The Butter Bean 'Burger'

Whether you want to look at this as a meat substitute or a junk food craving satisfier – this recipe is great. 

And when the rains arrive, if you have a craving for wada-pao, I suspect, adding the usual wada ingredients to the butter beans instead of potato and fried besan will give you all the flavour and very little of the heavy stuff. 

1 cup of cooked butter beans

½ onion chopped

½ cup of bread crumbs

3 cloves of garlic

1 egg

Handful of crisp mint (and/or parsley)

Salt to taste

Method:

Mash the butter beans up first and then add all the other ingredients except the egg. Check for salt and seasoning (you could, ‘indianize’ these with some garam masala powder, coriander, grated ginger, fresh green chili etc). Add the egg now and mix well. Check for consistency (kebabs and cutlets are one of my culinary achilles-heels so I always 'try out' if I can't tell whether the kebab/burger will 'hold' on the pan). When you try and form a medium sized ball does it hold its shape? If its too ‘wet’ add more bread crumbs, if its too dry, beat an egg and add a few teaspoons at a time. Make flattened patties. Heat oil in a large frying pan, when the oil is hot, place your patties in and lower the heat to medium. Fry them for about 6 minutes on each side.

Some lettuce, ketchup and burger buns are now all you need to assemble your burgers or if you’ve Indianized  them, roti and raita will go perfectly.

A Paean to the Bean

 “Beeeeeeeeeeannns Jack? Beeeeeannnss?” Jack’s mother, aghast at her son trading the cow for magic beans always had us in splits when we were kids (this was before satellite television and the internet - we were easily amused) as we poked forkfuls of baked beans at each other. Children’s television had tons of ‘bean’ references then – usually hilarious. Bud Spencer and Terence Hill spaghetti westerns always featured them in some god-forsaken wilderness, eating beans that had been cooked in the can on the fire making the humble bean look simultaneously delicious and exciting. Later, all references to beans and the ‘rootin-tootin cowboys’ who ate them had both my brothers and I am ashamed to say, at least one sister (but I am not naming names here), shovel them down when they were served in an attempt to garner ‘more fire power’ for when they hit the digestive tract.

I think we tend to treat beans badly here – like a country cousin, who always shows up at the wrong time. I know some northern kids will go misty eyed at a plate of rajma-chawal but it’s still considered homey-hum-drum comfort stuff. Kids and adults should eat beans. They’re versatile, chock full of protein and things that fight cancer and they are delicious. My kids (and adults) have been convinced to eat beets, carrots and other colourful vegetables with a promise of ‘rainbow poo’ (don’t be squeamish – healthy food is all circle of life stuff) and if these recipes don’t get them excited – try the ‘Jack and the beanstalk’ story or one about the rootin’ tootin cowboys and their explosive ‘fire power’!

‘Bean’ around the world

The butter bean (allow a few cosmetic regional variations) is a staple around the world. The American Indians make a soupy, stew called ‘succotash’ (sufferin’ succotash!) featuring corn kernels, butter, onion and garlic with optional add-ons like peppers, pumpkin, cheese, jalapenos etc. Usually they use the lima bean, a smaller built cousin but our beautiful big butter beans will do nicely. The Spanish ‘judiones de la granja’ are almost exactly the same. My half-French half-Spanish neighbour, Patricia remembers a dish called Fabada, typical of the Asturias (north-west of Spain), “It's stewed, greasy, heavy, undigestable and delicious.” She also suggested looking up the French cassoulet (featuring - don’t faint - pork, goose, duck, mutton, pork sausage, pork skin and beans) but she warns, “It is not a sophisticated dish at all. It’s what the paysans eat to keep warm in winter.” Rootin, tootin paysans, no doubt

Scarborough Fair Chicken - A LoveLunch Original!

This is a LoveLunch invention that works so well with a bright, crisp summer salad or the similarly seasoned grilled veggies on the side. 

Ingredients:

2 chicken breasts (or fish fillets, 1 inch thick)

4 cloves of garlic, crushed, chopped

Chopped parsley, crushed sage, cleaned rosemary and thyme

Olive Oil and ½ tsp of butter (optional)

Salt and pepper to taste

The zest and juice of 1 lemon

(Reserve some parsley for garnishing)

Method:

Whether chicken or fish, a 1 hour sit-down in all the seasoning ingredients except the olive oil will get the meat better acquainted with the delicate flavours of the herbs and the pique of lemon.  So mix the chopped garlic, herbs, lemon juice and salt well and then either lightly massage into the chicken or pile around the fish, cover in cling film and put in the fridge because the ambient heat is salmonella’s best friend.  Heat olive oil in a pan, pop in a piece of garlic – if it sizzles gently you are on course – place your chicken or fish in delicately, letting the herbs fall into the oil. Fry on medium heat – about 12 – 15 minutes for chicken breasts (about 8 mins on one side and then flip) and not more than 10 minutes for fish (5 mins on each side for 1 inch thick). Grind some pepper over.

Veggie Option: This recipe works well with veggie ‘steaks’ as well – zucchini or aubergines take nicely to the herbs and can be made even more fun with a sprinkling of parmesan. 

Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme - The Lowdown on Scarborough Fair

Brought up listening to the Simon and Garfunkel version of the song, I always thought in addition to being a witchy potion of love or otherwise, it was a great seasoning idea. Flowers, seeds and herbs have all sorts of pagan significance and modern wiccan and pagan websites vie with earth-mothery blogs about which herb to infuse your tea with when the moon is full and your heart is filled with yearning.

Most research is in accord – parsley takes away bitterness and brings comfort (digestive comfort mostly, its great for a dodgy tummy), sage brings strength and takes away anxiety. Rosemary’s good reputation precedes it as warrior against free radicals and headaches, while the tree-huggers believe it was symbolic of love and loyalty and thyme is antiseptic but also ‘promotes courage’.

A slightly less generous view of the ingredients in the song was offered by a pro-choice website that suggested that ‘Scarborough Fair’ was a euphemism for getting it on with your lover and the herbs were a remedy against either some tell tale disease or an unwanted pregnancy. But that is far too unromantic for my tastes.

Whatever personality you want to ascribe to them, parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme are the A-team of herbs – parsleys astringent crispness, sage’s earthiness, the sweetness of rosemary that is best brought out by the heat and thyme, as distinctive a flavour as it is complementary. As the recipe suggests, they work best with a breast of chicken or firm-fleshed fillets of fish. Genuinely light, quick and delicious.

Lemongrass - Basil Sherbet

I wish I was one of those women who lie, swathed in their own rose-water scented mists (they never really sweat) on a steamy day, barely upsetting the dew on their cool glasses of lemon soda as they sip, and weakly proclaim, ‘It’s too hot to eat, I have no appetite.’ As luck would have it, not I, nor any one I’m related to by blood or water, have been blessed with such a delicate constitution. You know that thing they say, ‘if you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen’ – well, not for us.

Someone is always hungry and so must be fed. But mountains of prep, minutes of ‘bagaaring’ and slashes of spicy can be daunting if you’re the designated domestic dinner-lady. Through trial and error, we’ve found whether it is to entice the languid, heat-allergic to the table or nourish the big-eaters, foods that can be labeled ‘modern eating’ or urban, ‘continental’-inspired work well. The trick to surviving a summer in the kitchen is to limit the time spent with the fires burning, keep the food easy on the eye and on the tummy and of course, always have some lemony sodas at hand.

Lemongrass-Basil Sherbet 

Boil up 1.5 litres of water, 500 gms of sugar, a big handful of lemongrass (actually you really need a lot of lemongrass... even two big handfuls) and the juice and zest of 15/20 lemons. Depends on how tart they are and how juicy and how flavourful. I think this is one of those recipes that you just keep adding/adjusting as you go along. 

Simmer until the water has reduced by half. Now throw in about 100 gms of hand-crushed basil and turn the heat off after 5 minutes. Into the warm mixture, stir in the juice of the zested lemons and some crushed fresh mint. Let it cool naturally. Then strain and keep your concentrate in the fridge to add to plain soda, cold water or poured into crushed ice for a delicious, light insta-sorbet.

The Omelette that wanted to be Lunch

This is one of those ‘make do’ recipes that is fun, easy and a nice combination of naughty and nice ingredients. Though it started life as a luxury omelette stuffing, it’s great folded into left-over rice or freshly boiled pasta for a lunch-box. What I like best about this recipe is that you can tweak it to include whatever you have in the fridge.

Ingredients

Button mushrooms (about 2 per person, washed, chopped and fried)

Red pepper (or green or a de-seeded tomato – about 1 finely chopped teaspoon per person)

1 finely chopped garlic clove (or 2… not more)

Black olives (2/3 per person)

Cooked chicken sausage (or shredded roast chicken or bacon or vegan ‘chicken’ or salami – 1 tbsp chopped per person)

Herbs – 1/2 tsp per person – combinations of parsley, thyme, basil and oregano work best – dried herbs will also do or add some of that oregano based seasoning you saved from last night’s pizza delivery.

Salt to season

Optional ingredients for the lunch option:

Chopped zucchini sautéed, steamed corn niblets, steamed broccoli

Method:

For the omelette, combine all the ingredients and an egg or two per head (depending on how hungry the breakfasters are) and beat it briskly to aerate the mixture until a light foam of small bubbles forms on top. Heat some olive oil in a non-stick pan until it is quite hot but far from smoking. Ideally, when you pour in the omelette mix, on contact with the oil it should form a ‘layer’ at the bottom which is when you lower the flame to medium. When the edges of the omelette start fluffing up, give the pan a gentle shake to loosen the omelette. Patience.  If you’re too nervous about flipping the whole omelette at one go, you can fold over… or cut the omelettte in the pan with your spatula and flip one quarter or half over at ta time. Season with pepper and eat with freshly toasted multi-grain bread.

For the Lunch-box

This can’t be simpler.  In olive oil, sautee a clove of garlic, toss the rest of the ingredients in along with the herbs and then fold in yesterday’s left over rice or freshly boiled pasta.  

Land of the Rising Sun

Main Ingredients:

200 gms crunchy green veggies (either snow peas, French beans sliced diagonally, bok choi, anything that retains its snap even with a flash steaming)

2 orange carrots (sliver them with a peeler to get gorgeous orange ribbons)

4/5 cobs of baby corn or half a cup of corn niblets

½ cup of home-toasted peanuts

½ cup of chopped tofu (silken if you like, but check if you can get a locally made, more rustic version with a lot of bite to it)

Optional: Oyster mushrooms (re-hydrated), seaweed, sprouts, steamed edamame, steamed chicken quickly stir-fried in light soy sauce, ginger-garlic paste and a sprinkling of sugar.   

Transformer Ingredients:

Soy & sesame dressing – 2 tsp light soy sauce, 3 tablespoons tahini or ground sesame seeds, sesame oil to emulsify the dressing (less if using tahini). Optional: ½ tsp of wasabi

Red or white miso Paste – 1 tbsp. Chopped spring onion. Udon, soba or a handful of glass noodles (optional)  

A sachet of ‘Slim a Soup’

Method:

Boil corn until tender. Put raw green veggies into a bowl and pour the water you boiled your corn in over it. Let it stand for about 4 minutes until crisp but cooked through. Drain through a sieve.

Miso Soup: For a delicious breakfast endorsed by the power-mummy likes of Madonna, mix your miso paste into hot (but not boiling water), season with a little soy sauce and pour the miso soup over the combined main ingredients for a nutritious, umami-fragrant start to the day. (Ladies, it’s also very filling and slimming.)

Soy and Sesame Steamed Veg: Toss main ingredients in the soy and sesame dressing for breakfast. You can stir this into noodles and pack this as lunch.

‘Slim a Soup’ with benefits – easiest. Pack the main ingredients in one box and the sachet of soup. At lunch, ask for a big bowl and a mug of boiling water. Empty the dry contents of the packet of soup, then upturn your main ingredients over, slowly pour the hot water and stir gently for about 1 minute. Now try not to look self-righteous as you slowly enjoy your super-healthy, low-fat, high-power lunch.