Boston beans

I do not know how authentic this recipe is but I was told that it comes from New England. I do know it has a really sweet and spicy, almost sweet and sour note to the beans and is very tasty. Now if you wish you can make this by just making up the sauce and then adding a tine of beans you can but it does lack that certain something of the fully completed dish.  

To make it properly you will need.

400g/14½oz dried haricot beans

3 onions, quartered

6 cloves

75g/2¾oz muscavado sugar

50g/2oz maple syrup

50g/2oz tomato puree

1 tbsp Dijon mustard

2 clove garlic

25ml/1fl oz sherry vinegar

Pinch of cayenne pepper

800g/1lb 12oz thick cut smoked streaky bacon dry cured

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley

You have to pan this dish in advance and get you beans soaking. So place the beans in a large bowl, cover with water, and soak overnight.

Now to be traditionally you should I think cook this in an oven and you can but I cook my beans on the stovetop. So start by rising of the beans and then adding them to a large pan and covering them once more with water. Bring to the boil and simmer until the beans are tender, all depending this takes about 30 to 40 minutes. If you have to add a litt more water then do so.

Now in a frying pan start to cook the bacon so that it goes nice and crispy. Then once this is done add your onions sliced, garlic crushed and a pinch of cayenne pepper to the bacon and cook until the onions are soft.

Then add the tomato puree, mustard, sugar, maple syrup and vinegar to the bacon and some of the water from the beans. Then making sure that you have every thing toughly deglazed in the frying pan and add that to the beans.

Stir this gently so every thing combines and let it simmer for another 10 minutes season with salt and pepper and throw in the chopped parsley and it is finished. 

You can get little tin of beans and sausages , but if you try this you will wonder why you would bother.