Beanie Weenies. If you were a quasi middle class kid like me, you had this dish once or twice a year at campfire cookouts or when whoever was helming the stove was not really feeling it. Cut up hot dogs in a can of beans, maybe doctored with a squirt of mustard, a dollop of brown sugar, and some dried minced onion. A slab of pork fat if they were feeling fancy.
I’ve never forgotten the nostalgia that went along with such a scandalously-seeming meal. Hot dogs cut up into beans and served in a single bowl…what the? It may be the original Americana one pot meal.
This weekend, I reinterpreted the dish with some consideration. Instead of canned beans, I used fresh simmered white beans from Rancho Gordo and in the place of ballpark franks, I used red pepper sausages that were languishing in my freezer. Pour one out for Pinemelon. (Sad face emoji.)
Below is an original recipe that takes a bit of time but is deeply nourishing without being to sweet or heavy. As long as it remains rainy and cool, I will be serving meals that ever-so-slightly stick to your ribs. Now go reminisce!
Beanie Weenies Redux
Time: 3 hours
Serves: 2-4
Ingredients:
1C. Rancho Gordo (red or white dried beans)
1 onion, diced
1 full head of garlic, sliced horizontally
A lemon
1 tsp. mustard powder
2-3 bayleafs
Link sausage (one per person)
EVOO
Salt
Pepper
H2O (Six cups added over 2-3 hours)
Directions:
Dry heat pan and then add EVOO and sauté onion with lemon halves and garlic halves face down.
Add beans and bay and water to cover. Cover pot and cook on low/medium.
Add more water every 40 minutes to recover beans. Adjust salt and pepper as needed.
Grill sausage. I like to split mine down the middle.
Remove garlic from bulb and discard husk. Remove lemon peels. Plate beans, top with grilled sausage and feel free to add parm or hot sauce or red chile flakes. OR ALL THREE. This is your childhood, remembered!