Wing beans!

Wing beans - they're beans with.... errr wings.

I'd seen them before in Asian stores (they're used all the way from India to Vietnam & China) but not eaten them until recently....

...Green Papaya - a Vietnamese restaurant on Mare St (in Hackney) introduced them to me. I ate there with a few friends and the wing beans along with a crisp smoked tofu number were, unexpectedly, the most popular dishes on a well packed table.

I was doing some Asian food the other night and thought I'd do my own rendition of the dish. I wasn't certain what Green Papaya used i settled on dressing them with Chinese black rice vinegar, light soy, pinch of sugar and some roasted sesame oil and then scattering with toasted sesame seeds.

Very easy, but it came out how I'd hoped: crunchy interesting beans with sharp, salty, & slightly sweet sesame dressing.

See pic, which comes courtesy of professional snapper friend Wix (see www.jameswicksphoto.com), and basic recipe below...




Wing beans with black vinegar dressing:

Ingredients:

Two generous handfuls of winged beans, cut into 2cm pieces
Salt
A tablespoon of toasted sesame seeds

Dressing: 2 tablespoons of Chinese black vinegar, 2 tablespoons of light soy sauce, 1 teaspoon of toasted sesame oil, 1 teaspoon white sugar & 1 teaspoon water.

Method:

Blanch the beans in salted boiling water for 2- 3mins, drain and then briefly refresh under cold running water (just a few seconds - so the beans stay warm but don't continue to cook and loose their bright green colour).

Mix the dressing ingredients together, taste and adjust if needed, then toss the warm beans in the dressing and finish with sprinkled toasted sesame seeds.

Would go well alongside many Chinese style dishes e.g some ginger-spring onion-soy steamed fish thing, or a slow braised hot pot (i.e rather than with something like a coconut based curry).

More recipes v.soon.

Fresh pappardelle with slow roast tomatoes & pesto

A really simple one this, but is one of my fav pasta dishes and, while not exactly quick, it is easy, especially once you get (or if you are already) comfortable with making fresh pasta.

i've done a rough pesto here here but you could do pistou (no pinenuts or cheese) or even not bother and just scatter some basil leaves over the finished dish.

The secret to making this especially tasty is a) to make nice fresh pasta with good eggs and b) to buy good tomatoes and roast them nice n slow.

Fresh pappardelle with slow roast tomatoes & pesto












Ingredients (serves 2)

For the fresh pasta - this is basic recipe here but if you like it richer you can add more yolk than whole egg, just adjust the volume of egg / amount of flour accordingly to get the right consistency (soft but not sticky):

• 200g italian pasta flour (type 'OO')
• 2 large organic free range eggs
• dash of EV olive oil
  

For the slow roast tomatoes:

• best quality tomatoes - between 4 and 8, depending on the size
• a large clove of garlic
• some fresh thyme or dried oregano
• sea salt and fresh black pepper
• EV olive oil

For the pesto (use the below rough guide or whatever your fav recipe for pesto is):

• 1 bunch fresh basil, leaves picked (reserve a few leaves back for garnish)
  
• 1 large clove garlic
• 1 - 2 tablespoons of EV olive oil
• 1 tablespoon pine nuts
• 1 tablespoon grated parmesan
  

Method:

Make pasta dough - if you already know how to knock up some pappardelle then skip this:

• i almost always use a food processor for this for ease (and because most restaurants i've worked in do too), though if your processor is huge you might want to do by hand if your doing the smallish quantity above.
• Processor method basically = sieve flour in to processor bowl, add pinch salt and splash of oil, mix your eggs in bowl then tip in and pulse until well mixed (should form tiny balls), tip out on to work surface and push together to form ball of dough.
• Knead a little and cover with cling film and, ideally, rest for an hour (while you get your tomatoes and pesto done - see below).
• Roll out your pasta to the penultimate thickness on the machine, you can do this through any method you please but i think best results come from the folding and turning method (see guide by Giorgio here).
• Cut resulting sheet in to sections of pasta length (25cm or so, i guess) then cut these into wide strips - 4-5cm or so. You may need little flour or semolina to stop strips sticking to surface etc, but use only a very light dusting (otherwise you get gluey coating when cooked).

Tomatoes:

• Preheat oven to about 100 degrees C.
• Half your tomatoes (across the middle, not through the stalk end - see pic) and place cut side up on baking tray.
  
• Scatter with finely sliced garlic, thyme sprigs / pinch dried oregano, salt, pepper and then drizzle liberally with EV oil (option additions include few drops of good quality balsamic, few dried chilli flakes etc)
• Slow roast in oven for 1hr or even a bit longer.

Pesto:

• Reserve few basil leaves and then mash the rest with the other pesto ingredients - i like a pestle and mortar here, by all means use hand blender if you prefer.
• Season with salt and pepper to taste.

To finish:

• Cook the pasta for about 2mins in large pot of boiling salted water, drain and toss with splash of EV olive oil, now divide between two bowls.
  
• Place tomatoes around and finish with large helping of pesto, scatter over few reserved basil leaves and drizzle with touch more olive oil.

Hmmm... feel like i made a v.simple recipe sound quite complex there!

Basically boils down to: make nice pasta, cut into pappardelle, slow roast tomatoes, make your fav pesto, put all these together and eat!














N.B great varation on this might involve adding torn pieces of buffalo mozarella to the plate at the end, in which case i'd probably then remove the pesto and just go with plenty of fresh basil leaves.

Quick lunch - aubergine, courgette, tahini, yogurt salad thingy

Hmmm, all the recipes i seem to be blogging at the mo are of my thrown together lunches on days off from work! Will endeavor to get some more fancy (& some Nahm-inspired) stuff up here soon but, in meantime, here's another of said thrown together numbers...

Roast aubergine & courgette salad with tahini an yogurt dressing

Was in back garden when took this pic, would have looked nicer if sun had come out from behind cloud before i took, but was too hungry, so i ate it.

Ingredients (serves 2, but easy to double/ triple/quadruple for numbers):

• 1 medium aubergine
• 2 medium courgettes
• some natural yogurt - about 4 or 5 tablespoons
• a tablespoon or so of tahini
• some herbs - coriander & mint is an ideal combo here, oh and some thyme for the veggies if you have
• black onion seeds, and dried chilli flakes - optional, but desirable
  
• a long red mild chilli
• a lemon
• 3-4 cloves garlic
• olive oil
• a tomato or two

Rough method (vary as you please):

• preheat the oven to pretty hot (between 200 & 220 degrees C) chop you aubergine in to largish chunks (e.g one medium aubergine into 8 pieces or so), cut the courgettes slightly larger. Irregular shapes is good, but aim for roughly the same size.
• put them on a baking tray, smash 2 or 3 cloves of garlic up with pestle and mortar or blade of knife (leaving skin on is fine) and scatter over, season wit salt and pepper, drizzle with olive oil, oh and if you have them then throw some sprigs of thyme around & scatter over some dried chilli flakes.
• roast until nicely colored and cooked through - about 20-30 mins (give a shake half way through if you remember/ can be bothered).
• make dressing by mixing together yogurt, tahini, good squeeze or two of lemon juice, add salt n pepper a finely chopped/crushed clove of garlic and some chopped mint and/or coriander leaves. taste and adjust seasoning or lemon juice.
• quarter tomato and take seeds out, then roughly dice, finely chop the chilli and pick some mint &/or coriander leaves
  
• to serve take a platter or individual plates out the roasted veg on, spoon yogurt sauce over liberally, scatter with tomato, herbs, chopped chilli and then black onion seeds
• recommended with hot pittas alongside (and would go very well with some simple fish or grilled meat).
  

Off to work shortly, no more time off this wk for me!

Andy

Easy frittata

Here's a quick recipe which i sometimes cook because i've nothing in the fridge but a box of eggs and some half used herbs (add an onion, a few frozen peas from freezer and you've all you need).

Frittata with caramelised onions, peas, mint & parsley:


Ingredients (serves 2)

• 5-6 large good quality eggs
• 2 medium onions (red or white, as you prefer) or 1 large
• A large handful of frozen peas, defrosted
  
• A small handful of fresh mint & parsley leaves (but you could use basil, tarragon, chervil etc)
• Olive oil, and butter too if possible
• Parmesan (optional)
  

Method:

• Take a small frying pan and put it on a low heat, while it's warming up slice your onion
• Add a splash of oil and nob of butter to the pan throw in onions, season & cook for 10-15 mins until soft and just starting to color
• Meanwhile crack your eggs in to a bowl, give a quick forking, season and then roughly chop and mix in your herbs and then add your peas.
  
• When your onions are ready tip them into the egg mix bowl too and mix through one last time
• Put your frying pan back on a medium-low heat, add another small splash of oil and blob of butter (if you have) and tip in the egg mix, don't stir just make sure the heat is fairly low and leave it be to cook for about 5 or so mins.
  
• Preheat the grill and place a rack a 25cm or so below the heat
• Pan is ready to go under the grill when egg mix in the pan is set round the sides with pool of liquid eggyness left in middle.
• Add grating of parmesan if you have / like and place under grill until top just browns and sets, it should still be bit wobbly under the surface.
• Now turn out by placing plate over the pan and turning upside down.
  
• Cut into slices and serve (it should be set but nicely gooey towards the center).
  
• Goes well with bread and salad dressed with dijon, oil and vinegar.

S.E.Asian Aubergine tastiness

I absolutely love aubergine. Whether as melanzane parmigiano, baba ganoush, imam bayildi, aubergine bhajees...etc etc... it's a hot contender for my fav veggie.

Here's a v.tasty SEAsian (i think Burmese in origin) recipe which results in delicious rich velvety textured aubergine, countered by spring onion & fresh herbs with a deep flavoured sweet-spicy sauce to dip it all in. Is inspired by an Alistair Hendy recipe i read and roughly scribbled down down quite a while ago.

Top pics by my mate benbroomfield http://www.benbroomfield.com/

If you can get the long purple Japanese aubergines they're perfect here, but if not then the normal sort will also work fine.

Ingredients (serves 4):

• 3 japanese aub's or 2 large normal ones.
• plain (groundnut, peanut, sunflower) oil for deep frying
  
• 2 tbsp palm sugar (grated if the rock-hard type)
  
• 1-2 tbsp fish sauce (pref a good brand - Thai 'squid' brand is a decent option)
  
• 3 cloves garlic
• 2 tsp shrimp paste
• 3-4 chopped shallots (pref red ones)
• 3-4 bird eye chillies
• 3 large red chillies
  
• juice of 1.5 limes
• 2 tbsp dried shrimp (optional)
• 2-3 spring onions
• herbs small handful of picked leaves from any 2 of ..mint, coriander, thai basil, pak chee farang etc

Method:

• Toast shrimp paste - wrap in foil and toast in dry pan for 5 mins or so on med heat.
• Chop garlic, shallot, chillies roughly.
  
• Pound them all + toasted shrimp paste in a pestle and mortar (or, if not possible, then use hand blender, you might need touch of water to bind) until quite smooth.
• Take this paste and fry in tablespoon of oil until fragrant, about 2 mins.
• Now add palm sugar plus a tablespoon of water, bubble, then add fish sauce, bubble up then turn off the heat and squeeze in the lime juice and mix through.
• Taste for balance (more fish sauce / sugar?) and set aside.
• Finely slice spring onion at an angle, pick the herbs, grind / whizz up the dried shrimp (if using) in to a course powder.
• Now fry the aubergine - heat a 2 inch depth of oil in a wok or pan until hot (put oil in pan and leave on med-high heat for a good 5 mins, the aubergines should sizzle vigorously when u add).
• If using jap aub's then cut in to 3 inch lengths, if using normal cut them in half lengthwise then each half in to 4 quarters lengthwise.
• Fry the aubergines until soft and golden, drain well on kitchen roll.
• Place on a plate, scatter with the spring onions, herbs and ground shrimp (if using). Place a dipping bowl of sauce on the side.

N.B

if you dont want to deep fry you could brush with little oil and grill, or even roast in skins before peeling.

with rice and some stir fried pork with herbs (e.g holy basil) this would make a seriously yum meal.

Rojak

Rojak is a mad fruit n veg salad, with a real hot – sweet – sour – salty thing going on. It’s quite unusual and fun to make.

I’ve eaten it in different forms, with the least successful being the one I recently I tried @ C&R café, it was drowned in the sweet soy sauce called kecap manis and had tinned pineapple in the mix…a bit rank tbh (plus their satay was some of the worst I’ve tried), a shame as I’d been recommended that place as “the Tayyabs of Malay food”. Not so according to my visit! Below is the way I like rojak: pretty zingy and full of fresh fruit and veg, with no soy or kecap manis in sight.

In fact i think it's different styles of Rojak depending on where it's from - the sweet soy version is Malaysian, whereas the fruity fresher version comes from Indonesia. So looks like i'm with the islanders on this one (or perhaps i just need to try a good Malay one?).

Anyway!

You could eat it as part of a meal i.e at same time with other dishes (e.g soups, curries etc) as is the way people tend to eat in SE Asia, or as a super healthy light lunch (with some rice or noodles) / starter.

Ingredients (serves 4, roughly):

o A selection of fruit and veg, e.g as…green mango, ripe pineapple, granny smith apple, cucumber, chow chow, daikon….or even blanched sugar snap peas, fennel, carrots etc.
o 3-4 spring onions
o some roasted blanched peanuts – maybe 100g
o A small handful of fresh coriander & / or mint leaves

For the dressing:

o 1 tablespoon shrimp paste
o 2-3 fresh long red chillies
o 4cm piece of fresh ginger
o 1 tablespoon of tamarind pulp
o juice of a lime
o 2 tablespoons fish sauce
o 2-3 tablespoons caster sugar

Slice the fruit n veg in to a mixture of odd shapes, but make sure they are all sort of bite sized and quite thin is usual good for the really crunchy ones.

Wrap the shrimp paste in foil and toast in a dry pan on low heat / in 180 oven for about 10 mins.

De seed the chili and peel the ginger, chop them both quite small then pestle and mortar (or blend) them until a rough paste.

Add in the toasted shrimp paste and mash through / wiz bit more. Now mix through the lime juice, tamarind, fish sauce and sugar. Add a couple of tablespoons of water and mix it all nicely to make a dressing. Taste & set aside.

Tear any large herbs leaves roughly, leave the rest whole, finely slice the spring onions on an angle. Mix these with the rest of the salad ingredients, peanuts etc. Finally toss with ½ the dressing and divide between plates / put on a platter, finish by spooning over the rest of the sauce.

Andy