Baked Beans (untried)
From Carolyn Lejuste's friend Andy Farmer
1. Select any type of bean combination that looks good to you; I use Randall's large glass jars of mixed beans then augment with Meijers Organics cans of Kidney, Pinto plus a couple of back bean cans; take your best guess of total amount based on number of people you expect will eat them.
2. Empty all the beans into a large collander and rinse thoroughly. Set aside where they can drain thoroughly.
3. Sauce ingredients: one jar cumin seed, dark brown sugar, cocao powder, jalapeno peppers (chopped coursely), red wine vinegar, plenty of red ketchup (Heinz does manage to turn out a line without high fructose corn syrup!), canned tomatoes (I used stewed and diced both -- canned organic, no sugar -- there's a brand I can't remember that are even fire roasted I used too), one can tomato sauce, tomatillos, a jar of the darkest course-ground dijon mustard you can find (watch out for the damn high fructose corn syrup!), one sweet onion (chopped coursely), an entire bulb of fresh garlic (peeled, chopped coursely)...maybe some lime, maybe some orange...crazier things have happened...how the hell would I know?
4. All the proportions of the above are the cook's call: do what sounds good, err on the side of more, not less liquid and the jalapenos always get absorbed more by the beans than I expect, so I'd not worry too much about using too many peppers. But that's probably just me.
5. Sautee several tads the onion, jalapenos, and garlic in olive oil.
6. Now for the spiritual moment: dump the entire jar of cumin seed into a dry sauce pan on a medium burner and toss regularly as they begin to smoke, continuing until they are nearly all blackened. Have a strategy in place to counteract nearby smoke detectors. After they are as blackened as you can get them you have arrived at the spiritual moment itself: dump the toasted seed into a pestel and morter and crush them into a fairly fine powder; the spiritual moment is sticking your nose into the bowl and smelling the most singularly sweet aroma your likely to experience in this life, or the next. Don't cheat yourself of this moment.
7. Combine all the sauce ingredients (minus tomatillo), sauteed vegetables (with all the oil), cumin too, in a large enough mixing bowl and blend thoroughly.
8. Have oven preheated to 350-375 based on your oven speed.
9. Lay your drained bean mixture -- did I say lay? -- into the bottom of your baking dish and then pour on the sauce, as it were. Mix it all until evenly blended and distributed.
10. Cover all that with your tomatillos. sliced.
11. Place into preheated oven for 90 to 150 minutes, depending on amount being baked; basically look for solid carmelization across the top, do not fear a few or more blackened areas.
12. Remove from oven to trivets and allow to cool as much as you like before serving, but I recommend letting it "rest" @15 minutes at least afore devourment. I pass this time circling it in my Bean Dance of the Apocalypse; there's even a version involving a partner, but I haven't tried that for lack of willing partner.
1. Select any type of bean combination that looks good to you; I use Randall's large glass jars of mixed beans then augment with Meijers Organics cans of Kidney, Pinto plus a couple of back bean cans; take your best guess of total amount based on number of people you expect will eat them.
2. Empty all the beans into a large collander and rinse thoroughly. Set aside where they can drain thoroughly.
3. Sauce ingredients: one jar cumin seed, dark brown sugar, cocao powder, jalapeno peppers (chopped coursely), red wine vinegar, plenty of red ketchup (Heinz does manage to turn out a line without high fructose corn syrup!), canned tomatoes (I used stewed and diced both -- canned organic, no sugar -- there's a brand I can't remember that are even fire roasted I used too), one can tomato sauce, tomatillos, a jar of the darkest course-ground dijon mustard you can find (watch out for the damn high fructose corn syrup!), one sweet onion (chopped coursely), an entire bulb of fresh garlic (peeled, chopped coursely)...maybe some lime, maybe some orange...crazier things have happened...how the hell would I know?
4. All the proportions of the above are the cook's call: do what sounds good, err on the side of more, not less liquid and the jalapenos always get absorbed more by the beans than I expect, so I'd not worry too much about using too many peppers. But that's probably just me.
5. Sautee several tads the onion, jalapenos, and garlic in olive oil.
6. Now for the spiritual moment: dump the entire jar of cumin seed into a dry sauce pan on a medium burner and toss regularly as they begin to smoke, continuing until they are nearly all blackened. Have a strategy in place to counteract nearby smoke detectors. After they are as blackened as you can get them you have arrived at the spiritual moment itself: dump the toasted seed into a pestel and morter and crush them into a fairly fine powder; the spiritual moment is sticking your nose into the bowl and smelling the most singularly sweet aroma your likely to experience in this life, or the next. Don't cheat yourself of this moment.
7. Combine all the sauce ingredients (minus tomatillo), sauteed vegetables (with all the oil), cumin too, in a large enough mixing bowl and blend thoroughly.
8. Have oven preheated to 350-375 based on your oven speed.
9. Lay your drained bean mixture -- did I say lay? -- into the bottom of your baking dish and then pour on the sauce, as it were. Mix it all until evenly blended and distributed.
10. Cover all that with your tomatillos. sliced.
11. Place into preheated oven for 90 to 150 minutes, depending on amount being baked; basically look for solid carmelization across the top, do not fear a few or more blackened areas.
12. Remove from oven to trivets and allow to cool as much as you like before serving, but I recommend letting it "rest" @15 minutes at least afore devourment. I pass this time circling it in my Bean Dance of the Apocalypse; there's even a version involving a partner, but I haven't tried that for lack of willing partner.
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