Bean salad

Saw this recipe in the Guardian this weekend, then ended up with an awful lot of yellow beans (3lb for $1) - seemed to fit together.

280g yellow beans (had loads of yellow and no green, so just used yellow)
280g french beans, trimmed
2 red peppers, deseeded and cut into 0.5cm strips
2½ tbsp olive oil, plus 1 tsp extra
50g capers, rinsed and patted dry
3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp coriander seeds
4 spring onions, thinly sliced
10g roughly chopped tarragon (didn't have tarragon or chervil so used mixture of parsley and dill instead)
20g picked chervil (or a mixture of picked dill and shredded parsley)
Grated zest of 1 lemon
Salt and black pepper

Heat the oven to 200C/400F/gas mark 6. Bring a large pan of water to a boil and add the yellow beans. After two minutes, add the french beans and cook for four minutes more. Refresh under cold water, drain, pat dry and place in a large bowl. Toss the pepper strips in a teaspoon of oil, spread on an oven tray and roast for five minutes, until tender. Remove and add to the beans.
Heat the oil in a small saucepan. Add the capers (be careful, as they'll spit) and garlic, fry for 20 seconds, then add the seeds and fry for another 20 seconds. The garlic should by now have turned golden. Remove from the heat and immediately pour over the beans. Add the spring onion, herbs, lemon zest, a quarter-teaspoon of salt and some black pepper, and toss to combine. This salad will keep well for a day.

It was, as advertised, pretty damn tasty.  Quite salty - might not bother adding extra salt another time, the capers are probably salty enough.

Spaghetti squash / another version of pesto / wholemeal+corn rolls

Got excited about a spaghetti squash at the Haymarket, as I don't think I've ever had one before.  Eventually got around to cooking it.  It is funny stuff indeed.

1 spaghetti squash

20-30 cherry tomatoes
1 medium, sweet onion, finely sliced
3 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
2 tbsp basil leaves, roughly torn or chopped
olive oil, salt+pepper, balsamic vinegar

for the pesto:
handful basil leaves, washed
handful shelled edamame, defrosted
2 tbsp sunflower seeds
1 small clove garlic
2 tsp lemon juice
2 tsp olive oil
salt+pepper

Heat oven to 400F.  Cut squash in half lengthways (past the stem).  Deseed and set seeds aside.  Place cut side down in a large baking tin.  Add ~1in water to the tin.  Put in the oven for 30-40 min until a knife goes in easily / the flesh is tender.  Meanwhile you can spread the seeds on a large baking tray and toast them for ~5min as a pre-snack.  Around the same time as the squash, bung in another baking tin containing the tomatoes, onion, garlic, basil, and olive oil / salt and pepper to taste.  Take the squash and tomato mix out of the oven when ready.  Add a little balsamic vinegar to the tomatoes and mix in.  Allow squash to cool a little, then scrape out the flesh into a large bowl (don't burn your fingers).  Season and add a little olive oil to the squash and mix up / separate the strands with a fork.  Serve with the tomato mix and pesto (to make the pesto, whizz all the ingredients in the blender, adding water and/or olive oil to get a good consistency).

It really looks like spaghetti!  Totally bizarre how it separates out into perfect strands.  Doesn't taste of much, but does have a pleasant, slightly squashy taste that goes well with the pesto and / or tomato mix.  This pesto iteration is getting close to the best yet.


Spelt / wholemeal and corn rolls

We're planning on going to one of the harbor islands tomorrow to check out an art encampment.  Thought it might be nice to take some bread with us for snacks.  This Guardian recipe looked quicker than the other breads I've done, and was on my list of ones I fancied...


75g cornmeal or polenta
200ml boiling water
300ml cold water
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp yeast
300g spelt (or wholemeal) flour / used wholemeal
200g strong white flour
1 tsp salt
Oil and flour, to finish

Put the cornmeal in a bowl, pour in the boiling water and stir. Leave for 15 minutes, then whisk in the cold water, honey and yeast. Add the spelt, white flour and salt, mix to a soft dough and leave for 10 minutes.
Knead for 10 seconds. Return the dough to the bowl, cover and leave for 20 minutes, until it has risen slightly.
Wipe the worktop clean and dry it with a tea towel, then dust with flour. Divide the dough into eight equal pieces and shape into rounds. Place these in two rows of four, and just touching, on a baking tray lined with nonstick paper. Flour the tops, cover with a cloth and leave for about 45 minutes, until risen by half.
Meanwhile, heat the oven to 240C (220C fan-assisted)/465F/gas mark 9. Lightly flour the tops of the dough rounds again and bake for 20-25 minutes, until just coloured on top. Leave to cool, and tear apart to serve.

These look super, but haven't taste-tested them yet...  Now I have.  They're really hearty and wholemeal - excellent with salad.  Quite heavy, but not awfully so.

Fruit picking

One of my favourite things.  Went to Cider Hill Farm at Amesbury near Newburyport in N Mass.  Had screened quite thoroughly for ones that had blueberry and raspberry picking and didn't sound too kid-orientated / have too much going on.  It was exactly as we had hoped - quiet, laid back and pretty good picking.  It was early season, esp for the raspberries.  But we got what we wanted - about 2 punnets of each.  I'd never picked blueberries before (excepting happily stuffing my face with wild ones on Cape Cod last weekend), so was especially excited about those - seemed like an important American experience to take in.

I made some raspberry-cornmeal muffins with some of the raspberries, and both blueberries and raspberries are disappearing very quick straight into our mouths, just as they are.

Chard frittata

Similar story to the courgette flowers - S bought some chard from the farmers' market / I remembered a recipe I'd seen on ppk for chard frittata.  We came back from a morning swim at Walden Pond, feeling a bit peckish...

1 tablespoon olive oil
6 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 bunch of red chard, rough stems removed, chopped well (about 4 cups)
2 teaspoons dried oregano / used a mixture of fresh basil and dried thyme
1 pound firm or extra firm tofu
1 tablespoons tamari or soy sauce (use tamari if gluten free)
1 teaspoon wet mustard (dijon or yellow, whatever you got)
1/4 teaspoon tumeric
several dashes fresh black pepper
1/4 cup nutritional yeast flakes
salt to taste

Preheat oven to 400 F.
Preheat a large heavy bottomed pan over low-medium heat. Add the oil and the garlic and cook for about 3 minutes, stirring occasionally, until light amber in colour.
Add the chard, oregano and and turn the heat up to medium high. Saute for about 5 minutes, until chard is completely wilted.
While the chard is cooking, squeeze the tofu over the sink to remove a little of the water. Crumble and squeeze it in a large mixing bowl, until it has the consistency of ricotta cheese. Add the remaining ingredients to the tofu and mix well. When your chard is ready, mix it into the tofu. Taste for salt.
Lightly grease an 8 inch pie plate and firmly press in your frittata mixture. Bake for 20 minutes, until firm and lightly browned on top. Let cool for about 3 minutes, then invert onto a plate and serve.


It came out very tasty - the chard taste really shone through - but rather falling apart - more like a tofu scramble than a firm frittata.  It did turn out, and looked quite nice.  Perhaps because I used a Pyrex dish to cook it?  Or because it was quite a big bunch of chard?  Anyway, if I did it again I might not bother with the oven, and just add the tofu mix to the pan and heat that way.  It was my first use of nutritional yeast, which was another reason I fancied trying it - I bought some a while ago but it was weirding me out a little as I don't really know where it comes from.  Think it tasted quite good - bit cheesy, quite strong.

Fried courgette flowers / edamame pesto

Fried courgette flowers

S stopped by the farmers market on Thurs evening and bought some courgette flowers.  Seemed like the thing to do with them was batter and fry.  So I googled that.

8 fresh courgette flowers, wiped clean if need (but not wet)

50g plain flour
2 tbsp cornflour
~100ml ice cold water

veg oil for frying (plus a little olive oil for taste)

salt

Put the flours in a bowl over a bowl of iced water and mix together.  Add the iced water and mix to a pouring cream consistency (so that the stuff coats your finger).

Heat ~1cm oil in a small saucepan til it smokes.  Coat a courgette flower in batter and then put into hot oil.  Should go golden in a couple of minutes.  Flip if necessary.  Cook then all like this, cutting in half if large, and fishing out with a slotted spoon and moving to kitchen roll on a plate when done.  Sprinkle with sea salt and eat straight away.

They were very good.  The batter was not super crispy, especially the first ones - need to make sure it is not too thick and the oil is good and hot.


Edamame pesto

Saw this on ppk.  Went to Haymarket and bought a bunch of basil, thought a variant on pesto might be an idea.

2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 cup packed basil leaves
Handful (1/4 cup or so) fresh cilantro
14 oz package shelled edamame, thawed
1/2 cup vegetable broth
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 teaspoon salt

Blend all ingredients with a wand blender. Add a little more vegetable broth if it seems too stiff. Eat with spaghetti or bread or anything really.



It was good...  A cross between pesto and hummus.  Wonderfully green, and that didn't fade with keeping in the fridge like regular pesto.  S liked it because it didn't have so much oil in it.  I think it might be missing a bit of nuttiness - next experiment will be a mixture of basil, edamame, sunflower seeds and olive oil...

Papaya seed dressing with salad leaves

 

We had a papaya again for the first time since the many, many we ate in Hawaii.  This is something we ate there, and I thought we'd have it again...

Seeds from 1 papaya
Flesh from 1/4 papaya
juice from 1/2 a lime
pinch salt
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp maple syrup

Put the papaya seeds and flesh in a blender and grind til smooth.  Pour into a bowl.  Add the other ingredients and mix together, tweaking to taste.

We ate it with mixed baby salad leaves from the balcony pots.  The seeds have an exciting, peppery taste that reminds me of the nasturtiums we ate in the garden when we were little.

Soy+linseed bread / blackberry jam / summer fruit compote

Another exciting-looking bread recipe from the Guardian.  And several bags of blackberries in the freezer since last fall, needing to be used.

Soy and linseed bread

50g rolled oats
50g golden linseed
275ml lukewarm soya milk
1½ tsp easy-blend yeast
325g strong white bread flour
50g wholemeal or rye flour (used wholemeal)
1½ tsp fine salt
Olive or sunflower oil


Put the rolled oats and linseed in a large mixing bowl, stir in 100ml of boiling water and leave for 30 minutes to soften. Add the warm soya milk and yeast, and mix well. Measure out the two flours and the salt, add these to the soya mixture, then stir everything together into a big, soft and sticky dough. Cover and leave for 10 minutes, then knead on a lightly oiled worktop for about 10 seconds. Cover and leave for another 10 minutes. Repeat this knead-and-rest sequence twice more at 10-minute intervals, then leave covered for 30 minutes.

Brush the inside of a deep, 19cm long loaf tin or similar with oil. Roll out the dough into a rectangle about 2cm thick, roll it up tightly and squash it seam-side down into the tin. Cover with a cloth and leave somewhere warmish for about an hour and a half, until doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 220C (190C fan-assisted)/425F/gas mark 8, slash the top and bake for about 45 minutes. Take the tin out of the oven, remove the loaf from the tin, and leave to cool on a wire rack.


Blackberry jam

3lb blackberries
75ml water
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 cinnamon stick
3lb sugar



Wash and pick over the blackberries (can freeze at this point if desired).  Put the fruit in a big pan.  Add the water, lemon juice and cinnamon stick and boil until the fruit is softened and reduced (~30min at a good fast bubble).  Add the sugar and bring to a rolling boil.  Meanwhile, put a saucer in the freezer.  Wash jars in hot soapy water, rinse well and put in a low oven to dry.  When you think it's nearing set point put a dribble (~1/2 tsp) of hot jam onto the cold saucer and put it back in the freezer for 10min.  Take it out and push your finger through the jam puddle.  If it wrinkles up the jam has reached set point.  When this happens switch off the heat and let the jam stop bubbling / cool for 10 min or so.  Then fill the jars.  Be careful not to get hot jam on your hands.  Put the lids on right away and leave to cool.  When cool, wipe off the jars and label.

Notes:  The cinnamon was an experiment in making more interesting flavoured jam.  Will have to see if can taste it.  The lemon juice is not necessary if your berries are reasonably sour, but helps with set so I put some in.  It becomes a point of judgement how much lemon juice (if any) to add to achieve a good set, and I don't always get it right.  Based on recipes from my AFRC Institute of Food Research preserving book from Grandma.



Summer Fruit Compote

handful of each (all frozen): raspberries, black raspberries, mulberries, blackberries.  couple of handfuls blueberries, 150ml tub stewed unsweetened sour cherries.  sprinking (~25g?) sugar, 1 cinnamon stick, 1 bay leaf, few drops vanilla essence...

Put all in a pan and heat until all the fruit is defrosted.  Remove from the heat and allow to cool.

Or, Delia's recipe:

3 peaches
6 apricots
6 large plums
8 oz blueberries
6 oz raspberries
2 oz sugar

Slice peaches, apricots and plums and put in an oven dish with the blueberries.  Add sugar.  Bake uncovered for 25-30min at 180C, until tender.  Remove from the oven and stir in the raspberries.  Check the sweetness and add more sugar if it needs it.


The bread was good again - the crustiest one yet, and tasty but with relatively simple ingredients.  S said it was his favourite for those reasons.

The jam turned out well.  The blackberries held up well, and the set was pretty much perfect.  Haven't decided yet whether I can taste the cinnamon or not.  Made 5 and a bit jars.

Compote was good.  Think it is nice to have some bigger, juicier fruit in with the berries though.