Day 11 – Beans and Octopus

Life is a journey and no real journey is complete without its up and downs.
Today I think I need to explore a little bit more and move away from the classic recipe dishes and into the forest which is full of its dangers but also its pleasant surprises.....”could octopus and beans be one of these pleasant surprises?” initially I am thinking this is a bad idea, the very sound of it makes me feel sick but you never know until you try it right?

I chose Sainsbury’s value beans for this meal....I didn’t want to waste money on some great beans only to have octopus juice all over them so I’m sure for this meal the quality of the beans will not affect the overall taste as much as other meals I have had.

The octopus comes in a nice gold tin which leads me to think that some sort of treasure is located inside but unless the treasure you’re looking for is octopus tentacles then it couldn’t be further away from the truth.
I tried to place the tentacles as well as I could on the beans but most of them ended up submerged within the bean juice. The first mouthful was the hardest as I have never tried octopus before but I know they are extremely high in fibre which makes them a great partner for the beans which are also high in fibre.
I was surprised that I had soon finished the meal without ending up in the toilet. I think the hardest part was looking at the little suckers as I put them in my mouth but the actual taste was very similar to mackerel which I was not expecting.

This proves that experimenting with things a little outside of your comfort zone is important as I now know that I would have octopus again but maybe not with baked beans :)

Day 10 – Baked bean bake

Apologies to my loyal fans who have had to wait a little extra time for this post but due to technical issues with this site I was unable to upload anything until this point so it’s ok....there is no need for mass hysteria, I am alive and this experiment has not killed me yet so get yourself a nice cup of tea and enjoy the rest of this post.

Today I finally had a meal with some preparation time involved. This is something I have been missing a lot in recent days but with this baked bean bake my culinary skills were once again able to flourish.
This meal was recommended to me by a friend to whom I am now greatly in debt too as it’s become my favourite of the baked bean meals so far!! From the start of the day I had been looking forward to this, it’s very rare that you come across a baked bean recipe that can stimulate your senses to the levels which this little beauty has.

This meal was baked bean bake which just from its name makes your ears tingle with excitement and is achieved by taking some Heinz baked beans and pouring them into a small oven-proof dish with some fried onions added and a splash of Worcestershire sauce and pepper to flavour, toast two slices of bread and then cut into four triangles and delicately arrange them on top of the beans and cover with a generous layer of mature grated cheese and add to pre-heated oven (180c)......... I felt like a proud father waiting for his new born child to come out....it seemed to take a lifetime to happen (actually only 20 min) but when it did I was greeted by the most amazing sight and one that I will remember for at least a week.
Dishing up this miracle of a meal was great fun, the cheese had done its job well in holding the whole dish together and it was easy to serve up on the plate of my choice. I added a few drops of Tabasco sauce and then proceeded to eat the whole dish which left me myself feeling like I was about to give birth but this is nothing a pot of tea didn’t soon sort out!!