Sides to make you smile
If you look to America for inspiration on BBQ side dishes, you will invariably be faced with ... Boston Baked Beans.
Oh yes - they absolutely love the dark slow-cooked sweet beans with their BBQ'd steak. So we thought we'd have a go at creating such a feast ourselves.
Boston Baked Beans are a candy industry name for sugar coated peanuts that have been dyed red to match the colour of, you guessed it, baked beans.
The dish is so widely associated with the town of Boston that it became known as 'beantown'.
More of Rendlesham Hall Baked Beans later.
Smiling BBQ Sides
Caribbean Rice Salad
This adds a colourful fresh dimension to an otherwise altogether charred meat affair.
You'll need:
- 4 skinless chicken breasts
- 4 tbsp of Stokes Sweet & Sticky BBQ Sauce
- 2 tsp of jerk spice
- 1 x 260 g tin of sweetcorn, drained
- 1 x 160 ml tin of coconut milk
- 250 g of cooked rice
- 1 mango, flesh only, diced
- 1 small red pepper, diced
- 1 x 400 g tin of 5 bean salad
- 4 spring onions, finely chopped
- Loads of chopped coriander
- The juice of 1 lime
Here's how:
Mix the BBQ sauce, coconut milk and jerk spice in a large bowl. Cut the chicken breasts in half and add them to the marinade and leave them for at least an hour but ideally overnight.
When ready, pop the chicken in the oven to cook though. In a large bowl, combine all of the remaining ingredients.
Cut the cooked chicken into small pieces, reserving their cooking juices. Add the lime juice to the cooking juices and combine it into the salad with the chicken.
Marinated Tomato Salad
This is a very simple way of making a mixed salad taste sensational. The little bursts of additional flavour work so well with BBQ'd meats and fish.
It's simple, tasty and very popular.
Here's how:It's basically a salad of sliced red onion, red pepper marinated tomatoes, pickled cucumber, green leaves, pitted olives and crumbled feta cheese.
Slice the tomatoes and put them in a bowl with a good coating of Stokes Olive & Balsamic Dressing and the same amout of olive oil. Season and leave them to rest at room temperature for at least half an hour.
Slice the cucumber and pickle in white wine vinegar (60 ml) and sugar (50 g) for 15 minutes. Drain the tomatoes and cucumber and build your salad.
Use the tomato marinade as a dressing.
Rendlesham (Boston) Baked Beans
What a Father's Day treat this would be. Here we have our version of the long, slow cooked beans and a faster ten minute version. Believe us though - slow is best.
You'll need:
- 500 g of dried haricot beans
- 400 g of belly pork
- 50 g of brown sugar
- 2 tbsp of black treacle
- 2 tbsp of Stokes Sweet & Sticky BBQ Sauce
- 1 tbsp of Stokes Classic English Mustard
- 6 small shallots
Here's how:
Soak the beans overnight. Pre-heat the oven to 140°C/gas mark 1.
Put the beans in an ovenproof pan then add water to just cover them. Simmer them, lid on, for an hour then set aside.
Cut the belly pork into bite size chunks and add them to the beans with the sugar, treacle, BBQ sauce, onions and mustard. Mix well and add a little hot water to re-cover the beans if necessary.
Lid on and into the oven for 3 hours. Take the pot out of the oven, stir the contents and put it back, lid off for a further hour.
It's worth the effort to become a new beantowner.For the quick version use 2 tins of haricot beans (drained) and bacon rather than belly pork. Fry the bacon and onions then add the beans and sauce ingredients. You may need to add water to create the right consistency. Simmer, season and serve.
Special offer
This tasty bundle of Stokes BBQ Sauces tick all the boxes when it comes to making BBQs taste better. Click here (or the image above) and save 5% OFF the bundle - and receive a free gift as well.
More foodie thoughts for the week:
BBQs and Father's Day - a match made in heaven here.
National Picnic Week - savoury sensations to go here.
Facebook fun, competitions and awards here.
If good food makes you happy
...adding Stokes will make you smile ;)
FOOD MADE BETTER
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