Sunday, January 29, 2012

Smoky Baked Beans with Chorizo

Last year Slabs, Juniordwarf and I went out for breakfast after spending a night in Hobart, and I ordered a dish of baked beans with chorizo.

I loved it and wanted to find out how to make it myself, so I looked for something similar online. The recipe I found was this one from the website www.myrecipes.com

I meant to cook it last time we went camping, but my laziness got the better of me. Every so often, Slabs would remind me that I wanted to cook baked beans, and I'd think about it and put it off a bit longer.

This weekend we went camping with Lil Sis and Mr Tall and while we were making the list of meals we'd need to bring food for, I somehow committed to doing the baked beans for breakfast today. So I no longer had an excuse.

Because the recipe uses dried beans, I needed to soak the beans on Wednesday night then cook them on Thursday so they'd be ready to take with us on Friday. After having done this, I strongly dispute the recipe's claim that you only need 20 minutes "hands on" to do it. But that might just be me - I normally need to take the time a recipe gives me, double it and add another half an hour to get an accurate time.

Anyway it was worth all the work. They were delicious!

Here is the recipe:


450 g dried Great Northern beans (I'm not sure what these are. I used haricot beans.)
1 cup diced dry-cured Spanish chorizo (The recipe says "be sure to use firm, dry-cured Spanish chorizo and not soft, raw Mexican chorizo".)  
4 cups chopped onion (I've never measured onions in 'cups' before, but it was about 8 small-medium onions.)
8 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
4 cups water
2 tbsp chopped fresh oregano
2 tbsp chopped fresh thyme
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp smoked paprika (smoked paprika is brilliant - it makes the dish. I don't think there's a substitute. You must use it!)
1/2 tsp paprika
2 bay leaves
2 tbsp brown sugar
3 tbsp tomato paste
3 tbsp molasses
1/4 tsp crushed chilli (Don't be shy! Use more if you like chilli.)
2 1/2 tsp red wine vinegar
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/8 tsp chilli powder (See comment about crushed chilli above.)
1/2 cup chopped green onions
2 tbsp chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

What to do:


1. Sort and wash beans. Cover with water to 2 inches above beans. Cover; let stand 8 hours. Drain.

Beans pre-soaking

2. Heat a large saucepan over medium heat. Add chorizo; cook 4 min or until fat begins to render. Add onion & garlic; sauté 10 min or until tender.

Onions, garlic & chorizo ready to go

Add beans, water, & next 7 ingredients (through bay leaves); bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 45 min or until beans are just tender.

Herbs & spices - look at the glorious colour of the smoked paprika!

3. Preheat oven to 180°C.

4. Stir brown sugar & the next 3 ingredients (through crushed chilli) into bean mixture. Bring to a simmer.

5. Transfer to oven dish; bake at 180° for 1 1/2 hours or until beans are very tender & sauce is thick. Remove from oven; stir in vinegar, black pepper, & chilli powder.

The final stages of cooking

Discard bay leaves; sprinkle with green onions & parsley.

4 comments:

  1. I LOVE SMOKED PAPRIKA!! The Los Novios brand is my favourite, because it comes in a tin with a happy couple on the front (Los novios means newlyweds!).

    Great Northern beans are cannellini. They're a bit bigger than haricot/navy, but I don't think it makes much difference - they taste the same! I like to use a mix of cannellini, haricot and lima!

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    1. Yeah I thought they'd be another name for something I already knew about but I was too lazy to look it up ;)
      I'll try that next time, mixing them up, sounds like a good idea!

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  2. Thanks for this recipe and the hint that 20 minutes is not enough. I'm not a fan of chorizo, but I like baked beans so I'll be giving this a try when the weather cools down after Easter.

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    1. Well for super duper efficient cooks they might get it all done in 20 minutes. But I seem to find things take at least twice as long as the recipe says.
      You could probably substitute ham or bacon or any type of sausage if you didn't want to use chorizo. Or even leave it out altogether & maybe bump up the spices a bit to add extra flavour.

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