Beans in Tomato Sauce

New Zealand Listener, Volume 11, Issue 284, 1 December 1944, Page 24

Beans in Tomato Sauce

Dear Aunt Daisy, You have been talking about cooking haricot beans, and I thought you might be interested to know how I do mine. I have my husband, three grown sons and two daughters at home, and this is their favourite Saturday night tea. One pound of lima or haricot beans is more than enough for us all. I soak the beans all night, using boiling water, then next day I cook them for about 2 hours. I add a little soda to the first boiling — about five minutes, and then I strain that off and cover with plenty of boiling water and cook for two hours. Add a little salt towards the end of cooking, not too much if you intend to add bacon. Strain well, and then cover with a small tin of tomato soup. Cut up a few slices of bacon into squares and mix in with the beans, and add lastly a dessertspoon of golden syrup. This. gives a delicious flavour. Bake in casserole for about one hour to mix the flavour well. FRENCH TOAST: Then I beat up three eggs (when plentiful) with about

half a cup of milk and dip slices of bread into the mixture and fry in deep fat. I do piles of this; it is my greatest butter-saver, and is always a prime favourite, with scrambled eggs, or bacon, or sausages-any breakfast dish. I serve the beans on this fried bread -called French Toast in my house. The first time I served this (which, by the way, I thought up for myself), the family asked me how I managed to buy the baked beans! So it must taste like the old tinned favourite. I am going to try my hand at making spaghetti like this when I can get some. I hope this will prove of interest to you, and now, as you say yourself, Cheerio! Yours sincerely, P.T.C., Karori. Many thanks. I made this myself after reading your letter, and it is absolutely like REAL baked beans.