BAKED BEANS AND BAKED POTATOES

BAKED BEANS AND BAKED POTATOES

Caramelized onion combined with baked beans and baked potatoes, then simmered in a sweet curry-coriander brown sugar tomato sauce. Served with black pepper fatty rice molds. Who says you can’t serve potatoes with beans, and rice with potatoes? Nobody anymore!

Makes 6 cups rice and 8 cups beans

½ stick margarine

3 c. peeled diced yellow onion, ¾-1 inch squares

3 lg. baking potatoes, baked, cooled in refrigerator till cold, then cut into ½ -3/4 inch cubes

1 t. sea salt

lots of freshly ground black pepper

In extra large skillet, over high heat, melt margarine, add onion and sauté till brown-tinged and partially wilted.

Add potatoes, salt and pepper. Don’t turn till bottoms are browned, then stir and continue to brown other sides, like you would do it making fried breakfast potatoes.

Add to the skillet:

28 oz. can Vegetarian Beans with Brown Sugar and Spices (Bush’s brand is gluten-free)

28 oz. can tomato sauce

1 t. onion powder

1 t. garlic powder

2 T. ground coriander

1 T. mild curry powder

1 t. dried thyme, crushed

1 T. prepared yellow mustard

½ t. ground allspice

2 T. Balsamic vinegar

¼ c. brown sugar

1 t. liquid smoke

1 T. Worcestershire sauce

Stir well, then simmer on low heat while you cook the carrots and the rice.

2 c. fresh peeled carrot matchsticks; cut ends off carrots, cut crosswise into 1-1/2 inch long segment, then take each segment and cut from end to end into very thin slabs, about 1/8 inch. Stack slabs and cut from end to end again into tiny matchstick size strips

Place carrot sticks in saucepan with 2 cups water. Boil till tender: pliable, but where they still retain their shape. Lift with slotted spoon from pan and add to bean skillet. Add as much carrot water as necessary to make beans as tin or thick as you want. Stir well, then cook, uncovered, stirring occasionally, for 30 minutes, again, adding a little more carrot water if required.

Rice:

3 c. water

2 t. sea salt

3 c. Jasmine rice

½ stick margarine

lots of freshly ground black pepper

chopped fresh parsley, as garnish

orange slices/wedges, as garnish

Combine water and salt in large saucepan. Bring to boil, add rice, return to boil, stir well again. Cover tightly, reduce heat to low and cook for exactly 20 minutes. Remove from heat, fluff with fork.

When done, immediately add ½ stick margarine and lots of freshly ground black pepper to the rice. Stir to melt margarine and separate grains of rice.

To serve: Pack ½ or 1 cup rice into measuring cup or custard cup to the rim. Invert onto individual plates. Tap bottom, then carefully lift off cup. Measure out ½-1 cup bean sauce, pour around the rice and a little on top, being careful not to break rice mold by over-loading it.

Sprinkle with fresh, chopped parsley and freshly ground black pepper. Add fresh orange slices, cut in half, or wedges to side of rice, also as garnish.

Notes: Serve with confidence that your guests will be delighted.

We cook the canned beans longer than the usual ‘cook to heat and eat’, to give a slow-cooked flavor. Actually tastes meaty, though that wasn’t the intention.

One half stick margarine may seem like a lot for the rice along with the one half stick we use for the beans. Don’t even go there. There’s no cheese, bacon, beef, chicken, lobster, ham, butter, eggs, cream…in this dish. Don’t fight over the once in a while you have a little more oil.

It’s always the meat eaters and the news people speaking for the slaughter industries who scream over margarine/oil and/or nuts in a veggie dish. Don’t let the anorexics and bulimics in the news industry, who eat only animals for fear of gaining an ounce, take over your mind with their bad health habits. Resist. Do what you want, not what some skinny, screaming person with reflexive issues gets paid to make you do.