Bedouin Bean Stew: Gallayat Fooel

This entry is rather untypical as at the present time (February) the tomatoes that make this dish so tasty are simply not to be got. But last week Caroline and I spent three days walking in the Jordanian desert of Wadi Rum with a Bedouin guide Ra’ed and two of his camels. Ra’ed was not only unbelievably knowledgeable about camels (his family breed them and in his camp we saw a two-week old calf and three pregnant camels about to give birth), but he is also a very dab hand at whipping up a simple and simply delicious meal over an open fire. This traditional Bedouin and unusually vegetarian dish is what we did together on the second day of our trek.

 

 

What you need

(apart from the stunning scenery)

• 1 medium sized onion roughly chopped
• 2 very ripe tomatoes, cubed
• 400 g fava beans in their cooking liquid (Ra’ed used a tin), lightly mashed
• salt (you can use other seasoning too, that's just what we had.)
• optionally: garlic (which we did not have), herbs and chillies

Variation: use three three tomatoes and no beans (what we had the first day)

What you do

1. Allow the onions to sautée but not to take colour.
2. When they are glassy, add the tomatoes and stir. Allow to simmer until the mixture looks like jam, slightly thickened.
3. Add the fava beans, which should be slightly mashed (tastes much better than it looks!)
4. Season to taste.
5. Eat with pita bread that has been warmed and slightly browned over the hot coals.

With it you drink sweet, hot Bedouin tea (Put water and sugar in a pot, sit it in the glowing embers; when the water boils add the tea leaves.)

Tastes wonderful with hummus and any of the tasty Middle Eastern dishes and dips like baba ganoush, moutabel, muhammara, fathoush, etc. 

Celery and Mascarpone Soup with Noilly Prat Mushrooms on Toast

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This was cobbled together for a latish Sunday lunch, when Caroline and I were alone at home. It is an ideal winter dish, rich (perhaps too rich from a weight-watchers point of view) and warming -- and quick to make. 

What you need

• 1 celery cut into small cubes (save some of the central leaves for garnish)
• 1 medium sized potato, in small cubes
• vegetable broth
• 150-200 ml Mascarpone or fresh cream
• 1 punnet of button mushrooms, cleaned and cut into thin slices
• 1 medium to large onion, finely chopped
• 2 or more cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• 1 roughly thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, finely chopped
• salt, pepper, nutmeg, paprika and fresh herbs (thyme, rosmary, sage, flat-leaved parsley)
• 80 – 100 ml Noilly Prat (or dryish Wermuth, not quite the same though)
• one slice of toast (Caroline’s whole meal nut bread loaves are best!) per person

What you do

1. Sauté half the onions in a nob of butter, then add the celery and some garlic, stirring to prevent browning.
2. When the celery leaves start looking  wilted, add the potatoes and the broth and simmer until all the ingredients are soft.
3. In the meantime sauté the remaining onions, garlic and the ginger, then add the mushrooms and fry them until they are brown, stirring pretty constantly.
4. Add the Noilly Prat and reduce, then season to taste with salt, pepper and the rest of the spices.
5. Add the Mascarpone (or cream) to the celery soup and put in the blender. At this stage you can add a couple of table spoons of the fried mushrooms to the soup as well. (It’s a matter of personal taste how you like the soup. If you want the soup really smooth, strain it after blending; I normally don’t bother, though), season to taste.
6. Add the herbs to the mushrooms, some celery leaves if you have kept any, and warm again briefly. The mushroom mix should be reasonably dry.   
7. In each plate, place a slice of toast, heap the mushroom mix on top, garnish with herbs, then ladle the soup around the mushrooms and toast and serve immediately (otherwise the toast will be soggy).

Chestnut and Buckwheat Pizokel with Veggies

I had these pizokels, a kind of pasta looking a little like crude noodles, in a restaurant near my office, which specialises in the cuisine of the Grison part of Switzerland. Massimo, who runs the place, has connections to the Italian Valtellino, but also to the Valley of Poschiavo in the Grisons. In December I ate at the restaurant with a friend and the speciality of the day was this dish. I loved the slightly sweet taste of the pizokel, and Massimo was so generous as to give me his recipe. 
So here is my take (actually, the topping) on his dish. We had it on Christmas eve and the kids seemed to like it too.

One last thing: the recipe as suggested in the picture makes enough for two very good sized meals for a family of four.

What you need

• 150 g wheat or spelt flour
• 150 g buckwheat flour
• 150 g chestnut flower (or purée , but then you need to adjust the liquid)
• 300 – 400 ml milk
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 10 g salt
• a bunch of parsley, chopped
• 1nob of butter for frying
• one good-sized onion chopped
• for carnivores, thin slices of streaky bacon, cut into mouth-sized pieces
• 1 – 2 largish leeks, cut into 1cm slices
• ½ cabbage (any kind, perhaps except red cabbage), cut into 1cm strips
• 2-3 cloves of garlic (not in the picture) in thin slices
• 3-4 carrots, sliced
• 80 ml of white wine
• salt and pepper
• 200-300 g mature cheese, an Alp cheese preferably, grated

What you do

1. Mix the flours, milk, eggs and salt into a fairly thick batter (I made it a bit too thin) and beat with a wooden spoon until bubbles rise to the top if you stop beating it.
2. Add the parsley and leave to sit for about 20 minutes.
3. Bring a large pot of salt water to the boil.
4. On a wet chopping board spread some of the batter, which you then cut with a large knife into noodle width and wipe into the boiling water. Traditionally the batter is run over a wet board into boiling water (you can see how this is done very briefly, 1:20 – 1:28 in this video. I was lazy and used a special contraption for making “Spätzli”, which are small dumplings instead of the flat, thickish noodley things)
5. When the pizokels, come to the top they are done. They are skimmed off and cooled in a sieve with ice-cold water running over them (to keep them firm and allow the excess to be frozen).
6. Place them in an ovenproof dish, about 3 cm deep. (Add butter flakes if you like and don’t mind the calories…)
   
   
7. In a large frying pan melt the butter, add the onion, the garlic (the bacon now if you are using any) and the vegetables. Stir vigorously as if stir-frying.
8. Add the wine and a little veggie broth if it looks too dry.
9. When the vegetables are done to the level of bite you like, distribute them over the pizokels and cover with the grated cheese.
10. Bake in the oven or under the grill, making sure the pizokels are hot and the cheese is melted.

Natasha's Big Comfort Tart

I am very happy to hand over today’s entry to Natasha Carrasco Stillman currently in New Zealand, who I met when she was in Switzerland thanks to the fact that she needed a bass guitar and I had one that was not being used. Anyway, she posted a photo of the following recipe on FB, which looked mouth-wateringly tasty, so I asked her if she wanted to put it up. Fortunately, she did! So over to Natasha:

What do you do when the weather outside is frightening?  Why, make comfort food, and what could be better than a sweet dessert that you can whip up that tastes heavenly with relatively little effort on your part!  I present the Big Comfort Tart:  cinnamon/Grand Marnier stewed berries on a bed of lemon curd custard.  It is certain to be a crowd pleaser!  And the best thing is, you can make up most the measurements to your taste as you go along!

WHAT YOU NEED

• ready to bake sweet short pastry sheets
• Grand Marnier (or a like liquor of your choice)
• mixed frozen berries (or any fresh or frozen berries of your choice)
• vanilla custard
• vanilla extract
• cinnamon sticks (or powdered cinnamon)
• lemon curd (FAM: if you haven’t got any ready-made, it’s quite easy to prepare: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqUKUxgsq44)
• Raspberry cordial (or strawberry)
• brown sugar
• grapeseed oil

WHAT YOU DO

1. Pre-heat oven to 200° C – make sure shelves are one level lower than the middle.
2. Examine the size of the pan you chose (it should be ideally a bit on the deep side), and defrost enough pastry to cover pan and over lap over  the edges – then brush grapeseed oil all over the inside of the pan. Also examine the size of the pan to decide how many berries you’d need to layer it once 
3. Stew the berries over medium heat with a generous pour of the raspberry cordial and a splash or two of Grand Marnier.
4. Add cinnamon sticks (or cinnamon powder), one or two capfuls of vanilla extract, and brown sugar – start small, adjust to your taste, but make sure the berries end up sweetened enough – keep stewing for about 20 minutes – keep watching, and stirring occasionally – the large amount of liquid you’re going to have is fine...
5. Decide on the amount of vanilla custard – it should make a layer at least an inch thick to cover bottom - pour vanilla custard in bowl, mix in with a spoon generously lemon curd to taste  – however, make it nice and tart. (it should counter effectively the sweetness of the berries).
   
6. By this time, your pastry  sheets should be defrosted. Layer the pan with them.  Leave an overhang around the edges.  What you want to be able to do (which I did not do quite adequately, but it doesn’t matter so much in the end) is curl the edges over in a curve.
7. Brush pastry with grapeseed oil.
8. Pour custard/lemon curd mixture in and spread thickly over the bottom.
   
9. Spoon in berries (you will need slotted spoons for this part), taking care to leave most of the liquid behind in the pan. Do not press the berries into the custard. Cover the custard layer with a berry layer.
10. It should look like this, just like a container. (By the way, do NOT discard that pan full of spiced berry juice!)
11. Cover loosely with tin foil. You do not want to burn the pastry before it is cooked.  Put it in the oven for approximately 15 minutes.  Then uncover for approximately 10 minutes or so.  Just keep checking.  It will be done when the pastry is nice golden brown.
    
12. Take out and cool.  (When it is cool, you may chose to sprinkle powdered sugar over the edges of the pastry or not.) Keep in mind, the structural integrity is not important. It WILL be a bit of a mess, but a TASTY mess, to be sure!!

NOW, what to do with the leftover berry juice?  Why, simmer, add more spices and wine and whatever else you think should go into your glühwein (mulled wine), of course!