Baked Beans with Brown Cardamom

I’m a big time lover of baked beans. Not long ago when I was hankering for a bowl of them I decided to make a batch here at home. Now I’m not opposed to some of the better canned varieties but the ones you see in the picture put me over the moon! This slow-cooked home version tasted so much better than the ones out of the can. Creamy, tangy and sweet with fresh pepper and a lingering smoky note. I had these with pork chops but they would also match well with roasted chicken or grilled Portobello mushrooms.

So what’s the deal with the brown cardamom? Why alter a perfectly good dish like baked beans. Well… Chef Roger, aka “spice master”, gave me a jar of awhile back and I was waiting to find a dish to use it in. You see, brown cardamom or black cardamom as it’s also known, has an incredibly strong smoky camphor flavor. It’s the seed pod from a plant in the ginger family that is traditionally dried over an open flame giving it that wonderful smoky taste. It’s not to be confused with green cardamom and is not a spice that you can just casually throw around.  It really needs some strong flavors to pair with and the baked beans seemed like a perfect compliment.

It’s been used in Chinese, Vietnamese and Indian foods forever but I would love to learn about other Western dishes that it would work well in too! So please send along suggestions and recipes.

You can find brown cardamom in most places that sells bulk spices. Indian food shops would be a safe bet as well.
Until next time,
Cool beans!
StevO

Baked Beans with Brown Cardamon

Ingredients
1 pound dried pinto beans (2 1/4 cups)

1/2 tsp. dry mustard
3 Tbsp. molasses
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup brown sugar
½ teaspoon fresh grated, brown cardamom
1 tsp. salt
1 yellow onion, chopped

Instructions
Place beans in large bowl. Add enough water to cover by 3 inches. Let stand overnight. Drain beans; set aside. Preheat oven to 300°F.

Place beans in a large, oven happy, pot that comes with a lid. Cover bean with 3 inches of water and bring to a boil for 5 minutes then drop down to a simmer. Simmer for about 30 minutes or until the beans start to yield to the tooth. Add remaining ingredients, stir, cover with the lid and  transfer pot to oven. Bake  until beans are tender and liquid thickens, stirring occasionally, about 4 hours. **every 30 minutes or so check the beans to make sure that they are not too dry. If they become too thick and are still underdone then add1/2 cup of water and stir in. Our finished bean should be tender and creamy AND rich and thick with sauce. boyaa

This entry was posted on Monday, October 26th, 2009 at 4:46 pm and is filed under Food Experiences, New Ingredients, Sides & Snacks , baked beans, black, brown sugar, cardamom, green, smoky. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.