipe actually called for 5 potatoes and I only bought 2. Yeah, these little details just kill me sometimes.
When it came to this recipe I thought that I was doing pretty good. I read about how Adam of Amateur Gourmet had forgotten to soak his beans overnight, and was pretty impressed that I remembered to do this. Yeah, for a second I felt like a rockstar. But then I sort of skipped over how you’re supposed to make a sauce with a bunch of these ingredients, and THEN add the beans, and instead just threw everything into the pot, stirred it together and realized my mistake only after I checked the recipe back for baking instructions. So close, yet so far.
However, there are some recipes that I just don’t think you can mess up, and I believe this is one of them. Despite my grievous mistake, these beans were amazing. The flavors blended together to form the most amazing BBQ sauce I have ever tasted, and the beans were plump, tender and just heaven. Seriously, for those of you who are like me and grew up eating baked beans from a can – you will be shocked at just how good these are. It doesn’t even seem fair to call them a side item when they really sort of dominate and take charge of whatever plate of food you add them to. I’m not gonna lie, I ate them for breakfast the next day. Yeah, I’m super weird. But sometimes that works out well for me.
The Best Baked Beans
Adapted from Ina Garten, via Amateur Gourmet
Lots of changes to this. As stated above, I sort of changed the preparation technique, but it worked out well for me so give it a try. I also left out the bacon, and used dried ginger instead of fresh since that was what I had on hand. Honestly though, from this combination of flavors only good things will happen, so don’t be worried.
1 lb dried red kidney beans
1 large yellow onion, roughly chopped
1 bay leaf
6 whole black peppercorns
¾ cup real maple syrup
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup ketchup
1 tablespoon Chinese chili paste
1 tablespoon dried ginger
1 teaspoon saltSoak the beans in water 8 hours or overnight. Drain the beans and then place in a dutch oven with the chopped onion, bay leaf, peppercorns and 8 cups of water. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 50 minutes or until the beans are tender. Drain the beans once again, reserving half of the liquid.
Preheat the oven to 250 degrees.
In the pot, add in the remaining ingredients and the 1 ½ cups cooking liquid. Cover with a lid, and cook in the oven for 6-8 hours. Every two hours you should check and stir the beans and determine if you need more cooking liquid to keep them from drying out. 8 hours will get you the maximum flavor in the beans, but they’re still awesome after 6 hours, FYI.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
These look great. I ate canned beans last night…ew.
Glad to hear it worked out for you. They look absolutely Fabulous!
And Nice shout out to Ina. I watch her almost every day in the kitchen at work for lunch, and I’ve seen her make these. I think this might be the inspiration I need to try one of her recipes for myself!!!
YUM!
{ 1 trackback }