Bean Gratin

Anna has a cookbook, and I've already forgotten its name, that I was browsing through the other day as we were waiting for cookies to bake. Anna has many cookbooks, but this one happened to be out and was interesting, and I was in the legume section, and saw something for "Bean Gratin". Intrigued, I read the recipe, and it sounded like an interesting way to prepare beans. Basically, you take cooked beans and bake them in a sauce until the sauce reduces more, and then add cheese on top and bake some more until it melts. Although I have some issues with the measurements (when do I not have issues with measurements?), it came out quite nicely, and passed the Ed-test.

The original recipe called for 6 cups of cooked beans, and I wasn't sure how many dry beans would make 6C of cooked beans, so I looked in my pantry and chose the fullest jar of beans that I had, which happened to be about 1-1/4C of white beans. The recipe then called for 1-1/3C rich broth, i.e. a broth that had been reduced a bit on the stovetop. We had some extremely rich beef stock from the oxtails, that was already pretty reduced, so I went with that. Since I ended up with about 2C of cooked beans, I thought I should use 2/3C of broth, but that didn't quite cover them (I also didn't have the 2-quart casserole dish called for - I don't know how big a 2-quart casserole dish is, but since I don't have any casserole dishes, I just went with a pyrex pan. Which was too big, apparently). So, I added about 1/3C water, which at least moistened them.

The rest of the recipe worked great, except that the beans on top dried out (duh. they're being baked, and aren't covered in liquid), but that was ok, because the dried out beans tasted delicious and a bit crunchy. So, although I'm sure the original recipe was delicious, this version is worth making again, too.

Bean Gratin
1-1/4C dry beans (or 2.5C cooked or canned - if canned, rinse them first)
1 bay leaf
1 tbs bacon fat or other fat
~2tbs salt

1C tasty broth or stock
1/2C grated parmesan cheese

If you have dry beans, you'll have to start this early - soak the beans for 6-8 hours, until they've about doubled in size. Then simmer them with a bay leaf and the bacon fat for about 20 min, until they're soft enough to eat. Add the salt, and simmer some more, another 10min or so. Beans other than small white beans will take different amounts of time to cook, just FYI.

Preheat your oven to 375F.

Once your beans are cooked, pour them into a pyrex baking dish - mine is big. I don't know the dimensions. If I weren't lazy, I'd go look it up. But the size doesn't really matter - the wider it is, the more dry and crispy your beans will get, the smaller the surface area, the more creamy your beans will be. I think the goal is for creaminess.

Pour the broth over the beans. Bake for 35 minutes. Take them out at 35min and add the cheese on top. Put them back in the oven for 10 minutes, until all the cheese is melted. If you want it a little browned, you could broil them for a minute or two.

Serve!

This was how much liquid there was - definitely not covering the beans. I might try it in a less shallow dish next time, if I could find such a thing... maybe a pyrex mixing bowl. Does that even work?

They exploded. But that tasted good, so it was just fine.

Added the cheese, and it comes out all glued together and delicious and cheesy and creamy with occasional chewiness/crunchiness. Pretty good.