Baked Beans - Cajun Style

Ingredients

• 3 (15 ounce) cans pork and beans, . (I prefer Van Camp's brand, drained, with pork cubes removed)

• 8 slices bacon or 1/2 cup bacon bit or 3/4 lb smoked ham
• 1 cup catsup
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup onion, diced
• 3/4 cup green bell pepper, diced
• 1/4 cup celery, diced
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon white pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (or salt substitute)

Directions

1. 1

   Fry the bacon in a large frying pan until crisp. Let cool, then crumble the bacon, then mix all the ingredients together well except for the beans, then add beans and mix gently, so as not to mash up the beans. Precooked, crumbled bacon bits can be substituted for the freshly cooked bacon.

2. 2

   An alternative to bacon is to use smoked ham. Slice ham into 1/8 inch cubes and place in a mixing bowl. Sprinkle the ham with a mixture of one-quarter cup brown sugar and one-quarter cup white sugar, mix until the ham is well coated, then brown ham in a frying pan until the sugars caramelize and begin to turn brown/black. Then mix all ingredients except the beans together, then add beans and mix gently, so as to not mash up the beans.

3. 3

   Pour bean mixture into a 10 x 10 inch baking dish, cover with tin foil and bake at 300 degrees for 30 minutes or longer, until bubbling well around the edges of the baking dish, then remove tin foil, and broil at 400 degrees 5 to 10 minutes, until top browns/blackens slightly. This browning/blackening adds a very good caramelized flavor to the dish, and does not taste burned at all.

4. 4

   This makes a mild to medium spicy recipe, to make a very mild recipe, use only 1/4 teaspoon each of the three peppers.