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UPDATE: Um. Yay deja vu?

As promised to

ozreison: baked beans.

This recipe comes from Johanna Burkhard's column in the Montreal Gazette, 1993, which means I've been hauling it around with me since second-year university. There's a reason for this; I make it at least a couple of times a year. It's really tasty and very satisfying, both as a meal and in that "I cooked a delicious meal involving dried legumes, GO FRONTIERSWOMAN ME" kind of way. (There's a recipe for lentils and rice and one for curried lamb with chickpeas and peppers on the same page -- must try both one of these days.)

Anyway, onward to the recipe!

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Obviously, this dish takes a little preparation -- it's not something you can easily whip together in half an hour on a weeknight. She suggests serving with sausage and thick slices of crusty bread, and/or adding slices of kielbasa for the last 15 minutes of cooking.

For

ozreison. I got this recipe out of the Montreal Gazette many years ago and it's always been reliable -- a great meal for a cold day. You can serve it with sausage and French bread or eat on its own.

Soak 1 pound (500 g) dried white kidney, navy, cannelini or lima beans (I use navy beans) in cold water for six hours or overnight.

Drain the beans and place them in a casserole dish with 3 cups (750 mL) chicken stock.

Stick 3 whole cloves into half an onion (make sure the half onion is fairly structurally sound because it's going to be taking a lot of abuse and you need to extract it at the end of all this). Add to the casserole with a bay leaf and 2 cloves of crushed garlic.

Cover the dish tightly with foil or lid. Bake (I use a 350 oven) until beans are tender and most of the liquid has evaporated (usually 1-2 hours). Remove from oven.

While the beans are cooking, fry 4 strips lean smoky bacon, chopped over medium heat in a large frying pan until crisp. Add 1 large onion, chopped (or the other half of the onion you used already, plus another medium onion) and cook until tender (about 3-5 minutes, onion should be translucent).

Add:
1 can tomatoes (the recipe calls for a 19-oz/540 mL can but I always use the standard 28-oz/798 mL and it works fine -- my preference is for diced tomatoes)
1 Tbsp (15 mL) cider vinegar
1/3 cup (75 mL) dark molasses
1/2 tsp (2 mL) each of dried thyme and oregano
1/4 to 1/2 tsp (1 to 2 mL) cayenne (recipe says the cayenne is optional but this is not so in my opinion)

Cook, stirring occasionally, over low heat until sauce is slightly thickened, about 10 minutes. Stir tomato mixture into the beans. Put the casserole back in the oven. Bake, covered, until reduced and thickened, about 45 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Before you serve this, take out the bay leaf and the half onion with cloves. (Do not try to eat the onion. For some reason it does not taste good at all.)

Good luck! Let me know how it goes if you use it!

Why do I not have a food icon? This is very strange.