Colm O'Gorman's pork and bean stew is a low-and-slow Tex-Mex classic

Tex Mex Pork and Beans

We are off to the southern states of the USA for this week’s recipe — the second in a short winter series of columns featuring stew recipes from around the world. This week’s dish is a Tex-Mex take on a southern classic, pork and beans.

You can use pork shoulder or loin for this dish. It is cooked low and slow, so the meat becomes fabulously tender, and just falls apart under your fork. 

The chipotle paste gives a lovely smoky chilli hit to the dish, but this stew is not very spicy. If you want to ramp up the heat, just add more chipotle.

You will find chipotle paste in most supermarkets these days, but if you cannot find any, use one heaped tablespoon of smoked paprika instead. Molasses can be sourced in any health food shop, but muscovado sugar is a good alternative if you cannot get hold of any.

You can cook this dish either on the stovetop, or as I do here, in the oven. Purists will argue that if you do cook it in the oven, it is a casserole and not a stew, but never mind them — it will taste the same regardless of which method you use.

I chose the oven when cooking this the first time as I needed to head out to the shops while it was cooking, and I do not like to leave pots on the stove unattended for so long. It worked perfectly, so I have cooked it the same way ever since. Cook yours on the stove if you prefer: just simmer it over a very low heat for the same amount of time that I give for the oven method below. This recipe would also cook beautifully in a slow cooker.

Serve my Tex-Mex Pork and Beans in big warm bowls, with fresh crusty bread on the side to mop up the sauce. If you really want to have another carb with the stew, serve it with some boiled rice, or over some creamy mashed potato.

Tex-Mex Pork and Beans

recipe by:Colm O'Gorman

Serve up in big warm bowls, with fresh crusty bread on the side to mop up the sauce. If you really want to have another carb with the stew, serve it with some boiled rice, or over some creamy mashed potato.

Servings

8

Preparation Time

 30 mins

Cooking Time

 2 hours 0 mins

Total Time

 2 hours 30 mins

Course

 Main

Ingredients

• 1kg pork loin or shoulder

• 1 large onion

• 6 cloves garlic

• 2 bay leaves

• 2 tbsp olive oil

• 1 tbsp dried oregano

• 1 tbsp ground cumin

• 1 tsp ground coriander

• 1 tsp mustard powder

• ½ tsp allspice

• 1 tsp flaky sea salt

• 2 tbsp chipotle paste

• 400 ml passata or a tin of chopped tomatoes

• 2 tbsp molasses

• 500ml chicken stock

• 1 butternut squash

• 2 tins of cannellini beans

• A handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley

Method

1. If your pork joint is rolled and tied, remove the string, and unroll it. Cut the meat into six large pieces, leaving any fat on the meat. Do not be tempted to remove the fat as it adds a lot of flavour to this dish.

2. Peel and chop the onion and the garlic.

3. Heat the olive oil in a casserole dish over a high heat. When the oil starts to shimmer, reduce the heat to medium and add the pork to the pan. Sear the meat, turning it as you go until it is browned all over. This will take just a few minutes. When all the meat is seared, remove the pork from the pan and set aside for now.

4. Add the chopped onions to the casserole dish, and sauté for a few minutes until they start to soften. Add the garlic and cook for one more minute.

5. Next, add the bay leaves, the dried spices, and the salt. Cook the spices, stirring all the time to prevent them from sticking until they become fragrant, just a minute or two will do it. Add the chipotle paste and stir that through, before adding the passata or chopped tomatoes and the molasses. Stir to combine everything and cook for one more minute. Next, stir in the chicken stock and bring the pan to a soft boil.

6. Pop the pork back in the casserole, along with any juices from the meat, and stir to coat the pork in the sauce. Cover the pan with a lid and pop it in the oven at 160° Celsius for one hour and 30 minutes.

7. Peel the butternut squash. Remove the stalk and the base and cut it in two lengthways. Remove the seeds and the stringy pith from the centre and cut the squash into 3cm chunks. Drain and rinse the tinned cannellini beans.

8. When the pork has been in the oven for 90 minutes, remove it carefully using an oven glove. Add the chopped butternut squash and the cannellini beans to the casserole dish and stir them. There should still be enough liquid to pretty much cover the pork, the squash, and the beans, but if you need to, you can add a little water to the pot at this stage — about 125 ml will be plenty.

9. Cover the casserole once more and pop it back in the oven until the squash is cooked through and the pork is very tender and falls apart easily — 30 minutes will do it.

10. Wash and roughly chop some flat-leaf parsley and stir it through the stew. Serve your pork and beans in big warmed bowls with fresh crusty bread on the side and some more fresh parsley scattered over the top.