John Maddens Mess Recipes

JOHN MADDEN'S MESS

Steps:

• Rinse and pick over beans; place in a medium-sized bowl and cover with water; let soak overnight.
• The next day, drain beans and place in a medium-size saucepan and add one quart of water.
• Bring to a boil over high heat, lower heat, cover; let simmer until beans are tender, 60 to 90 minutes.
• Meanwhile, cook bacon in a Dutch oven or large skillet until crisp; remove with slotted spoon onto paper towels to drain.
• Pour off all but two tablespoons of the bacon fat; saute ground beef, large onion and garlic in bacon fat over high heat for about 5 minutes, stirring often.
• Add cooked bacon, undrained tomatoes, chili powder, salt, oregano and cayenne; stir well and bring to a boil.
• Lower heat, cover, and simmer for about 60 minutes, stirring every so often; steal some liquid from the beans and stir it in if mixture gets too thick.
• Now would be a good time to cook that spaghetti.
• Drain beans, add to meat/tomato mixture, and heat just to serving temperature.
• To serve, place hot drained spaghetti on a large platter and spoon all the chili on top.
• Cut tamales into pieces and arrange over chili.
• Finally, scatter raw onion and dried red peppers over top, and serve.

BRIAN'S ETON MESS

Steps:

• Mix together the clotted cream, vanilla sugar, Vin Santo and double cream, and whisk until smooth. Slice the larger strawberries in 1/2. Place all the strawberries in a bowl with the raspberries, sprinkle with the vanilla sugar, and leave for 15 minutes to macerate (some of the juices will come out). Finally break up the scones, and you are ready to assemble either 1 large pudding or individual puddings in glasses.
• Spoon a little cream into the bottom of each glass, and sprinkle some of the broken scones on top, then some of the strawberries and raspberries. Repeat these layers and finish with a sprinkling of wild strawberries.

JOHN MADDEN'S BBQ BEEF SANDWICHES

Steps:

• In a large saucepan or small soup pot, brown onions in butter until tender.
• Add all other ingredients including cooked and shredded beef.
• Cover and cook over low heat for at least 2 hours, uncovering for the last 1/2 hour or so; or in a crock pot on low heat for 6 to 8 hours.
• (I can't vouch for the crock pot method, but stovetop works just fine!).
• Serve on buns or rolls.