Beans with Apples and Pork

Bruine bonen met appels en spek

500 grams dried brown beans
6 Granny Smith apples
300 grams fresh pork or streaky bacon
(for a less greasy meal use pork chops)
3 onions
150 grams molasses or Dutch stroop
salt, pepper & cinnamon
coarse black bread or multigrain bread

Start preparation a day ahead. Soak the beans overnight in plenty of water. The following day, bring the beans and the same water - with a level teaspoon of salt - to a boil and cook over low heat for about 60 minutes.

Meanwhile, peel and core the apples and slice them in rings. Boil the rings in shallow water for a few minutes and drain. Sprinkle the pork with pepper and cinnamon, and slowly fry in its own fat. Save the grease. (When opting for pork chops, fry in a little butter, and save the fat). 

Peel and dice the onions and fry in the bacon grease/fat. Add the apple slices to the beans and drain. Very slowly warm the molasses/stroop and add some of the bacon grease/fat. Serve the beans with the fried pork and the hot molasses on the side and thick slices of bread.

The words ‘stroop’ and ‘syrup’ have the same origin and were derived from the Arabic language; both mean the same thing. Akin to that is the Arabic word ‘sharab’, which means the drink made of a syrup and became known as ‘sorbet’ in Dutch or ‘sherbet’ in English.