Baked Beans with Speck

Sure, I could just open a can. 

I do open a can, I do all the time! But not this time. This time I decided to take it a little slower. 

I wanted to have home-made baked beans for Saturday morning breakfast. I've always wanted to make baked beans from scratch and finding a recipe in Matthew Evans' The Real Food Companion reminded me that I wanted, nay, needed to make them quick smart. 

This required some planning on my part, especially as I didn't have the beans ready on Friday for soaking while I was at work. 

So I bought the beans in my lunch hour and put them in my pink lunch container (it was washed) with some hot (not boiling) water* to fast track things a little. While I did non food-blogger related things like reports and spreadsheets at work, the beans did their thing under my desk.

I give myself a gold star for this act. Waiting for beans to soak is not the most interesting thing to do cooking wise, and I was able to get moving on my awesome Saturday morning breakfast as soon as I got home. 

Oh boy, these beans. These beans! They are savoury, sweet, moreish, comforting and (dare I say it?) so much better than opening a can. They are a lot of work yes, but even if you only make them once in your life, you will be glad you did. 

By the way, before I go, if you choose to make these - don't do things by halves, you've  cooked these babies for hours - just go ahead and put an egg on it.  

* a very good tip from a dude in the know

Baked Beans with Speck

From The Real Food Companion by Matthew Evans

1 cup dried cannelini or navy beans

2 brown onions

2 garlic cloves

1 sprig of sage

2 tsp salt

400g speck cut into thickish slices

1 can of tinned chopped tomatoes

2 tbs treacle

Salt and pepper to taste

Soak the beans for at least 5 hours in cold water. Then rinse and drain well

Peel both the onions: dice one of them and set aside.

Put the beans, the whole onion, sage, garlic and salt in a large pot of water. Bring to the boil and then reduce the heat and simmer for about 40 minutes or until the beans are just undercooked.

Preheat the oven to 150C.

Drain the beans, discarding the onion and sage and place in an oven proof casserole pan with the speck, tomatoes, diced onion and treacle. Gently stir to combine.

Pour in just enough water to wet the beans but don't drown them!

Season to taste, though you probably won't need much salt as the speck is quite salty.

Cover with a lid and bake for around 3 hours. Check on them periodically to see if they are boiling and adjust the temperature to suit. 

When the beans are ready, remove the lid and turn the oven temperature up to 180C. Pull the speck to the top and bake for around 20 minutes or until the speck has begun to brown and caramelise. 

Serve hot, on toast or however you want. I put an egg on mine, it was a good decision.