Cowboy Bean Hash

Tonight was Mr C’s turn to cook – something he does quite often and is fantastic at!

The first stage, of course, had to be to provide some lubrication for the chef and his assistant.

This initial stage sorted, it was time to move on to the main part of the evening’s entertainment – the food.

Cowboy Bean Hash (our chosen name!) is a meal that Mr C’s mum originally taught him to make. Quite where it came from we’re unsure. She may well have got it from Delia (many of her meals were) but we can’t swear to it. The minimal ingredients and general style make us think not – but we may be wrong. In short the only things you need are an onion, minced beef, a can of baked beans, black treacle and white wine vinegar (and a jacket potato or two to serve it with).

The first thing to do is to finely chop the onion and fry it until sort on some olive oil.

Once this is done you should add the mince to the pan and then continue to fry until it is all brown. When you’ve reached this stage then the baked beans, two (generous) tablespoons of black treacle and a slug of white wine vinegar should be added and everything stirred together.

You should then turn the heat down a bit and let it all bubble together until you think it tastes just right. It should, quite simply, taste like bonfire night! A rich treacle flavour with the heartiness of the mince and beans coming through. The white wine vinegar gives a slight edge to things and without it the dish quite simply doesn’t taste right.

Once you’ve got it to this stage then it’s ready to serve up. We like it with a nice jacket potato. This has to be done in the oven so that it has a nice crispy skin, whilst remaining soft and fluffy on the inside. The trick Mr C has to making the potatoes taste good is to rinse them quickly with cold water. Place them on a baking tray whilst still damp, sprinkle with sea salt before putting them into the oven. About halfway through cooking it’s also worth turning them over to make sure you get evenly cooked skins.

Although in a way this is quite an autumn/winter type of meal we found that after a weekend spent mostly outdoors we both had fantastic appetites and the “comfort food” taste of this was spot on. Enjoy!