Category: Local

Local food supports local farmers and reduces food miles

Redcurrant Crumble

This week I was super excited to see my favorite berries of the season on sale in Matache – redcurrants or “coacaze rosii”. Memories flooded back of last year’s “mouli marathon” where I made seedless redcurrant jam using David Lebovitz’ recipe as a guide. I briefly cooked the fruit and made a puree by passing them through a hand food mill. I was left with an iridescent red gloop to be made into jam and a large pile of pips and pulp.

Having read up on the power of fruit acids to cleanse and renew skin, I resourcefully decided to use the seedy leftovers as a bath time scrub. As with many things in life, sometimes the idea and the execution are very different things. For those of you who want to try this at home, I can say that the exfoliating sensation and the kind of fruity fresh smell were good. Not so good, however, was dying my skin bright red.

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Romanian Blueberry Mojito Sorbet

A big fat cocktaily alcohol laced sorbet – when the mercury hits 38 this is just what the doctor ordered! Fresh mint, blueberries, lime and Rum in one nifty package. The alcohol probably undoes the healthy fructose hit, but anyhow it still scores on the ‘refreshment’ scale. If it melts faster than you can eat it, don’t worry… drink it up.

To get a decent sorbet it is best to make a proper syrup. This is not difficult, and I give both the fructose and the sugar recipe here. Fructose is now pretty widely available in Romania –I use the ‘Slu’ brand. So get yourself to the nearest market and scoop up the berries while they are at their best and whiz this one up up fast!

Ingredients

60ml fresh lime juice and zest (approx 2 limes)

90 ml water

150 g sugar or 100 g fructose

a handful of mint leaves (washed) approx 15 g)

500g fresh blueberries

30ml white or light rum

Step One: make the syrup

Remember to cool this down after making it. I once (probably quality checking the Rum) poured hot syrup over my fruit, resulting in a slightly ‘cooked’ flavor, which is not what you want.

Combine lime juice, water, and sugar in a small saucepan and heat over a medium flame.  Stir frequently until sugar is dissolved. Leave to cool until a finger can be comfortably in the mixture for about 20-30 seconds.

Step Two: Blitz everything together

Place blueberries, mint, the syrup and lime zest in a blender or food processor and blend until smooth. Pulse until combined.  Add rum and pulse.  I quite like to see pieces of fruit so I give it a rough pulse. If you prefer a more “baby food” pure texture then pulse until you are happy.

Step Three: Freeze and churn

For the gadgetistas, switch your ice cream machine on to cool down at least 20 minutes beforehand. Pour the gloopy fruit and syrup mixture into the machine and churn according to the machine’s instructions (I churn mine for approx 1 hour). Turn into a plastic container and cover with some greaseproof paper before putting on the lid (prevents frost damage and large ice crystals forming on the surface).

No ice cream machine – pour the gloop into a fairly shallow container and freeze until the middle is just solid (approx 1 hour). With a fork break up and smush the semi solid ice cream and re-freeze. You can repeat this process but life is short and this sorbet is usually fine with just one forking over.

Fasole Batuta five winsome ways…

….with Tahini and Dukkah, with Pesto, with Red Onion Marmalade, with Rosemary & Lemon and as healthy mash!

Fascinated with Hummus? Titivated by Ful Medames? Enraptured by re-fried Pinto Beans? This troupe of pastes have long hogged the leguminous paste limelight but it’s time white bean puree or “fasole batuta” took center stage and showed us just how posh it can be.

I love the traditional FB with tons of sweet caramelized onions on top as much as anybody, but the adaptable paste can offer so much more. It makes a great dip, a fabulous canapé spread on crostini or a healthy alternative to mashed potato, as seen in the world’s most cutting edge restaurants, partnering seared tuna, roast trout or lamb chops with panache. It’s high in protein and fiber, magnesium and essential B vits, so waste no time and embrace the smarter paste!

Gadgets & Gizmos

A blender – either a stick one or a food processor. If you like a chunky consistency and manual labor then a potato masher can be used.

Timeline & Planning

The best method is to soak the beans overnight with some bicarbonate of soda. The beans swell up and absorb the water and the bicarb softens the skins aiding the digestion process. However cooking from “dry” wont be a disaster it will just take longer and use more of the world’s shrinking energy resources cooking them.

Ingredients for basic white bean paste or “fasole batuta”

  • 500g white beans (“phaesolus vulgaris”) aka cannelini beans in Italy, Navy Beans in the US and “fasole” in Romania. Check over carefully for stones, straw and extra wildlife, especially if you are a vegetarian.
  • 2tsp of bicarbonate of soda
  • Water to generously cover the beans (probably 5cm over the beans in a saucepan)
  • Sunflower or olive oil
  • 2-6 cloves of garlic according to personal taste
  • salt

How To

Rinse the soaked beans to eliminate the salty bicarb flavor. Add fresh water and bring to the boil. Add the salt. Simmer for 20-30 minutes until the beans are very soft and “mushy”. Add the oil (personal taste – add more oil, no oil and use some of the cooking liquid, add lemon juice) and blend until creamy in texture. For the traditional recipe thinly slice two onions (I like the color contrast of red onions) and fry them in a tiny amount of oil slowly slowly until they change color and are “caramelized” – approx 45 mins on a low heat. I like to serve red onion marmalade as a similar and handy idea.

Ideas and Variations

With Tahini and Dukkah

Adding tahini will thicken any paste (including dressings) as the tahini emulsifies the sauce and thickens it, much as oil added to a mayonnaise base does. So adding tahini and beating vigorously will thicken the texture of the paste. Having almost burnt out many motors on the less forgiving hummus I can say that the fasole batuta version is more forgiving.

To 300g of base fasole batuta add 100ml of tahini and 1 tsp of cumin. You don’t have to add the cumin and you can argue that the spices in the Dukkah make it unnecessary, but I quite like it. Beat or blitz and serve with very good olive oil swirled on top and a liberal sprinkling of Dukkah. Just add some good flatbread.

With Pesto

Drizzle proper home made pesto on top of the basic fasole batuta. Its also interesting to actually mix it in and make a basil flavored paste.

With Rosemary and Lemon

To 300g of basic fasole batuta add the leaves of two sprigs of rosemary and the zest of one lemon (you can add the juice too to the basic mix but take care it doesn’t become too liquid)

As a Mash

Here the texture needs to be slightly more liquid, or akin to smooth and creamy mashed potatoes. Use this mash as per your potato based favorite. It’s quite a neat trick to drizzle some pesto over the mash before topping with your piece of fish, meat or yes, real sausages! Red wine & fennel sausages atop a pesto drizzled fasole mash? YUM central.