Homemade curried baked beans

Main course: serves 4. Total time: 1 hour

For the tomato sauce

2 x 400g (approximately) cans of haricot beans

Melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed, shallow pot. Add the garlic, ginger, chilli, cumin and cardamom. Allow the spices to stew gently in the butter before adding the tomatoes. Lightly salt and spoon over the loosened coconut cream. Partially cover the pan and set upon an extremely low light (use one of those heat diffuser pads if you can). Much of the juice from the tomatoes will now flow out and form a sauce, helped along by the creamed coconut. When this has begun to come along nicely - after about 25-30 minutes - you will notice that the sauce becomes slightly separated, but remains creamy in parts. (If it seems too dry, simply add a little water.) Add the lime juice and the pepper and liquidise all until very smooth.

Pass this sauce through a fine sieve and into a clean pan, then tip in the beans (un-rinsed). Add either the sultanas or the mango chutney, stir in and heat through until it all simmers gently. Continue cooking for a further 15-20 minutes, and then serve with nostalgia.