Wood Fired Global Baked Beans

Be honest.

Are you still opening cans of Heinz 57 when it comes to culinary pals for your hot dogs? You’ve gone to so much trouble shopping for great ingredients (my absolute favorite dogs come from Northwind Farms in Tivoli, NY), but you continue to underestimate how delicious homemade baked beans can be, especially from a wood fired oven. Step it up, my friends.

This wood fired recipe crosses many borders: Mexican chipotles, Chinese Sichuan peppercorns and star anise, our own maple syrup and ketchup, Spain’s orange marmalade, and of course, a tip of the hat to Boston’s baked beans tradition.

These beans get better and better with age. They are tasty after the first, long bake, but reheated one, two or three days later, they are fabulous.

Ingredients

1 cup white beans, dried

1 bay leaf

1 T vegetable oil

1 1/4 cup onions, diced

1 T crushed garlic

1/2 tsp. Sichuan peppercorns

3 star anise

1/2 cup ketchup

2-3 tsp. chipotle puree, to taste

2 T maple syrup

1/4 cup light beer

1 T apple cider vinegar

2 T orange marmalade

salt and pepper, of course

Method

Soak beans overnight. Change water, cook 1-2 hours with bay leaf over low-medium heat until tender, but not mushy or broken. Initial cooking time depends on the age of the beans and their variety. Add salt when the beans are cooked through but still hot.

Heat the olive oil in a pan. Add the onions and garlic and sauté until the onions are softened. Put the peppercorns and star anise in a cheesecloth bag.

Using a wood fired oven-safe bean pot, combine the beans, sautéed vegetables, cheesecloth bag and the rest of the ingredients. Cover the pot and put the whole shebang in a low (I mean low!) wood fired oven that has been heated and then brought down to about 325 degrees or even a bit lower and bake for at least 2-3 hours. Add some hot water if the dish seems too dry. Give it an occasional stir and taste to see if it is salted properly and as spicy as you’d like it to be. You can always add more chipotle.

When it is as sweet and hot as you like, it wouldn’t be a crime if you finished it off with a tablespoon of bourbon—just sayin’.

Ci sentiamo presto!

Lea

Wood Fired Global Baked Beans

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Keyword wood fired recipes, BBQ, lea bergen, holiday recipes, baked beans, bbq recipes