What We Ate Wednesday--Hawaiian Cowboy Beans with Chutney Mushrooms

Hello lovelies! Sweet potatoes were on sale this week so there were several sweet potato dishes on the menu. I had one good sized one left and was deciding what to do with it so I went to recipe index (yes I have a recipe index, organised by major ingredients) and saw this recipe. We haven't had it in ages and so I was glad to have it again because it is delicious and uses many things that I always have on hand like curry paste and mango chutney.

It would be a great recipe for "jacket potatoes" if you cooked the sweet potatoes whole and in their skins, but I only had one tatws so I cubed it and roasted it that way.

It would also undoubtedly taste *amazing* with fresh pineapple, but my budget doesn't extend to that so I used tinned pineapple and you know what? It was FINE.

Now, I will be the first to admit that this is probably extremely inauthentic. Just because you add pineapple to something does NOT automatically make it Hawaiian. But that is what I call these, so that is what they will be. Call them whatever you like, just make them as they are a delicious meal using a cheap tin of baked beans.

If I was baking the potatoes in their jackets, I would put the pineapple in with the baked beans, but as I had cubed the sweet potato I just roasted the pineapple in the oven. I might go back to putting it with the beans next time.

Hawaiian Cowboy Beans with Chutney Mushrooms

Preheat your oven to 200C/400F.

If you are baking potatoes in their jackets they will need to bake longer so allow extra time for that. Here is how to do it with cubed sweet potato.

For the oven:

1 large or 2 smaller sweet potatoes, cubed

half a pepper, diced (red would have looked nicer, but all i had was yellow)

Tin of pineapple in juice not syrup (mine was in rings, so I drained it --save the juice--and chopped the rings)

1 TB oil

salt and pepper, to taste

1. Coat everything in oil and roast for 15 minutes, stir, roast 15 more. 

Meanwhile...

For the beans:

note about the beans: if you are British and using those flavourless red sauce beans, then add a big ole squidge BBQ sauce and 1 TB molasses. If you are using American beans with a decent sauce, then just use the beans)

1 white onion, sliced into thin rainbows

1 TB chopped or grated ginger root

1/2 to 1 tsp red pepper flakes (or to taste)

1 tin baked beans

2 TB pineapple juice (from the tin)

1. cook the onion in a splash of oil until softening and starting to brown then add the ginger and the red pepper flakes and cook until fragrant.

2. Add the beans (and the BBQ sauce and molasses if using) and the pineapple juice and simmer until the sweet potatoes are done. 

Meanwhile:

In another smaller pan, cook 8-10 sliced button mushrooms. While they are cooking make the sauce.

The sauce:

1 heaping tsp curry paste (we like Balti)

1 heaping TB mango chutney 

1-2 TB water or pineapple juice,  to thin

When the mushrooms are to your liking, then add the sauce and heat until the sauce bubbles. 

Serve the Hawaiian Beans and the Chutney Mushrooms over your Roasted Sweet Potato, Pepper and Pineapple.

You can just drink any remaining pineapple juice or if you are DIY inclined, you can save back a a few TB of the pineapple juice and mix with some bicarbonate of soda and make a nice alpha hydroxy acid scrub and exfoliate your face. I am sure that fresh pineapple would be even more amazing, but my skin looked brighter and felt softer afterwards, so tinned works too. 

Enjoy.