remember, remember

This has become one of my most well-loved recipes; something I learnt in my teens and have been cooking ever since. I picked this up from a kids recipe book and throughout the years have added to and adapted it... I can safely say it is one of the tastiest recipes I know. 

My parents and I used to make this every bonfire night and served it with crispy, buttery jacket potatoes. This year I've continued our little tradition and have prepared a big batch in anticipation of the fireworks tonight!

You will need...

Sausages (one pack)

Bacon 

Onion

Red pepper

1 tin chopped tomatoes

1 tin baked beans

1 tin butter beans

Dijon mustard

Paprika (smoked if possible)

Red wine

Start off by chopping your onion, pepper, bacon and sausages. You should use 3 or 4 slices of bacon, and a pack of sausages (5 or 6). If you can, try to get chilli sausages as these give it a really nice kick! If you want, you can take the skins off the sausages and roll the sausage meat into balls. Alternatively, you could buy sausage meat and roll it into balls. Or just chop up your sausages!

Fry all of the above with a little oil until the onions are softened and the sausages are starting to brown on the outside. You may want to drain off any excess oil after this if needs be. Sprinkle in paprika to taste and cook for a couple more minutes. If you use regular supermarket paprika you'll want to use a good sprinkling, however if you can get the good smoked paprika stuff you wont need to use as much. 

Then, add the baked beans, chopped tomatoes, a teaspoon of mustard, a good glug of red wine and a teaspoon of sugar. You can use supermarket/value beans for this - you wont be able to tell they're not Heinz!

Once this starts to bubble, turn down to simmer and leave to cook for about 20 minutes with the lid on. Then, add the butter beans and simmer for a further 10 minutes. You can use any type of bean in fact (borlotti, cannellini, haricot, kidney etc) but I've found butter beans work best in this dish. 

Serve with oven-baked, crispy jacket potatoes with plenty of butter. 

Enjoy!