perfidy

As I noted on Friday, I like food, especially vegetarian food. I actually think I should clarify something just so I don't go misrepresentatin' myself badly enough that under the inevitable Congressional inquest I don't crumble like a thin chip in onion dip. There is a moral dimension to my not eating meat, in that although I don't have trouble with creatures dyin' for me to nosh on, factory farming is too gross and cruel for me to spend my money endorsing. If there is a starker picture of the dark side of capitalism than a factory chicken farm, I don't know it, and I don't want any truck with that.

Besides, ever since I cooked for the vegetarian co-op back in college all those year ago, I've been intrigued by the special challenges that a serious vegetarian cuisine presents. How do you create a large array of satisfying and nutritious dishes without resorting to any of the dead-animal products from stock to gelatin? Without the expedients of chicken stock, bacon and hambone, soups are a special challenge. Without dark beef broth and access to animal-fat based fonds, pan sauces are as well. The goal is not to replace the meat ingredients one for one, but to create dishes that are as satisfying in every dimension as those containing meat. This involves not just simple taste but also mouth-feel or slip, heartiness, depth of flavor, and texture as well. In the early days of meatless cuisine, this meant generous helpings of cheese, cream, and butter. Although this is still a good way to go (who besides vegans and the lactose intolerant don't like a nice pound of cheese on the plate?), it's also rather unhealthy as the basis of a diet and a bit of a cop-out besides.

As one might expect, not eating meat means that my wife and I tend to consume a lot of beans. In fact, nearly every week I make a bean dish that my wife and I can eat for lunch every day. In the summer, we substitute in grain-and-vegetable gratins or something like that, but nine months out of the year it's pretty much bean central around our house. As a result, I have gotten pretty good at making meatless bean dishes that manage to equal their, erm, meated counterparts without trying to replicate them. That can be hard.

The trouble with most vegetarian baked bean recipes is that they lack that special deliciousness that bacon provides. Many of them are too thin in flavor, or too acidic, or too sweet. I think the following recipe which I accidentally threw together during a power outage last winter fits the bill pretty well. It combines several different recipes I'd used in the past and also features my secret weapons: allspice and liquid smoke. And ketchup. Not that ketchup is particularly secret, but quality vegetarian cookbooks can't always quite shake the knit-your-own-yogurt ethos and therefore sometimes shy away from using prepared foods where they are clearly the best way to go.

So, below the cut, please find Not Exactly Boston Vegetarian Baked Beans

1 lb dry small white or navy beans (about 3 cups), sorted, rinsed and presoaked.
2 bay leaves
2 medium onions, chopped fine ( 1 1/2 to 2 cups)
1 small red bell pepper, chopped fine (about 1/2 cup)
2 stalks celery, chopped fine (about 1/2 cup)
4 cloves garlic, minced
2/3 cup molasses
1 cup ketchup
1 tablespoon prepared brown mustard
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
2-3 dashes liquid smoke
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
vegetable oil
salt

Place beans in 10 cups water with bay leaves and 1 teaspoon salt. Bring to a boil and cook gently until tender. Remove bay leaves, drain, and reserve cooking liquid.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a bowl, mix molasses, ketchup, prepared mustard, vinegar, liquid smoke, and about 1 cup of the bean cooking liquid.

In a frying pan, sweat onion, peppers, celery and garlic in oil over medium heat until onion is translucent, about 10 minutes. Add salt, about a teaspoon. (Since this is a sweat, a tablespoon of water may be added to ensure that browning doesn’t happen.) When vegetables are soft, turn heat to high and add dry mustard, cumin, chili powder, cayenne, and allspice. Cook for about 3 minutes more, stirring frequently to prevent the spices burning.

In a baking dish, combine vegetable mixture and sauce with beans. Add more bean broth if the mixture is too dry. Cover and bake 1 1/2 hours. Taste for salt after 1/2 hour. If beans are too watery, uncover for last half hour of cooking time.