Deanna’s Recipe of the Week #8 Green Beans with Coconut
It's not been a great year weather-wise for us to start growing our own vegetables at home, but our scarlet runner beans seem to be thriving. I've still not run out of things to do with them but this has been my favourite recipe so far and is based on one from Meena Pathak's book 'Flavours of India'.
Incidentally, can anyone explain why things seem to grow more successfully in Chorlton than practically anywhere else in Manchester? The tomatoes in our hanging baskets in the deli are coming on a treat but all the ones I've seen in Wilmslow are really slow. Our passion flower is like something out of 'The Day of the Triffids'!
Green Beans with Coconut (Serves 4)
2 tbsp Veg oil
1/2 tsp black mustard seeds
2 dried red chillies
8-10 curry leaves
1 small onion, chopped
1 green chilli, chopped
400g green beans, cut into 1 in lengths (You could also use French beans or mange tout if you prefer.)
salt
75g grated coconut
juice of 1/2 lemon
Heat the oil in a pan until hot and add the mustard seeds, dried chillies and curry leaves. When the mustard seeds begin to crackle, add the onion and green chilli. Increase the heat and stir-fry for a couple of minutes.
Add the green beans and salt. Cover the pan with a lid and cook over a low heat for 5-10mins until the beans are cooked but still crunchy.
Sprinkle over the grated coconut and lemon juice. Mix together well and serve hot.
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Deanna’s Recipe of The Week #5 Nana’s Ginger Cake
Ginger Cake
Sticking to the theme of Nanas recipes (see my second Recipe of the Week), I thought I'd share another one with you. It's her absolutely fantastic ginger cake, a family tradition and one that deserves a wider audience. I had to do a bit of conversion as I found the recipe scrawled on the back of an old bill and it was all in vague measurements (eg "a glass of oil" &etc.)
This is a true classic. It makes 3 cakes which will freeze beautifully. I also like it because you can just throw everything together - there's no equipment needed apart from bowls, jugs and mixing spoons.
You could eat these as they are or sandwich two together with lemon or stem ginger buttercream.
Ingredients
450g self raising flour
450g golden syrup
225g caster sugar
300ml Boiling water
4 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp each of mixed spice, cinnamon and Bicarbonate of soda
3 eggs
250ml vegetable or sunflower oil
Beat the eggs and the sugar. Add the dry ingredients (except bicarb). Add the oil and then the syrup and mix. Mix in the boiling water leaving a small amount. Mix this remaining water with the bicarbonate of soda and add to the mixture.
Pour into 3 x 8 inch cake tins which have been lined with baking paper or paper cases - NOTE - is essential that you line the tins. These cakes will be very soft and moist - they'll never come out of unlined tins!
Bake for 1 hour at 300f/150c/Gas 2
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Deanna’s Recipe of the Week #3 - Eurovision Lasagne
Every year, my husband Patrick (not pictured here on the left!) likes to watch The Eurovision Song Contest and eat Lasagne (which we also only do once a year.) This year, I thought I'd base our lasagne on the one we make for the deli, but with a little (non-vegetarian) twist. Needless to say, once again, the lasagne was the highlight of the evening. Even the Italians would have given it 'Douze Points'.
Roast vegetable & Feta Lasagne with Smoked Chorizo -- serves 3/4
2 large courgettes
2 red onions
1 red and one yellow pepper
olive oil
salt and pepper
fresh or dried thyme or oregano
200g feta cheese
about 50g smoked chorizo, sliced
fresh basil
2 x 400g tins chopped tomatoes
lasagne sheets
50g butter
50g plain flour
500ml milk
freshly grated parmesan
grated nutmeg
Heat the oven to 180/gas 6.
Peel and chop the onion into chunks (about 9 each half), cut the pepper into similar sized pieces and slice the courgettes into rounds about the width of a pound coin - if you cut the veg too small, they can catch and taste bittter, too large and they can go soggy.
Place the veg in a roasting tray, drizzle with olive oil, salt, pepper and herbs and use your hands to mix so all the veg is coated. Roast in the oven for about an hour.
Meanwhile make the white sauce by melting the butter, stirring in the flour and adding the milk bit by bit until thick. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.
If using, chop the slices of chorizo into strips. Place in a small, hot frying pan and cook for a minute or so until crispy. When the veg are ready you can begin putting the lasagne together.
Spoon a little chopped tomato onto the bottom of your oven proof dish to stop the lasagne sticking. Place a single layer of lasagne sheets on the bottom so it is covered entirely - you may need to break a few sheets to patch it up.
Scatter half the veg evenly and crumble over half of the feta. Add a few torn basil leaves and cover with a tin of tomatoes. Scatter over half of the fried smoked chorizo and repeat the layer. Top with another layer of lasagne sheets and cover with the white sauce. Scatter over some grated parmesan cheese and bake in the oven for about 45 minutes until golden on top.
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Deanna’s Recipe of the Week #2 - Nana’s Lentil & Lovage Soup
Our herb garden has started to come to life again and one of the most enthusiastic perrenials is our lovage.
Lentil & Lovage Soup
This recipe is one from our nana's repertoire. I asked her once why her lentil soup tasted so much better than other peoples. She said it was because of the love she put into it. I subsequently found out that it was in fact lovage that she used - though I think the love helped too!
1 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 leek, chopped
1 carrot, chopped, 1 stick celery, chopped
1 red chilli, chopped (leave seeds in if you like it spicy)
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 inch ginger, chopped
3 ripe tomatoes, chopped
2 tbsp tomato puree
splash of worcester sauce (leave out to keep vegetarian)
250g red lentils
1 1/2 litres vegetable stock
pinch of sugar
squeeze lemon
freshly ground black pepper
a good handful (20g) fresh lovage, shredded
Heat the oil in the pan.
Add the onions and cook on a low heat, stirring from time to time.
Add ginger, chilli and garlic and continue to cook for a couple of minutes.
Add celery, leek and carrot, cook for five more minutes.
Add tomatoes, stir and cook for a few minutes more until the tomatoes begin to break down. Add the tomato puree and the red lentils.
Add the stock and the worcester sauce. Stir and leave to simmer for about 20 minutes. Season with pepper, sugar and lemon juice.
Add the lovage, cook for about 5 minutes more and blend.
This recipe serves 4.
As with all soup recipes, it's up to you whether you add more or less of particular ingredients, or be thicker or thinner. It should be to your taste.
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Deanna’s Recipe of the Week #1 - Chorlton Guacomole
Here's a little feature that we're hoping will become a regular posting here on the North Star site. Keep checking back (or simply subscribe to our blog feed) to keep up to date with all my recipes.
With the unseasonably warm weather, I'm sure some of you will have started barbequeing. Here is a recipe for Guacamole which originally came from Adam but which I took the liberty of improving a little.
Incidentally, we would love to sell this in the deli counter but avocadoes have a nasty habit of turning black when exposed to the air and serving up food choc-full of preservatives isn't really our mission. Mind you, this guacamole is so tasty and moorish, I bet it wouldn't last more than hour in the counter before it was sold out!
Serves 2 (easily doubled or tripled etc)
1 ripe avocado, roughly chopped
1 clove of garlic, chopped
1 spring onion, chopped
a small handful of coriander, chopped
the juice of half a lime
1 red chilli, chopped (seeds taken out)
Place all the ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth.
If you don't have a blender, you could make this into a more chunky salsa by chopping everything more finely and mixing it all together. Serve with raw vegetables, tortilla chips or warm pitta bread.... and remember to share it with everyone else.
If you're hooked on Guacamole, you can find a bunch of other fabulous recipes over at www.avocado.org.
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