Posts Tagged With: vegetarian

Simple Chickpea & Pumpkin Stew

Posted on December 18, 2013 by leroy watson

Simple Chickpea Stew with load of lovely coriander

In the Beach House we love simple cooking with a smile and this stew definitely makes us beam a bit. We’ve just landed in Spain after a crazy few weeks in the UK for a variety of reasons that we’d prefer not to bore you with. I am super busy on a food based project that I will no doubt tell you about soon, but until then, the posts are going to be few and far between as I type my little fingers to the bone.

Some of you may have read about our winter retreat last year, near the sleepy port town of Mazzaron, up near the hills (you will no doubt be unsurprised to hear). It’s a real country area and the Med sparkles from our terrace every morning and each night sky is filled with incredible maps of stars. All that sun means there are some amazing veggies for sale here in the markets and we have loved having a dabble and a haggle! We pick up ridiculous bargains and then get home and wonder what on earth we are going to do with it all…! We only have a little kitchen and the Beach House Kitchen (Part II) is slightly underequipped compared to the gleaming ‘Thunderbird 1’.

Our favourite new bit of equipment is a wooden handled knife that we picked up off a flamenco-loving-gypsy-with-a-mullet for a euro. It seems to be impervious to bluntness. The Excalibur of onion chopping and potato peeling. It is worth mentioning that we buy lettuce and tomatoes from this fellow’s Mum, who normally wears a pink dressing gown and a has a cigarette hanging from her mouth. The dressing gown is held together by a piece of frayed string and is probably one of the most fashionable statements on display, come market day, in little Puerto Mazarron. We love that market, but this week it was called off due to adverse weather conditions. It rained a little and was a little blowy! We wouldn’t get much done in Wales with these kind of restrictions.

We have just spent a busy week with my Mum doing plenty of café and bar hopping and taking in a few ancient looking little towns along the way. Unfortunately every time we’ve got the camera out, at least one of us has been stuffing our face with tapas, so we are short of pleasant pictures of us lounging around the place. I’m sure you can imagine the scene we enough and I hope we are not rubbing in our good fortune to be here. To balance things out, I have had my normal restaurant experience in Spain, which go a little something like this:

Step 1) I apologise profusely for being a non-ham eater, smile through the imminent baffled glare and disdain, then fully expect the worst…..

Step 2) I am faced with a decision to eat around fish and or meat or go hungry.

Step 3) The next course arrives and I revert to Step 2

Step 4) I end up just eating fruit for dessert

Vibrant veggies in the mix

Having said that, the wine is good and cheap and this carries me through each disappointing dining experience. You’ve got to love the people in our local restaurants though – a brilliant bunch of rogues, fishermen and real characters. Veganism has not reached these parts, but when it does, it will be repelled with sharp sticks and incredulous words. NO HAM! What are you, insane!!!!! I love them all, even if they think I am from the planet Parsnip.

NB Casa Monika’s in Puerto Mazzaron is not included in this generalization, as one of the LOVELY owners Jose is Vegetarian/ Vegan, and the food rocks. Thank YOU.

So……we keep things even simpler in Spain and this was a stew we had for dinner last night and thought you guys would love. The chickpeas here are little works of art, after soaking they swell up like small plums and the spices are very, very potent. The smoked paprika almost takes your breath away and the cumin we can still smell even when its sealed in a jar in a cupboard (at first Jane thought I had some strange musty body odour thing going on).

We use a lot of vegetables here, making full use of our mammoth stash, but you can really pick and choose what ever is handy. The classic combination of warming spices and chickpeas will lend itself to almost any vegetable. As you can see, I like to sweeten it a little with dates, it seems in-keeping with the style of the dish. You can always omit the sweetener, or use some honey or brown sugar. Another idea we have been playing with recently to good effect is adding a little soya milk to stews and soups; it is surprisingly creamy and changes the texture. You may like to throw a cup of soya milk in here and see how it goes (it will go well!!!!) Jane did it by mistake the other day confusing the carton of stock with Soya milk in a pea and mint soup… it was a lucky accident (the less said about her vegetable stock-on-muesli accident the better though)!

The coriander and glug of olive oil at the end sets this dish apart, as with so many stews and soups, that little finishing touch makes all of the difference. Golden olive oil warmed on a stew is something almost to gorgeous to describe in feeble words. I am sure Jane would say ‘It’s ace!’ and I would certainly agree.

I’d love to think that we’ll be posting again soon and we’ll be drinking G and T’s on the terrace on your behalf! It’s a Beach House life, what can we say!!!!!

Lovely salad accompaniment

The Bits – For 4-6

1 inch and a half square ginger (grated), 3 garlic cloves (peeled and grated), ½ tsp cinnamon,1 tsp ground oriander, 1/2 tsp smoked paprika, 1tsp ground cumin

2 tomatoes, 1 tbsp tomato puree (depending on how good your tomatoes are), 1 carrot (finely diced), handful of cabbage leaves (or other greens), 1 onion (finely sliced), 1 cup of pumpkin (medium sized cubes), 1 small courgette (same size as pumpkin), 2 handfuls of spinach leaves.

3 cups of chickpeas (with cooking juices), 4 fresh dates (finely chopped), 1 cup vegetable stock, sea salt and pepper (to taste)

Fresh coriander leaves and stalks (for topping)

Do It

Soak the chickpeas overnight and cook them in fresh water for roughly 45mins- 1 hour (add 1 teas of bicarb of soda to speed up the cooking process).

In a hot pan, brown the onions for 3-4 minutes. Then add the fresh ginger, garlic, pumpkin, carrot and courgette. Fry them off for 5 minutes.

Now add the cabbage leaves, cumin, sweet paprika, ground coriander, cinnamon, and chopped fresh tomatoes (with the tomato puree if you’re using it). Time for the chickpeas with their juice from their cooking and a good old stir.

Add one cup stock if needed (if you haven’t got enough chickpea juice). Bring to the boil and cover and simmer for 10-15 minutes or until the carrots are nice and tender.

Sprinkle in spinach leaves cover and turn off heat. Leave for 5 minutes and give a final stir and serve.

Even more salad reinforcements (we eat alot of salad in Spain!)

We Love It

This is our every day type stew, full of veggies, flavours and goodness. This is the type of winter fuel that sparks us into life! We worship the tasty spicy-ness of this dish.

Foodie Fact

Chickpeas are super high in fibre and are renowned for their ‘filling’ properties. Eat a few, feel full, don’t snack on all those beetroot crisps you’ve got locked away in the cupboards. Chickpeas have been shown to help stabilise insulin and blood sugar, they are also awesome for your digestion and colon. Lovely little chickers!!!!!

Categories: Dinner, Recipes, Vegan | Tags: cheap, cooking, food, photography, recipes, simple chickpea stew, spain, travel, vegan, vegetarian | 2 Comments

A 10 Minute Meal – Hazelnut Tofu and Soba Noodle Broth with Red Pepper and Brussels Sprout

Posted on October 18, 2013 by leroy watson

Hazelnut Tofu and Soba Noodle Broth - On the hob

Hazelnut Tofu and Soba Noodle Broth – Bubblin’ away

Here we have a delicious 10 minute meal. 5 minutes chopping, 5 minutes cooking and it won’t last long in the bowl either. So simple, yet tastes so amazing and dare I say it, complex. You have to love that!

Nothing says British winter more than a bowl of Soba Noodle Broth….or is that just me! I love a noodle broth anytime of the year and this one is wonder, putting the years first brussels sprout to good use. I could eat this by the bucket full, bowls just aren’t big enough.

The first winter chills are definitely visiting the Snowdonia hills at the moment, the winds blows a gale and we’ve kissed goodbye to what was a lovely summer of warmth and light nights. Sitting in the garden at 10pm in the sun is surely a thing all Britons cherish.

A view from the beautiful Nantlle Valley – just behind the Beach House Kitchen, where we walk when not eating like Tokyo-ites

As are brussels sprouts. They’re like little cabbage hand grenades and add a punch to all they grace, we love ’em! So, so, so very wasted on your average Sunday Roast (traditional British Sunday Lunch containing roast meats and unfortunately over cooked vegetables), boiled to death and flaccid. A quick blanch in this broth and they are a revelation of crunchy texture and potent flavour.

This is an ‘Asian’ broth, which I know covers a large chunk of global cuisine. Its a hybrid of flavours that meld and work. Some Japanese, some Chinese, but all super tasty.

In the Beach House we condone slurping in all its forms. Food should be eaten with gusto and vigour, slurping is an essential part of the noodle broth experience. We like to attack a bowl of noodle broth armed with a large spoon and some chopsticks, on occasion we resemble koi carp, such is our commitment to the cause. Jane is a particularly good slurper, we put it down to being raised with a koi carp named bonehead. Bonehead still lives with Jane’s Mum and Dad and is a big fish in a small pond. He can also be stroked like a dog.

Jane, is that you?! Koi carp – like jaws in a pond

This type of broth is best served piping hot, with all ingredients cooked for the minimum length of time. Freshness and crunch is imperative. The gulping and slurping actually helps the noodles cool down on the way to the mouth. At least that’s our excuse! It also happens to be alot of fun.

We’ve added plenty of colour here, essential in these gradually greying months, by using the last of the years red peppers and some brazen red cabbage. This broth is also nice and warming, fresh ginger and Chinese five spice take care of this. For even more of a restorative slurp, I added some wasabi to mine which really got my juices flowing.

SOBA NOODLES

Soba noodles are always a highlight, soba meaning ‘buckwheat’ in Japanese, the noodle choice of most Tokyo-ites. Traditionally in Japan buckwheat can be harvested four times a year, a wonder crop for sure.

Soba Noodles have a lovely bite to them, a hearty noodle ideal for my rapidly diminishing wheat intake as they are made with a large amount of buckwheat (not a wheat even though it is called a wheat!?) This means less gluten all around. For some bizarre reason, soba noodles are normally a tad more expensive than your average joe noodle, but they’re well worth the extra pennies.

Soba Noodles

We use tamari because we prefer the flavour, it contains no wheat and is always made to a certain standard. Meaning no strangeness and dodgy health issues with the soya used.

There are alot of ingredients in the broth here, really, some good stock, ginger and a splash of tamari will suffice, the other ingredients just make it extra special. Most of them can be found in any decent Chinese-style food store.

As can the Hazelnut Tofu. It’s basically tofu mixed with hazelnuts, and a few toasted sesame seeds, pressed back together. It is delicious and has plenty of flavour, unlike normal tofu. It seems to be springing up in some supermarkets, but as with most of these niche veggie/ vegan bits, a health food shop is your best bet.

Makes two massive bowlfuls (or four medium sized):

The Bits
300g soba noodles, 125g hazelnut tofu (chopped into little cubes), 1/4 red cabbage (finely shredded), 1 red pepper (finely chopped), 6 brussel sprouts (finely sliced lengthways)

For the broth – 1 inch fresh ginger (minced), 2 teas chinkiang vinegar (balsamic will do), 2 tbs tamari (soya sauce is a close sub), 1 tbs rice wine (or dry sherry), 1 tbs good stock powder (or fresh if you are brilliant) – to taste, 1/2 teas Chinese five spice, 1.5 ltr boiling water

Taste the stock, make it right for you.

Wasabi stirred in to taste (if you like things spicy)

Topping – 2 spring onions (finely sliced)

Do It

Boil a kettle with enough water.

Chop your vegetables thinly.

Add boiled water to a large, warm sauce pan and get a steady boil going. Bubblin’.

Add all of your stock ingredients in no particular order, give it a stir (no stock powder lumps, they are the enemy).

Now add your cabbage, brussels sprout and peppers, boil for two minutes, then add your tofu and noodles, simmer for a further two-three minutes and prepare to serve.

By the time you’ve got bowls and ladles and all that jazz together, your noodles should be cooked nicely. Overcooking soba noodles is a huge sin.

Serve
Piping hot and topped with a handful of sliced spring onions. If you have a small flask of warm sake available, well done! Have extra tamari, wasabi and vinegar on the table so people can play with the flavouring or their stock.

Hazelnut Tofu and Soba Noodle Broth with Red Pepper and Brussel Sprouts – Camera in one hand, large spoon in another…….

We Love It!

Soul slurping of the highest order and buckwheat noodles to boot. Lucky us. So quick and satisfying, we could eat this for dinner every night! A soulful soup of the highest order.

Foodie Fact

Buckwheat is high in Thiamine and soba noodles were regularly eaten by wealthy Japanese folk to balance their large intake of white rice (very low thaimine) thus avoiding what was called ‘beri beri’.

As we all know by now, buckwheat is a relative of rhubarb! A berry and not a grain, a wonderful gluten-free substitute. Buckwheat is full of flavanoids which are very good for the cardiovascular system. In fact, some folk say that buckwheat is better for you than any fruit or vegetable. Quite a claim!

Categories: Recipes, Soups, Vegan | Tags: brussel sprouts, buckwheat, food, hazelnut tofu, nutrition, recipes, soba noodles, soup, vegetarian | 12 Comments

Giant Courgette Hats Stuffed with Walnuts, Sweetcorn & Red Rice (Vegan)

Posted on September 30, 2013 by leroy watson

Ready for a final roast

In the time of harvest bounty my mind naturally turns to stuffing things! I have no idea why, there are so many massive vegetables everywhere that it seems like the logical thing to do, they look so cool served whole and are far, far more interesting when stuffed with something uber delicious like fresh sweetcorn, toasted walnuts and some nutty red rice.

Most cultures love a good stuffing, I read recently that in the Middle East they actually have machines to carve holes in carrots etc, you can buy pre-hollowed vegetables at the market in bags. Now that’s spoiling all the fun (or is it?!) I am not very good with DIY, the thought of getting the Black and Decker out to carve a carrot sets alarm bells ringing. Do I love stuffed veg that much?

Everything is going a very courgette at the moment! They are everywhere and this is a fine way to use up the wonder glut of this delicate fruit. This particular beast is of the golden/ yellow variety and was over a foot long. (This post was written a month ago when courgettes were really hanging out there, now they have finished their shenanigans for another year. Mores the pity. Bring on the roots!)

In fact, the best thing that can happened to a courgette is a good stuffing. Its not every vegetable you can say that about, but a courgette is at it finest full of filling other than its own, it has to be said, watery, slightly mushy interior. Especially when they’re massive like this. Resembling a marrow really. Here we have upgraded the mush with red camarague rice, walnuts, sweetcorn and many other forms of ultra deliciousness. A stuffing to be proud of!

Mighty Golden Courgette Towers

I also like to cut courgettes thin length ways and salt them for a while, then use them as a base for an endless number of bakes and gratins. You can pack alot of courgettes into one of these dishes and the dense nature of a well baked gratin is a wonderful way to serve this normally gentle and light veg. Having said that, simply fried with garlic and olive oil, there’s another real winner.

Courgettes are allegedly easy to cultivate, but we don’t get the heat up here on the hill. We also get wind, which tends to knock them down or drag our mini green house away. We get extreme weather on tiger hill! We get our courgettes from Trigonos, a small organic farm and retreat centre just over the hill in the next valley, Nantlle. I am very lucky to work there at the moment and play with all the produce from the fertile land near the lake. See here, its a magic place,

Jane is going away a lot recently (attending many interesting workshops) and we are making the very most of our short times together. Today has been a rare early autumnal day, fresh this morning, warm in the day and a beautiful sunset, the perfect day for al fresco dining with some bubbles and twilight all around.

We sat on our bench near the stone circle and wolfed these delicious courgette treats with lashings of Russian chard and beetroot leaves. It is that wonderful time of year when every veggie seems to be coming out to play (on the plate) and we are inundated with beautiful produce. The only problem is, what to do with it all? Our veg basket is brimming over and the freezer is filling nicely, anybody fancy coming over for dinner? We feel like gluttons, but are still smiling.

BERRY NICE

One of my favourite things to do at this time of year is berry picking. How cool is that! All these free berries sprouting from hedgerows and footpaths. Leave the berries near railways alone, they use a weed killer-type train to kill all the plants around the railways meaning these berries will be contaminated. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news (again!)

The elderberries on our hill are nearly ready and we fancy making some wine this time around, I have a recipe up my sleeve. The thought of homemade elderberry wine makes us both whoop, and we haven’t even drank any yet!

Camarague Rice filling on the hob

If you can’t get your hands on giant courgettes, normal size ones are fine, but a little more fiddly. They will also cook quicker, take 5-10 minutes off the final roasting time.

This recipe will make a little too much stuffing, but its great cold as a salad or maybe find another vegetable to stuff. Tomato? How about an apple? Serve with a simple, creamy sauce.

Char those bad boys

The Bits – For 4

1 giant courgette (yellow, green…… or 3 smaller ones)

1 1/2 cup cooked camarague rice (or rice of your choice)

1 handful chopped and toasted walnuts

1/2 handful of sunflower seeds (roasted is best)

1 small onion

1 small carrot

1 medium potato (all three finely diced)

1 corn on the cob (kernels off the cob)

4 cloves garlic (crushed)

8 cherry tomatoes (quatered, or one normal sized tomato)

3 tbs tomato puree

1 teas dried dill

1/2 teas dried mint

1/2 teas dried thyme

1 teas all spice

1/2 cup veg stock

1/2 cup raisins (chopped)

Do It

Cook your rice (as you like or follow packet instructions)

Preheat oven 200oC

Warm a griddle pan (not necessary, but looks pretty).

Start by chopping your courgette into interesting shapes with flat bottoms, so they sit up on the roasting tray, like hats. We have gone for bishops, maybe you’d like a crown, or just a flat top?

Rub them with oil, use your hands and pop them on a griddle pan, presentation side first. Leave to char up for around 5 minutes. Be sure not to move them and you’ll get nicely defined scorch marks. Then into the oven for a 10 minute pre-roast.

Why this is going on, get your prep ready for the filling.

In a large frying pan, warm 1 tbs olive oil on med/ high heat and add the onion, saute for five minutes until going golden, then add your corn and carrot, stir and heat for three minutes then add your potatoes and garlic, saute for a further three minutes then add your herbs and spices. Stir well, so not allow any bottom sticking. Add tomatoes and stock. Add 1 tbs of water if the heat is too high and things are getting stuck to the bottom.

Now add your seeds, nuts and cooked rice. Bring to a boil, add a glug of good olive oil, give it a final stir and pop a lid on it. Turn heat off and leave to settle for ten minutes.

Your courgettes should now be ready. Grab them out of the oven and set aside for a moment to cool just a little.

Get a reasonable spoon (dessert) and begin to spoon your hot mixture into to courgettes, packing it down as you go, filling every possible space with tasty filling.

Now pop them back into the oven for a fifteen minute blast and after that the courgette should be softened and the filling piping hot and ready to devour.

Serve

We sprinkled ours with chopped toasted walnuts, a few twists of black pepper, some wilted chard, beetroot leaves and good olive oil.

We would also recommend a nice tangy tomato based sauce or chutney, a creamy sauce is also lovely. These densely packed courgettes are meals in themselves and need little else on the plate to satisfy.

We Love It!

A real decadent dinner treat here, fit for special occasions and Tuesday nights after work. It does take little preparation but the combinations of textures and flavours are worth the modest toil. Get golden courgettes if you can, if they aren’t in the shops, hit your local veg farm and flutter your eyelids a little (always works for me).

Foodie Fact

Technically courgettes are an immature fruit (which sounds a lot like a good friend of ours) and can grow to over a metre long.

Golden/ Yellow courgettes are not only very cool to look at they are also have a higher carotene content than your average green courgettes, they are also good for vitamin C and A with plenty of potassium to boot.

Brit disclaimer – What we repeatedly refer to as a courgette in this post may be known to some of you as a zucchini. We at the Beach House Kitchen mean no offense in the flagrant use of our British-ness and actually prefer the name Zucchini, it sounds like fun and has a ‘Z’ in it, which is always very cool in our world. Maybe we can all just call them Zuch-ettes and bridge our islands vocab gap. Just to add greater confusion to the mix in South Africa they call these beauts ‘baby marrow’.

Categories: Autumn, Dinner, Recipes, Vegan | Tags: camarague rice, courgette, courgettes, gluten-free, healthy, recipes, seasonal, stuffed, vegetarian, zucchini | 10 Comments

Rainbow Chard & Red Lentil Harira

Posted on September 23, 2013 by leroy watson

Harira on the hob

We regularly have an identity crisis with dishes, turning traditional fare on its head, ‘Beach House-ing’ things you could say. We don’t mean it, no offence to the original recipes and food heritage in question, its just we like to play in the kitchen. Here’s another traditional recipe we have messed about with, thankfully the results were rather delicious.

The best harira I have ever had was for breakfast (regularly) in the village of Chefchaeoun, known to many a traveller for its exceptional soup, jalaba (hooded cloak garment worn by most Moroccans) production and wonderful mountain location. Its small winding streets hide many a wonderful eating experience, rows of blue houses (yes blue!) make this one of the most distinctive and stunning villages in that vast old land.

I moved there for a while, took up residence in a room situated on the walls of the Hamam (the communal bath), the warmest room in town. You see its high up there and you wake chilled to the bone and needing a serious bowl of spicy sustenance. Abdullah provided.

He was a wonderful cook, in nothing more than a space between two buildings, a few squat tables and two gas burners with huge steel pots, Abdullah created the authentic Moroccan dining experience for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It was like a French Bistro without the pretense and price tag. My kind of joint for sure.

For a few pennies, Abdullah would dish you up an epic bowl of full-on morning ammunition, sometimes with a tooth-less smile that shifted the early morning fug. This hearty soup fuelled me on many a hike around the Rif Mountains and also on days spent lounging around playing card games with other punks holed up there. It came with a wedge of steaming flat bread, fruity olive oil and a small bowl of freshly ground cumin to use liberally. I sat wearing my Jalaba (the over enthusiastic tourist that I am) eating with the local men in silence, canteen style. No women. In Morocco cafes and restaurants seem to be a male only thing.

Chefchaouen

I like cooking soups, its a soulful pursuit. You don’t have to be to precious, there are rules, but not many, a little like Morocco itself. This is the situation where I feel nice and comfortable.

Recipe Notes

Add just 2 cups of water to make this a hearty stew.

As with all soups/ stews, depending on the quality of your veggies, you many need to add some vegetable stock if the flavour is thin on the ground.

Here’s to you Abdullah. Peace be with you. Hamdullah!

Rainbow Chard and Red Lentil Harira

The Bits – For 4 bowls

1 1/2 cup dried chickpeas (soaked and cooked)

750ml fresh water (or vegetable stock)

1 tbs olive oil

1 1/2 inch fresh ginger (finely diced)

3 cloves garlic (minced)

1 large onion (finely diced)

1 yellow pepper (diced)

3 ripe tomatoes (with flavour)

3 cups chopped rainbow chard (stems separated from the leaves)

1 teas ground turmeric

1 1/2 teas smoked paprika

1/2 teas ground cinnamon

2 teas cumin seeds

3 tbs tomato paste

1 lemon (cut into wedges)

2 tbs gram flour (or flour of your choice)

1 handful fresh coriander leaves (leaves picked, stems chopped)

1 cup red lentils

3 dates (finely chopped)

1 teas fresh ground pepper

2 teas sea salt

Harira bubblin’ away

Do It

Soak your chickpeas overnight in a saucepan. Drain and refresh with new water, well covered. Add 1/4 teas bicarb of soda (this makes them soft and cook quicker), bring to a boil and lower heat. Vigorously simmer for 20 minutes or until chickpeas are tender.

Warm the oil in a thick bottomed sauce pan, add your onions and cumin seeds and saute the onions for a few minutes until glassy, add garlic, pepper and ginger, stir for a couple of minutes and then add all chard stems (add earlier if they are a little tough), flour and spices, stir and warm through for a minute and now add your tomatoes, dates, lentils, tomato paste, warm through for a minute then add your water/ chickpea juice. Bring to a rolling boil and turn down heat to the lowest setting, add your chickpeas and leave to simmer for 20 minutes.

When ready to serve, bring back to just about boiling, add your chard leaves and coriander stems. Re-cover and allow to cook for a few minutes. Check seasoning.

Serve

A lemon wedge, topped with coriander leaves and a good glug of good olive oil. Add green olives and brown rice to the table if you’d like to make this dinner.

For a special touch, we have it sprinkled with roasted and chopped almonds.

We Love It!

With winter lurking up the hill, we are getting back to our hearty soups. Harira is definately one of our fav’s and it is very cool when you have pleasant memories attached to a dish. Food has amazing transporting properties, the sights and tastes so evocative and alive in memories.

Foodie Fact

Spices are much more than just incredible tasting, the vast majority boast some quite brilliant health properties (as long as we don’t burn them in the pan).

Turmeric is a root similar to ginger and in its raw state has very potent flavour, its wonderful stuff. Dried is the best we can normally do on this island. It is peppery and sweet, warm and bitter and has even been likened to orange peel (if very fresh indeed).

Now the nitty gritty and real magic. Turmeric is anti-microbial, anti-flatulent and strongly anti-bacterial. POW!

Heavy plate version with rice, olives, fresh coriander and lashings of olive oil

Categories: Autumn, Recipes, Soups, Vegan | Tags: chickpea, harira, healthy, nutritious, rainbow chard, recipe, soup, travel, vegan, vegetarian | 12 Comments

Chestnut Mushroom and Sage Farrotto with Balsamic Figs and Tofu Feta (Vegan)

Posted on September 5, 2013 by leroy watson

I’m too sexy for my figs

You cannot say that we aren’t good to you, here are two recipes on one plate! It also has to be said that we are quite good to ourselves, this is our Thursday night treat dinner (or ‘tea’ as Jane calls it). A farrotto with the lovely nuttiness of spelt and gorgeously sweet glazed figs topped off with some citrus tofu feta.

Every Thursday, I’m normally off work and Jane gets back early, we head off to the big smoke (Bangor – which is a small town with a big Cathedral) and we pick up our veg box from a wonderful little farm in Bethel and then head to a cafe and maybe pick up some fruit. Today these beautifully plump figs caught my eye, I haven’t had the pleasure of figs for an age and love them with a little balsamic glaze.

FARROTTO?

Farrotto is an Italian dish made with ‘faro’ which can be translated as spelt. Whenever I cook with spelt, it seems timeless. An ancient grain that has been used for centuries in these parts. We normally keep spelt for sprouting purposes and love the chew of the stuff in a salad, it’s always a hearty customer.

This farrotto is simply cooked like a risotto, only for longer. We used some local chestnut mushrooms, fresh garden herbs and giant organic spinach for a classic Italian combo. We also had a little secret ingredient in our umami powder, a mixture of fine sea salt, seaweed and powdered shiitake mushrooms. Add to that bags of garlic and a small pile of onion and we are talking Italy on a plate using Welsh produce. Definitely how we like to do it in the BHK, world food, local bits.

Tofu Feta – looks similar, tastes different

FETA TOFU, TOFU FETA, ARE YOU MAD?

As a a vegan, you must eat tofu. It’s one of the vegan commandments. If you don’t go tofu, you’re sent to work in Mcdonalds by the vegan police. It’s not pretty. Eat tofu!

Tofu feta is a vegan staple and nothing like proper feta but is damn fine and tasty non-the-less. It is a little tiresome with so much vegan food sharing names with the original cheese/ meat produce. Its something we’ll all have to live with, but when trying vegan sausages/ burgers/ cheese etc please do not expect something remotely similar. Approach with an open mind and preferably an open mouth!

As you’d expect from a tofu dish, this is full of powerful plant protein and is superbly lean (no fat in fact). Always opt for whole bean tofu and you cannot go wrong, tofu is amazingly versatile and we even use it in desserts, check it out – strawberry tofu ice cream cake).

Firm tofu will crumble like a nice feta and if you pop this recipe in a blender you have what could be called tofu ricotta. We don’t make the names, just the tasty food.

AUTUMN HARVEST TIME

It is that time of the year when the slight chill of winter is in the morning air and the trees and bushes are ladened with fruits and berries. We had a surprise apple tree spring up a few weeks ago. We thought it was just a little bush and wham! Big green apples all over the place. Result!

We will soon be harvest our potatoes and beetroots, blackberries are everywhere (which is great for walks, no need for a packed lunch!), we will be making rowan syrup soon and bramble jelly. We are also trying to eat as much rainbow chard as possible, it’s irrepressible, which is wonderful news. We are really thankful for a great summer weather wise and the bounty of autumn is a fine time of year to be a cook, I’ve never roasted so many tomatoes. It’s the time of year when spare jam jars become a rare commodity.

We love the British seasons but will be cheating again this year and heading to Spain for a large part of it, we then have plans to go further afield. Eastward. Hoorah! I plan on making a pit stop in the Southern Med for a couple of weeks of eating my way around various countries (Jane is heading to Delhi), then waddling around some fascinating historical sights. I promise to come back inspired with notebooks full of new recipes to try out and a belly full of hummus.

Herb garden raided – My king of bouquet (edible)

The Bits

Serves 2 hungry sorts

Farrotto

2 cups spelt grain, 3 cloves garlic (minced), 1 small onion (chopped finely), 4 cups large spinach leaves and stems (sliced), 1 cup dried chestnut mushrooms (soaked) or 2 cups fresh, 1 teas umami powder or salt, 1 teas cracked black pepper, 5 large leaves fresh sage (chopped finely, 1 teas dried), 2 teas fresh rosemary (chopped, 1/2 teas dried), 1 teas fresh oregano (good pinch dried), 1 cup mushroom soaking liquor, 4 cups good veg stock (kept warm – jug with a plate on top will do, or a covered pan on low temp), 2 tbs good olive oil

Balsamic Figs

2 plump figs (halved from stem down), 1 tbs balsamic vinegar, 1 teas brown rice syrup (or other sweetener), scant pinch of salt and pepper

Tofu Feta

1/2 pack firm tofu (150g crumbled with fingers), juice of 1/2 lemon, 1 teas sea salt, 1-2 cloves garlic minced (depending on how much you love garlic), a few basil leaves (optional – left whole in the feta when marinading)

A couple of handfuls of sharp salad leaves, rocket is perfect.

Some of the bit and the not-so-secret ingredient

Do It

In a medium sized saucepan, warm on medium heat 1 tbs olive oil, add your onions and saute for 4-5 minutes. When softened, add garlic and faro to toast a little, saute for 3 minutes further, then add your umami (salt), pepper and mushrooms followed quickly by the liquor all this whilst stirring well! Intense. You’ll get a nice hiss now, add your herbs and continue to stir well. It’s all in the stir this dish.

When the liquor has reduced down, ladle in some warm stock, one ladle at a time as the farrotto becomes thicker and reducing, intensifying the flavours. Wow, what a thing! Keep stirring gently. Cook on a steady heat for around 40 minutes in total, the faro should still have a little bite to it and the consistency of a loose porridge. Finish with 1 tbs olive oil stirred in just before serving.

The tofu is best made the night before serving to marinade nicely. Crumble the tofu in a bowl, add the rest of the ingredients and mix well with a spoon. Serve at room temperature, like most things, straight out of the fridge is just not cool. It’s a flavour killer.

In a small frying pan, get it hot, add you balsamic and sweetener then your figs straight after, there will be smoke here. Exciting. Move the figs around the pan to get well coated in the glaze, cook for two minutes on high heat then remove from pan. The figs should have a lovely shiny charred look to them.

Figs mid-glaze

Serve

On one half of a dinner plate, pop a handful of leaves sprinkled with some tofu feta (add walnuts or other nuts here for a super special twist) a couple of fig halves, few twists of black pepper.

On the other half (remember this is two meals in one here!) spoon your lovely thick and gooey farrotto, a sprinkle of herbs and drizzle the whole plate with some fine olive oil.

Chestnut Mushroom and Sage Farrotto with Balsamic Figs and Tofu Feta (as you can see, we are not shy with portions in the BHK, no finger food in our kitchen!)

We Love It!

Like eating in our favourite Italian restaurant in the Beach House. Who needs to go out for dinner when the food is this good in the casa and you get your starter and main course on the same plate. Unconventional, but we like it. Great for sharing.

The citrus tofu and sweet figs work well and the farrotto is our new favourite risotto (if you catch our drift),

Foodie Fact

Spelt is a cousin/ neighbour of wheat, but is lower in gluten making it acceptable to some folk who suffer from wheat allergies. Generally its better for the belly than wheat and makes a wonderfully nutty loaf in flour state.

Spelt is said to originate from Iran and is 7000 years old (how do they know these things). Spelt has always been highly regarded and was offered to pagan gods of agriculture to encourage a fine harvest and fertility.

Spelt has a better range of nutrients than the vast majority of wheats, its full of minerals which our body loves. It is a whole grain meaning it has a good level of dietary fibre, remember that grains are not the only soure of fibre, many fruits are full of it. Take raspberries for example which have a comparatively higher level of fibre than oats and brown rice put together!

Categories: Autumn, Dinner, Recipes, Vegan | Tags: balsamic, faro, farrotto, figs, healthy, recipe, spelt, tofu feta, vegan, vegetarian | 7 Comments

Morcilla De Verano – Spanish-Style Aubergines

Posted on August 23, 2013 by leroy watson

Morcilla De Verano

A traditional vegan classic from the south of Spain, originally cooked to replicate Morcilla (black pudding basically). You regularly see it served around Murcia, especially on tapas bar counters. Its a great option for me in the land of jamon. All Murcians know the dish and are rightly proud of it. We’ve added some tempeh to the traditional recipe making it more of main event. I love cooking aubergines right down with sweet onions and the addition of proper Spanish herbs and spices really pack a punch flavour wise.

Even though its called a ‘summer’ dish, we think this is great all year around. Due to its slightly meat like texture, this is a dish to sate all. We’re always trying to find dishes that will appeal to meat eaters aka most of our family and friends. This is exactly what this dish was created for, people couldn’t afford meat and were looking for a delicious substitute.

You know, I love Spanish food and this dish really taps into the rustic heart of their magical range of cuisine. Spanish food speaks of the land and culture. It is the perfect expression of such a diverse land and for me, the cuisine of the South perfectly matches the arid plains and craggy red mountains. Its rugged, its got bags of soul and it can take your breath away.

As some of you will know, my parents have a little place over in Murcia, Jane and I are regular visitors chasing the sun and the peaceful Med life. This dish is based on a recipe passed to us from wonderful friends over that way, Fey and Jose. It is actually Jose’s brother Andres recipe and he created it in an attempt to eat less meat (he’s a real maverick in the area, only 0.3% of Spain’s population are veggies after all). I still have the little scrap of paper that he wrote it down on one night, for me that is real soul cooking. This recipe is connected with so many memories of wonderful people and places, we can’t help but love it. We have of course made our usual Beach House alterations, but this does not stray too far from Andres Murcian delight. Gracias HombresX

Recipe Notes

Don’t be shy with the oil here, remember it is Spanish after all! The dish should be slightly on the oily side which of course makes it very rich and satisfying. After eating this for dinner Jane exclaimed “I feel like I’ve just eaten meat and two veg” rubbing her belly. Always a good sign.

We decided that this is a star dish and very versatile. It could be used to stuff a vegetable, a courgette or potato sounds perfect. Of course, its great for tapas and picnics and is lovely even when served cold.

Buen Provecho!

The Bits

2 small aubergines

1 courgette

1 small onion (all three finely diced and kept seperate)

2 garlic cloves (crushed)

2 teas fresh rosemary (finely chopped)

2 teas sherry vinegar

2 teas sweet paprika

1/2 teas cinnamon

1/2 teas all spice

2 teas fresh oregano (finely chopped) or 1 teas dried

200g tempeh (or tofu)

1-2 teas sea salt

1 1/2 teas cracked black pepper

Olive oil (for frying)

Topping

2 tbs toasted pine nuts or almonds

Do It

This is a three part saute/ pan frying routine, meaning a number of stages until your meaty morcilla is just right. The trick is to get everything nicely caramelised, bringing out maximum flavours.

First saute, courgettes and aubergine

Start with your aubergine and courgette. Add 2 tbs of the oil and warm on a medium heat in a heavy based frying pan. Add the aubergine and saute for 8-10 minutes, until nice and golden and releasing some of their liquid, then add the courgettes and continue to saute for another 5 minutes. This is the real flavourful aspect of the dish, the aubergines should be nicely browned and gorgeously sweet by this stage. Set aside.

Next, your tempeh needs sorting. Chop it up finely, it will resemble dried scramble egg. Add 1/2 tbs of oil and saute for 5-7 minutes, until it is beginning to get brown around the edges. Set aside with the aubergine mix.

Now, add 1 tbs oil, fry the onions in the same pan (wipe out if necessary). Lower the heat if things are getting a little hot. Stir, the onions should take 6-8 minutes to become golden, we don’t want to rush them and risk burning them. Once they are golden, add the garlic and cook for 3 minutes, pop your vinegar in to a big hiss. Now it’s time to spice things up.

Add your paprika, all spice and cinnamon, saute for a minute, stirring all the time and not allowing the mix to stick. Then add your herbs and the aubergine/tempeh mix to the pan. Stir well and warm through for a couple of minutes. Your ready for the plate.

Warm through and enjoy the awesome aromas

Serve

In a warm serving dish, topped with some pine nuts and a sprinkling of paprika.

We served our morcilla with some steamed green vegetables (broad beans, runner beans and broccoli) with some pan fried lemon cabbage.

Morcilla de Verano – looking good!

We Love It!

Really satisfying rustic style Spanish fare. I imagine this is pretty close to Morcilla itself and cannot wait to try it out on some meat eaters. Dads coming soon, one of our favourite guinea pigs.

Foodie Fact

Pine nuts are just incredible little things. Now so expensive, but worth every penny as a treat item. They can make a real difference to a dish, especially when roasted a little to bring out the flavour.

Pine nuts are full of vitamin A, so you’ll be able to see in the dark. They have good levels of vitamin D, for the bones and are also rich in vitamin C and iron. They are quite fatty, which is obvious when you enjoy them, but its mono-unsaturated fats. Pine nuts are also packed full of energy, great on cereal for a morning buzz and fizz.

Served with some blanched summer greens – Not bad for Thursday!

Categories: Dinner, Recipes, Vegan | Tags: aubergine, food, healthy, morcilla de verano, murcia, recipe, spain, spanish, tapas, vegan, vegetarian | 12 Comments

Raw Vegan Lasagne with Avocado and Lemon Ricotta (Gluten-free)

Posted on August 15, 2013 by leroy watson

Raw Lasagne with Avocado and Lemon Ricotta (Vegan/ Gluten Free)

Raw Vegan Lasagne with Avocado Lemon Ricotta, Red Bean and Walnut with Tomato and Basil Sauce (Vegan/ Gluten Free)

This is one of those dishes that really stands out. A dish that just makes perfect sense and falls into place perfectly on the plate and palate. All those yummy layers, one on top of another.

Meat eaters beware! This is a ‘converter’, one fork-full and you’ll join the lighter side. A dish that dis spells the ludicrous myths that vegetarians are merely ‘rabbit food’ munchers.

We have found vegan raw food presents a simple equation:

Raw Vegan Food = Shiny and Zinging Life of the Highest Order + Awesome, Creative New Flavours and Combinations

Granted its not the simplest of equations, but its a fine one non-the-less! This dish is full, full, full of delicious flavour, nutrition and vegetarian protein power (see top 5 veggie sources of protein here).

Jane was typing whilst I made this and here is what I said about it, hot off the press:

“So good for you and tasty, I can see this stuff really catching on! I see this as the future of food. Its a simple as that. Pasta without the carbs, supercharged full of colour and nutrition, all the flavours of Italy. Fascinating combination of flavours only ever seen in vegan cooking, using all whole foods, nothing jarred – this is what we are going for in the BHK.”

Reading this back again, I completely agree with what my former self uttered. This is the future of cooking (and non-cooking). We all want the best for ourselves and raw vegan food gives us just that. This is a trend that is actually positive for mind and body. Can you imagine how much the National Health Service would save if we all decided to eat vegan raw food, or incorporate more of it into our diets. We’d all live to 150 and hardly ever darken the door of a hospital or doctor. We believe that nutrition and the food we eat is that important. Call it preventative medicine if you will, but taking care of yourself and eating amazing food doesn’t sound like too bad a deal. No compromise on taste either, just look at this wonder plate!

Semi-rant over for now, back to the recipe. Its not totally raw this one, but could be very easily. Because Raw Earth Month has now officially ended (yes we are using the odd light at night and the occasional square of chocolate is disappearing from the cupboard) cooked beans have re-entered our diets. How I missed them. I love a bean. Without even thinking, I added red kidney beans to the ‘meat’ layer of our lasagne. They are perfect colour wise and they add a great texture. I also love them with walnuts, no idea why?

We are lucky to have a raft of inspirational friends and the original idea for this lasagne comes from the sparkling Sava over at Travel Butterfly. Sava is a constant source of inspiration on many levels for us at the Beach House and some of her vegan/ raw recipes really hit the wonder mark.

This lasagne, and lasagne in general, has a few components to sort, it takes a little time. Its well worth it though and would definitely be classed as a special occasion dish. This dish has the whiff of wow factor about it, one that looks almost as good as it tastes (after all, food that looks better than it tastes is such a let down). I am always interested to find that most people who don’t cook much still know how to make a decent lasagne. Its quite a tricky and time consuming thing to get together, especially the art of a non-lumpy bechamel. I generally think people are alot better at cooking than they claim to be!

Raw Vegan Lasagne

Good tomatoes here are essential. We had some in our veg box this week and they blew us away, when I tried the sauce, I couldn’t believe I hadn’t added a sweetener to it. That’s it reaction you need! Gorgeous tomatoes are hard to find. Some tomatoes just need a little love, leave them in a bowl, ripen them just like a fruit and sometimes they come good, at the very least, they will get better. A chilled tomato is just no good. There is a soup we made a little like this, found here.

If you are completely raw, we’d probably substitute the beans with more seeds and nuts. Maybe a little dried apricot to bind things together. I am sure you have your own ideas, as being a raw vegan really pushes your creativity to the limits. We know how it is.

We use amino acids of tamari here because most soya sauce is just no good. Soya is a funny thing and unless processed properly, can be of detriment to the body. Tamari and something like Braggs Liquid Amino Acids are perfect replacements and tamari especially, even tastes finer.

We top this all off with some Nutritional Yeast Flakes. I know we all don’t have them in the cupboard, but they are brilliant little flakes to add an almost cheesiness to dishes. They have a unique savoury taste that must be tried to appreciate and are a vegan lifesaver. For me, they are little like a vegan parmesan. That intense!

A few other raw recipes that may tickle your tastebuds:

Black Prince Tomato and Coriander Soup

Crunchy Thai Salad with Green Coco Dressing

Raw Coconut and Lime Cheesecake

Hazelnut and Lentil Hummus

Now, lets non-cook!

The Bits

Tomato and Basil Sauce
3 cups plum cherry toms, 1 cup soaked sundried toms (finely chopped) with ¼ cup of oil from the jar), 1 cup fresh basil leaves, 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar, 1 teaspoon dried oregano, 1 clove crushed garlic (crushed)

Bean and Walnut Layer
250g red kidney beans (cooked) or 1 tin-ish, 1 cup of walnuts, ½ cup of pumpkin seeds (add bite), 2 x teaspoon Braggs Liquid Aminos (or tamari), Pinch of salt and pepper

Pasta Layers
1 gold courgette, 1 green courgette (or two green is fine)
Cut in half width-ways and finely sliced into layers

Avocado and Lemon Ricotta
1 ripe avocado (must be ripe), 250g firm tofu (drained well, save a few thin slices for the topping), 2 tbls olive oil, ¼ cup nutritional yeast flakes, 1 small clove garlic (crushed), ½ lemon juice and zest, pinch of salt

Topping
Thinly sliced tofu, olives (finely chopped), sprinkled with Nutritional Yeast Flakes

Do It

This raw game is an easy one. Just whack it in the food processor and voila! Gorgeous Lasagne.

Tomato and Basil Sauce – Pop all in a FP and whizz until smooth. Set aside and clean blender.

Bean Walnut Layer – Pop all in a FP and blitz until smooth but with lots of chunks (similar to mince I guess). Set aside and clean blender.

Avocado and Lemon Ricotta – Pop all in a FP, blend until smooth. Set aside.

Pop all in the fridge for an hour to chill and thicken up a little before the layering.

Raw Lasgane ready for stacking

Make sure that you slice you courgette/ zucchini carefully. You want them to be almost as thin as pasta sheets. A mandolin is perfect for this, but a big beware here! They love to slice fingers also.

Now to layer the beast.

On your chosen serving plate (a square one would be perfect), lay out your first layer of courgette. Depending on your chopping skills, you may need to put two layers of courgette (if wafer thin style). Carefully spread on your bean and walnut layer and a thin layer of the tomato and basil sauce.

Next, add another layer of courgette, slightly smaller in diameter than the first, pressing down gently to make the layer stick. This is mainly a presentation thing, you can see the layers better when they are not overhanging each other. Once the layer is neatly placed, spread on your vegan ricotta.

First layer underway

The final layer, once more press down gently and arrange a nicely overlapping mosaic of your wonderfully sliced courgette, top with a layer of tofu (which can’t help but look a little like mozzarella), a good layer of tomato and basil sauce, sprinkle on your chopped olives and a good sprinkle of yeast flakes. Top with some basil that you will no doubt have hanging around your glorious kitchen.

That’s it! As simple or as difficult as you make it! We think its medium in the ‘fiddle scale’.

Raw Vegan Lasagne with Avocado and Lemon Ricotta – A taste explosion waiting to happen.

Serve

Immediately. The salt will gradually release liquids in the lasagne, which are very tasty, but don’t look the best. This lasagne can be sliced as usual and the layers will stay intact and look amazing.

We Love It!

A dish in the locker that will impress friends and family for many years and make us look very clever indeed when actually its leisurely walk in the park.

The flavours mingle and merge in some form of Italian perfection and you will be amazed at the reaction from meat-eaters. Try it! They love it too!

Foodie Fact

Courgette (zucchini to some) is a summer squash, they are said to have originated in Mexico and come in all shapes and sizes. Courgettes are very low in calories and have no cholesterol or fat, the peel is full of dietary fibre and it is also a good source of vitamin A and has high levels of heart friendly potassium.

Jane's been making dollies out of wheat again. This is Trevor.

Jane’s been making dollies out of wheat again. This is Wild Johnny.

Categories: Healthy Eating, Raw Food, Recipes, Special Occasion, Vegan | Tags: avocado, food, gluten-free, healthy, lasagne, nutritional yeast flakes, ricotta, vegan, vegetarian, vegetarian protein | 7 Comments

World’s Best Kitchen Implement – Skrub’a Gloves!

Posted on August 10, 2013 by leroy watson

Jane happily skrubbing!

A very lovely friend from Germany sent us the most fantastic present the other day, the like of which we have never seen before on Welsh shores! Introducing Skrub’a The Scrubbingglove – a clever Danish invention in a pretty orange carrot design!

These wonder-gloves could not have come at more perfect timing (another wonderful synchronicity, thanks Nicole). You probably know that we are now lucky enough to be loving the weekly fresh local and organic veggie box grown by lovely Pippa and John down the road…. Such delicious, fresh and DIRTY veggies! Up until now the lowly washing up brush has been doing all the hard scrubbing work. But we find that still leaves little bits of dirt on the veggies, especially in the nobbles and bumps.

gloves

It was with delight and happy intrepidation that we donned the gloves for the first time, dunked the root veg and began skrub-ing them with our gloved hands. The gloves (very much like those exfoliating shower-mitts) were utterly perfect at getting into the grooves and pits of the most twisty of carrot.

It was a quick and unusually satisfying job, and at the end of it we had smiley faces and very clean beetroots. Not only that, but 50% of the vitamins in veggies are in the peel! So Skrub’a Gloves thank you very much, you are our new favourite kitchen implement!

Categories: 'The Good Life' | Tags: cleaning, equipment, food, kitchen, kitchen tools, scrubbing, skruba gloves, vegetables, vegetarian | 9 Comments

Apple Mint Herbal Vinegar – Health Tonic Extraordinaire!

Posted on August 8, 2013 by leroy watson

delicious minty vinegar

It has been a luscious blossoming blooming year for gardeners across the land. Much sunlight and only occasional rain has kept most of the slug and snail critters at bay, hoorah! And over in Staffordshire, Mum and dad’s apple mint went wild again, and started springing up everywhere in places most unexpected. We were lucky enough to be at the right place at the right time to harvest the lot, bring it back to the Beach House Kitchen and get creative.

When faced with huge armfuls of thick 3ft long mint stems, it is easy to find yourself wondering what on earth you’re going to do with the bounty of furry goodness there in front of you! But luckily there are many ways to preserve herbs – in oils, vinegars, dried in jars; and many uses for the finished product like salad dressings, flavouring for your cooking, teas and delightful herbal baths! Lets face it a whole shelf of different herbal vinegars is pure visual delight – and that’s before you’ve even eaten any!

yummy mint, fresh and dried

The Bits

Glass or plastic jar with waxed paper and elastic band for lid if metal (vinegar disintegrates metal lids)

Apple cider vinegar with the mother culture (great for your digestive system)

Aromatic herbs, such as apple mint (or all the other kinds of mint too), chives and chive blossom, dandelion flowers and leaves, organic orange peel, lavender flowers, even nettles…. The list goes on…

Do it

Fill a jar with your freshly cut chopped herbs, making sure the jar is well filled but not packed too tightly either… (After a few goes you’ll get the idea, I don’t think I put enough in ours)!

Pour room-temperature apple cider vinegar into the jar until it is full.

Cover jar with wax paper held on with a rubber band and metal lid on top, or a plastic lid, or a cork.

Label the jar with the name of the herb and the date.

Put the jar in a kitchen cupboard not too hot and not too cold but out of direct sunlight and leave for 6 weeks.

Don’t forget it’s there!

Serve

Over salads or beans and grains at dinner, in salad dressings, or to season stir fries and soups.

You can even drink it in the morning in a glass of water as a health tonic, after all what could be more healthy than your own produce soaked in apple cider vinegar!

We love it

There’s a lovely aspect of this creative process too and it’s all about the love and appreciation of food that has come out of your own soil. The very act of stripping the leaves from the stem, drying them, and getting creative all feels like a very natural and heart-warming process; one which our ancestors would have done too, to preserve that nourishing goodness of Summer ready for darker Wintery times. And it is SO good for you! Daily use of preserved herbs gives you a little health boost with virtually no expense or effort.

Foodie fact

Herbs are magic because of the high level of nutrients they contain – mint for example contains a lot of Calcium.

Apple cider vinegar has been known as a health-giving agent for centuries. Hippocrates swore by it, along with honey. It is incredible at lowering cholesterol, improving skin tone, and even for arthritis. It is also very good at dissolving nutrients from plants which water is not so good at, meaning this vinegar is super-healthy and mineral rich.

Ever seen your granny splash some vinegar onto her greens before serving? Eaten with iron rich vegetables like spinach or broccoli, vinegar can increase the amount of calcium you get by a third. Pretty amazing stuff!

Vinegar is highly alkaline, I know that sounds strange, but when it is metabolised by the body, it goes through a serious change. Alkaline foods are incredible for health and keep disease and other baddies at bay.

minty spiral

Categories: Foraging, Infusions, Recipes | Tags: alkaline foods, apple cider vinegar, apple mint, detox, food, foraging, health tonic, infusion, recipes, vegan, vegetarian, vinegar | 6 Comments

Blooming Marvelous! Garden Update

Posted on July 25, 2013 by leroy watson

The Queen of Salads!

Well, well, well……I mean really. We had a summer, a proper stint of sun. We woke every morning expecting it to be sunny. How rare, how brilliant! The garden has appreciated the warmth and light, things are blooming like never before in our little mountain abode, we can’t keep up with the progress, most of the time just letting nature do its thing and appreciate what comes from that. This generally hides our lack of discipline with gardening and confirms our inherent feeling that nature cannot be contained in a plant pot, or bossed around. Our potatoes seem to appreciate the approach!

The Potato Patch

Courgette Flower

The Beach House Garden is quite big and wild, after not strimming for a while it was resembling a Welsh jungle and wild things lurked out towards the horse field. Fortunately they were just frogs and the occasional mole, although the rabid sheep have been making unwanted appearances in the garden. Feral lot that they are.

So this year we have some decent looking beetroots, rhubarb chard, cavolo nero and even courgettes coming along. The herbs have gone wild (which we always enjoy) and as I said, we have three varieties of potatoes leaping from the ground at an alarming rate. Come early August and freak storms permitting, we should have a reasonable bounty to play with in the BHK and share amongst our nearest and dearest.

‘Erbs running wild

Raw Earth Month marches on bathed in sun and good vibrations. I have to say, the food has been grand and we are trying our best to post more recipes. Our month of total raw/ vegan-ness ended yesterday, no booze, coffee, consuming, chemicals, lights, washing machine etc for over a month now and going strong. Once you start this and feel good about it, it’s always hard to get back off it. I am sure one day a scone will come along and that will be it! Until then we are thinking another two weeks are in order. There are two bottles of cava primed for the closing ceremony, we’ll have a picnic in the back garden on the stone circle and eat sandwiches and a lemon drizzle cake (Jane’s favourite) and get slightly sozzled in the sun (hopefully).

Yellow Lilly’s (I think) growing in the pond

Cavolo Nero, Beetroots and Chard

We are so lucky to have wild strawberries growing this year, if we can grab them before the birds take their share! They are the sweeetest, fragrant little things. Just one tiny strawberry can change your day, much better than their big brother variety.

Wild Strawberries

My hayfever has taken a back seat now that Jane’s magical herbalist friend has sent some little sweet pills through. I can now enjoy the garden without fear of pathetic dribbles and sneezing fits taking over. Hoorah! This has made a huge difference to my enjoyment of the dramatic transformations in these green and golden hills.

We are being battered by odd humid, tropical storms at the moment, but somewhere behind those grey clouds, there’s a sun waiting to get busy.

On a walk near the Beach House

Some classic George (you saw this one coming surely!):

Hopefully you’ll be seeing some of our garden produce in our recipes very soon, there is nothing quite like cooking with your own veg. I am lucky enough to be working at a wonderful retreat centre at the moment and cook with alot of veg grown on the land. There is something intangible and whole heatedly enjoyable about cooking with such produce. It makes all the difference and the flavours are spectacular! Eating the stem of a rhubarb chard recently is a food experience I will never forget!

Enjoy the heat wave (while it lasts)!

Categories: Garden, Raw Food, Summer | Tags: food, garden, gardening, homegrown, music, nature, organic, photography, raw, veg patch, vegetarian | 8 Comments

Sprouted Wheat Grains, Apple, Carrot and Mustard Salad (Raw)

Posted on July 9, 2013 by leroy watson

A wholesome, hearty salad that fits perfectly with our beloved Welsh summer (meaning torrential rain and mist, even the sheep look miserable!) This is actually unfair as today and yesterday have been complete beauties, check out the sunset below taken from the kitchen window.

Its a real eden like environment up here on the hill and our garden is loving the sun. The beetroots and cavolo nero particularly are leaping out of the ground. Slugs seem to be taking it easy, probably hiding in some damp slug den, planning there next raid. Cunning slime balls that they are. Long like the sunshine!

RAW TIMES

Sprouted wheat grains have been a saviour for us in the past as they sate and bready sweet pangs that we have. Sometimes when we sit down to some nice raw salads, soups etc we do crave a little bread to add something a little different. We will be experimenting with raw breads very soon, but until then we reach for our buddies the wheat grains.

It takes a couple of days for them to sprout and after that you have a lovely sweet and chewy grain to use in all kinds of good things. They need to be soaked in filtered water for 24 hours and then placed in a sprouting tray or something flat, rinse them twice daily with fresh water and you’ll soon see the sprouts waking up.

Anybody who reads the BHK regularly knows that we are into our sprouts. Anything sprouted just seems so full of vitality and energy. They are so easy to do at home even we manage! We have been experimenting with other grains, oat and buckwheat are two firm favourites. We also have barley, which is next on the sprout list. The grain sprouts bring something new to the menu, quite chewy and meaty in texture.

The star here is the dressing, pairing our local rapeseed oil, with mustard and apple concentrate, a brilliant combo of flavours. The rapeseed oil is almost buttery and the sweet apples cuts through nicely. YUM!

Making dressings all hangs on what the ingredients of the salad is and the overall flavour you’d like. This is a sweet salad, with the apples and the raisins, which Jane really loves. We made the dressing slightly tart to counteract the sweetness, I always try and think of what the overall flavour of a salad will be when I’m making a dressing and adjust it accordingly. A dressing can accentuate the flavour of great ingredients, or hide them behind bog flavours. I think a balance is best, with the veggies shining through.

The Bits – For 2 Hungry Herbivores

2 cups sprouted wheat grains, 1 apple (decored and chopped), 1 celery stick (chopped), 2 carrots (scrubed and chopped), 2 cup raisins. 1 handful mint (ripped), 1 handful parsley (chopped), 2 handfuls rocket leaves, 1/2 cup sunflower seeds

Dressing – 1/2 cup cold pressed rapeseed oil, 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar, 1 tbs apple concentrate, 1 tsp English mustard, 1 clove garlic (crushed), 1 teas sea salt (to taste)

Do It

Chop all ingredients in a fashion that suits your mood. We were in a post work hurry, so they became abstract, but satisfying non-the-less. Also when the sun goes down, we are using candle light and it can be difficult to chop things and wash up when you’re in the dark. In fact, many things are. You need to slow down, read, then sleep. Which is great.

Whisk up your dressing ingredients in a small bowl, making sure all is nicely combined.

Serve

Dressing on the side, it is quite potent and each persons taste will differ. Salads are of course best served super fresh, straight off the chopping board.

We Love It!

A real local treat this one, welsh rapeseed oil, mustard, apples, celery, rocket…..almost the entire bowlful came from our neck of the woods and some from the garden. We love this time of year when the sun shines a little and plants begin to bloom and fruit. Happy days indeed!

Foodie Fact
Rejuvelac is an amazing by-product of the grain sprouting process. It is regarded highly by Ann Wigmore and all at the Hippocrates Healthy People, which we pay great attention to. It is one of those things that boasts incredible health benefits, but there is something about it that is quite special, almost undiscovered by modern science.

Rejuvelac contains many enzymes aiding digestion and is filled with friendly bacteria which are amazing for us, helping us to release toxins in the body. Add to that the fact that it is bursting with vitamin B, E and C and you’re looking at quite a beverage. It also tastes nice, like a tangy lemonade with a hint of sweet grain.

Here’s how its made.

Suns gone and I’m typing by feel, time to call it a day………

Categories: Recipes, Salads | Tags: ann wigmore, food, health, raw, recipe, rejuvelac, salad, sprouting, sprouts, vegan, vegetarian, wheat, wheat grains | 10 Comments

Sprouted Buckwheat, Onion and Miso Crackers (Raw)

Posted on July 6, 2013 by leroy watson

Sprouted Buckwheat, Onion and Miso Crackers (Raw)

What a thing! What a wonderful thing! RAW CRACKERS have arrived with a crunch at the BHK! We managed to pick up a dehydrator for half price which has inspired us to play with many ingredients in new ways, generally making them all crispy.

This crispiness is something you can miss when you go full-on raw (I believe it is known as mouth feel in some circles, but that sounds too technical for a humble cracker), the odd bit of toast, bread, crackers, oat cakes, you know the drill. You fancy something to balance the crunch and zest of all the magic veggies and fruits you’re eating. This is where the raw cracker comes into its own and this one boast not only dried onions (massive flavour here) but also brown miso for a cracker that tastes as stunning and moreish as anything dusted with chemicals and the like.

These buckwheat crackers were a real surprise, we had no idea they’d taste so dang good! The only issue is not eating them all at once and they do take a good 12 hours to dehydrate. Dehydrating is a great lesson in being prepared and most importantly patient. You can’t rush the process, but the end result is normally more than worth the wait. It’s best to dehydrate over night and then you just forget about whats going on until you wander down in the morning and find some crispy wonders awaiting you.

The dehydrator also makes soothing buzzing noise and warms a room quite nicely, just a couple of add- on benefits. It actually sounds like your on a plane when you sit beside it, that gently humming and whistling, you can close your eyes and imagine your off to somewhere exotic to behave in wonderful ways.

Buckwheat is one of those things that we don’t eat enough of, we have to go to the health shop to get our hands on it. When we have it around we love having a play with it using it as a substitute for grains in salads and stews.

Buckwheat is actually a berry (along the lines of quinoa) and has nothing to do with wheat etc, so its gluten free and great for the body/ digestion. Buckwheat flour is also perfect for a full flavoured, dense pancake or flatbread. We love wheat, but it generally doesn’t love us. When you start giving things up on a raw diet, you really get to know your digestive system in a new way (promise not to get too graphic here!). You also realise how much strain you have been putting it under and wheat/ gluten for us is a real drag on the belly and below. Still, the smell of toast is something quite special and we’ll always nibble our way through a couple of slices. It’s a pleasure-pain thing and the pleasure is well worth the gurgling insides.

There is something about miso that is quite special also, it’s got that healthy bacteria thing going on and just feels very, very right. It is high in sodium, but it is used by the body in a different way to plain old salt. Japanese people eat alot of it and Japanese people live for a long, long time and have significantly less disease than us Western varieties. It could be the miso!?

We used slightly oiled baking parchment to dry these babies out, it works quite well, but in proper dehydrating circles, you’d use a special non-stick tray. If you are gentle with a spatula, you should be able to get them off in one piece-ish.

Makes eight medium sized crackers.

The Bits

300g sprouted buckwheat, 1 1/2 tbsp brown miso (use more if you are using white or yellow miso), 1 tbsp olive oil, 2 tbsp fresh parsley (we didn’t have any), 1/4 onion (finely sliced), 2 tbsp boiling water, 1 tbsp nutritional yeast flakes, 1 tbsp sunflower/ pumpkin seeds (optional)

Do It

Blend all together to a thick, spreadable paste. You’ve got to love this raw food prep, its a blend-fest, but oh so simple.

Just add……avocado?

Serve

We like ours with a crunchy salad, the contrast of textures is something to behold and its raw, and all the nutrients are there AND its superbly healthy. How about lathered in avocado!!!!! Its one of those raw/ vegan food no lose situations that we coming to love in the BHK.

We Love It!

Full of nutrition and raw crunch, we can’t wait to get started on a new batch. Flax and sprouted oat next up….

Foodie Fact

Buckwheat is a berry related to rhubarb and sorrel, it helps to slow down the absorption of glucose after a meal making it good for diabetics. It contains all of your amino acids, not produced by the body and also contains lysine and many minerals which are great for the immune system.

Categories: Raw Food, Recipes, Snacks and Inbetweens, Vegan | Tags: buckwheat, crackers, dehydrating, dehydrator, food, healthy, miso, raw, vegan, vegetarian | 2 Comments

Crunchy Thai Salad with Green Coco Dressing (Raw)

Posted on June 28, 2013 by leroy watson

Crunchy Thai Salad with Green Coco Dressing

So here we go again! Raw Earth Month at the Beach House Kitchen will see a huge influx of tasty salads and juices, its inevitable and we love ’em all!

An amazing friend of the BHK (Dodee over in Hawaii – see magical ‘Sacred Backyard Blog‘ here) said of raw food, ‘I’ve made the decision to feel good all the time!’ and how true that is. Jane and I are buzzing around feeling ace, it’s day five I think and we are fully over our ailments brought on by a fairly intense ‘treat’ time in Dublin(Guiness-fest), lots of birthdays in a row (wine and cake-fest) and meals out (plenty of great rich food). Our bodies are thanking us now and our energy levels are through the roof. We are also enjoying the naturally slower life, with no lights and electrical appliances at nighttime.

Jane enjoying the slower life – Glynllifon Estate, Caernarfon

I had some fairly strong caffeine withdrawal symptoms on day 2, pounding headache and no energy whatsoever. After a good sleep, this passed. Its amazing how the body adapts so quickly to things, good or bad and how sensitive you become when eating this wonderful raw stuff! Happy days indeed.

Salad wise, we had some left over thai curry paste hanging around the fridge that demanded a dish. This salad has all the flavours of Thailand and more, when we’re raw we really like to make a fuss over our salads.

Jane and I love Thailand and on rainy afternoons in Wales we sometimes wonder how Bangkok is and our favourite little coast towns; how are those street food stalls doing without us!? How is a our favourite juice guy near Kaosan Road? How is the coconut curry man in Prachuap Kiri Khan? At times like this, the tastebuds are going mental and they need something with the incredibly pungent and fragrant aromas of THAI. Its unmistakable and I’d almost consider going back just for the food alone, but there are at least a 101 other countries I’d like to visit before I start re-tracing my steps in the global sand.

Nutritionally, this is a beast of a dish; with sweet potato, sesame seeds, peanuts, avocado, spinach, etc etc etc, the list goes on and with a punchy/ creamy dressing to finish things off, its a real main event salad. When you decide to eat raw vegan, there is very little you can eat that will do you any harm, that’s one of the beautiful things about the lifestyle, pile it on a plate and know that its all good. No baddies included.

This salad boasts quite a list of ingredients and was mainly dictated by what we had in, but you can very happily have a play with this one; veggies can be chopped and changed and any nut will do here!

Talking of chopping, if you can get them into thin, baton-like shapes, they work best here. The dressing clings to them and they look the part also.

ความสงบสุข

khwām sngb sukh (peacex)

Makes one large salad bowl full, enough for four hungry munchers.

The Bits

Salad – 1 carrot, 1 stick celery, 1/2 cucumber, 1 red pepper1/2 sweet potato (all chopped into thin batons), 1 cup rocket (arugula to some), 2 spring onions (finely chopped),1 red chilli (finely chopped), 2 cups spinach (finely chopped), 1 cup cherry tomatoes (halved), 1 cup beansprouts (we used homesprouted mungers aka mung beans), 1 cup basil leaves, 1/2 avocado (scooped out with teaspoon), 1 lime (zest and juice), 1 tbs black sesame seeds, 1/2 cup raw peanuts

Dressing – 2 cup organic coconut cream (the creamier the better), 2 tbs green thai curry paste, 1/2 lime (zest and juice), 2 teas white wine vinegar, 1 handful basil leaves, 1 teas sea salt

Do It

Chop all hard veggie ingredients into long, thin batons leaving the avocado, nuts and basil leaves to the side for topping purposes. Add all the rest of the ingredient and the hard veggies to a large salad bowl, mix in half of the dressing, combine well and sprinkle over the topping ingredients.

For the dressing, simply blend all together in a food processor. The texture should be thick and ‘cling-y’ to get sticky all over on the salad.

Serve

Not chilled, but not quite room temperature, this is a good gauge for our salad temps. To cold and you don’t get the flavour, to warm and you have wilting issues. We always have a nice surplus of salad dressing in a bowl on standby.

CRUNCH! and ZING!

We Love It!

Getting back into raw vegan ways is a serious blessing for body, mind and soul. We are so lucky to both want to lead this type of lifetsyle, if one of us wanted chips everynight it just wouldn’t be the same! This salad is a far from chips as you can get in the food world. It’s a proper zinger!

Foodie Fact

Sesame seeds are outrageously healthy, some say they are the healthiest food in the world. These wonder seeds have been with us for many thousands of years and are thought to originate in India, having been mentioned in ancient Hindu texts.

They are very rich in minerals, especially copper, iron, calcium and zinc. So ‘open sesame’ and pop some in your diet soonXXXXXXX

Categories: gluten-free, Raw Food, Recipes, Salads, Vegan | Tags: coconut, food, healthy eating, raw, salad, thai, vegan, vegetarian | 11 Comments

Egyptian Ful Medames

Posted on June 21, 2013 by leroy watson

We have hardly been prolific of late, both of us busy as bees. Things are about to change. Raw Earth Month is about to commence, more of that later.

It’s great to be getting back in the blog flow, so I thought I’d start with a simple little stew that we love, get warmed up gently. So its semi-official, the Beach House is back and in many ways, better than ever!!!!!!!

I love broad beans. They are surprisingly one of Britian’s most ancient crops and we used to make bread out of it until our seafaring sorts brought wheat to these shore. I haven’t tried broad bean bread, but it sounds mighty.

This is a simple stew and ideal for a midweek dinner, hearty and superbly healthy, it also only takes a short time to prepare.

This may well be the national dish of Egypt, but it’s also served throughout North Africa and the Middle East. Ful (I like to mispronounce it ‘fool’) Medames is a rich, spiced stew that was a true food revelation when I ate it in Cairo old town all those years ago (seven to be exact). The food of Egypt was a pleasant surprise, as it does not have the reputation of say Lebanon or Iran. I can think of one little restaurant, buffet style, with fresh flat bread, heavenly light hummus and a large dollop of this on a steel plate. You can keep your Michelin star joints, this was real food, heart and soul. They also showed very entertaining Egyptian TV and a beautiful recitation of the Koran, it was a multi-media feast.

This dish is equalled by an Arabian recipe, heavy on the tahini and tomato, which transports broad (fava) beans to something supreme. I’ll be whipping that up in the future for sure. Broad beans have such a great, chewy texture, they are great fodder for visiting meat eaters and would sate any ravenous carnivore, especially if you serve topped with a fried egg and lashing of warm bread. YUM, YUM……

Alas, we live halfway up the hill in sunny Wales and my duty in the Beach House Kitchen it to bring the flavours of the world into our lovely little cottage. Last night it was flavours of the pharaohs that we dined on and no, we were not walking like an Egyptian afterwards.

The Bits – For 6-8

1kg whole dried fava beans, 3 garlic clove (blended), 1 red onion (blended), 50g fresh coriander, 25g fresh parsley, 1 large lemons (juice and zest), 1 small hot chilli (finely sliced), 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 3 heaped tsp cumin seeds, 700ml good tomato passata, 3 heaped tsp tomato puree
3 heaped tsp brown sugar, 100ml olive oil, sea salt and black pepper

Add a tablespoon of light tahini for added richness.

Do It

Soak the beans overnight. Drain, place in a pan, cover with plenty of water and cook for around one hour until tender.

Toast cumin seeds for 3 minutes in a hot frying pan, no oil, pop in a pestle and mortar and grind (ground cumin is also fine, but just not as good)

Blend the onion and garlic in a food processor, then fry gently in a little oil. Meanwhile, chop and mix the herbs, oil, lemon juice, chilli and spices.

Add this mixture to the onions and garlic, then cook for a few minutes. Add the passata and tomato puree plus 100ml of fresh water, which you can first use to wash the remains of the passata out of the jar or packet it came in.

Cook for a ten more minutes and then add the beans. Continue to simmer and taste – adjust seasoning with sugar, salt and pepper. The beans will be ready as soon as the seasoning is balanced and the sauce is nice and thick.

Serve

Eat straight away or allow it to cool, divide into portions and freeze. It’s traditionally eaten with warm pitta bread, plus tomato and cucumber salad.

We Love It!

I love bringing the flavours of the bustling streets of Cairo into our quiet little kitchen. Food evokes so many memories of travel for me and these flavours are allow me to relive days and nights in more exotic times. I love Wales, but its good to mix things up, regularly.

Foodie Fact

Broad beans offer awesome levels of fibre, keeping the belly and below very happy. They are full of folate, which lessens heart issues and other nasty diseases. A cup of broad beans contains 40% of your daily iron (and fibre) and is a brilliant source of lean protein. They are also easy to grow and even grow well in our windswept veg patch.

In times of doubt, refer to cat.

Categories: Dinner, Recipes, Stew, Travel | Tags: broad beans, egypt, food, ful medames, recipes, stew, travel, vegan, vegetarian | 4 Comments

Nettle & Wild Garlic Pistou

Posted on May 26, 2013 by leroy watson

Jane and I have been visiting the local hedgrerows and forests recently and have regularly come back with a bumper crop of nettles and wild garlic. It is such a wonderful time of year for these abundant herbs, they’re also easy to identify so there is no reason why we shouldn’t all be taking advantage of one of natures finest freebies! The forests reek of fragrant garlic!!

This is a pistou (French/ Italian) not a pesto (Italian), mainly due to the lack of nuts. If you add pine nuts, or another nut, you’d probably call it a pesto. Otherwise both are potent blends and something rather special to have hanging around the fridge.

There are a vast amount of edible shoots, leaves and berries that we are not aware of (by we, I mean us at the BHK!) We have books, we have TV programmes, but you cannot beat getting out there and having a look at whats growing for yourself. For example, we have recently learnt that young hawthorn leaves are a rare sweet treat. We’re taking it easy and adding a few new foraging delights to the menu each year.

Wild garlic and nettles have magical health properties. Nettle tea is a staple at this time of year and this pesto blend makes the most of both. It can be kept in the fridge for while and adds a unique flavour to anything it touches. Dressings, soups, stews, bread, to name a few we’ve stuck it in.

Nettles were used extensively in ancient Tibet and the Buddhist saint Milarepa was said to live on them when on retreat, turning green and enlightened. The kind of story that gets our imagination whirring.

Jane and I have gotten ourselves into a multitude of busy situations, gardening being but one. There has been much rain recently and today we managed to get out into the garden and pop the potatoes into the earth. We also have much beetroot, cavolo nero, spinach, rocket, rainbow chard, sunflowers and I can’t remember the rest. Needless to say, we are excited about the prospects of the Beach House Garden this year and have our fingers well crossed for a mild, wind-free summer. Very, very, very wishful thinking.

The Bits

60g nettle leaves, 40g wild garlic leaves, 4 garlic cloves (crushed), 100ml evoo, 100g vegan parmesan (Violife do a good one), 1 pinch salt and 2 pinch pepper

Do It

Blanch nettle quickly (10 seconds) in boiling water, this will keep them nice and green and take the sting out of them! Plunge (great word) into cold water. Pat dry.

Place all in a blender, blitz together until paste formed. Add a little more olive oil if you like in runny.

For old fashioned style, use a pestle and mortar. Simple as this.

Serve

In a pistou stew, see below, or spread on toast! It really comes to life tossed in warm pasta.

We Love It!

It literally grows on trees (or below them). This is our type of gardening, wander around pick it, no digging or engaging the brain. Go for a walk with a plastic bag and one rubber glove (those nettles take no prisoners) and you have a harvest on your hand.

Foodie Fact

Nettles contain bags of chlorophyll, calcium, iron, trace minerals, vitamins and proteins. They can be made into paper, hair lotions, thread, soil enricher (great on tomatoes!), disinfectant for stalls and stables, cups of tea…..It is a tonic, diuretic, astringent, anti-asthmatic, chi strengthener, anti-anaemic, laxative and a nettle brew can heal damage tissue. It strengthens kidneys, lungs, intestines and arteries with regular use.

Pistou Stew – Recipe to follow

Categories: Foraging, Healing foods, Recipes | Tags: foraging, free food, healing foods, nature, nettles, nutrition, pesto, pistou, simple, vegetarian, wild garlic | 13 Comments

Asparagus, Lemon & Pesto Pizza

Posted on May 3, 2013 by leroy watson

I love May, full of birthdays (my sister and I’s) and the green spears of asparagus decide to make a brief appearance. Surely one of the finest vegetables with a flavour like no other.

I’ve always found asparagus season intriguing, it’s so short and makes the availability of British asparagus so appealing. You are forced to save up all of your asparagus recipes for this one little window of the year and then POW! Asparagus begins to appear on everything. So to celebrate this asparagus-fest, we popped ours on a pizza, there is something special about the flavours of asparagus that lends it to Italian cuisine.

It’s not often that we get a pizza on the roll, the original idea for asparagus on pizza came from a lovely blog friend Margaret over at Pachamama’s Beautiful Food. If you haven’t been over to this wonderful oasis of food and nature, we highly recommend a visit. Margaret is sure to brighten up your day!

The ingredients here are pan roasted off in a little balsamic before topping the dough, adding a nice sweet/ sharp tang. This pizza also comes with an oil that packs even more flavour onto this already heavy-laden crust. We’d serve it in a bowl separately and let people help themselves.

Pesto we had left over and thought it sounded like a right good idea, this does make it a very rich affair, but adds a tonne of flavour. The pesto we used was your standard green pesto, plenty of parmesan and basil. A regular tomato sauce would also be wonderful here. Lemon zest is also a brilliant addition and really shines through here, not something you see often on a pizza.

GREEN SPEARS

Asparagus is one of the oldest recorded vegetables and is said to originate from the Mediterranean, it was much revered by the Greeks and Romans (and still is!) Asparagus is related to the onion and garlic, also the daffodil and tulip. Asparagus is one of those strange vegetables that actually take up more calories to digest, than they offer the body, making it a negative-calorie vegetable (celery is another). A celery and asparagus could just be the ultimate ‘diet’ salad.

Asparagus must be served as fresh as possible, if not the sugars present turn to starch and it loses flavour. Asparagus is best harvested early in the morning and kept in the fridge in a plastic bag, this will keep them tender and conserve the vitamins present.

Normally I’m a brown flour chap, but a little white does make things a lot lighter and a heavy pizza dough is just no fun. It doesn’t matter what you do,where you buy it from, how Italian the flour is; if you don’t make your own pizza dough, it just ain’t the same! Give it a whirl…..

This is a special pizza for special occasions!!

Roast Asparagus, Lemon and Pesto Pizza

The Bits

Pizza Dough

Our No Knead Pizza Dough is our favourite at the minute. So easy.

Toppings

8 stalks asparagus (tops cut in half length ways)

1 tbs balsamic vinegar

10 cherry tomatoes

1/3 courgette (sliced at a 45o angle if you like)

1 block vegan mozzarella (sliced into 1 cm slices) or use cashew cheese – something that melts

1/2 lemon zest

Handful of pitted olives (chopped)

Pinch chilli flakes

4 tbs green pesto

1/4 cup yoghurt

Fresh basil leaves

Oil

2 garlic cloves (crushed)

1/2 lemon zest

juice 1 lemon

1/2 cup olive oil

1 tbs white wine vinegar

Do It

Make your pizza dough.

Get your toppings ready, in a small frying pan, add a little olive oil and begin to fry your asparagus with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar, when they are beginning to colour they are ready. Repeat process with tomato and courgette.

Roll out your dough on an oiled surface and either use your hands or a rolling pin to massage the dough into a pizza shape. It will be resistant and needs a little coaxing, but will eventually rest into a shape. For a golden crust brush with a little plant milk.

Pre heat fan oven to 220oC (get very hot). If are lucky enough to have a pizza stone, pop that in now.

Spread pesto on pizza, leaving a one inch gap around the edges then scatter your toppings with glee on your dough. Be reckless and generous.

Pop in oven and check after 10-12 minutes, may need another 5 depending on the potency of your hot box. The base of the pizza should be cooked in the centre.

For the oil, simply add all to a bowl and whisk together. This will keep well in the fridge overnight and may be all the better for it!

Serve

Hot out of the oven, spoon over some yoghurt, sprinkle with basil leaves and serve with a nice light green salad with a sweet-ish dressing.

We Love It!

Too easy to love this one, far too easy. From zesty top to crispy bottom, its a all round champion!

Foodie Fact

Asparagus is a good source of dietary fibre and can help with IBS, they are also rich in the vitamin B’s and folates. It also contains many minerals, especially copper and iron.

Categories: Recipes, Spring | Tags: asparagus, asparagus recipes, cooking, dough, food, healthy, homemade, lemon, pesto, pizza, recipe, vegetarian | 17 Comments

Welsh Leek, Feta and Herb Pie

Posted on April 23, 2013 by leroy watson

PIE!

A fine pie with influence from Jerusalem (via the Caernarfon Library) and our local hero’s; the mighty leek (a symbol of Wales-ness and great taste), our neighbour’s eggs and the humble spud. My friend Mandy also makes a pie not to dissimilar to this one, so its a tasty mix of all these things and more! Surely with all that input, this pie can only be amazing!

We have been getting a few leeks out of the garden, but these are proper Welsh farm leeks (the home of the mighty leek, spiritual at least). Great leeks are a good place to start most dishes, but especially pies. I like to put leeks centre stage, they deserve it and should not be wasted in a stock pot.

LEGENDARY LEEKS

Legend would have it that St David (the patron saint of Wales) had the Welsh army wear leeks on their helmets to differentiate themselves from some pesky Saxon invaders. The impact of this fashion accessory stuck and it is still worn on March 1st, St Davids day.

“MR OTTOLENGHI I PRESUME”

Yotam Ottolenghi’s cooking style also makes an appearance here. He is a real food superstar, most things he touches come to life with flavour and texture. I popped down to Caernarfon Library and picked up a few books, one of them being Yotam’s ‘Jerusalem‘, a fascinating place and a fascinating book. Brilliantly written and photographed, the dishes seem intrinsic to the melting pot of Jerusalem, with its many cultures in one little place. I particularly liked the ‘Herb Pie‘ recipe and immediately went about corrupting it to suit my cupboards and fridge. This little pie popped up and we’re glad it did. It is full of YUM, gorgeous richness of cheese, herbs, sweet leeks and onion

Lovely local spuds, getting golden

I was half asleep at the shop yesterday and bought puff pastry instead of filo, I think filo would have been better, but the puff sufficed! I would like to think one day I will make my own puff pastry and my own filo pastry, I would also like to think one day I’ll play guitar like Neil Young and write poetry like T.S. Elliot. Stranger things have happened!!!!!

Mandy puts Goats Cheese in her ‘Leek and Walnut Pie’, but I prefer the tang of the feta here that stands up nicely to the other flavours and has the perfect crumbly texture for this filling.

Really get your leeks, onions, potatoes etc nice and golden and sweet, this will make a great contrast with the lemon, olive and feta. Expect a multi-cultural party in your mouth here!

CRAZY CHEESE

You can really go crazy with the cheese here and Yotam put three cheeses into his pie (he seems to put three cheeses into alot of things). Obviously we are working on a different level to Yotam and felt that one was more than enough, with a couple of blobs of good creamy Greek yoghurt to add a creamier feel.

LITTLE TIP – LEEK CLEANING

I find the easiest way is to cut off the very tops of the green leaves and check for any dodgy looking wilted leaves. Then chop the leek, discarding the root end and loosing the hard outer leaves, you’ll be able to feel what I mean when you do it. Then place in standing cold water and give them a good wash. Sieve out and double check that no grit or dirt remains.

Cleaning and chopping a leek this way allows you to get the most out of the green bit, which is packed with flavour and all to often shown the bin.

MORE BEACH HOUSE FLAVOUR HERE:

Radio Tarifa Tagine

Murcian Sweet Potato and Manchengo Burger

Kumato, Piquillo, Butter Bean and Coriander Salad

This is the tastiest pie I’ve ever made, try it!

Welsh Leek, Feta and Herb Pie

Makes one large pie, a dish approx. 8″ by 10″ or there abouts. Enough for four.

The Bits

8 new potatoes (cut into small cubes), 2 large leeks, 1 red onion, 5 mushrooms (most varieties will be fine), 2 sticks celery, 2 handfuls spinach leaves, 10 pitted green olives, 3 large cloves garlic. All finely chopped.

Pie filling, looking good already

75g fresh dill (1 1/2 teas dried dill), 75g fresh mint (1 1/2 teas dried mint), 2 free range eggs, 150g good Greek feta, 2 tbs thick creamy yoghurt, 1 lemon zest, 1 teas honey, sea salt and plenty of cracked black pepper

1 pack of puff pastry (one roll or however you buy it). 1 tbs oil (for brushing)

Welsh Leeks, softening

Do It

Get some colour on your potatoes, in a large frying pan, add 1 tbs of your cooking oil (your choice here!) and fry off your potatoes for 10 minutes, getting some nice golden brown tints. Set aside.

The filling getting together

In the same pan, add 2 teas more oil and get your onions softened, 3 minutes cooking, then add your leeks, celery, mushrooms, garlic, cook for a further 3 minutes until all is getting soft.

Then add your olives, spinach and cooked potatoes and then all your filling bits. Stir in and warm through for 10 minutes on a low heat. Cover and cool, now sort the pastry.

Pre-heat fan oven to 180oC

Roll out your pastry sheet to fit your pie dish, we just used a pastry lid, but you may like to add a base. We are not huge fans of loads of pastry in a pie, the more filling the better!

Place your warm filling in the dish and spread evenly, then throw on your pie lid (delicately!) and brush the pie dish edges with oil. Now press down around the edges with gentle force, sealing the pie. I used my thumb, you may like to use a fork. Trim off any excess pastry and make three slices in the centre of the pastry to release cooking steam. Now give the pie a loving brush with some olive oil and pop in the oven for 20-25 minutes.

The pastry should be nicely golden and the pie filling steaming hot.

Welsh Leek, Feta and Herb Pie

Serve

With a steamed green vegetables or a nice green leaf salad with a light, sweet dressing. The pie has a lovely lemon-ness that will go nicely with a honey/ sweet dressing. Its a heavy pie, flavour and texture, so keep the accompaniments light.

We Love It!

We really do you know. Love It! Especially this pie, which had us both ‘Mmmmming’ in unison at its sheer deliciousness and flavour combinations. Not your average pie and all the better for it.

Foodie Fact

Leeks are alliums, basically tall thin onions with a green head of leaves, they are used all over the world and don’t just feature in Welsh pies! Leeks contain many vital vitamins and allicin that actually reduces cholesterol, they also contain high levels of vitamin A.

Categories: Dinner, Recipes, Welsh produce | Tags: baking, feta, food, jerusalem, leek, pie, recipe, vegetarian, wales, yotam ottolenghi | 8 Comments

Corn & Coconut Korm

Posted on April 21, 2013 by leroy watson

Creamy, rich and super tasty Korma without all that ghee and cream business.

One of Jane’s creations here that will eclipse any former notion you have of what a korma should taste like, in a very good way. The influence for this came from the brilliant ‘Shoshoni Cookbook’ that we are loving at the minute. Our cookbook library has recently been vastly extended, we now own four, this being our favourite. We have made several Beach House touches to the dish and we are certain that the wonderful folk at the Shoshoni Yoga Retreat will not mind.

Usually, food served in Yoga retreats is rather amazing and very healthy, normally adhereing to the ayurvedic methods of food preparation. Most food made are what is called sattvic in nature, meaning that they do not stimulate the body or mind and posses only good energy, are clean and pure and enhance the power of the body and mind. The cooks in Yoga centres and the like have alot of responsibility, normally dealing with many special dietary requirements, this normally makes them very well versed in all things nutrition and always cooking to a tight budget, getting the maximum flavour and texture from the produce available. I have only had amazing food in yoga retreats, always with the added bonus of it being nourishing to the body and mind. Jane cooked this dish to recreate that positive atmosphere in the Beach House and it worked a treat.

I ate quite a few sweet curries in India, especially in the Gujarat region, but they are normally not my favourites, Jane toned that side of things down here but you may like it sweeter. Jane has a pronounced sweet tooth and found it sweet enough, so make of that what you will.

Due to having such a corker of a night we forgot to take pictures of the food so these are actually of the leftovers. We ate the dish with roast garlic flatbreads and cumin raita, but here I’ve served the Korma on a bed of spinach, a lot lighter and healthier for a Monday evening bite.

The Bits – Enough for 6

1 onion (cut in large slices)

3 small sweet potatoes (cut into chunks)

2 potatoes (boiled and cut into chunks)

1 medium carrot (thinly sliced)

3 cups sweet corn kernels

Masala

1 green peppers (cut in half and seeded)

3 large tomatoes (chopped)

2 tbs grated ginger

2 teas ground cumin

1/3 teas ground cardamom

1 teas ground coriander

1 teas turmeric

2/3 cup grated coconut (desiccated will do here)

1/2 cup almond milk

1 tbs brown rice syrup or other sweetener

1 1/2 teas sea salt

Do It

Begin to fry off your vegetables, making them nice and caramelised.

Start with the sweet potato in a frying pan on medium heat, a little oil, then fry and stir for 3 minutes, then add your onions and peppers. Use your largest pan, so that the vegetables are not tightly packed in. Once all have a nice colour and are softened, set aside, should take around 10-15 minutes.

Make your masala, place onions, tomatoes and peppers in a blender with your spices and blitz until smooth.

In a large saucepan, warm and simmer your masala for 5 minutes, then add potatoes, carrot, corn, coconut and sweetener. Season to taste and simmer gently for 10 minutes. Stir in the almond milk.

Serve

With your favourite curry condiments, a nice savoury raita would go down a treat here. We had ours with garlic flat breads (recipe to follow soon hopefully!)

We Love It!

A really surprising dish that is easy to get together and has a delicious, satisfying flavour; all that roasted vegetables and a potent masala makes for flavour fireworks!

Foodie Fact

Sweet corn is a gluten free cereal and for its sweetness, relatively low in carbs. Corn is a great source of dietary fibre, but should be avoided by diabetics as it has a high glycemic index.

Categories: Curries, Recipes | Tags: curry, dairy free, gluten-free, korma, recipe, sattvic, shoshoni yoga retreat, sweet corn, vegetarian, yoga | 8 Comments

Parsnip Mulligatawny

Posted on April 17, 2013 by leroy watson

Secret ‘Mulllleee’ sweetness here – raisins

There’s a mini tornado blowing around the Beach House today, that can only mean one thing, the soup pan is making an appearance. It’s the kind of day when you want to ignore the inclement weather and get cosy by the fire with lashings of soup and preferably a cat and loved one (not in that order of course). So we’re staying in and making a spicy soup.

‘Mulllll-eeeee-gahhh-townnnn-yyyy ‘ is such a great word, it’s a meal in itself. For many years I’ve preferred the word to the soup, it always seemed like a half-hearted attempt at spicing a bland soup up, but always had the potential to be a real star.

We wanted to give the tired old Mulligatawny a touch of Beach House lovin’, add a little tickle and zing to predictable proceedings. The spices here make it rock and warm with a zestiness and aromatic tinge that tingles the palate (coming mainly from our pal the coriander seeds), there is also the lovely sweetness of the raisins and parsnips paired with the warm flavours of the garam masala. The mushrooms here were a late addition and do tend to make soups a little on the grey side. I don’t think they added a great deal here and could easily be omitted.

However, the highlight by far of this little number is our own leeks making an appearance. The Beach House Garden is hardly prolific, but it has given us some gems to savour and these little leeks were wonderful.

Beach House Leeks

WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

The name ‘Mulligatwany’ actually comes from two Tamil words (a state in the south east corner of India) meaning ‘pepper’ and ‘water’.

If you don’t like coriander husks, try and pick them out before blending (this goes for the bay leaves also). They can be a little tough and catch in the throat, which doesn’t really bother us.

Once more for luck and laughs, ‘Mulllll-eeeee-gahhh-townnnn-yyyy’.

MORE BEACH HOUSE SOUPS

If you like this, here are another couple of Beach House soups (we eat alot of soup up here in the windy hills of Wales):

Beetroot Leaf Soup

Raw Green Thai Soup

Roots Soup

Makes one big pan full, enough for four with possible leftovers. Hoorah!

The Bits

5 medium parsnips, 1 leek, 1 onion, 1 small sweet potato, 3 small potatoes, 4 cloves garlic, 4 large mushrooms, 1 apple, 3 bay leaves, 1/2 cup raisins, 1 ltr good veg stock

Spices – 1 tbs garam masala, 2 teas turmeric, 2 teas ground cumin, 5 cardamom pods, 1 teas coriander seeds

Parsnip Mulligatawny on the hob

Do It

In a large saucepan begin to soften your onions for 3 minutes, then add your leek and garlic, fry gently for 3 more minutes then add the rest of the vegetables and spices, stir in and heat for a couple of minute to get the spices warmed, then add your stock to a lovely low hissing noise. Bring to a gradual boil then cover and simmer for 40 minutes, until the veg is nicely tender.

Blend soup (taking out bay leaves and as many of the cardamom pods as you can fish out) and serve warm.

This soup keeps well in the fridge for days and should be nice thick texture, it may need a little thining out with water.

Parsnip Mulligatawny

Serve

Warm but not too warm (too much heat hides the flavour a little) and plenty of rough brown bread (recipe here). A drizzle of yoghurt/ sour cream is always a pleasant addition, a vegan cashew cream would also be quite amazing.

We Love It!

Proper rustic, hearty soup with a warm spice underbelly and punnet loads of aromatic flavours. Most definitely a meal in a bowl.

Aforementioned cat doing what they do when Tornados blow outside. We have so much to learn from these fur balls.

Foodie Fact

The great thing about parsnips, living in Wales, is that they actually need a good frost to grow well! No shortage of that up here. Parsnips are high in sugar, similar levels to that of banana and they are a great source of dietary fibre.

Categories: Recipes, Soups | Tags: dairy free, gluten-free, healthy, homegrown, mulligatawny, parsnip, recipe, soup, spices, vegan, vegetarian | 8 Comments

Shiitake Mushroom, Sesame & Kelp Noodles

Posted on April 12, 2013 by leroy watson

Konichiwa and greetings! Here we have a lovely Japanese dish to tickle your taste buds; the ingredients are subtle and revitalising, perfect for a light spring lunch, also great chilled as a noodle salad.

We have paid a visit to our brilliant little Asian supermarket in Bangor recently and stocked up on the staples for tasty Japanese and Chinese fare. Noodles are of course a mainstay here, but the dried kelp is something not so easy to find, but well worth getting hold of.

Dried kelp adds a strong vegetal flavour to soups and stocks and, along with the mirin, really makes this salad tick and fizz with flavour. The jerusalem artichokes add nice crunch and sweetness and are plentiful in our area of Wales at the moment. Think of them as a water chestnut substitute of Welsh origin.

The rest of the flavours found here are classically Japanese and the sauce is vaguely Teriyaki. I had a friend as a child, Kenji, and my first most amazing cooking experience (I’ve only remembered this because of this dish, how cool is that!) was at his house with his Mum. We had to cook in front of our school class, I have no idea why, so I went around Kenji’s house one Sunday and we got straight into the kitchen and whipped up a Teriyaki Noodles as I recall. I remember it being another world of flavour’s and techniques and like absolutely nothing I’d seen before or tasted before. The way Kenji’s Mum approached cooking was so different. I was then a major Japanese food fan, 10 years old, and still am to this day.

The dish would be best garnished with some toasted sesame seeds, but we seem to have ran out! We finished it with some dried sea salad, but you can hardly see it on the pics, but it’s there and the flavour is wonderfully oceanic and salty. Sea salad is very similar to seaweed, which would also make a great topping here. Anything edible, green and living in the sea is bound to be amazing for you and taste like seaside rocks (you know that flavour!).

THE LAND OF MUSHROOMS

In this part of Wales we are blessed with the finest grower of shiitake and other mushroom varities in the UK, The Mushroom Garden. Being nice and damp and misty, Wales in the perfect place for mushroom cultivation and their shiitake’s and mushrooms in general are some of the finest I’ve tasted. I have been trying to track down a hedgehog mushroom for a while now, they are elusive little critters! The Mushroom Garden are also doing an ‘Umami’ seasoning, which sounds interesting and will be sprinkled on things in the BHK very soon. It’s great to have such wonderful, passionate producers locally.

Here in North Wales, good Japanese food is quite rare, homegrown is best. This salad turned out very well and I’d hope Kenji’s Mum would be happy with my progress!

Sayonara & Peacex

Makes two decent bowls.

The Bits

15og shiitake mushrooms

6 medium jerusalem artichokes (sliced into 1cm discs)

2 spring onion (finely chopped)

1/2 teas chilli flakes

1 tbs minced ginger

1 cup of dried kelp

150g fine wheat noodles

2 tbs light soya sauce

2 teas rice vinegar

1 tbs sesame oil

2 tbs mirin

1 cup noodle/ kelp cooking broth

1 teas brown sugar (if needed)

2 teas cooking oil

Garnish

Sprinkle dried sea salad/ sea weed, chopped fresh coriander, toasted sesame seeds

Do It

In a saucepan, warm 2 teas of oil and fry your shiitake for a few minutes then add your artichokes and ginger, fry for five minutes and add your vinegar first (allow it to evaporate a little) then add chilli, sesame oil, soya sauce and mirin. Keep your eye on the mushrooms, shiitake will absorb alot of liquid and can go a little soggy. They will release this liquid after a few minutes more of cooking.

Continue to cook on a high heat and reduce the sauce a little, check seasoning, it may need a little more sugar. Cover and keep warm.

Have some boiling water ready in another sauce pan, pop in your kelp and cook for 3 minutes, then add your fine noodles and cook for a minute. That’s all it should take. Seive the noodles and kelp and keep the stock. Run under cold water to cool the noodles down. This salad is best served warm. Reserve any leftover stock for other soups and stews, even freeze it, the flavour is well worth it.

Add your noodles to your mushroom mix and pop in your spring onions. Stir gently together, combine well.

Shiitake, Sesame and Kelp Noodles

Serve

In warm bowls with chopsticks, extra mirin and soya sauce available. Make sure everyone gets a decent amount of mushroom and artichoke, they tend to sink to the the bottom. Sprinkle on your toppings and enjoy.

We Love It!

Full of the flavours of classic Japanese cuisine and is nice and easy to get together and great served hot or cold. Great quick bite material and something that keeps nicely.

Foodie Fact

Shiitake Mushrooms (or Wood Mushroom in Japanese) have been used by the Chinese for over 6,000 years medicinally and are burting with health giving properties. Brilliant for voth the immune and cardiovascular system, the Shiitake is also full of iron.

Although the Shiitake may seem like an iconic Japanese ingredient, China now produces 80% of the worlds Shiitakes. No great surprises there though.

All this nutrition talk is all well and good, but the best way to feel healthy, is to feel healthy! Enjoy your cookingx