A Hill of Beans

I bet you are all wondering "Why do they call Baked Beans Baked? You don’t bake them. You just open the can and bung ‘em in a pan." Aaah- not so. Before Messrs Heinz, Crosse and Blackwell, and before Safeway started bunging them out at 9p a can, baked beans were a long cooked dish, baked for about eight hours in a slow oven. The Doyenne of food writers, Elizabeth David (check out her "English Bread and Yeast Cookery") was once asked by a journalist "Do you never just give in and give your children baked beans for tea?" She replied "Oh no! I couldn’t possibly do that. They take far too long to make." Or maybe it was Jane Grigson.

Sooooo…….

The night before, take a pound of dried haricot beans and put in a big pan. Fill with water. Boil rapidly for about 10 minutes. Turn of the heat and leave to stand for an hour. Drain, re-fill with water and boil for about 45 minutes, until the beans are soft and their skins split.

Drain and reserve the water. Mix the beans with a can of chopped tomatoes, a generous teaspoon of mustard, 2 tablespoons of treacle, a coarsely chopped onion, a crushed clove of garlic a wee bit of chilli, a reasonable amount of salt and some apple juice. Aim for roughly the consistency of tinned beans - i.e. not too much liquid, but not too little. Bung in a large, lidded casserole.

The next day, before you go to work, put the casserole in the oven and turn to 1/ 2 or 1 ish. Dead low, anyway. Go to work. Push back the frontiers of technology. Come home. Serve the beans. They are nice with baked potatoes or brown bread and butter.

*** Culture Corner ***
Fellow foodies may like to participate in an ongoing survey. Where do you get the best chips in Scotland? In my opinion, the best in Glasgow are from the Acanthus café, in Royal Exchange Square, near the Gallery of Modern Art and the statue of the man with the hat.

For the best chips in Scotland:
At No. 4 - a place on the seafront at Largs - opposite the arcade, near the Cumbrae ferry. They have a certificate from the Mayor for the best chips in Largs!
At No. 3 - that place in Aviemore which is the only place you can get a decent bite to eat on the A9. But if anyone knows anywhere else I can stop, please tell me.
At No. 2 - a wee place just off the main street in Stornaway…..
….But the clear winner is……
The Café in Bridge of Allen.

For the best chips in England………………….pretty much anywhere in Yorkshire.

And while we’re at it - I think we should start a campaign to get Scottish chippies to sell cheese and onion pies. There’s nothing that goes down better after a night on the beer than a cheese pie with chips and curry sauce. The bastards would probably deep fry them up here, mind.