Beer Broth

 

Beer Broth

I was in a rush the other day and needed a quick dinner, so I decided to see what I had. Cans of beer? Cooked adouki beans? Leek and onion? Bread? Eh, beer broth?! I think so! That's a thing isn't it? Well, if not it is now. It only took me about 20 minutes and it's dead easy. The hardest thing is not drinking the open tinnies before adding them in.

So, quickly then, fry up the chopped leeks, onions and garlic. Add a bit of sugar to the mixture and add the pre-cooked adouki beans (handy to keep some cooked ones in the freezer for quick meals like this). Then add - get ready- beer! Like so:
  

 

'Hey, this is fun!' said Dara.

I'm not sure how much I put in really. Probably about a can and a bit after all the sipping. I let it simmer for a minute, and added more beer gradually, so it didn't all boil off.  You can add some vegetable stock and seasonsing if you think it needs flavour. It should look like this or something:

And it's pretty much done straight away. Add salt and pepper to taste. Next time I'll do it with some barley and potatoes and carrots. Make it nice and hearty. Still, this was delicious. I topped it with some fresh parsley and served it with some nice bread. And a tinnie, if you've any left! Note: you may not want to make this meal before a matter of any importance.

- Dara

Harissa Cous Cous

This is some sort of harissa paste:

Mix LOADS of tomato paste with a good deal of paprika, chilli powder, ground cumin, coriander powder, black pepper and olive oil. Taste it and do what you want to it, then stir it into a big bowl of cous cous that's just been covered with boiling water. Leave it to sit for about three minutes then add more harissa or water as necessary.

Chickpeas and cous cous are a marriage made in culinary heaven. They are made for each other. This lot had courgette, onion, garlic and sweetcorn as well, and most veg will be pretty tasty fried up and served on top of this tasty goodness.

Cashew Nut Pesto

This is an incredible discovery - a handful of roasted cashews, about the same of basil, a clove of garlic, and some salt and pepper. Most people would add parmesan as well but it really doesn't need it. Whizz it all up with a blender then pour in as much olive oil as you like. Just make sure it's the good stuff; I like co-op's own brand. Or, as they call it here, Scotmid.

Traditionally in Italy they eat a first course of meat or fish with some sort of veg or salad, then a second of pasta. It's basically a protein course with some greenery followed by a carbohydrate course. I remembered this as I ate handfuls of roasted cashews from the pan as I waited for the pasta to cook. If you want to be a bit more civilised than me, a nice salad with some roasted cashews sprinkled over it would be a good prelude to this pasta dish.

Another thing the Italians do is stop cooking their pasta when it resists a bite slightly, rather than letting it cook to a mulch like us we tend to do on these fair isles. My way of doing this is to take a bit of pasta out every minute or so when it's nearing the end of it's cooking time and biting it to check whether or not it has changed colour all the way through - if there's just the very tiniest bit uncooked in the middle then it's time to get the sieve out, stare at it for a few seconds, then drain it. Apparently Italians just throw it at the wall, but I've only ever seen British people do that, so it might just be a myth that we've made up, like the fact that they eat garlic bread. One of the most bizzare moments of my life was explaining garlic bread to a guy from near Naples who was doing a bit of a Peter Kay at me in Italian - "Garlic?! Bread?! Garlic on bread?!"

Watch this blog for some extreme garlic bread recipes - Dara is a garlic head with a penchant for baking bread.

Polenta chips

Polenta chips on a bed of wilted spinach, with avocado slices.

Polenta is something I bought to exfoliate with in the bath. After an appetising smell arose from the bathwater it crossed my mind that I might want to try eating it. So I did, and I recommend you do the same.

Making polenta

Bring a pan of water to the boil, then pour in the polenta gradually, stirring the whole while. Once its consistency is like watery school smash stop pouring, keep stirring for a few minutes then serve. Like this it's a sloppy mess, and can be treated more or less the same as watery school smash. But if you give it a bit of thought and attention it can turn into something beautiful that will enhance your life. Or you meal time at least.

Add flavouring to the water before the polenta, e.g. veg stock, marmite, harissa paste... anything tasty and soluble in water really.

The real magic happens when you leave it to set (overnight) so that it forms a lump that you can slice and fry. This is how you make the chips. I covered them in salt and pepper as they were cooking. The next day they were really good with curry.

Spinach and avocado

Wilted spinach and sliced avocado are pretty self explanatory, BUT! did you know that they can also be used to beautifying.

Avocado face masks: http://www.wittyliving.com/recipes/facial-mask-recipes.html

Spinach, well... actually, the best thing to do is just eat it. It's good for you:

http://www.liveandfeel.com/medicinalplants/spinach.html

Exfoliating with polenta

• Fill your palm with a few pinches of polenta grain
• Dribble a little a little warm water in
• Mix it to a paste
• Gently rub it with a circular motion into your skin

Ta-Daah! You're as soft as a baby's bottom.

Quick Potato Filling

I love food. The sleuths among you can probably tell that. I cannot understand people who eat entirely for sustainance, begrudgingly and without joy. I feel very lucky to be able to eat delicious food every day. However, I do spend a little too much time cooking. Sometimes it is necessary to make a quick meal. So, I am always looking for ways to make quick food, without compromising on taste. And so, this is one I rustled up today in about 15 minutes:

Baked Potatoes with Leek and Tomato filling

(I assure you there are two large potatoes under that mountain)

I suggest throwing on a couple of extra potatoes on anytime you're cooking something in the oven. They are always handy to have in the fridge. You can heat them up and add a filling to them for a quick meal, or slice them and fry them up with some garlic and onions (mmmm), or even throw them in a curry or soup. They won't go to waste anyway, so you might as well throw a few on just to have!

With this in mind, I pre-baked some spuds yesterday when I had the oven on. So, today I popped the oven on to heat them up, while I worked on a filling. I chopped up and fried two small leeks, half an onion, and some garlic. I threw in some chopped tomatoes and more oil, and fried it all up for a minute or so. Then it was time to cut open the now-hot spuds, and load those bad boys up. Top it all off with some cheese and black pepper and stick it in the oven to melt the cheese. And then BAM - 15 minute feast, with no taste compromise (maybe a bit with the presentation alright -it makes me feel dirty looking at it).

- Dara

Vegetarian Eating Out: Camden

Dara and I have decided to blog food that we eat out too.

Here's the first: In Spiral, an amazing place in Camden. http://www.inspiralled.net/

It has a really chilled out atmosphere, a pretty view over the canal, shared tables, incredible array of vegetarian (mostly vegan) food and drink, friendly staff who aren't that inefficient hippy cliche you often find in veggie places (although they do have the whole image things going on, and yes, I love it), dj set in the evening, things are mostly organic and fairtrade... what more could you want?!

Here's a sharing platter. You could choose whatever you wanted so Ian and I got one of everything, and an avocado boat and bowl of olives to go with it. The olives had slices of raw garlic in so we were pretty smelly for a while. In a good way :-)

Here you can see:

potato wedges

chickpeas in sauce

cous cous

cabbage and linseed salad

coleslaw

kale salad

cabbage tomato stuff

roast sweet potato

raw fennel

intense salad (I can't remember what it was but it was a bit hardcore.)

Dara's Sandwich no. 2

 

Vegetarian sandwiches are the best sandwiches in the world. When done correctly, of course. This one is nice and warm in the middle, but not toasted, and so still soft on the outside. It's pretty amazing. And garlic mushrooms are certainly in the top 20 reasons to be alive. This one is not vegan, I'm afraid, but lose the cheese and you're set.

Here's how to:
Get some brown bread.
Add all of your houmous to it, more piled than spread.
Add some strong cheese and some torn spinach/ baby spinach.
Fry up some mushrooms with chopped garlic.
Place the hot mushrooms on the cheese so it melts slightly.
Top with Frank's Red Hot Sauce to set it all off.
Put it together and EAT.

- Dara

Apple, walnut and celery salad

This is YUMMY SCRUMMY. If you like lettuce, apple, celery, walnuts and lemon juice. Those are the ingredients, you see.

If it had mayonnaise then it would probably be called a Waldorf salad, but I find that mayonnaise clogs things up and lemon juice is much.... zestier.

So throw it all together and enjoy.

I had mine with Dara's fresh brown bread, a huge dollop of cottage cheese, and a large dollop of hummus. YUMMY SCRMMY indeed.

There's no oil on it and the lemon will stop the apple oxidising, so it should keep until lunchtime if made in the morning. Remember: SAFCSN (Stay Away From Chains Selling Non-food.)

Hot Salad

This salad is hot.

Shit hot.

There are actually two:

- Cannellini beans, onion and tomato

- Avocado, red pepper, celery, cashew and sesame seed on lettuce.

The first does what it says on the tin, but there's a secret ingredient. (Whisper it) ... (Sugar).

So, finely slice some an onion, fry for a few mins, add a teaspoon of (preferably dark muscadavo) sugar, then fry it for a furhter five mins or as long as you can wait. This is caramelising the onion and is amazing if you have the patience to wait a long time. Add a can of cannellini beans and diced tomato, cook it up till the tomato's just getting soft. Yummy.

Next salad: roughly chop two stick of celery and a red pepper. Dry fry a handful of cashews and a handful of sesame seeds then add the veg and a bit of olive oil and tamari or soy sauce. Let it sizzle till it's at your preferred ratio of cookedness/crunchiness. Add avocado and mix it in till it's warm. PLEASE make sure it's nicely ripe - an immature avocado should be treated like a 15-year-old. There are no two ways about it, you just have to wait until it's ready.

Erm, meanwhile wash the lettuce and place it on the plates, then sprinkle with lemon juice. The avocado and cashew salad is nice on top of it but do as you like. It's your food.