Hi everyone! I have a new recipe for you! It’s in the above video I uploaded to YouTube yesterday and you’ll need to skip to 17:50 mins to the recipe segment.
The recipe is for Beans au Gratin from the “Good Eating – Wartime Dishes” created by the Daily Telegraph during WW2 and really is a super simple and economical recipe to create. I didn’t have tinned beans in brine so I used baked beans, rinsing off most of the sauce. During the war, Haricot beans were frequently used in recipes and of course these are the type of beans in our much loved cans of “baked beans” here in the UK!
My can of beans cost me just 27p (and two points from my monthly points allowance) and I used a little over a slice of bread to make the breadcrumbs. You can make the thick white sauce with or without cheese, add plenty of seasoning in though! Total cost of the dish is around 40-60p (depending on whether you use cheese) for two portions that are served with something else.
Beans au Gratin
- Can of beans
- Cheese sauce (or plain sauce if you haven’t any cheese)
- Breadcrumbs
- Dabs of margarine
Method
- Drain the beans (you’ll likely be using haricot beans or similar in a brine but you can use drained baked beans and you can use the discarded sauce in a stew)
- Place in a suitable shallow dish.
- Make the sauce with 1/2 oz margarine and 1/2 oz or more of flour and as much milk as needed to create a thick sauce (see video) and season well adding in mixed herbs too if needed
- Pour over beans and then next add a layer of breadcrumbs. I used a little over 1 slice of bread.
- Dot margarine over the top and place in an oven at 180C for 20-30 minutes adding foil over the top if breadcrumbs become browned before.
C xxxx
This looks yummy, I cant wait to try it. Ive signed up to purchase your book Carolyn, I cant wait. I do have 1 question – Im a nosey woman lol – I wonder if the recipes in the book will be cooked in a 1940s traditional way (on the hob or oven), or whether you will be using your more upto date appliances, as you did in this recipe, cooking it in your airfryer. Please dont think Im being in anyway critical, Im not, just curious. We are so blessed today to have options and different methods of food prep. I tend to use my traditional cooker, but I do understand that alot of the modern appliances can be more fuel efficient and that is deffo a bonus. Best wishes, Jan
Hi Jan, nearly all my recipes have always been created using a simple oven, bowl and spoon etc. I occasionally like to use my gadgets, especially if I am cooking a lot of things as it makes life so simple. The book is always going to fundamentally follow traditional methods but will have modern alternatives as hints and tips to save money and time so people can decide whether to stick strictly to traditional methods or use modern gadgets to make life easier xxxx C PS: One of my passions is non-electric kitchen items, I used to trawl Lehmans Amish Store online lusting after everything that was hand-cranked!!!