Baked Beans with Molasses and Guinness

Boxing day I thought I would try and put a bit extra into baked beans. I played around with recipes and this is what I came up with. I thought it turned out quite well.

1 lb dried navy beans

A splash of extra virgin olive oil

¼ lb of double smoked bacon

1 medium onion finely chopped

1 clove garlic finely chopped

¾ cup molasses

1 Tbsp Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

2 bottles of Guinness

2 cups stock (chicken, beef or vegetable)

½ tsp smoked paprika

Salt and pepper

Put the beans and three times their volume of water in a pan and bring to a boil. Biol for about 3 or 4 minutes, take off the heat cover and let sit for an hour.

Heat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a large oven proof casserole, heat the olive oil and sauté the onion, then add the bacon and cook it just until it begins to turn colour then add the garlic. Stir for a few second then add the beans, molasses, mustard, chilli flakes, paprika, a little salt and pepper and stir it all together. Add one bottle of Guinness and some stock to cover the beans.

Put the cover on the pot and place it in the oven for an hour. From that point on check every ½ hour or so, each time stirring the mixture and topping the liquid up with the other bottle of Guinness and stock until the beans are covered. Then put it back in the oven. The process will take six hours or so, It is tough to be exact with beans. When they are ready let them sit for a bit to cool off and serve with some nice fresh crusty bread.