Above Average Baked Beans

Mediocre baked beans sit center-stage in this “Full English Breakfast”.

Baked Beans are a culinary staple in British breakfast. Which is funny because they suck ass. This morning I ate at a New Wave British Cuisine restaurant called The Hungry Pig in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. It is one of my favorite breakfast restaurants in the city and serves a Full English for about $5 USD. (Plus a free tea!) Sitting in the center of the masterfully presented plate of breakfast is a small bowl of baked beans. Fortunately each table has salt, pepper, and tabasco, because these beans are the blandest, most uninspiring component of the whole display, which is saying something considering it has an egg. This is no shade against The Hungry Pig however. Vietnamese chefs are merely observing British food trends and doing their best to imitate them.

If you wanna make baked beans like a big boy, you follow my recipe. These beans are packed with flavor from, amongst other things, molasses, apple cider vinegar, and a touch of tabasco. If you’re feeling inventive, you can even add some maple syrup like my mom does. While these mainly serve as a side dish at a BBQ or camping trip, they are good enough to function as a standalone dish (as all side dishes should). The bean mixture is accompanied by diced onion, minced garlic, crumbled bacon, and chopped kielbasa. However, you can still have absolutely top notch beans without the aforementioned ingredients, simply by flavoring the beans with the flavor mixture described in the recipe.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oja-CaMmqLo

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Baked Beans

Author: Todd Martin

Ingredients

• Pork 'n' Beans | 64 oz
• Kielbasa | 1 lb
• Bacon | 1 lb
• White Onion | 1, large
• Garlic | 4 cloves
• Ketchup | 1/4 cup
• Brown Sugar | 1/3 cup
• Molasses | 1/4 cup
• Apple Cider Vinegar | 2 Tbsp.
• Dijon Mustard | 2 Tbsp.
• Tabasco | 1/2 Tbsp.

Instructions

1. In a large pot, cook your bacon over medium heat. Remove bacon and set aside.
2. Dice 1 large white onion. Sauté diced onion in the bacon grease leftover from step 1.
3. Once bacon is translucent, add 4 cloves of minced garlic.
4. Chop kielbasa into small pieces, add to mixture until pieces are cooked. They get a little puffy.
5. Add the Pork 'n' Beans and stir until mixture is homogenous.
6. Now for the flavor: Add the ketchup, the brown sugar, the molasses, the apple cider vinegar, the dijon mustard, and the tabasco. Mix and simmer for 10 - 15 minutes.
7. Crumble the bacon from earlier, add to the mixture.

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