Rice + Parsley Pesto

I was at a friend's house a while ago and they had a rather large amount of parsley. And I hear parsley has a rake of vitamins. So, this happened.

 

I blended up the parsley in a pot with some garlic, sunflower seeds, nutritional yeast and possibly a bit of balsamic vinegar. Some pepper also. Maybe you want to add salt, if you like it. I warmed it all up in a pot, but not too hot as I didn't want to kill the vitamins. I wanted to get that vitamin C in 2 me.

My friend made the rice part of the meal, first frying the uncooked rice in oil to get more flavour out of it (this was news to me). Then they added water to cook it. And also some onion, garlic, and bouillon powder.

The bread is there as I found a couple of loaves in a skip the day before, but it contrasted perfectly with the sloppy components of the meal.

- Dara

Parsley Popcorn

Popcorn so good that it's impossible to take a photo without a hand being in it :-)

Popcorn is AMAZING! Fun to make, fun to eat. For this one I dried a few bunches of parsley in the oven, which was then crumbled so that it looked like the dried stuff. This was sprinkled over the fresh popcorn, with some sea salt. I guess you could take the easy route and just buy it dry, but hey! I was experimenting.

To make popcorn from its kernels use a big flat based pan with a well fitting lid. A good glug of sunflower oil and a small handful of kernels (less than you'd think) will pop pop pop to fill up the pan. Practise makes perfect with knowing how much of each ingredient suits your pan, so get popping!

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