Fasolakia, Greek Green Bean & Potato Stew

Fasolakia is such a simple, wholesome plant based dish, ideal to use up surplus green beans.  It can be made without potatoes if preferred - just double the beans. 

The traditional Greek recipes I looked at all cooked the potatoes and beans for 40 minutes, but my homegrown potatoes would have dissolved after much more than 10 minutes cooking, and a prefer a slight crunch to my beans.

Serves 2-3 as main dish

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 large onion, peeled and finely chopped

3 garlic cloves, peeled & crushed

1 tin chopped tomatoes

500g salad potatoes, halved lengthways

250g green beans, topped & tailed and cut in half

In a wide saucepan, fry the onions over a medium heat until they start go a slight golden colour. Stir in the garlic, then the chopped tomatoes, half a can of recently boiled water, and the potatoes. Scatter the beans over the top.  Bring to the boil, then cover with a lid and simmer for 10 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender when poked with a fork.

Serve with crusty bread.  Fasolakia can be sprinkled with feta, or served as a side to sausages, or simply cooked meat, chicken, or fish.

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Soupe de Haricots Verts (Green Bean Soup)

I did more research for the French regional self catering/simple/camping cookery book I am trying to write during my holiday in France.

The discovery of a recipe from the Lorraine region (now part of Grand Est) for Green Bean Soup was a find, as I picked 3 kg on my return home to the UK.

This is a simple but hearty stew like soup, with a good green bean flavour.

Makes 4 big bowls

1 onion, peeled and diced 
500g French beans, trimmed and sliced in rounds as finally as you can manage
500g potatoes, diced
1 garlic clove, peeled and crushed.
1 tbsp olive oil 
1 litre recently boiled water
2 chicken or vegetable stock cubes 

In a saucepan, fry the onion gently in the olive oil over a medium heat whilst you chopped the vegetables.

Add the potatoes to the pan as you chop them, followed by the green beans, and the garlic. Stir every now and then, as the potatoes will start to stick to the bottom of the pan.

Once everything is chopped and in the pan, add the crumbled stock cubes and hot water.

Cover and bring to the boil. Stir to check no potato is stuck to the bottom of the pan, then replace the lid and simmer for 20-30 minutes, until the potatoes are soft enough to crush with the back of a wooden spoon or a potato masher.

Serve with a drizzle of olive oil, or a spoonful of double cream, or crème fraîche.

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Whole Vegetable or Wet Brine Fermentation

After the success of my Red Cabbage Sauerkraut aka Red Cabbage Coleslaw Sauerkrat, I thought I'd try fermenting my Piccalilli ingredients ie cauliflower and green beans using the @ZOE fermentation guide

Whole vegetables, or vegetables that contain less water, require a wet brine to ensure they are submerged below the brine and kept away from airborne bacteria.

Makes a large 2L  jar

1 cauliflower

200g green beans

Salt

Water

Break the cauliflower into bite sized pieces. Top and tail the beans and cut in half. 

Mix the cauliflower and beans in a large mixing bowl. Place the jar onto digital scales, zero them, and weigh in the mixed vegetables plus the water required to cover them.

Note down the total weight of the vegetables and water. 2% of this weight is the required amount of salt.

Weigh the required amount of salt into the mixing bowl, then with your hand over the mouth of the jar to stop the vegetables falling out, pour the water into the mixing bowl. Stir the water until the salt has dissolved and then pour back over the vegetables in the jar.

Use a pickle weight or smaller water filled jar to ensure the vegetables are covered by the brine, and put the lid on if you can. Leave to one side on the kitchen counter.

In a few days the odd bubble will rise up the side of the jar.  Burp the jars daily, or leave the lid on loosely. Mine is in a cheap preserving jar and seems not to seal properly, so I have had to stand it on something to collect the overflowing brine caused by fermentation, but I do not have to burp it.

Zoe Nutrition recommend waiting at least 2 weeks before starting to eat your fermented vegetables. After 2 weeks, the jar can be put into the fridge to slow down the fermentation.  However, you can always leave it out at room temperature to continue fermenting until it is all eaten. Mine is about 5 days old.  I tasted it a few days in, as soon as it started to ferment/overflow.  The cauliflower has a slight garlic taste, even though there is no garlic in the jar.  The beans seem a little tough. 

Already, I am planning my next fermenting combination; red cabbage & grated beetroot, and cauliflower & crinkle cut baby beetroot which should be an interesting colour.

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Tinned Tuna or Salmon Kedgeree

Tuna Kedgeree is a great quick budget store cupboard meal.

I used to make kedgeree with smoked haddock, but the kids found one bone too many and took against it. 

Discovering a recipe for Smoked Salmon Kedgeree got me thinking whether tinned tuna Kedgeree might be a possible alternative.  Turns out there are several recipes on the web, and is very similar to a Frankfurter (or Tuna) & Sweet Corn Risotto taught to me by my first boyfriend's mother, fearing we young students were going to starve when left to housesit for a week.

Serves 4 

4 medium free-range eggs

2 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, finely sliced

1 tsp medium/hot curry powder 

1 tsp garam masala (optional)

300g basmati rice

1 mug frozen peas, or sweet corn of a combination of both (I used half sweetcorn, half homegrown sliced runner beans)

2 x 160g tinned tuna or salmon

600ml recently boiled water

In a large saucepan with a lid, gently fry the onion in the oil for 10 minutes until soft. Stir in the spices and fry for a couple of minutes, then stir in the rice and vegetables.

Pour in the hot water, season well, place the eggs in their shells on top of the rice, then cover the pan, bring to the boil, then turn down to a very low heat and  cook for 10 minutes until all the water has been absorbed and the rice is cooked.

When the rice is cooked, turn off the heat, remove the eggs. Fluff the rice with a fork and stir in the tuna.Replace the lid whilst you cool the eggs under cold running water, then peel and quarter.  Serve the kedgeree with a quartered hard-boiled egg per plate.

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Pasta e Fagioli, Veg Rich Pasta & Beans

Once a poor man’s meal, padding out a meagre bean harvest with pasta, Pasta e Fagioli is now an Italian comfort food with lots of regional and household variations.

At its simplest it is just pasta and beans, with meat and/or vegetables if available. I make it like I make Minestrone, but with more pasta and less tomato.  I use ham or bacon in my Minestrone, but ingredients can simply be left out or swapped to make a vegetarian or vegan meal.

Serves 4

1 onion, peeled and finely diced

1 large garlic clove, peeled and crushed

1/2 tsp chill flakes

1 tbsp olive oil

500g diced vegetables, including 1 stick of celery and 1 carrot. I topped up with homegrown courgette as I like to add something green. You could add cabbage, kale, leek, peas, green beans, fennel, sweet potato, potato... There are no set ingredients!

100g smoked ham/bacon (optional)

400g tin borlotti, pinto, or cannellini beans

200g macaroni 

1 litre chicken or vegetable stock 

1 medium tomato, finely diced

50g parmesan, or extra mature cheddar in our house

Fry the onion, garlic and chilli gently in a pan big enough to take a litre of stock + veg.

When the onion is translucent and soft, add the diced vegetables, cover and fry/soften for 5-10 minutes checking from time to time that they are not catching on the bottom of the pan.

When the vegetables are beginning to look soft and slightly brown, add the meat if using. Stir the meat around for a minute or so then add the stock, pasta, and beans including any liquid from the can. 

Bring the stock to the boil then turn down to a simmer, cover, and cook for 20-25 minutes until the pasta is  soft (it takes longer in stock than it says on the packet). Whilst waiting, finely chop the tomato and mix in the grated cheese. I blitzed the tomato in a mini food processor as I have a child who does not like discernible bits of tomato.

When the pasta is soft, turn off the heat, stir though the tomato and cheese mixture, cover and leave standing for 5 minutes for the pasta to absorb a little more of the stock and cool a little. 

Serve, with extra cheese and chilli oil if desired.

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Vegan, Vegetarian, or Meat Jalfrezi Curry

I generally cook vegetarian curries, having enjoyed these in Rajasthan many years ago, and having a part time vegetarian son. But the vegetables could be easily switched for meat, or half meat half vegetables...

Serves 4

4 tbsp coconut or vegetable oil 

1 tbsp mustard seeds

1 tbsp cumin seeds

1 tbsp ground coriander

1 tsp turmeric


1/2-1 tsp chilli flakes


4 cloves garlic – smashed and finely chopped


1 inch piece of ginger – grated


1 large onion, finely sliced


1 carrot cut into 2mm thick pieces


1 green pepper cut into strips


700g vegetables and/or meat (chickpeas, sweet potato, cauliflower, beans, diced chicken, diced lamb)

1 can chopped tomatoes

1 bunch coriander leaves finely chopped


1 tbsp garam masala


Juice of 1 limes
s

1 tsp salt

Heat the oiI in a large pan. When hot add the mustard and cumin seeds. When they begin to pop, add the ground coriander, turmeric and chilli powder and sizzle for about 20 seconds. Add the onion and fry for about 2 minutes until slightly browned. Add the garlic, ginger, carrots,  green pepper and stir fry for about 2 more minutes.

Add your vegetable and/or meat.  Stir around in the spiced onions then add the chopped tomatoes and a can of recently boiled water to just cover the vegetables/meat. Jalfrezi is typically a 'dry' curry without much sauce, but I personally like a curry with a bit of sauce, and also think you enough to cook the meat or vegetables.

Add the rest of the ingredients, bring to the boil then simmer gently with a lid on for 30 minutes whilst you cook some basmati rice.

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Thai Green Fish Curry & Beans

The kids requested Thai Minced Pork & Green Beans but my friendly local butcher did not have any minced pork today, so I had to resort to Plan A which was a fish green curry.

The kids moaned and moaned about the inclusion of fish, but were forced to admit that it really wasn't that bad.

Serves 4

4 fillets of frozen white fish
1 handful green beans, cut into 1.5cm lengths
1 can of coconut milk
1 clove of garlic, peeled and crushed
1/2 tsp green Thai curry paste (made weak for kids)
5 kaffir lime leaves, shredded
2 tbsp fish sauce
1 tsp sunflower oil

Gently fry the curry paste and garlic in the oil for a few minutes.  Add the remaining ingredients and bring to the boil.  Once boiling then turn down to a simmer for 10 minutes, or the fish is cooked and breaks into small pieces.

Serve over Thai rice.

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Thai Minced Pork & Green Beans

I first had this dish in a student flat in Edinburgh in 1989.  My brother's then girlfriend's friend had returned from several months in Phuket studying the geology, much to the envy of her other geology student friend's trip to the mud flats of Aberdeen.

She did write the recipe down for me, but nearly 30 years and several house moves later, I can no longer find it.  It had an obscene amount of birds eye chillis and garlic in, but over time and with kids to feed I this been dumbed down a bit.  This is my most recent take/recollection.  My kids love it so much, my 12 year old has added it to her birthday food list.

Serves 4

1 tbsp sunflower oil
500g minced pork
500g green beans, cut into 1cm lengths
1 large garlic clove, peeled and crushed
1/8-1/4 tsp very hot chilli flakes
5 kaffir lime leaves, shredded (or the zest of a small lime)
450ml boiling water
1 chicken stock cube, crumbled
2 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp cornflour

Heat the oil a large saucepan or sauté pan and stir fry the minced pork, breaking up any large lumps.

Add the beans, garlic, and chilli.  Stir fry for another minute then add all the other ingredients apart from the cornflour.  Cover and simmer for 5-10 minutes depending on how much crunch you like your beans to have.

When the beans are to your liking, add a little water to the cornflour to make it the consistency of single cream and pour into the pork and beans.  Stir over a high heat until the sauce has thickened slightly.

Serve with Thai or basmati rice.

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Vegan Fennel, Kale & Bean Paella

Presenting the kids with a paella, and a vegan one to boot, was probably two steps too far.  Maybe it was too soon after Dad's paella made in the South of France a few weeks ago, which was too heavily spiced for them, and the novelty of vegan week has worn off.  Not that there was any from them when it began 7 days ago.  Even Dad suggested glossing over the 'P' and 'V' word.  But the adults in this household thought it was a success.

Serves 4
1 tbsp olive oil
1 small fennel bulb, diced
1 onion,  peeled & diced
1 large garlic clove, peeled & crushed
1 red pepper, diced or liquidised
300g paella rice
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp sweet paprika
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tbsp tomato paste
2 big handful shredded kale, chard, or spinach
1 handful runner beans, sliced
1 vegetable stock cube, crumbled

Fry the fennel in the olive oil in a large saucepan or sauté pan, and leave to caramelise/brown whilst you chop the onion and garlic, adding these to the pan when chopped.

When browned add red pepper and stir around for a minute or two, then stir in the rice, spices and tomato paste.  Dissolve the stock cube in 600ml recently boiled water and add this with the remaining veg to the pan.  Stir everything in well and bring the boil then turn down to a simmer and leave without stirring for 10 minutes.  After this cover and turn off the heat, leaving to rest for 10 minutes.

I did think of serving it with 'C's of red pepper or caramelised fennel arranged on the top, but a garnish is a waste of time with my kids, and a warning of what other dreaded vegetables they might lurk within.  Despite it all, this will be served again.

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Piccalilli (Hot Mustard Bean, Cauliflower & Courgette Pickle)

Been meaning to try this recipe for quite a while.  Some friends made it last year and it was delicious.

I've followed the Hairy Biker's Hot Mustard Pickle recipe to the letter.  Yes, it does seem a lot of salt but I have to say I can't taste it in the remnants in the pan.  And maybe do not cook the vegetables so long? My cauliflower has lost it's crunch. But there is another month before I am supposed try it.

250g green beans, sliced into 1cm pieces
500g cauliflower, cut into 1cm cubes
250g courgette, cut into 1cm cubes
100g fine sea salt
3 onions, finely chopped
300ml malt vinegar
300ml white wine vinegar (I only used malt vinegar)
1 heaped tbsp English mustard powder powder
1 heaped tbsp ground turmeric
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp dried chilli flakes
25g cornflour
250g sugar

Mix the salt thoroughly into the beans, cauliflower, and courgette in a non metallic bowl, cover, and leave for 24 hours. After 24 hours, rinse the vegetables thoroughly in several changes of water.

Simmer the onions in the malt vinegar for 15 minutes whilst you mix the dried spices and cornflour into 5tbsp of the remaining 300ml of vinegar.  Add the sugar and left over vinegar to the pan with the onions, and the drained vegetables.  Simmer for 10 minutes (I might try 5 minutes next time).

Add the spice paste and stir through until it thickens.  Here the Hairy Bikers cook the vegetables for a further 10 minutes, but I would take the pickle of the heat once the sauce has thickened and bottle it straight away.  After all, the heat of the sauce will continue cooking the vegetables for a while longer anyway.

Seal in sterilised jars and leave for a month before using.  I, however, had a little bit leftover from my 5 jars made at the weekend and used it in a ham sandwich yesterday.  It was fantastic!

Post Script: A quick google has turned up River Cottage's Pam Corbin's recipe for Piccalilli.  I note she does not cook the vegetables at all, but instead just stirs them into the hot sauce.  Next time...

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French or Runner Beans with Garlic Butter

This is just what it sounds, and is the only way my kids eat green beans.  So much so they were trying to steal them off my plate last night.  In fact this is always so successful I am wondering now whether it will work with broad beans...


Steam your beans for 5-10 minutes. Crush or finely grate over a small garlic bulb and stir in a knob of butter, mixing the beans, garlic, & melting butter through.

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Madhur Jaffrey’s Green Bean Curry

A glut of green beans, even though I didn’t manage to grow any of my own this year, together with the decision to have a curry night this week had me googling bean curry.  But in the end the recipe I chose was from my mother’s 1987 edition of Madhur Jaffrey’s ‘An Invitation to Indian Cookery, first published in 1976.

There were several recipes for beans (Green Beans with Ginger and Green Beans with Mustard) in this book, but I settled on ‘Green Beans with Onion Paste’ as I wanted a curry with more of a sauce.

1 1/2 pounds fresh green beans (I used 500g and this was plenty)
1 medium-sized onion, peeled and coarsely chopped
3 cloves garlic, peeled and coarsely chopped
A piece of fresh ginger, about 1 inch square, coarsely chopped
1 medium-sized canned tomato, coarsely chopped (I used a tin of chopped tomatoes)
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
10 tablespoons vegetable oil (Err, used about 2 tbps)
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon whole cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon whole black mustard seeds (I couldn't find any so used onion seeds)
Optional - 1 or 2 whole dried red peppers OR 1/2 hot fresh green chili sliced in half OR 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (I used 1/2 tsp hot chilli flakes)
1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
2 teaspoons lemon juice (I did not add any, yet the curry had a surprisingly light lemony taste?!)

Slice the beans into 1cm thick slices.

Peel and roughly chop the onion, garlic, ginger, and turmeric and blend together with the tomatoes to a smooth paste. 

Here Madhur Jaffrey’s recipe fries the onion paste and beans separately, frying the paste in 6 tbsp of oil for 5 minutes adding 1 tbsp of water at a time if it starts to stick and then adding the ground coriander and cumin.  She then fries the cumin and mustard seeds in the remaining oil until they pop then adds the beans and onion paste from the other pan together with the remaining ingredients to taste.

Having cooked all day, I could not be bothered with two pans and opted for a one pan option, choosing to fry the green beans as above with the cumin and what turned out to be black onion seeds, and then poured over the paste and added the other ingredients.  I also added a can full of recently boiled water to make more sauce. 

I simmered the sauce for about 20 minutes.  Madhur Jaffrey’s recipe, however, says 35 minutes, saying “In India we tend to overcook [green beans]…mainly to kill germs and because we love spices.  We like our spices to permeate a vegetable and this cannot happen unless a vegetable is allowed to become fairly tender.  When you finish this recipe, your beans with not look bright green, nor will they be very crisp.  They will be a brownish dark-green, smothered in spices, and utterly delicious.’

Sweet Runner Bean Pickle

My partner returned from rugby training last week with a carrier bag full of runner beans, 1.5kg/3lb to be exact. One of the players works on a country estate where they are cooked lunches by a chef (very nice too) and was given these 'leftover' beans by the chef. OH seemed not to know that the only thing I have managed to grow in the veg patch this year is runner beans.

A straw poll of the old dears at the WI inspired Country Market simply resulted in Runner Bean Chutney.  I googled it and turned up several recipes but they all seem to boil down (pardon the pun) to the same thing, so I largely followed Delia's recipe for Spiced Pickled Runner Beans in the hope that hers has been tried and tested.

The time of writing it is approximately 5 hours since bottling this pickle and it is not supposed to be eaten for another 4 to 6 weeks.  So I do not know how well it will work out, but I am hopeful.  My  only criticism so far is that it does not taste very mustardy and I had quite a lot of sauce left over after bottling but I found a home for that as a ketchup substitute in today's stir fry.  And as the stir fry seemed very successful I will be freezing the remainder for another stir fry another day.

Ingredients

900g runner beans (after trimming & slicing)
700g onions, chopped
850ml malt vinegar
4 tbsp cornflour
1.5 tbsp mustard powder
1 tbsp turmeric
700g brown sugar

Makes about six 0.5 litre jars (To sterilise the jars, wash them thoroughly in warm soapy water, rinse and heat in a moderate oven for 5 minutes).

In your largest saucepan, simmer the onions with 275ml of the vinegar for 20 minutes until the onions are soft.  Meanwhile boil the sliced beans in salted water for 5 minutes, then strain and add the beans to the onions.

In a small bowl mix the cornflour, mustard and turmeric with a little of the remaining vinegar – enough to make a smooth paste – then add this paste to the onion mixture.

Pour in the rest of the vinegar and simmer everything for 10 minutes. After that stir in the sugar until  dissolved and continue to simmer for a further 15 minutes.

Pot the pickle in warmed, sterilised jars, and seal and label when cold.

Keep for 4-6 weeks before eating.

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