Yrekagrow
11-21-2005, 03:25 PM
empty pan beans
this recipe is about five years old, I adapted it from four different recipes. It is the ultimate baked bean recipe, this dish is sure to leave nothing but an empty pan before the night is over (hints the name). Personably this recipe was a stretch for what I am used to, for one I don’t usually like beans, I don’t even eat chilli if it has beans. Another thing that made this recipe different for me was the circumstances I wrote it in. Usually I write a recipe because I have an idea I’d like to try or just some personal enrichment reason like that. This recipe was born out of demand and necessity, during a discussion about an upcoming cousins birthday party I volunteered myself to bring an original dish, so I had to come up with a recipe that would go with his barbeque theme, this was the result: a rich hearty bean recipe that leaves little if anything to be desired. It’s the only exception when it comes to eating beans. In all I’d rate these beans 9 out of 10, I spare them a perfect 10 for one reason; because it’s so good the other things in the meal may not get eaten.
What you’ll need: 1 large bell pepper, 1 large onion, 2 cups brown sugar (homemade is best), 7 31oz cans of “van camps” pork and beans, one cup balsamic vinegar, 1-1.5 pounds honey cured bacon (thick sliced), 1-1.5 pounds of hickory smoked (thick sliced) bacon. A blender, a baking dish with at least 20 cup capacity, a mixing bowl, a wooden spoon, & a pan to cook bacon in.
The first thing to do: prep work for this dish takes much longer than the final mixing and baking does, so jump in head first, you’ll be done before you know it: you’ll want to make your own brown sugar (I actually feel that a person should never buy brown sugar from the store because the results from homemade brown sugar are undeniably better) and this is a relatively easy thing to do. In a mixing bowl you can pour just under 2 cups of sugar and about 3.5 Tablespoons of molasses and vigorously press with a fork until the ingredients are thoroughly mixed. Next you need to cook the bacon. Nothing special here, just lay out strips in the skillet in a single layer and cook at med-high heat. You want it to be crunchy, but not burnt. Obviously you wont be able to cook all 2-3 pounds of at once in the same pan, in a 12in skillet it will take 3-4 pans to finish the bacon (you can use 2 skillets to get this step done faster). Once the bacon is done, let it cool for 10 minutes. Use your hands to break the bacon into pieces of a preferred size (I prefer pieces that are about 1cm to 0.25in), set the bacon aside.
At this point your pretty much done with the prep work, your next step is to cut the onion and the bell pepper into chunks that will fit in your blender. Now use the blenders lowest setting to blent the vinegar, the pepper, and the onion. Once the onion mixture is blended well (like soup) pour it in the mixing bowl and add the brown sugar. Use the wooden spoon and thoroughly mix in the brown sugar. This is the point it get really easy and simple; just mix the remaing ingrediants (the beans and the bacon) and, again, mix throughly with the wooden spoon. Once all ingredients are thoroughly mixed, pour the mixture into your baking dish and bake for 20-30 minutes. Cool the beans for 10-15 minutes, and enjoy!
this recipe is about five years old, I adapted it from four different recipes. It is the ultimate baked bean recipe, this dish is sure to leave nothing but an empty pan before the night is over (hints the name). Personably this recipe was a stretch for what I am used to, for one I don’t usually like beans, I don’t even eat chilli if it has beans. Another thing that made this recipe different for me was the circumstances I wrote it in. Usually I write a recipe because I have an idea I’d like to try or just some personal enrichment reason like that. This recipe was born out of demand and necessity, during a discussion about an upcoming cousins birthday party I volunteered myself to bring an original dish, so I had to come up with a recipe that would go with his barbeque theme, this was the result: a rich hearty bean recipe that leaves little if anything to be desired. It’s the only exception when it comes to eating beans. In all I’d rate these beans 9 out of 10, I spare them a perfect 10 for one reason; because it’s so good the other things in the meal may not get eaten.
What you’ll need: 1 large bell pepper, 1 large onion, 2 cups brown sugar (homemade is best), 7 31oz cans of “van camps” pork and beans, one cup balsamic vinegar, 1-1.5 pounds honey cured bacon (thick sliced), 1-1.5 pounds of hickory smoked (thick sliced) bacon. A blender, a baking dish with at least 20 cup capacity, a mixing bowl, a wooden spoon, & a pan to cook bacon in.
The first thing to do: prep work for this dish takes much longer than the final mixing and baking does, so jump in head first, you’ll be done before you know it: you’ll want to make your own brown sugar (I actually feel that a person should never buy brown sugar from the store because the results from homemade brown sugar are undeniably better) and this is a relatively easy thing to do. In a mixing bowl you can pour just under 2 cups of sugar and about 3.5 Tablespoons of molasses and vigorously press with a fork until the ingredients are thoroughly mixed. Next you need to cook the bacon. Nothing special here, just lay out strips in the skillet in a single layer and cook at med-high heat. You want it to be crunchy, but not burnt. Obviously you wont be able to cook all 2-3 pounds of at once in the same pan, in a 12in skillet it will take 3-4 pans to finish the bacon (you can use 2 skillets to get this step done faster). Once the bacon is done, let it cool for 10 minutes. Use your hands to break the bacon into pieces of a preferred size (I prefer pieces that are about 1cm to 0.25in), set the bacon aside.
At this point your pretty much done with the prep work, your next step is to cut the onion and the bell pepper into chunks that will fit in your blender. Now use the blenders lowest setting to blent the vinegar, the pepper, and the onion. Once the onion mixture is blended well (like soup) pour it in the mixing bowl and add the brown sugar. Use the wooden spoon and thoroughly mix in the brown sugar. This is the point it get really easy and simple; just mix the remaing ingrediants (the beans and the bacon) and, again, mix throughly with the wooden spoon. Once all ingredients are thoroughly mixed, pour the mixture into your baking dish and bake for 20-30 minutes. Cool the beans for 10-15 minutes, and enjoy!