Smokey-bean-stew

SMOKEY-BEAN-STEW

this little beauty of a dish is my new favourite way to do something special with a chilli.

Using a generous amount of smoked paprika in the stew makes it taste like there's bacon in it ... Only without the bacon!

I have been making this recipe for vegans and veggies, replacing the meat with grated carrots. (No-one ever notices) but the flavour remains incredible because of all the bits 'n bobs I throw in.

Here's roughly how it sings;

(This'll serve 8-ish. I think.  I've forgotted how to cook for just a few!)

2 onions

4 cloves garlic

Chunky-chopped mushrooms, a couple yellow peppers, and green ones.

If you have a jar of those beautiful roasted red peppers (Lidl do them!) slice in a big one of those.

If not use a couple of red peppers.

A fresh red chilli, de-seeded and finely chopped

Chop up a head of broccoli, thinly slicing up the stems and trunk - it's all so good for you. Never throw away those bits!

Add any left over celery sticks, sliced up. It's surprising what sweetness of flavour this adds.

I once added some roasted sweet potatoes that were hanging about from the previous evening, and a few sorry looking radishes ... You can use pretty much whatever you've got.

Gently pan fry this little lot in some olive oil.

Add your minced beef or lamb if using.

Add a can of chopped tomatoes and a box of passata.

Now for the fun.

Season it all up with salt, coarse ground black pepper, and about 4 teaspoons of SMOKED PAPRIKA. 

More if you like.

A good pinch chilli flakes

A splash and dash of Worcestershire sauce. Of course.

A dessert spoon dark treacle. (Yes, that's right, dark treacle. Trust me.)

Some dried oregano is a good addition.

As is a splash of red wine - but not essential.

Let this jolly lot simmer for about 10 mins then add in a selection of beans. A couple of more.

This will depend on how many you are feeding, but always a good idea to make a stack of this stuff anyway as it freezes really well.

Choose from:

Kidney beans

Black beans

Borloti beans

Flageolet beans

Black-eye beans 

- any really. 'Cept jelly beans. That won't work. (Although????)

Ok. 

Just let that all simmer in the pan whilst you cook the rice and prep the topping.

Try a mixture of white rice/red quinoa/brown lentils. Such great texture and added whack of nutrition.

Put them all in together to cook with each other. I use a rice cooker. ( I used to make terrible rice til I got one of these.)

It's even really fun to let a handful of pearl barely in on the act occasionally. 

Again, if you make more than you need with these grains, use them for lunch the next day and add chopped salad veggies/pumpkin seeds//watercress etc and a good balsamic dressing. Box them in little portions all lined up in the fridge and there's a ready-to-use-power-lunch in the making.

Back to the smokey bean stew.

Prep the topping.

Get a pot of natural Greek yogurt (or the DF equivalent for the special needs ones)

Tip it into a glass jug/bowl and squeeze in a lemon, some s&p, 4 garlic cloves, crushed and a tsp dried mint. Or fresh if you've got some handy.

Roughly chop some fresh herbs up (I have loads of golden marjoram growing, so use that often, but parsley, coriander etc is great. ) and de-seed a pomegranate for the fancy flourish at the end.

(Cut a pomegranate around the circumference, hold it seeds down in your hand and whack it with a wooden rolling pin. All the seeds should come out pretty easily. Careful though, it's splashy and tends to stain nice white T-shirts.) (voice of experience.)

Ready to serve?

Go drama, go fiesta, go all food-diva with serving this dish. It deserves it!

I like to use my giant red bowl, made by the talented potter Judith Swannell. (LOVE her work!)

First the rice/quinoa.

Then pile the bean stew on top.

Then sploosh the yoghurty topping over it.

A mound of herbs.

A flurry of jewels of pomegranate 

....Ta-daaaah!

Everything you need for happy-ever-after.

 

'PORRIDGE CAKES'

Porridge cakes taste way awesommer than they sound.

My friend Dai called them 'tasty little monkeys', but thought that name might scare off the vegetarians out there!

So, you know when you make porridge for your breakfast ? (I do, every day. [can one be addicted to porridge?] ) And you know how there's often a big dollop of it left over which you don't want to just throw away, but you're not sure what to do with it? Well, I have here the perfect solution...

Make a batch of tasty-little-porridge-monkeys!

You'll need this sort of stuff...

Leftover oats

Self-raising flour; About the same sort of mass as the oats. 

 (Red alert ... This is not exactly a PRECISE sort of recipe. There are no real rules)

Olive oil; I go with the measurement of 'a jolly good glug', which translates into about 4-6tablespoons. Ish.

Brown sugar or honey. Like the olive oil.

1teaspoon baking powder

1/2teaspoon salt

1heaped dessert spoon of cinnamon

2eggs.  3 if you're making a bigger batch.

A splish of almond milk (or any other milk you like) by splish? ... Let's say 4-6tablespoons. Also like the oil.

A big, generous handful of any of your fav. dried fruit and a grated fresh apple.

Dump the whole lot into a mixer, or a bow and whisk it by hand for a minute. It doesn't need a lot of beating. It should be a thick batter sort of consistency, but not like cake mixture. 

I've tried all sorts of inaccurate combinations of the above collection of ingredients, and they've always come out amazing!

 It seems these little monkeys are fool-proof.

(Apart from the time I baked a batch to photograph for this blog and decided to weigh carefully all the ingredients. Trying to be helpful. They FLOPPED! 

Tasted fine, but didn't behave as well as usual.  

Moral of the story? Always trust your cheffy-instincts. )

Divvy into muffin tins, filling them nice and full to the top.

Here, I added slices of Apple on the top. You could just sprinkle a few dried oats or flaked almonds etc.  

Or leave them naked.  Up to you.

Bake at 180/gas 5 for 25-30mins.

Now then, there are so many delicious variations to trial besides these classics.

Sub in 2oz cocoa powder for the cinnamon and add cranberries. 

SOOOOO GOOD.

Try ginger (dried, stem or crystallised) and add sliced up banana.

ALSO SPLENDID

works with gluten-free/dairy-free products.  I like to use rye flour in mine. Sometimes gram flour.

So there we have it.

Porridge cakes.

"Tasty Little Monkeys!"   To quote Dai Woolridge. Spoken Truth poet. Specialist cake eater. Welsh.

Roasted garlic and pumpkin soup

ROASTED GARLIC AND PUMPKIN SOUP

so, I spotted this most pretty soft gray-green pumpkin at the market and just had to buy it, convinced that it would make a soup to rival the bestest of soups ever, because it was such a pretty colour.

And who better to join in the masterpiece than a whole head of garlic, wrapped in foil and roasted in the oven to deepen and sweeten itself into gooey gorgeousness?

Here's how it went....

I beautiful pumpkin.

A large onion

A whole garlic bulb.

(Optional) An extra little squash (rather delightfully called called a pattypan) (also appears in a Beatrix Potter book, if you're interested!)

Veg stock cube

Tin of chopped tomatoes

Box of passata

Cumin seeds

Coriander seeds

Tsp garam masala (optional)

Black pepper 

Tsp salt

Handful of orzo or rice.

Can of coconut milk

Zest and juice of a lime

Handful of fresh coriander

  First off, prep the garlic.

Cut it across the equator and wrap it in foil. Pop into the oven (180/gas5) for about 20minutes.

Then chunk up the onion, throw it into the pan with a dash of olive oil.

Gently soften.

Then begin the task of cutting up, de-seeding and peeling the pumpkin.

Have some good music playing, it could take a while! I got through almost all of Will Regan's new album whilst doing this. 

A labour of love.  Made my hands ache. Next time I will try leaving the skin on.

#couldodwithouthteblisters #shouldveboughtacan

Right then.

Pop the spices into a pestle & mortar and bash up a bit.

Tip into the softened onion and mix it through.

Add the pumpkin.

Cook gently for a few moments whilst you get the garlic out of the oven.

Unwrap it and let it cool just til you can actually hold it without pain of heat.

Squeeze each half into the pumpkin mix.

This is so fun to do and smells incredible!

Ok. Let that mix in, then add the veg stock, enough to just cover the pumpkin chunks.

 Simmer for about 20minutes or so til the pieces are soft.

Add the tomatoes and the passata then blitz up with a hand blender.

Throw in a handful or two  of orzo or rice and add some extra water. Return to the heat and simmer for another 15-20 minutes.

Stir in the coconut milk

Add lime zest & juice

Serve in bowls and top with a bit of Greek yogurt,fresh coriander, some pumpkin seeds and an extra squeeze of lime.

 This should paint a beautiful landscape on your     tongue with every spoonful. Served with a hunk of home-made bread to frame the experience.

Make a bucket-full of this soup and freeze it in portions, so that it is ready to bring you lunch time joy at the drop of a hat!

MORROCCAN lamb on flatbreads ... Eaten like nachos!

This. Food. Is. Stunning.

But it's really easy to do and packs a taste experience which can only be described as a 'corridor of flavour'. 

I like to take my family and friends on a journey when we eat each meal, one that takes you down many adventurous layers of flavour as the various ingredients work to bring the best out of each other.

This dish hits that target.

I used the 'chuck-it-all-in-randomly-method' of measuring for this dish as I was feeding a crowd of hungry blokes at the time, so here goes with what I think I did ...

Ingredients:

SOME FLATBREADS (enough for a couple each per person, depending on their size) use shop-bought or make in advance a stack of my version of flatbreads that are elsewhere in this Breathekitchen blog)

PACK OF MINCED LAMB  (Quantity?  ....  However much you, um, need?)

The base

AUBERGINES. (1 aubergine to every 4 people. Ish. )

ONIONS. (1 for every 3 people)

2 fat cloves GARLIC. (More for a crowd)

The 'corridor'/spice trail:

couple teaspoons CINNAMON

SALT & BLACK PEPPER

Bountiful splash of WORCESTERSHIRE SACUCE

Tablespoon DARK TREACLE

couple teaspoons DRIED MINT

couple teaspoons DRIED PARSLEY 

Good squeeze TOMATO KETCHUP

box or jar of PASSATA

can of CHOPPED TOMATOES

can of CHICKPEAS

The topping:

A large pot GREEK YOGURT

A crushed clove GARLIC

Juice 1/2 LEMON

SEASONING OF BLACK PEPPER

FRESH MINT AND PARSLEY good hand ful of each to sprinkle on top

POMMEGRANATE SEEDS

Phew! I think that was it?

Ok. The method.

Chop up and fry the onion, aubergine and garlic for a couple of minutes.

Add the meat and brown for a few minutes

(I had to cook mine in two pans then combine as I was cooking for the crowd!)

Add the spice trail list.

Let it all gently simmer away for about 15minutes.

Add the chick peas

Cook for another 5 minutes then check seasoning. Adjust to suit your tastebuds.

Into a bowl, dump the yogurt, pepper, lemon juice and crushed garlic and give a good mix.

Warm through the flatbreads on a tray in the oven, or in a dry pan if they're my breathe ones,  then slice into triangly sort of shapes.

Layer onto your (warmed) serving plate.

Spoon over some of the lamb.

Layer it up again with the rest of the flatbreads and top with the rest of the lamb.

Pour the yogurt topping all over it.

Sprinkle generously with the fresh herbs

Whack half a pomegranate with a rolling pin and let them scatter gloriously over the white topping.

Serve immediately, using a slice to lift out portions to the plates of those around your table and DEVOUR!

All it needed was a green salad as an accompaniment.

Your invitation to travel the 'corridor of flavour' awaits you!

Bon voyage.

The quickest ever flatbreads

I discovered these flatbreads recently, which only use two ingredients!!!

Just flour and yogurt.

I've now tried it with variations on those two ingredients with great success.

For example; using gluten free flour/coconut flour(amazing!)/wholemeal flour.

And subbing in Creme fraiche/coconut cream for the yogurt. Or a combo of any if using up leftovers.

This is like the best fool-proof bread to make when you're in a hurry for a delicious lunch.

This summer, when all the family were staying, Nicole and I made a stack of them on several days.

Just get a mug and measure out flour then yogurt and tip into a mixing bowl.

It's not an exact science. Rough estimates work fine.

Bring the mixture together to form a dough. No kneeling, and don't over-work it. Just bring it together.

Nicole used a spatula. I just get in there with my hand and enjoy the sqiidge!

Wth plenty of flour on the worktop, turn out the dough and lightly tuck it into a ball.

Cut it into quarters, then eighths. (Ish.  Depends how much you've made!)

Flour your rolling pin and make each little ball into a flat pancake-looking thing.

We found you need plenty of flouring, or things got a bit sticky.

Pop your frying pan on the heat to warm up so its ready to receive the dough. No need for oil or butter. 

Pop your dough straight in the hot pan and give it about 30 seconds.

It starts to dimple by then, so just flip it over with a pallet knife or slice.

Another 30 seconds and it starts to wriggle like a chipatti. 

Add the topping of choice .... Always begin with wiggle of olive oil, then add seasoning.

Salt flakes and oregano is what went on first time round for our experiment.

But then we upped the game with cumin seeds. UNBELIEVABLY GOOD!

Also great is garlic salt and fresh coriander. Especially if you've used coconut flour in the dough.

Or sundried tomatoes and fresh basil leaves.

You could go olives and chilli flakes. Also rather super.

Play around.

Great to tear and dip in hummus, sweet chilli sauce, mango chutney, yogurt-cucumber-mint.

So makes a great appetiser for supper.

Or as an accompaniment to soup, or a curry.

How about ... Make an omelette, lay it on the top and roll it up as a wrap? I'm trying that next!

Ok. Just writing this post has got me jiggling about in flavour anticipation, so I'm off now to make some more. Just 'cos.