Slow cooking

[Odsox]

.... taken to extreme.

I've just made another batch of baked beans, ready to be bottled today, and have been tweaking the recipe a bit. This got me thinking about just how different we are to "normal" people.
If I were to write the recipe truthfully it would have to start; Early August, save seed from climbing French beans. September save seed from your chosen variety of tomatoes, and end; Cooking time 6 hours, Preparation time 8,700 hours.

A bit different that picking a tin of Heinz off a supermarket shelf.

[Green Aura]

And undoubtedly far tastier.

[Zech]

You have to start much earlier than August, unless the bean fairy sowed those beans in your garden for you. (Did she? Could you introduce me to her?)

[Odsox]

No fairy, I sold a cow for 3 beans ......

The problem with that is how far back do you go, back to when I first bought the packet of seeds from a catalogue ?
I suppose really the seed saving is not necessary for the recipe, so I should (could) have written, "Early January, sow tomato seed", that would then reduce the processing time to a mere 5,760 hours.

[ojay54]

Recipe please.

[Odsox]

Recipe please.

The lengthy version or shall I assume that you can work out the sowing, tending and harvesting yourself ?

[Odsox]

BAKED BEANS

400g dried Haricot beans
1 litre of Tomato purée (passata)
2 heaped tsp Cornflour
2 tsp Balsamic Vinegar
2 tsp Worcester sauce
1 tsp Sweet Paprika
1 tsp Salt

Soak beans overnight, then bring to boil, wallop for 5 minutes and then simmer till just cooked

Add rest of ingredients to the tomato and bring to the boil stirring until thickened a bit, then dump the whole lot, beans and tom sauce into a slow cooker and cook on low for 3 hours or more (overnight is good) This makes a fairly stodgy mixture, feel free to adjust the amount of sauce if you want runnier beans.
Makes 7 x 500ml Kilner jars full plus a goodly taster if you're canning, or freeze in convenient servings

These last 2 batches I found I had run out of ordinary Worcester sauce so I substituted Worcester tomato sauce and I think it's a slight improvement, so may well keep that in the recipe.

I've now canned 18 half litres plus 3 x 250 ml (for beans on toast), so ought to have enough till next August.

[ojay54]

thanks Tony,I've printed that,I'll give it ago when the kids are back at school.

[Odsox]

I forgot to add 1 tsp salt OJ, I've edited the recipe above but you have already printed off.

[Smilesbetter]

Oooh I've never thought of homemaking baked beans. Might give that a go! I'll have to cheat and buy my own beans though as I haven't grown any this year. And my tomatoes have apparently frozen in time at the moment after an accidental drought a week ago...

[ina]

Just watch out you don't end up paying far more in energy for the very long cooking time than you'll ever make up for in saving on ingredients, or flavour... I tried it once, but decided it wasn't worth it.

[Odsox]

You are probably right Ina, especially as you can buy tins of beans for next to nothing.
But, at least I know EXACTLY what is in my beans, and as a diabetic I know there is no sugar or artificial sweeteners in my beans.
I suppose you could also argue that it's not really financially viable to grow your own fruit and vegetables,if you take account of all the expenses involved versus cheap supermarket produce.
It is nice though to have a larder shelf full of baked beans that are organic, non-GMO and grown by my own fair(ish) hand

[ina]

You are right - it's mostly the sugar in tinned baked beans that puts me off buying them... But then I'm not that great a fan anyway. I do sometimes cook a few portions for more or less immediate consumption. But I have to buy all the ingredients, too. Oh yes - and I hate it when folk say that nobody needs to go hungry because they just need to get their bums of their seats and they can "grow all their fruit and veg for free" - oh no, they can't! Look at the rent for tiny allotments, and they usually are somewhere only accessible by car, plus buying at least some tools and seeds etc... I'm always amazed how much I spend every year, although I get a lot for free (muck etc), and I swap seeds and seedlings etc.

(Better stop ranting. )

[Dr.Syn]

No fairy, I sold a cow for 3 beans ......
l:

You were done. Young Jack got 5 beans for a cow

[littlemissrose]

No fairy, I sold a cow for 3 beans ......
l:

You were done. Young Jack got 5 beans for a cow