Jamaican Beans (Modified NY Times Cookbook Recipe)

Jamaican Beans - modified (from a recipe in the NY Times Cookbook) to be vegan and to be made in a crock pot rather than baked in the oven

2 cups of beans soaked overnight (I used a medley of them, but white beans would work)
1/2 cup of brown sugar (sugar in the raw, or something similar, to be truly vegan)
1/4 cup of dark rum
2 tsp. dry mustard
1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp. of salt
1 pinch of thyme
1 medium onion
4 whole cloves

The original recipe called for salt pork, but instead I roasted a handful of jalapeno peppers - some red and some green - that a friend had given me from her garden.

Fully seed the jalapenos and carefully remove the ribs to get rid of the serious heat. Place them in a covered casserole, drizzle olive oil over them and toss to coat them. Roast them with the lid on for an hour at 325 until they are very carmelized and tender (in place of a covered casserole you can also cover a baking dish tightly with tinfoil).

Take the onion and remove the papery outer skin and the roots, leaving the onion mostly intact. Cut off the top so the onion stands flat. Stud the onion with the four cloves and place them in the center of a crock pot.

Cover the onion with half of the soaked and drained beans. Scoop out the jalapenos from the casserole dish they were roasted in and scatter them on top of the beans in the crock pot. Cover the jalapenos with the other half of the beans. Pour water into the crock pot covering the beans completely (about 1 and 1/2 inches above them). In the oil left in the bottom of the casserole dish the jalapenos were roasted in, add the brown sugar, dark rum, dry mustard, black pepper, salt, and thyme. Mix thoroughly and then pour the mixture over the beans in the crock pot.

I put the crock pot on high for about 90 minutes, then turned it to low and left it to cook overnight.