Greens 'n' beans patties

Here is another recipe from my sister. Green vegetables and beans, especially black-eyed beans or peas, are a classic combination from the Southern United States. The dish Hoppin’ John is a stew made of beans and greens that is supposed to bring good fortune in the coming year if eaten on New Year’s Day.  This recipe gives the ingredients an Italian spin with the addition of olives and herbs and they are made into patties instead of a stew. New Year may be two weeks past but that is no reason not to eat this medley of creamy beans, zesty herbs and olives, and hearty greens. 

Servings: 3 (about 6 patties each)

Ingredients

About 2-1/2 cups cooked black eyed beans

Two handfuls of finely chopped kale

1 teaspoon olive oil

2 cloves of garlic

1 onion, finely chopped

2 tablespoons parsley, finely chopped

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1 teaspoon dried rosemary

1 teaspoon dried mixed Italian herbs

10 green olives, finely chopped

Salt and black pepper to taste

Toasted bread, to serve (optional)

Method

1. Mash the beans until they reach a consistency like roughly mashed potatoes so that they can be formed into patties with your hands.

2. Heat the olive oil in a pan over medium heat and sauté the garlic and onion and add the dried herbs.

3. Add the kale and cook until kale is tender and add salt and pepper.

4. Add the parsley and olives and the mashed beans, combine well and take off the heat.

5. Heat a flat frying pan/skillet/griddle. Shape the mixture into approximately 18 round patties and cook 3-4 minutes on each side until browned. Serve hot on their own, or with bread and/or desired sauces or garnishes.

Carrot and coriander soup

I saw this recipe for carrot and coriander soup and liked the idea of flavouring using both fresh and dried coriander so I decided to try my own version of it. (The recipe also suggested serving the soup with cheese and onion bread, which inspired the shallot loaf that I posted yesterday). Stirring in a lot of of chopped coriander at the end makes the soup very fragrant without adding bitterness that can result if you cook and puree such a large amount of coriander along with the other vegetables. 

Servings: 3-4                        

Ingredients
1 onion, diced (use a red onion if possible for added pungency)
450g/1lb carrots, halved lengthwise and sliced (I used 5 medium carrots)
2 teaspoons coriander seeds
1 teaspoon olive oil
2 handfuls finely chopped fresh coriander 
Salt to taste

Bread to serve (optional; I served it with shallot cottage loaf)

Method
Heat oil in a pan over medium heat. Saute the onion for 5 mins. Add the coriander seeds and cook for another 2 minutes. Add the carrots, mix well to coat with the onion and coriander seeds and saute for 2-3 minutes. Pour in 2 cups/500 ml water, increase the heat and bring to boil. Lower the heat, cover and simmer for 10 minutes until carrots are soft. Blend to a smooth puree. Mix with 1/2 cup/125 ml water. Reheat the soup in pan till it begins to simmer. Stir in the chopped coriander and salt to taste. Cook for 1-2 minutes longer, then take off the heat and serve with bread if desired.

Zesty shallot cottage loaf

A hearty loaf piquant with browned shallots and spices. A cottage loaf is a traditional English bread consisting a ball of dough stacked on top of another, with a hole in the middle. In this recipe a 'starter' batter is prepared the night before and allowed to ferment overnight. It is then added to the other dough ingredients and makes the bread springy and slightly tangy. Although this recipe includes yeast, sourdough breads can be made that are leavened entirely by airborne yeasts incorporated into the fermented starter. I hope to post such a recipe sometime soon. I will also post a recipe tomorrow for a soup with which you could eat the bread.

Makes: 1 loaf

Ingredients1-1/2 cups wholewheat flour
1 teaspoon dried yeast
2 teaspoons whole-grain mustard
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 - 1 cup/125-250 ml water 
1 teaspoon olive oil
8 shallots, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

For the starter:
3/4 cups wholewheat flour
4 tablespoons yoghurt
1 cup/250 ml water

Method
The night before the day you intend to make the bread, mix together the ingredients for the starter into a thick batter, cover and allow to ferment overnight. The following day, mix the flour, yeast, paprika, salt and sugar in a large bowl. Tip the starter batter into bowl along with the mustard. Incorporate as much of the flour mix into the starter as possible, with your hands or a wooden spoon, then add the water 1/4 cup/60 ml at a time until the mixture forms a soft but kneadable dough (the amount of water you need will vary, depending on the your flour, the starter and the weather).

Knead the dough for 6-8 minutes on a lightly floured surface until smooth and elastic. Place on a board or other suitable surface and cover with an upturned bowl or place in a bowl and cover, and set aside to rise for about 1 hour until roughly doubled in size.

In the meantime, heat the oil in a pan over a medium heat and saute the sliced shallots for 6-8 minutes until they are soft and browned. Stir in the black pepper. Once the dough is risen, knead it well on a floured surface to remove trapped air bubbles. Then flatten it out to a large circle and scatter over the cooked shallots and black pepper, leaving some space around the edges. Bring the sides of the dough over the shallots and fold them down, completing covering the shallots. Knead for a few minutes to fully incorporate the shallots and pepper into the dough.

Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F. Grease a small baking tray. Cut off a piece approximately one-third of the size of the dough. Roll both the large and small pieces of the dough into balls. Place the small ball on top of the large one and press down lightly, without flattening the balls too much. Dip your thumb into some flour so that it is generously coated with flour and push it down the top centre of small ball making a hole almost all the way to the bottom of the large ball. You may have to repeat the process of flouring your thumb and pushing down to make a deep enough hole.

Carefully transfer the loaf to the baking tray and cover with an upturned bowl or plastic cling wrap. Set aside to rise for about 45 minutes until approximately doubled in size. With a sharp knife make about 8 cuts (not more than 1 cm/0.4 inches deep) from the centre to the edge around the top of the loaf, as shown in the photograph. Bake for 40-45 minutes until the crust is brown, hard and dry. The loaf should also sound hollow when tapped at the base. Allow to cool for at least 30 minutes. 

The bread can be quite hot inside while still being cool to the touch. A better way to gauge its temperature is to feel with your wrist or back of your hand. For best results, the crumb should be fairly cool before slicing so that the crumb is dry and does not stick or clump together too much when slicing. Serve at least some of the bread on the day of baking if possible but the remainder can be stored for a few days, well covered to ensure it does not dry and harden.

Sticky toffee cake

Inspired by a classic British recipe, sticky toffee pudding but not quite as rich or sweet. The sweetness in this cake comes in bursts from bits of dates scattered throughout. It is flavoured with sweet spices and has a dark, dense, moist crumb. I have used gluten-free flours in the cake as these give a softer texture in low-fat recipes.

Makes: 1 small cake

Ingredients
1/2 cup sorghum/jowar flour
1/2  cup rolled oats/oatmeal (ensure it is certified gluten-free if making it for a  special diet)
1 teaspoon cinnamon powder
1 teaspoon ginger powder
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda/baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
4-6 tablespoons yoghurt (I used soya yoghurt)
1-1/2 tablespoons black treacle, molasses or golden syrup
2 tablespoons brown sugar
5 tablespoons finely chopped dates
1-1/2 tablespoons nut butter (any except for peanut butter) or 1-1/2 tablespoons chopped almonds or cashew nuts

Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Grease a cake tin, 14 cm/5.5 inches wide. Place the flour, spices, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda in a mixing bowl. Grind the oats (and the chopped nuts, if using) to a powder in a blender/food processor/ coffee grinder. Add to the mixing bowl. If using nut butter, add it to bowl and rub it between your fingers with the other ingredients to incorporate it, until the mixture resemble a coarse powder, like bread crumbs. If you are not using nut butter, simply blend all the dry ingredients with a spoon or whisk until well combined.

In a pan, place the sugar, chopped dates and treacle, molasses or golden syrup, along with 1/2 cup/125ml water. Heat over a medium until the treacle has melted and the sugar is dissolved. Allow the mixture to simmer for 2-3 minutes. Add it other dry ingredients along with 4 tablespoons of the yoghurt and mix well. The batter should be fairly thick but easy to spoon into a cake tin. If is too stiff, mix in an additional 1-2 tablespoons of yoghurt. Tip the mixture into the greased cake tin with the help of a spoon. Bake for 20-25 minutes until a knife or skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out dry and clean. As it is quite sticky there may be crumbs on the skew but there should be no wet batter. 

Leave the cake in the tin to cool to room temperature, then turn out the cake onto a plate by sliding a knife around the sides and tapping the base of the tin, taking care not to break the cake as it is quite crumbly. To serve, carefully cut the cake into chunks or slices, using a serrated knife if possible reduce crumbling.

Tomato and shallot noodle soup

A simple soup, lightly seasoned with Indian spices that is a meal in itself. Sautéed shallots add sweetness and pungency to the broth but if unavailable substitute with onion (about 1 large onion, thinly sliced, would be sufficient)

Servings: 2

Ingredients

300g/12 oz tomatoes, roughly chopped

100/ 4 oz rice noodles (see note)

12 shallots, sliced

1 green chilli, sliced

1 teaspoon chopped ginger

1/2 teaspoon chopped turmeric root or 1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder

a large pinch of cumin seeds

1/2 teaspoon oil

Salt and black pepper to taste

Method

Heat the oil over medium heat in a pan. Add the shallots, chilli and ginger and sauté for about 5 minutes until the shallots are softened. Add the cumin seeds and turmeric and cook for a minute. Add the tomatoes and cook for 5 minutes until the tomatoes are soft and juicy. Puree the mixture until smooth, in a blender/food processor. Prepare the broth by returning the puree to the pan and mixing 1 ½ cups/375 ml water. Heat the broth until it begins to simmer. Add the noodles and simmer for about 3 minutes or until the noodles are cooked. Season to taste with salt. Serve hot sprinkled with freshly ground black pepper.

NOTE: If you don’t have rice noodles or any other noodles that cook within about 3 minutes, use the same amount of noodles but cook them separately. Mix only 1 cup/250 ml of water with the vegetable puree, add the cooked noodles and simmer for 1-2 minutes until the broth and noodles are hot.

Pittza

My sister created this recipe with pitta bread as a base for a quick but authentic-tasting version of pizza. Amounts for the ingredients are not given nor is serving size since it is a very flexible recipe that you can adapt and scale based on taste and availability.

 

Ingredients

Pitta Breads

Tomato puree

Tomatoes

Red onion

Orange pepper

Garlic

Dried mixed herbs

Black pepper

Salt

Chilli flakes or sauce (optional)

Method

Preheat the oven to 200ᵒC/400ᵒF. Toast the Pitta breads in the oven for 5 minutes. While they are toasting, slice the tomato, and onion into very thin rings and the pepper into thin strips. Chop the garlic finely. Remove the pittas from the oven, spread thickly with tomato puree (add a few drops of chilli sauce for extra heat if required). Sprinkle over the chopped garlic and mixed herbs, and layer the sliced vegetables on top. Return to the oven for 5-10 minutes, until the vegetables are cooked and starting to brown at the edges. Sprinkle with more mixed herbs, a small pinch of salt, and chilli flakes or chilli sauce if desired.

Carrot cake muffins

Carrots add moisture and sweetness to these lightly-spiced muffins which have a soft, fluffy crumb with hints of chewy coconut and juicy chunks of pineapple.

 Makes: 9 muffins

Ingredients

1/4 cup sorghum/jowar flour

1/4 cup rice flour

1/4 cup rolled oats or oatmeal (use certified gluten-free oats if making it for a special diet)

1/4 cup brown sugar (I used demarara sugar; if using unsweetened milk add an extra teaspoon of sugar)

3 tablespoons fine dessicated coconut

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ginger

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda/ baking soda

1 cup coarsely grated carrot (grate just prior to ensure it is crisp)

1/3 cup finely chopped fresh or canned pineapple

3/4 cup milk (I used non-dairy hazelnut milk)

 Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Grease 9 holes of a cupcake tin (for making small cupcakes not giant muffins; about 5 cm/ 2 inches diameter at the top) or line with greased paper cases. Grind the rolled oats or oatmeal with the cloves to a powder. Place the sorghum and rice flours in a bowl and add the ground oats, coconut, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, bicarbonate of soda and baking powder. Mix with a spoon or whisk until the ingredients are well-combined. 

Add the pineapple, carrot (freshly grated) and the milk and mix until all the dry ingredients are incorporated. Divide the muffin batter evenly between the holes of the tin. Bake for 25-30 minutes until risen and golden and a skewer or knife inserted in the muffin comes out clean (it might be slightly sticky from the pineapple but there should be no wet batter). Allow to cool for 3-5 minutes until you can handle them comfortably. Cool the muffins further or serve hot.