A Very British Institution

Yesterday I talked about a typical English dinner, "Bangers and Mash", so I thought I'd follow on with another institution today - Heinz Baked Beans.  We eat them with everything, in the morning with our breakfast (the good old fashioned fry-up), in the afternoon as beans on toast for lunch and in the evening where we happily pair them with just about any generic English fayre you can think of.

The funny thing is, if you asked most English people how often they ate haricot beans they would probably shrug their shoulders at you.  If you pointed out that actually Heinz is an American company too, most people would be rather surprised - we honestly think baked beans were invented by the English (along with some other great things we invented too, like gravity, time, nuclear fusion and the universe). 


Here's my little baked beans anecdote:  up until the second world war, Heinz baked beans contained a piece of pork.  This was removed when rationing began, and never made it back in again.


Our cupboards are beginning to run bare - we haven't been food shopping for 3 weeks.  We got back from the National History Museum yesterday at around 4pm and the only thing I could think of was bubble and squeak cakes (another British institution) served with baked beans.  The recipe for these is almost the same as my swede and pecorino cakes, you just add some cold, cooked green veg (which in last nights case was cabbage, leek and courgette)


http://swlsk.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/rutabaga-anyone-every-week-we-get.html

I made the cakes and then chilled them down for an hour in the fridge - this way they stay together in the pan for longer.  If you are using cabbage, or spinach I really recommend you squeeze all the excess water out, then finely chop it before you add it to your cakes.

Four in a pan is a bit of a squeeze!

Bubble and Squeak Cakes

I was lying in bed last night thinking about baked beans.  As you do.  Naturally my next cognitive thought pondered over the immortal cooks question, "if you were stranded on a desert island, which ingredient would you take?".  My initial thought was salt, but then I realized that would be superfluous with all the sea around.  Perhaps it would be olive oil?  But then I remembered you can render a very nice oil out of coconuts (these are ubiquitous on desert islands are they not?).  I think therefore an unending can of baked beans would suffice.  What more would one need in such utopian solitude?  Beer of course...

I served my bubble and squeak cakes with, of course some baked beans.  Next mission is to make my own.