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Weekend Recipe: Dan Doherty’s Beans on Toast

beans on toast
© Anders Schønnemann

 

Beans on toast is a British staple, and I felt obliged to reinvent it.
When I was at school I had a part-time job in a restaurant in my
home town, Shrewsbury, which became full-time during the holidays.
On my split shifts, I’d pop home and, without fail, have two rounds
of beans on toast with cheese on top. I’ll never forget those moments
between manic shifts where holding a knife was daunting, and I think
about it every time we serve this dish.

Serves: 4–6
Preparation time: 20 minutes,
plus cooling
Cooking time: 3½ hours
200g dried white beans, soaked overnight, or 500g ready-to-go cooked beans
300ml passata
1 onion, finely diced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 sprig of fresh thyme
1 sprig of fresh rosemary
1 bay leaf
1 smoked ham hock
300ml Chicken Stock
2 chipotles en adobo from a jar
50g demerara sugar
1 tablespoon paprika
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons Bacon Jam (see below)
100g Montgomery’s or other good mature Cheddar cheese, grated
sourdough bread, toasted, to serve

Preheat your oven to 160°C/gas mark 3.

Place all the ingredients apart from the bacon jam, cheese and toast into an
ovenproof casserole dish and cover with a lid. Place in the oven and leave for a
good 3–3½ hours until the hock gives way under a gentle push with a fork.
If using ready-to-go beans, add them an hour before the hock is ready.

When this stage is reached, remove from the oven, and allow to cool. Take out the
ham hock and remove the skin, then shred the meat with your fingers and put it
back into the casserole with the beans.

At this stage you can chill the dish, or bring it back up to temperature to serve.
If serving now, turn on your grill. Heat up the bacon jam, and toast your bread.
When the beans are hot, transfer them to a baking dish and top with the cheese.
Place under the grill to melt and brown.

To serve, spread the bacon jam on the toast, and add a good ladleful of beans on top.

For the bacon jam
500g smoked streaky bacon,
cut into small lardons
2 onions, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 tablespoons aji panca, or
chipotle en adobo from a jar
½ teaspoon smoked paprika
3 tablespoons brown sugar
3 tablespoons black treacle
75ml cider vinegar
2 shots espresso

To make the bacon jam, put the bacon into a frying pan over a low heat and cook
slowly to render the fat. As the fat melts, pour it away so you have just the meat
left. Keep cooking until the bacon starts to caramelize. The brown bits that stick
to the bottom are all good, so scrape them off and leave them in the frying pan.

Add the onions and garlic, and continue to cook, with no colour, until soft.
Add the aji panca, smoked paprika and brown sugar and cook for a further
5 minutes. Add the treacle, vinegar and espresso and simmer gently until the
mixture has a jam-like consistency. This should take an hour or so. Place into
a sterilized container, allow to cool, then cover and refrigerate.

Recipe taken from Duck & Waffle: Recipes and Stories by Dan Doherty, available here

Duck & Waffle 3D web