Boston-style baked beans

This is a tasty alternative to baked beans. I cooked this in a cast iron casserole dish on the stove, but if you are cooking anything else in the oven on a low heat, you could bung the casserole in there instead.

One of the secrets of success for this dish is to use a variety of bean types. I used a mix of 100g each of butter beans, red kidney beans, pinto beans and haricot beans, soaked and cooked in a pressure cooker. If you use 400g cans of pre-cooked beans, then you will only need 3 cans.

Finely chop one large or two small onions, and fry in a tablespoon of cooking oil in a heavyweight casserole dish. After they have softened add:

• 2 finely chopped cloves of garlic

• 1 tin of chopped tomatoes

• 1 tsp all purpose seasoning (or vegetable stock powder)

• 2 tbsp black treacle or molasses

• 2 tbsp tomato puree or pepper paste (or a squirt of tomato ketchup or barbecue sauce if you don't have either of these)

• a pinch of chilli powder or a few drops of hot chilli sauce

Turn up the heat, bring to the boil and add the drained cooked or canned beans (if you have cooked your own, save the cooking water - it has a lot of goodness in it - to add to soup or a casserole, or use as the liquid for making a loaf of bread). Bring back to the boil, then cover and turn to a very low heat, or put in the oven at a low temperature, for a couple of hours. Serve

This is good served with rice, crusty bread or on buttered toast. If you're a meat eater, then it goes well with bacon or a gammon steak.