Vegetarian mains
BBQ beans and potato pancakes with smoked cheddar
This is the fancy version of jacket potato with cheese and beans. I'll not be so bold as to claim that you'll never buy tinned baked beans again, but there is something to be said for doing it yourself.
Cook's notes
The potato pancake recipe is a great way to use up leftover mashed or jacket potatoes in the future. They can be handy for breakfast, lunch or dinner. The batter can be made in advance but add the baking powder at the last minute as it loses its efficacy over time.
Ingredients
- 1 large floury potato
- 1 red onion
- oil for frying, e.g. sunflower or light olive
- 1 garlic clove
- ¼ tsp chilli flakes
- 1 tbsp tomato purée
- 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 2 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tin chopped tomatoes
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 tsp brown sugar
- 1 tin haricot beans
- 100ml milk
- 2 eggs
- 60g plain flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 50g smoked Cheddar
- salt and pepper
Method
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Step 1
Put a pan of salted water on to boil. Wash and peel the potato. Weigh out 200g and cut into 2-3cm dice. Add to the pan of boiling water and cook for 15 minutes, until tender. While your potato cooks, start your sauce. Peel and slice the onion and fry in a saucepan with a little oil for 10 minutes, until starting to soften. Peel
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Step 2
and finely chop the garlic.
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Step 3
Add to the onion pan with the chilli, tomato purée, vinegar and smoked paprika. Cook for a further 3 minutes to reduce the vinegar. Drain the beans and add them to the pan along with the chopped tomatoes, bay leaf and sugar. Half fill the empty tomato can with water and add that too. Bring up to a simmer and cook gently for 20 minutes.
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Step 4
When they have cooked, drain the potatoes and return to the same pan to steam dry for 1 minute, then mash or pass through a potato ricer. Season well with salt and pepper. Allow to cool for 15 minutes. When the sauce has cooked, season well with salt and pepper. Pulse very briefly with a stick blender to give you a slightly smoother texture, or remove ⅓ of the sauce and blend in a processor before returning to the pan. (This stage is optional).
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Step 5
Drain and rinse the haricot beans. Add to the sauce and leave on a very low heat to warm the beans while you make the pancakes. Put your oven on a low heat. Move the cooled mash into a mixing bowl. Whisk 2 eggs and milk together, then whisk into the mash. It will be stiff at first but
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Step 6
should loosen with a bit of elbow grease. Sift in the flour and the baking powder and mix well.
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Step 7
Heat some oil in the frying pan and dollop in 2 tablespoons of batter for each pancake. You want 8 pancakes in total, so you may have to do this in batches. Fry until golden on each side and slightly risen, about 2 minutes a side. Keep the first ones warm in the oven if you're making them in batches. Dollop the beans on the warm pancakes and grate over the smoked Cheddar.