Slow baked Brown Beans with Spiced Roasted bacon

Serves 6

Ingredients:
 450g Swedish brown beans or pinto beans
 1.25kg piece of bacon
 1 large brown onion finely chopped
 2 apples peeled, cored and finely diced
 250 ml cider vinegar
 175 g molasses
 60g brown sugar
 1 cinnamon stick – halved
 2 garlic cloves finely chopped
 1.5 teaspoon Hungarian sweet paprika
 1 teaspoon dried marjoram
 1.5 teaspoons caraway seeds lightly crushed
 Apple horseradish to serve
 ¼ teaspoon white pepper

Method
 Soak bean in plenty of water overnight
 Bring large saucepan of water to boil and add the whole piece of bacon. Bring
back to boil and cook for 1 hour. Remove bacon to plate and reserve liquid to
cook the beans.
 Preheat oven to 170c. Drain bean and put them in the base of a large roasting tin
with the onion
 Pour in just enough of reserved liquid to cover (about 3 cups) Cover tightly with
foil and bake 2.5 hours.
 Stir in apple, vinegar, molasses, sugar, cinnamon stick and garlic into beans
 Pace a roasting rack over the top make sure the rack is high enough not to be
touching the beans.
 Carefully remove the rind from the back so the fat layer is exposed.
 Combine paprika, marjoram and caraway and sprinkle over the bacon
 Place the bacon, fat side up on top of the rack and return to the oven
 Bake for 45 minutes or until the bacon is very tender
 If beans are not thick and saucy at this stage, remove the bacon and keep warm,
 Increase the oven temp and keep cooking until rich and thick.
 Thickly slice bacon and serve with beans and apple horseradish – goes well with
boiled or mashed potatoes and lightly cooked greens