Baked beans are one of my comfort foods, always have been, always will be. I don’t know why it’s taken me so long to try out Maggie Beer’s version that appeared i one of the first episodes of The Cook and the Chef. Probably because I don’t tend to cook dried beans or pulses and I keep forgetting to pick up some speck. Luckily, one day visiting The Deli in Erskineville to get some ricotta to stuff some zucchini flowers and make some cannelloni I saw they had speck and I picked up some of that too.

Boston Baked Beans - Serves 2-4
250 grams of cannellini beans
1 teaspoon of mustard powder
2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons of maple syrup
1 tin of tomatoes
150 grams of pork speck
1 onion, roughly chopped
4 cloves
1 bay leaf, torn
Salt and pepper

Heat oven to 180ºC. Soak the beans overnight. In a large saucepan, fry the onion, speck, cloves and bay leaf until the onions are transparent. Add everything else except the beans and simmer for 10 minutes to reduce the liquid a little.

Drain the beans and add. Put a lid on the saucepan and bake for three hours, stirring occasionally. Serve.

Tags:Beans, Tomato, Recipe, Bacon, Baked, Maggie Beer