Beans on toast (from scratch)
When I saw La Cloake had published the perfect Bostin baked beans I couldn’t resist. Then when I was in Block&Bottle and the chap next to me only wanted half a piece of guanciale (cured pork cheek) I couldn’t resist having a go. War lass then pointed out we could have “the poshes beans on toast ever” and.. that was Saturday night’s tea.
The guanciale is an amazing thing and this might seem like a waste but it’s mineral flavours really come though.
I dumped a load of mixed seeds into the bread, but they’re optional, I like bread with bits in.
You will need
For the beans
- Enough pinto beans to cover the bottom of the Instant Pot to a depth of about 1cm
- A decent sized onion sliced into 8
- 1 tablespoon of treacle
- 2 tablespoons cider vinegar
- 2 teaspoons of English mustard
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- About 90 grams of bacon or cured pork
For the bread
- 400g bread flour
- 225g of water
- A good pinch of sugar
- A good pinch of salt
- A pack of instant yeast (7g I think)
- A handful of mixed seeds (mostly sesame and hemp seed in my case)
- A good lug of olive oil
For the Parmesan crisp
- A handful of grated Parmesan
Do
You can make the bread and beans way ahead of time, but don’t make the Parmesan crisp until the last moment.
- Put all the beans ingredients into the InstantPot and set on pressure cook for 40 minutes. Leave to go cold on it’s own.
- Put all the bread making ingredients in the bread maker and let it run. I used the “rapid” mode (2 hours).
- Once the beans are cool, open the InstantPot and fish out the pork, chop finely and keep to one side.
- If the beans are too liquid, strain, then boil the liquid down and add back to the beans. They should be tender enough to squish with a fork. Add back the pork and stir though.
Once you’re ready to eat
- Heat the beans though
- Slice and toast the bread (I want for a slightly thicker than normal slice so it was crunchy on the outside and fluffy in the middle)
- Put the frill on full tilt, make piles of Parmesan on a sheet of tinfoil and then grill until they’re just about to burn. Set to one side to cool as you compile the beans on toast
Results
Crunchy cheese, rich and slightly sharp beans, cripsy and fluffy toast. A good dose of black pepper didn’t go amiss.
