Maple Baked Beans with Beer
I haven’t posted in a while, because November and December got more-stressful-than-usual, with family illnesses and so on.
I cooked for my mother’s 60th birthday party, which food was devoured by the hordes, and helped out at my in-laws’ while my father-in-law was recovering from surgery. January’s been a discombobulated month, but despite a nasty cold I’m starting to get back into the swing of things!
Today, I opened my freezer to select something to defrost for dinner, and noticed the neatly-wrapped chunks of leftover smoked pork butt. Upstairs it came! But what to have with it? My fresh produce drawer was nearly-empty, and the pork is quite heavily spiced, so I didn’t want to clash with it.
Friends suggested baked beans; a review of my bean drawer revealed that I need to make a bean-buying run, for both canned and dried varieties. I did have two cans of pinto beans.
I didn’t feel like making any of my normal bean recipes, either, so I turned to Google for inspiration. On cooks.com, I found Baked Beans (Beer) and decided to go from there.
Here is what I ended up with:
Maple Baked Beans with Beer
- 2 cans pinto beans
- 1/2 c. onion, chopped
- 1 tsp. dry mustard
- 1/2 c. tomato ketchup
- 1/2 c. brown sugar
- 1/4 c. maple syrup
- 1 c. brown ale (I used Peak Organic Nut Brown)
- 2 bay leaves
- Frank’s Red Hot and salt to taste
Preheat oven to 350F.
Drain & rinse beans thoroughly. Put in oven-safe dish. Mix in rest of ingredients, except Red Hot and salt.
Cover and bake for 1 hour, stir, bake 1/2 hour longer, stir. Uncover and stir. If, when stirred, they seem to be in a thickish sauce, they are done. If they are still wet, cook uncovered 10-15 minutes; you do not want the beans burning or drying out, so keep an eye on them.
Adjust taste with Red Hot, then with salt. (We used 4 dashes of “Xtra Hot” Red Hot, and no extra salt. Your mileage will almost certainly vary.)