I am truly thinking about Easter, as I present this easy, yet yummy bean recipe.
It’s been several years since I wrote the dish, and because of its ingredients I also feel it
would be yummy at a more ‘casual’ Easter Celebration. Like many of you I seldom turn down a good pan of baked beans. When I was single, I would frequently turn the baked beans into a main entrée. Besides all the protein found in the beans, they can become extreme hardy with the addition of fried bacon, sausage, burnt ends etc. This recipe actually doesn’t have any meat in it, but I can easily see the burnt ends or some pulled pork in the dish.
With all the fruits it named it the Caribbean Baked Beans. If you’ve been to the Caribbean, you know how the locals (especially around Jamaica) love their jerk seasonings. I haven’t used any jerk spice, but there’s no reason why you could not implement it here. Jerk chicken is quite popular, it wouldn’t bother me to see some BBQ’s jerk chicken as an alternative ingredient.
Probably the best part about the recipe is how it’s pretty much a dump and bake dish. You can definitely change that by cooking the onions in advance and changing the crushed pineapple to perhaps tidbit, where you could brown the edges along with the onions.
To this chef one of the worst things about baked beans can be when they have no ‘body’. In other words, they float all over your plate!!! YUCK! It’s ok to cover your beans for a portion of the baking, but they need to cook down a bit in order to thicken them up. Check the recipe over because you are going to need several kinds of beans. With the use of the black beans, you will also be making the recipe more indigenous to the Caribbean. I don’t think I’ll be wrong on this one, I think they will be asking for your recipe!
I still remember a couple of cookouts my sister and I had at the edge of my grandparents’ garden. We would make a small ‘Girl Scout’ campfire and cook our beans in the can, like a hobo. It was so much fun back then. I guess my bean cooking has come a long way since then.
This past week I cooked for a Senior fair, where we did a ‘Soup Flight’, featuring 6 different types of soups. Phillip, our son, helped me once again in Stone County, as we pulled off our second successful senior event. Do not ask us to prepare 6 roasters full of soups for at least a month! I did get to meet several people who attended my classes at Silver Dollar City, and who read my column in the Branson paper. To all of you, I say thanks so very much, your loving comments mean so very much.
I hope all of you have narrowed down the Easter menu better than myself. I’m not sure where I’ll be for that day, so I really haven’t given the menu a tremendous amount of thought. Guess I better get busy. At least all my bunnies are finally out on display at home. Do you know the name of a rabbit’s tail? It’s called a ‘scut’. Many animals have scut tails, like a bear or a deer.
Here Comes Peter Cottontail…..Simply Yours, The Covered Dish.
Caribbean Baked Beans
1 (27-28 oz.) can bush maple beans, lightly drained, fat removed.
1 (15.5 oz.) can chili beans, drained
1 (15.5 oz.) can black beans, drained
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 (8 ounce) can drained, crushed pineapple
1 large mango, diced
1/2 cup (or more) sweet onion, chopped small
1/2 cup raisins, optional
1/2 cup Smoky Bourbon BBQ Sauce
2 teaspoons prepared mustard
Salt & Pepper to taste
Optional: Pulled pork or chopped ham, 1-1 1/2 cups
Mix all ingredients, place in a greased baking dish. Bake in a 350-degree oven for at least one hour or longer until beans reach the thickness level you desire. Serves 6-8 persons.
Other options might be chopped red peppers, garlic or jerk seasonings.
