[madcat]

Great to go with those things that simple souls love with baked beans ...  sausages, cottage pie, toad in the hole.  Or with enough flavour to go over a jacket spud ...

Soak 500g of haricot beans for 8 hours; drain and put in large slow cooker.  Add ideally 2 red onions, peeled and cut into thin wedges or very coarsely chopped (you want to be able to find bits of it in the end product).  Add a tin/box of chopped toms (the cheap / value ones are fine) and then fill the box / tin with hot water and add too.  Add a good tablespoon of tomato puree, 2 tbsps each of black treacle (or molasses) and wholegrain mustard.  finally add a couple of teaspoons of dark brown sugar and a good grind of black pepper.  top up with warm water till the level is about half way up the top layer of beans, stir, cover and leave to cook on low for about 12 hours. 

I reckon it does about 7 portions as a side dish.  sometimes I will fill the marg tubs I use as freezer pots with 4 portions worth and then into what is left, stir some mushrooms and roughly chopped leftover sunday roast, heat through for an hour to soften the mushrooms - hey presto, casserole!       Lazy, moi?   

[arugula]

Thanks for that madcat. Now that I see it, this recipe looks pretty much the same as the one I had for slow cooker boston baked beans and had misplaced.

[Lardman]

I reckon it does about 7 portions as a side dish. 

   Must work on my portion control - I only got 3 even with an pound of pork in there !

I had used tinned haricot beans and 1/2pt of water but the end result was very watery, do the dried beans absorb more water in the final cooking stage ? The 8 hour initial soak had me reaching for the tins.

[joyfull]

sounds lovely - must try this, thank you 

[madcat]

I had used tinned haricot beans and 1/2pt of water but the end result was very watery, do the dried beans absorb more water in the final cooking stage ? The 8 hour initial soak had me reaching for the tins.

Yes they do, and with the water the flavour.  The dried ones are better for this.  Just put them to soak before you go to work, or overnight depending when you are going to cook them - they can sit and sit .... 

[mumofstig]

and you get more to eat from 500g dried beans than you do from 500g tinned beans 

[wighty]

Another recipe printed off and put on the pile.  I really must get down to trying some more of them.  Thankyou Madcat.

[chrissie B]

they sound yummy i adore baked beans.
chrissie b

[Lardman]

Just had a taste of these, certainly better for using soaked dry beans !

Im going to play with the seasoning a little and I'll definitely be adding a desert spoon or so of English mustard. Goodly dollop going with mash tomorrow  the rest are heading for the freezer.

[madcat]

Sorry - work got in the way of life.   

There is no definative recipe - think frontier life and what they had to chuck in the pot!  Some like it hot or sweet or .....  Enjoy playing!