Quick French Bean salad

This is a quick post for a quick dish. 

Recently, I had marinaded some lamb using a cheat's packet of Turkish marinade. It was a pack of 'Izgara Harci' from the Turkish Food Centre in Catford. I needed a simple and speedy accompaniment. This was what I came up with. It is very Mediterranean, and Him Indoors and I really enjoyed it. It is informal, and I am sure you can increase or decrease any of the ingredients as you see fit. Him Indoors doesn't like a lot of salad leaf, but if you do, you could add a couple more handfuls with impunity.

Snig's Quick French Bean Salad

Serves 2 as a side dish.

Ingredients:

Salad:

75-100g french beans, topped (or topped and tailed, whichever you prefer)

2 handfuls of seasonal salad leaf, torn (but not iceberg lettuce, please)

1 small-medium red onion, halved and sliced into thin half moons

Dressing:

1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Optional:

Sprinkle of chopped flat leaf parsley (about 1 tbsp) - either as a salad ingredient or topping

Equipment:

Clean jam jar

Method:

Par boil the beans by putting in boiling water for 2-3 minutes. Drain and rinse in cold water to arrest the cooking process. Ensure the beans are cold and that you have drained as much water as possible.

Put the dressing ingredients in a jar and shake vigourously to combine.

Put beans, onion and leaf into a non-metallic bowl. I added the parsley at this stage, but you could use as a topping.

Give the dressing one last shake. Pour over the salad. Toss to mix completely.

Serve and enjoy!

Spanish Chorizo Stew with Butter Beans and Chick Peas (Slow Cooker or Oven)

The days are getting colder and shorter. Summer is truly over. All dreams and fantasies we may have had for an 'Indian Summer' ended when we had to tear off the calendar page for September and stare October squarely in the face. As a result, thoughts start to turn to Autumnal food; typically for me, hot food which is warming and filling. 

So on a particularly grey and wet London day, I wanted to recall the heat and sunshine of Spain. I decided to pull the slow cooker out of its Summer semi-retirement and enlist it into action. Slow cookers are versatile, inexpensive to buy and cheap to run. You can put them on first thing in the morning and be greeted to a cooked meal when you get in, tired and exhausted at the end of the day. All it demands in return is a small amount of effort in preparation and set-up first thing in the morning. They are very popular in the USA where they are often called by their most famous brand name, 'Crockpot'. However, they appear to be less commonplace in the UK, which is a shame given that you can now get controllable models with more than one temperature setting, offering greater versatility than when I acquired my trusty Morphy Richards racing green model.

If you don't have a slow cooker, you could use a flameproof casserole dish (such as the French cast iron style ones). You will have to put the oven on, and the cooking time will be far less. I would guess at a temperature of 180°C, gas mark 4, and instead of putting on the slow cooker base, cook in the oven with the lid on for about an hour and a half to 2 hours (but don't quote me on this, since I didn't test it). Or if your slow cooker does not have a removable heatproof pan like mine, you may have to start the early cooking stages in a saucepan or frying pan on the hob. 

Your beans need to be soaked for at least 7 hours before you try making this recipe. Unless you have a pressure cooker! Or you could use a tin of chick peas and a tin of butter beans. I use tins for convenience fairly often, but the taste and texture of pulses is, to my palate, a little more satisfying if done yourself by soaking then boiling. But do whatever you have the time to do, because remembering to do the soaking and then having the time to do the boiling in the morning is quite a big ask. Especially if you have to make it into work at a sensible time! I made this on my 'preparation day' when I was preparing my civil litigation class at home. 

Spanish Chorizo Stew with Butter Beans and Chick Peas

Serves 4

Ingredients:

150g Butter beans, soaked overnight in a non-metallic bowl

150g chick peas, soaked overnight in a non-metallic bowl

2-3 tbsp olive oil

2 onions, finely diced

1 red pepper diced into 1cm dice

6 cloves garlic, very finely diced

Chorizo, sliced into 5mm thick rounds

1 Fennel bulb, halved lengthways and then sliced

2 chilis, halved along their length leaving the stalk attached

2 heaped tsp rosemary, very finely chopped

1 heaped tsp sage (6-7 leaves), very finely chopped

300-400ml chicken stock

2 tins chopped tomatoes

1 tbsp flat leaf parley, chopped

Method:

Soak the chick peas and butter beans separately in 2 non-metallic bowls overnight - at least 7 hours.

Drain and rinse the soaked beans and chick peas separately. 

Put the beans and chick peas into separate pans, covering generously in cold water. Put on the heat. When boiling, set a timer and boil for 20 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water.

Start by heating the oil in the bottom of your slow cooker pan frying the onion and pepper for 5 minutes. 

Add the garlic and fry for another 3-5 minutes.

Now add the chorizo in a flameproof casserole over a low heat until the oil is released. 

This is what the contents of the pan will look like when you first add the chorizo:

This is what it will look like when the chorizo starts to release the paprika-infused oils and fats contained within it:

Add the fennel and fry for 5 minutes until it begins to soften. 

Add the beans, chick peas and tinned tomatoes, keeping on the heat so that you bring them from room temperature to the same temperature as the rest of the dish. Top up with the stock until all the ingredients are covered. Add the rosemary and sage. 

Now put onto the slow cooker base and cook for 7 hours on the main slow cooking setting. 

If you are cooking in the oven, place in the oven with the lid on. I think it will need about an hour, but it may need more. Test every now and then.

When the beans and chick peas are soft and tender, the dish is done. Serve in bowls topped with lots of freshly chopped flat leaf parsley.

Tuck in with some crusty bread.

Italian inspired bean and bacon soup

The fresh herbs will infuse their aromas and flavours through this nourishing and warming soupy-stew

This is a meal in a bowl. No fuss, no second and third courses. Just fill up your bowl and lose yourself in a warm cuddlesome soupy hug. If you don't intend to serve up for 4 people, you can refridgerate and have the next day for lunch or dinner.Just be sure you either warm on the hob until gently steaming but not quite boiling, or that you microwave in 2 stages (about 1min 30s, then stir, then another 1min 30s for a single large bowl in an 800W microwave, and stir again) then double check it is piping hot.

Serves 4 as a main course

Ingredients

150g dried mixed beans (I used pinto and borlotti beans) soaked overnight, drained, and rinsed.

2 onions, diced

2 carrots, diced

2 celery sticks, diced

5 garlic cloves, very finely diced

125g smoked streaky lardons/cubetti de pancetta

400g tinned chopped plum tomatoes

1 tbsp tomato puree

1 litre chicken stock

125-140g small pasta (I used farfallini)

5 tbsp parmesan, finely grated

4 tbsp finely chopped parsley

2 sprigs rosemary

2 tsp fresh thyme leaves, roughly chopped

2 fresh bay leaves

5 tbsp olive oil

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

1. First you need to cook the beans, they need to be boiled for 1 hour. I add a couple of bay leaves and unpeeled garlic cloves in the hope of infusing some flavour. Once cooked, drain and rinse off the mucky water, discarding the bay and garlic.

2. Heat the olive oil in a saucepan (I used the largest one I have). Add the onion and fry without browning for 7-10 mins (until beginning to get soft).

3. Now add the rosemary sprigs, chopped thyme, bay leaves and garlic and fry for 2 minutes.

4. Once all the herby garlicky oniony flavours have seeped into the oil, it is time for adding the carrots and celery. Fry gently, without browning for another 7-10 minutes.

5. Add the lardons and fry for 5 minutes. Remove the rosemary sprigs or they will disintegrate into soggy brown leaves (unattractive!).

6. Add the tomato puree and mix thoroughly before adding the chopped tinned tomatoes and mixing again. Increase the heat to a lightly bubbling simmer and cook for 30 minutes.

Early into the simmering process

Nearer to half an hour later

7. Now is the time for adding in your cooked beans and stock. Simmer for 5 minutes.

8. To add smoothness to the finished soup, using a mug, remove a mugful of the mixture and liquidise. Once pureed, put back into the saucepan and mix thoroughly. Season.

9. Add your pasta and turn up the heat. The pasta I used cooks in 4 minutes until al dente – if using something different, follow your pack instructions. Turn off the hob.

10. Now add half your parmesan and all of the chopped parsley. 
11. Serve in bowls and top with the remaining parmesan. If you wish, add a little decorative glug of olive oil as an additional topping.

How to make a Mixed Bean Salad

I need to be kept away from nice food shops; delis, specialist grocers, heck, even Waitrose! Why? Because even though I have a list of items which I am meant to get, I end up wandering around, picking up all sorts of things because either 'That looks nice!' or 'Oooh! That will come in useful!'. I ought to be more disciplined. I try to make sure whenever I go shopping I always have a list, and that I am not hungry when I go (being hungry when you go food shopping is guaranteed way of buying a whole load of stuff you neither need nor can use within their best before dates), but I usually buckle under the pressure of temptation.

So, on one such trip to Waitrose, I picked up a packet of dried mixed beans. I was attracted by the lovely colours and the sheer variety of sizes and shapes of bean in the packet. It was like a party of colourful happy little beans going on, how could I resist?! Thankfully not a product to break the bank (currently available for £1.09 for 500g), it went straight in my basket with not much in the way of thought as to what I'd do with them.

Poor packet of beans! They languished in my larder drawer in the kitchen for a long time, unused and unloved. I'd been inspired by their looks to bring them home, but had no idea of how to show them real love by making something tasty with them.

I had to put my thinking cap on, before thinking that they could be made into a salad in much the same way as you might make a French style rice salad; boiled up, drained and soaked in vinaigrette whilst still warm to soak up all the flavours.

One word of warning: you do need to remember to soak the beans the night before you intend to make this dish. If you forget, don't try to boil the beans for longer in the hope they will cook through eventually. Chances are you will end up with some of the beans being cooked and others rock hard. (Unless you are prepared to cook them in a pressure cooker, which I do not possess).

Here is my French-inspired Mixed Bean Salad, then. One for the vegetarians, since I've neglected them for quite a while, who may want to serve it with some grilled halloumi cheese on top, or perhaps with some rocket salad by the side. Him Indoors and I being fully signed up meat eaters had this with pork chops!

If you don't want to use the Waitrose bean mix, then you could make your own bean mix. I'd say you didn't need as many varieties as 10. Equal amounts of borlotti, cannellini, flageolet, and red kidney beans would be just right for this salad. Same rules about soaking overnight apply.

You may notice from my pictures that I foolishly added some rosemary to the beans when boiling them. I have not included them in my recipe as they do not make enough of a difference to the flavour and they go all soft and lose their colour and texture through being boiled for so long. And you can't easily pick them out once the beans are cooked. I experimented so that you don't have to!

Serves 2-3

Ingredients:

150g Waitrose 10 bean mix

2 bay leaves

1 handful fresh flat leaved parsley, finely chopped

3 spring onions, finely sliced with some green included

80-90g sugar snap peas, halved

60g asparagus spears, cut into 1” sections, tips held to one side

80g fine (French) beans, cut into 1”-1½” sections

8 halves of sun-dried tomatoes in oil, finely chopped

45ml olive oil (although you could use some of the oil which came with the sun-dried tomatoes)

20ml red wine vinegar

Ingredients being prepared #1

Ingredients being prepared #2

Method:

1. Soak the dried beans for overnight in plenty cold water in a non-metallic bowl. Drain and rinse thoroughly.
2. Place into a saucepan with the bay leaves, cover generously in cold water, put on the hob and bring to the boil. When boiling, lower the heat to a simmer. The beans will take 45mins to 1 hour to cook. You may need to scrape off some frothy scum from the top.

   

   Boiling the beans: note the scummy foam - ICK!

   
   

   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
3.  Whilst the beans are cooking, prepare the rest of the salad.
4. In a separate pan, bring some water to the boil. Add the fine beans and boil for 2 mins. Add the asparagus and boil for another 2 minutes, then add the reserved asparagus tips and sugar snaps. Boil for a final 2 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water to arrest the cooking process.

   

   Veggies boiled to retain crunchiness and firmness

   
   

   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. Put the olive oil and red wine vinegar in an old jam jar and give a good shake. This is the easiest way of getting them to combine into a vinaigrette.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

   

   Boiled beans: leave out the rosemary!

   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
6.  Drain the beans in a colander, remove the bay leaves and give a light rinse (but don't let the beans get cold). Put the boiled beans into a non-metallic bowl and dress with the vinaigrette, mixing thoroughly. Add the sun-dried tomatoes. Leave to cool.
7. Now mix in all the remaining ingredients thoroughly and leave for 5 minutes for the flavours to mix.
   
   

   

   Mix and allow the flavours to combine

   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
8. Serve with grilled halloumi.

Meat eaters' variation:

1. Marinade 4 pork chops in 4 tbsp olive oil and 2 tbsp lemon juice for at least 20 minutes.

   

   Marinating the pork

   
   

   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. Whilst the meat is marinating, heat a griddle pan.
3. When ready for cooking, make sure the griddle is HOT. Then cook the pork chops for 4-5mins each side. Allow to rest for 3 mins. Serve with or on top of the bean salad.
   
   
   
   
   
   

   

   The finished dish