Union beans

 As mentioned elsewhere, the weather has been appalling recently, totally stopping any chance of gardening, or even simply standing around with a bottle of fizz and having a barbecue while looking at the stars.

We did mange a barbecue last weekend during a chilly gap in the weather, but since then it has been freezing or near freezing overnight temperatures and great blasts of wind and sleety rain.

While the photograph doesn't show it, it was only 1C and sleeting when I took this photo of the town centre earlier this week.

Now, normally we try and do something at the solstice, but given the weather, games are off, so instead I cooked up a pot of home made baked beans - I call them Union beans, not because of any trade union links, but because the recipe, while most definitely gentrified, is inspired by the pork and beans that the North fed their army on during the American civil war.

Definitely comfort food, and the ideal thing on a cold and chilly night.

Start by soaking 250-300g of dried white haricot beans. You can get these from any wholefood store or Greek or Lebanese grocer, and even from the major supermarkets on a good day - they're usually hidden among 'international food' along with polenta and strange packet soups from the former Yugoslavia.

Put them in a bowl, cover in cold water and add salt. Let them soak until they've absorbed the water, drain and rinse them and then cover again with salted cold water and leave overnight.

The next morning, drain and rinse them again, and put them on the stove and cook until you can take a bean and crush it between thumb and forefinger. They need to be firm, don't let them get too squishy, or you will end up with something like polyfilla at the next stage.

Let them sit for a bit until cool.

Then chop up half a red onion, as well as a couple of sticks of celery. and cook them in a little olive oil in a cast iron pot or Dutch oven.  

Add around a 100g of finely chopped speck. Standard supermarket speck like Primo is fine, but you do get a better flavour with the strong smoky artisan versions (We have a number of artisan smokehouses in the area and are spoiled for choice, but trust me, supermarket speck is fine.)

Once the onion softens and the speck begins to crisp add half a glass of white cooking wine to deglaze the pot and add the beans, a can of diced tomatoes, and water and extra tomato paste to cover the beans. 

Add two or three teaspoons of mustard powder - nothing special, I use Keen's - or more if you want a stronger flavour, a decent amount of black pepper, two tablespoons of CSR treacle - the disgusting sticky black stuff - and stir it all together. Add extra salt as and if required, and also add a teaspoon of Lea and Perrins Worcester sauce.

Put it in the over at some thing like 200C for a couple of hours, making sure they don't go dry on you. You may find that the beans are not quite cooked after two hours - add extra water if required and simple put them back in the oven for another hour or so, this recipe is very much 'your mileage may vary'.

Once ready, serve in bowls with crusty toasted wholemeal bread and a glass of pinot noir.

There's no need to be pedantic about how you make this - the recipe is very forgiving. Some people are more generous with the mustard, others with the Lea and Perrins.

You can eat it as a meal on its own, or if you're having a barbecue, as an accompaniment to sausages or pork cooked on the barbecue.

Enjoy!