Masala Beans with Fenugreek.

This recipe is another one that used to be a favourite with our family but which has not had much airing in the past few years.  Again, I do not know why.  It is easy, has great flavours and is easily modified for "burn" intensity.  It comes from  book called "Hot and Spicy Cook Book"  which I bought cheap in a book sale (as one does!)  It was edited by Linda Fraser, so "Thanks, Linda"!

Serves 4.

Ingredients

1 onion

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp sesame seeds

1 tsp chilli powder (room to play with this. It is quite hot and I use a bit less.)

1/2 tsp garlic pulp (here I use a bit more)

1/4 tsp turmeric

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tomato, quartered

225 grams French beans (or any available green beans)

1 bunch fresh fenugreek leaves (no stems)

4 tbsp chopped, fresh coriander

1 tbsp fresh lemon juice (or lime)

Method

·         Roughly chop the onion.

·         In a bowl, place all the spices, salt and garlic.  Add the onion and mix well.

·         Blend for around 45 seconds. ( I use a stick (immersion) blender, but you

could use a standard blender or food processor if yours will take a small
quantity of ingredients)

·         In a medium saucepan heat the oil and fry the spice mixture for about

5 minutes, stirring it from time to time.

Beans, tomato, coriander and spice mix

·         Add the quartered tomato, beans, fenugreek and coriander.

·         Stir fry for about 5 minutes, then sprinkle over the lemon juice and serve

immediately.

Notes

·         About the beans.  This leaves the beans really crunchy.  I mean almost raw! This is fine,

maybe,  if the beans have just been picked, or if you like the taste of raw beans.

I don't mind chomping on the odd  bean I have just picked off the vine, but in a recipe like this, I prefer a bit more softness and a more  "cooked" flavour.

So - I steam my beans for a few minutes first, taking them from the steamer  while they are still  "al dente"  and then I continue with the stir frying.  It's up to you.

·         Fresh fenugreek is not always available, so use 1 tsp seeds instead. If I do this, I add the seeds to the spice mix before processing. 

Tastes of India

Singing their hearts out!

Yesterday, we met friends and went into the city to celebrate the festival of Diwali with the Indian Community here.  It was such a fun occasion, with food and craft stalls and entertainment in a grand style.  There was a parade of models in beautiful saris and dramatic presentations in song, with handsome young men dressed in blindingly 'gold' costumes. 

The food stalls were interesting  with lots of deep fried offerings some of which were great.  We had some wonderful pea and potato samosas and  some memorable onion barjhees.  Vegetarian was the order of the day, of course as this was a festival, so no tandoor, unfortunately. This was not a place for dieters!

Something new to us, were the drinks called Falooda.  These were made by first dropping into a large tumbler about quarter of a cup of glass noodles, some red and green jelly, a small portion of ice-cream and a couple of spoons of  basil seeds, soaked in water over-night .  (This was weird stuff that looked like the spawn of some frog-like creature, but which, we were assured, was quite innocuous). A generous squeeze of rose syrup concentrate was then squirted around the sides of the glass which was then filled with rose milk. A meal in itself!

Gulaab Juman

 We were also interested to sample the products of the one stall selling sweetmeats such as gulaab jamun  which proved to be very sweet morsels, deep fried and saturated with sugar and oil. Not really my choice,  but they were surely selling well!  And we took the opportunity to purchase a piece of carrot cake and some chocolate cake from the Hare Krishna stall.  The carrot cake was great - moist and not too sweet - but with a great icing with lots of pumpkin seeds on top. The chocolate cake was made with wholemeal flour and I have never been able to make up my mind about that.  We used to do a wholemeal choc cake in Metro which was very popular, but personally, I think that with chocolate, I prefer full-on decadence with white flour and 'what the hell!'  

More on this event later, but we finished the day by travelling back to the Shore where we indulged in a wonderful cup of coffee in one of our local cafes.  Ahhhh - bliss!!!