Baked Beans

The family likes baked beans, but even the best store bought ones tend to be very watery. For a burgers and hot dogs meal on the grill recently, I decided to try to make my own baked beans.

The recipe below is adapted from what I first tried, and is an effort to make the beans a little less sweet and a little spicier.

Ingredients:

• ~6 oz bacon, sliced into thin strips (8-9 pieces)
• 1 large onion, small dice
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1 cup tomato puree (unseasoned)
• 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 TB Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 4 cans light red kidney beans (~14 oz each can)

[Preheat oven to 325 degrees F]
Step 1 - Render the bacon in an oven proof pot for 7 or 8 minutes until beginning to crisp up. Then add the onion to the pot for another 5 minutes or so to soften.

Rendered bacon and softened onion

Step 2 - Mix all liquids and spices (everything else but the beans) in a bowl. This is basically a homemade barbecue sauce base... Add the sauce to the pot and bring to a simmer.

Everybody in the pool

Step 3 - Add the beans (drained and rinsed) to the pot. Stir to mix everything together. Cover and put in the 325 degree oven for an hour. At the end of an hour, remove the lid and cook for another 15-20 minutes to thicken the sauce.

An hour and twenty minutes of baking later

The beans were very good, but as originally made were a little sweeter than I would prefer, and could have used a little more spice. For the recipe given above, I have replaced some of the ketchup (with its high sugar content) with additional tomato puree, added the cumin, and upped the amount of cayenne.

This is a very easy recipe that takes almost no prep, and basically just sits in the oven untouched until done. The only downside is that you need to start about two hours before you want to eat...

Spicy Honey Barbecued Chicken

(with Honeyed Apple-Cabbage Slaw)

I knew I would have some time today to cook a nice dinner, and I wanted to do something with grilled/barbecued chicken, but didn't want to do the simple "thrown chicken on the grill and slather with store bought barbecue sauce at the end".

Trolling the Food Network website for ideas turned up two that looked great: a brined chicken with a homemade classic style ketchup/molasses/vinegar sauce (by Tyler Florence) and an asian themed spicy honey barbecued chicken (by Emeril Lagasse). Emeril's recipe also had a terrific looking slaw recipe, so I decided to do that one. The recipe is here.

Spicy Honey BBQ Chicken with Apple-Cabbage Slaw

The marinade (which also becomes a basting sauce and finishing sauce) is very asian in character, and consists of soy sauce, vinegar, honey, sriracha (hot sauce), sesame oil, garlic, ginger, etc... I marinated the chicken for 5 hours (bone-in, skin-on pieces of chunked up split breasts and thighs).

After marinating, the chicken goes on a medium grill for 10 minutes (skin up) then 5 minutes (skin down). While the chicken grills, the marinade is boiled in a sauce pan for that entire time. This both thickens it and also removes any danger from raw chicken having been marinating in it.

When the grill time is done, the chicken goes onto a sheet pan in a 350 degree oven to finish cooking (another 20 minutes or so). While in the oven, I basted the chicken twice with the boiled sauce.

Earlier in the day I made the slaw, which is cabbage, endive, carrot, onion and apple in a sauce made from mayonnaise, sour cream, honey and apple cider vinegar.

The final dish was chicken topped with the last of the sauce, the slaw, and simple green beans with olive oil and lemon pepper.

The result - A fantastic meal. The chicken was moist, tender and packed with flavor. The slaw was cool and crunchy and a perfect counterpoint to the chicken. The green beans were...a green veg.

I'd rate this about an 8.5 out of 10 for flavor. It wasn't expensive to make, as almost everything other than the chicken was a basic pantry ingredient. It was simple to make, with the only consideration being that the chicken definitely benefits from a long marinade. Highly recommended.

Moroccan Chick Pea side dish

The Wife and I went to The Gables in Chadds Ford recently for our 22nd anniversary, and I had an absolutely amazing lamb dish; loin of lamb over a bed of chick peas. The dish was clearly north African in influence, with a highly seasoned loin of lamb complemented beautifully by the creamy chick pea side dish. Ever since, I have been wanting to try to recreate the chick pea dish, and tonight I had the chance to make a first attempt at it.

Here is what I tried, out of pure guesswork (chick peas are pretty dense and would need to be cooked for a pretty long time to soften them up the way I wanted them):

• 2 cans of garbanzo beans (chick peas), drained and put into a medium sized heavy sauce pan.
• chicken stock to cover, plus about a half inch.
• 2-3 cloves minced garlic
• about a half teaspoon each of ground cumin and ground coriander.
• about a quarter teaspoon of turmeric for color.
• half of a red bell pepper, cut into 1 inch very thin strips.

This was brought to a boil and then reduced to a gentle simmer (mostly covered) for about 45 minutes. At the end of the first simmer I added:

• about a teaspoon of salt.
• 8 pitted green oil cured olives, sliced into chunks.
• a pinch of chipotle chili powder.
• some water to bring the pan back to covered.

This was then covered and simmered for another half hour. It was then served with a mustard grilled pork loin, and was a pretty good approximation of the dish I was trying to recreate. Next time around I will cook this very much like this, but will season it a little more. It could use a little more cumin, a little more garlic, and a little more green olive (cut into pieces of maybe 1/6 of an olive instead of chunked up smaller).

This would be a good legume side dish served with lamb, pork, or chicken.