This is great served warm as a dip with tortilla chips or with fahitas and it is very simple to make and extremely difficult to get wrong. Any real ale will do (Tring of course!), but Colley’s Dog is perfect.

INGREDIENTS (serves 6)

400 g can mixed beans in water (pinto, borlotti, etc.)
400 g can kidney beans in water
300 ml real ale
1 tbs. olive oil
knob of butter
250 g smoked streaky bacon
2 cloves garlic (very chopped)
1 green chilli (finely chopped)
1 tsp. Worcester sauce
1/2 tsp. salt
1 medium onion (finely chopped)
freshly ground black pepper

INSTRUCTIONS

Drain the beans and place in a suitable saucepan. Pour over the beer and bring to the boil then gently simmer with the lid off for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, heat the oil and butter in a frying pan and add the bacon. Fry for two minutes before adding the chopped onion, chopped chilli and garlic. Continue until the onion just starts to colour and then put to one side.

After simmering for 30 minutes, drain the beans retaining the beer. Add the salt and pepper and mash the beans before adding the fried onion etc. Continue mashing and add back the beer liquor until you reach a consistency like slightly sloppy mash potato. Taste and adjust the seasoning as necessary. If you prefer a bit more of a kick to your beans you can away increase the heat by adding a little Tabasco sauce at the end.