Lima beans with dried wild mushrooms

I got fresh lima beans in my produce box last week and finally cooked myself a bowl yesterday. Source: Vegetables, James Peterson

Serves 2

1.5 cups of shelled lima beans

1 cup dried mushrooms, the original recipe calls for porcini and I used wild mushroom mix

1 tsp olive oil
Salt and pepper to season

• Soak mushrooms in 1/2 cup of luke warm water for 30 mins. Move the musrooms around in the bowl every few minutes to ensure that all of the mushrooms are well soaked.

• With 15 mins left on the soak. Bring 3 cups of water to a rolling boil, add the beans and let cook for 10 mins. Drain and toss with olive oil.
• Heat a wok, toss in the beans and chopped mushrooms with the water. Careful to keep the grit and sand in the bowl. Cook over medium high heat until the water cooks off.
• Season with salt and pepper and serve.

Trout en papillote

Serves 2

2 Trouts, gutted and cleaned
1/2 bulb of fennel, thinly sliced
4 thin slices of lime
1/4 cup chopped coriander leaves
1 tomato, chopped
1/4 cup white wine
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp crushed red pepper
1 crushed and minced clove of garlic
Salt and pepper

• Preheat oven at 375 deg and saute fennel in olive oil and garlic until tender and lightly browned. Season with salt.
• Cut about a foot of parchment paper, fold it into half and cut into shape of a heart.

• Place the fish closer to the center of the paper, season with salt and pepper. Place half of the following - fennel, coriander leaves, chopped tomatoes, red pepper and sliced lime.

• Fold the paper over the fish and fold the edges with short, overlapping folds. Leave a small opening, spoon in half the white wine and olive oil. Carefully, complete folding the packet.

• Place it in a baking sheet and bake for 15 mins.

• Remove and serve with a pair of scissors :)

Sauteed Swiss Chard

1 bunch swiss chard, remove the center vein
3-4 red chillies, broken into pieces
3 pods garlic, chopped
2 tbsp olive oil


Cut the swiss chard into ribbons and put into a bowl of cold water. Heat olive oil in a pan, and add the red chillies and garlic. Saute for 3 minutes and then remove swiss chard from water and place into pan. Dont shake off the water from the chard, this will allow it to steam in the pan. Cover and cook for 3 minutes, and then cook with cover off for 3-4 minutes more. Serve as a side.

Ultimate Couscous

This recipe was part of the "food lover's cleanse" on Bon Appetit

It had delicious Moroccan flavors and was fairly easily to put together for a weekday dinner. Adapted with minor changes from the original recipe

FOR THE VEGETABLES:
1 carrot, peeled and cut into 3/4-inch chunks
1 onion, chopped
2 1/2 cups cubed butternut squash
1 cup cooked chickpeas (canned)
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground turmeric
1/4 tsp hot paprika
1/4 tsp chile flakes
2 cinnamon sticks
4 star anise
3 bay leaves
5 tbsp olive oil
some cilantro leaves for garnish
Salt


FOR THE COUSCOUS:
1 cup couscous
1/2 cup frozen peas
1 cup boiling vegetable stock
1/2 tsp coriander pwdr

Mix together all the ingredients for the vegetables, leaving out the chick peas and the cilantro leaves. Put this mix into an overproof dish and cook at 350F for about 30 minutes. By this time the vegetables should be cooked, while still retaining a bite. Now stir in the cooked chick peas and put into the over for 5 minutes.

In another bowl, put the dry couscous with the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil, the frozen peas, 1/2 tsp coriander pwdr, and ½ teaspoon salt. Pour the boiling stock over the couscous. Cover the bowl with a tight lid and leave for about 10 minutes. Fluff up the couscous with a fork, cover again and leave somewhere warm.

To serve, serve the couscous onto a plate, spoon the vegetable mixture on top and sprinkle cilantro leaves.

Vanilla Date Smothie

1/2 cup almond milk (vanilla flavored)
3 medjool dates, remove seeds
4 tbsp greek yoghurt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Whirr everything in a blender to a thick puree. Add ice cubes as needed. It was simply delicious!

Prawns in Spicy Coconut Masala

Sorry, no picture. But its a reddish coconut curry.


1 lb (0.45kgs) prawns
2 tbl spn fresh/frozen coconut
9-10 red chillies (if you can handle more, increase it)
1/2 tea spn coriander seeds
3-4 teppal/triphala
2-3 kokum pieces
Salt


Grind the coconut with red chillies, coriander seeds to a very smooth paste. Do not add too much water (this would be ideal in an Indian mixer, but I made it in my blender). In a thick bottomed pan, mix the paste with prawns, kokum,triphala and salt. Cook it on a low heat till prawns are done, about 6-9 minutes. Don't overcook the prawns or they will become chewy.

homemade thin crust mushroom pizza!

homemade thin crust pizza! a photo by moreMirchi on Flickr.

My first pizza - very exciting. Even though it doesn't look like a prize it sure tasted good :) ofcourse, also more so since I made it! I made the pizza dough with a mix of wheat and white flour which made the dough a bit dry. Next time, I'll try with all white flour.

Makes 2 large individual sized pizzas

Pizza dough
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp dry active yeast
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup luke warm water + a little more to help knead

In a big bowl, mix flour, salt and yeast. Then add the oil and water and knead for a good 4-5 mins until it forms a smooth ball of dough. Use a bit more water if the dough is too dry.

Rub the bowl with olive oil, place the ball of dough back in, cover and let sit in a warm place for a couple of hours. Longer the better until the ball has roughly doubled in size. I heated my oven to 200 deg and then shut it off to place the dough in.

After a couple of hours, gently massage the ball of dough with the palms of your hand. Then place it back in the bowl and let sit for another 20 mins.

Now, gently roll out the dough. Use your hands to stretch the dough into a rough circular or rectangular shape. The point is to get it evenly thin.

Tomato sauce
1 14-oz can of crushed tomatoes
1 tsp salt
Pepper to taste
1/2 cup dry white wine
2 garlic cloves crushed and minced
1 tsp oregano and thyme
1/2 cup water

In a saucepan, heat a tbsp of olive oil and cook garlic until lightly browned. Add tomato, dried herbs, water, salt and pepper. Cook down the mixture to about 1/4 cup. Now add wine and cook down the tomato mixture to about 1/4 cup.

Pizza toppings
1 cup thinly sliced mushrooms
1/4 cup thinly sliced red onion
2 cups of grated and/or thinly sliced cheese, I used a mix of Manchego and Pecorino

Assembling the pizza
Preheat oven to 500 deg. Sprinkle a bit of corn flour on a baking dish lined with aluminum foil and place the pizza dough on it. Spread the tomato sauce, mushrooms, cheese and onions. Bake for 10 mins or so until the crust is browned and crispy and the cheese is lightly bubbling. Serve with salad.