pork and beans
Well, the 'bean' theme is taking off and I couldn't pass by the opportunity to make real pork'n'beans - good American food with a nod to the St John cookbook which I got for Christmas. Plus it was a pretty chilly night and this kind of food is exactly what was needed.
This really is an amalgam of the 'beans and bacon' and the 'pork belly with lentils' recipes in the St John cookbook. I really wanted to follow the instructions for one of these dishes precisely but a lack of ingredients meant it was improvisation time. My only regret was that I wasn't organised enough to used dried beans soaked overnight, as the beans you get in cans here tend towards the mushy, but I restrained myself from stirring them in order not to break them up. Also, I have no idea what American names for beans really mean (navy beans? great northern beans?) so it was guesswork about that too. But it turned out pretty damn fine at the end of the day! The recipe went something like this:
Roughly chop one onion, peel a head of garlic (I like to keep the cloves intact so you get gorgeous gooey garlic nuggets), saute in the bottom of a big pan with olive oil. When they are softening and translucent, add a large tin of chopped tomatoes, a couple of bay leaves, some thyme and oregano, salt and pepper.
Meanwhile drain and rinse your beans (in my case, a can each of pinto, navy and great northern beans but I think the great northern beans dissolved too much), and brown your pork. I used pork neck that I got in the Piggly Wiggly, which worked really well as it had the requisite layering of fat and meat, and was really cheap which seems to me to be in the spirit of the dish. Don't chop up the pork, leave it in as it comes (trimmed if necessary) and just brown it with a bit of salt while the tomatoes reduce to a thicker sauce.
Then add the beans to the sauce, heat through, nestle your pieces of pork in the pan, then cover and leave on a very low simmer for 1 1/2 hours. If I had my le Creuset casserole dish I would put it in the oven for this stage, but as I only have the biggest pan to be found in the Dollar General which has a thin base and plastic handles, it sat on top of the stove.
By the time it's done, the meat will be wobbly and tender and beautiful, and the beans will hopefully still retain some bite. A bit of parsley on top does wonders and a green salad wouldn't go amiss for afters. Check out the thrift store crockery.
This really is an amalgam of the 'beans and bacon' and the 'pork belly with lentils' recipes in the St John cookbook. I really wanted to follow the instructions for one of these dishes precisely but a lack of ingredients meant it was improvisation time. My only regret was that I wasn't organised enough to used dried beans soaked overnight, as the beans you get in cans here tend towards the mushy, but I restrained myself from stirring them in order not to break them up. Also, I have no idea what American names for beans really mean (navy beans? great northern beans?) so it was guesswork about that too. But it turned out pretty damn fine at the end of the day! The recipe went something like this:
Roughly chop one onion, peel a head of garlic (I like to keep the cloves intact so you get gorgeous gooey garlic nuggets), saute in the bottom of a big pan with olive oil. When they are softening and translucent, add a large tin of chopped tomatoes, a couple of bay leaves, some thyme and oregano, salt and pepper.
Meanwhile drain and rinse your beans (in my case, a can each of pinto, navy and great northern beans but I think the great northern beans dissolved too much), and brown your pork. I used pork neck that I got in the Piggly Wiggly, which worked really well as it had the requisite layering of fat and meat, and was really cheap which seems to me to be in the spirit of the dish. Don't chop up the pork, leave it in as it comes (trimmed if necessary) and just brown it with a bit of salt while the tomatoes reduce to a thicker sauce.
Then add the beans to the sauce, heat through, nestle your pieces of pork in the pan, then cover and leave on a very low simmer for 1 1/2 hours. If I had my le Creuset casserole dish I would put it in the oven for this stage, but as I only have the biggest pan to be found in the Dollar General which has a thin base and plastic handles, it sat on top of the stove.
By the time it's done, the meat will be wobbly and tender and beautiful, and the beans will hopefully still retain some bite. A bit of parsley on top does wonders and a green salad wouldn't go amiss for afters. Check out the thrift store crockery.
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