Beans
I’ve talked about these before, but I love Bold Beans - they really are next level beans, they are cooked in the most delicious, well seasoned stock so when I say “add the beans including the stock”, that’s what I mean. Now if you can’t get hold of Bold Beans, opt for jarred beans instead of tinned beans as they are just a bit better. That being said of course you can use tinned beans - but in this case I would drain them before adding them to the dish and then add water instead and possibly half a stock cube. I mentioned it in the recipe but the amount of water you add to this dish is going to depend on a few factors - you want to make sure the beans have enough liquid that they don’t dry out but you don’t want them to turn into soup - so add a little as a time until it looks how you want it to look. You can always check on it as it’s cooking and add more water if it looks too dry.

Creme fraiche / Double Cream / Cream Cheese
Now I know a lot of people are loathe to add any sort of cream to their dishes and I get that. Any of the above will work and you only need a little amount to make a difference to the creaminess. If you really don’t want to add, of course you don’t have to, instead I would just give the beans a really good stir with a wooden spoon after they’ve come out of the oven, just to encourage the creaminess, and possibly add a little more stock as you do this. You want them luscious and creamy, not dry and stody.

Tarragon
For the longest time I thought tarragon tasted of washing up liquid. It was in the same camp as coriander and avocados. And then magically overnight one day when I was about 17 1/2 my taste buds changed and I no longer tasted soap, and couldn’t get enough of them. So I get it! I’ve seen both sides! And no wants to eat soap, so of course you can switch the tarragon for some chopped parsley and maybe a little lemon zest. But if you do like tarragon, you just never think to buy it - definitely use tarragon. The fresh stuff - the dried stuff is good sprinkled on the chicken skin before roasting but the fresh leaves taste quite different. If you have any left over, chop the leaves, add to yoghurt with a little grated garlic, lemon juice, salt and pepper and use this as a sauce to go with your roast chicken - HEAVEN. Or roughly chop and add to softened butter - roll into a log and wrap in parchment paper. Slice into rounds to serve with hot steak. So good.

Hob v Oven
These beans work really well as a side dish. They would be very good served alongside roast lamb, some salmon fillets, crispy sea bream etc etc. If you want to serve the beans like this, just follow the recipe as above but don’t then pop the beans in the oven. Just bubble away on the hob until thick and creamy and gorgeous. Very easy and it won’t take long.