Dual ReBeans

NAME: _ReBean

---

INGREDIENTS/UTENSILS:

1 small onion

2-3 cloves garlic

1 small tin black beans

150g approx green beans

1 beef stock cube

1/2tsp each ground cumin, coriander, currypowder, raw sugar 

Olive oil

water

cooking salt
ground black pepper

---

METHOD:

Wash the green beans and cut into 2-3cm pieces, set aside.

Peel and cut the onion into thin longitudinal wedges, (about 16 - 24) place oil and a sprinkle of salt in a frying pan, add the onion and drained black beans (retain the liquid for other recipes if you like) when the oil is hot, fry gently until onions begin to brown and beans to soften and become almost refried.

Add the spices and green beans and gently fry for another minute or two, add enough water to cover, crumble the beef stock cube in and stir.

Peel and mince the garlic, add and stir, then let gently simmer for about 20 more minutes.

---

SERVING:

Serve as a side dish for something like my Ted-style "Corn" chips (which are actually beef coated in fine polenta) or similar.  

---

NOTES:

The flavours go with Mexican, Spanish, or Indian/Curry cuisines.

Serves 2 - 4 depending on sides

---

ENJOY!

---

Footer

Ted-style "Corn" Chips (Meaty!)

NAME: _Mex Flavours Thin Rissoles

---

INGREDIENTS/UTENSILS:

Rissoles

250g not too lean minced beef

1/2cup quick oats flakes

2 eggs

2 tbsp mayonnaise

2-3 tbsp dried crumbled onions

1 tsp salt

1 tsp raw sugar

1-2 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp smoked paprika

"Breading"

2cups fine ground polenta

Olive oil for frying.

Sauce

Jar of salsa (I got mine at a "good. different" supermarket chain.)

splash of olive oil 

pinch of ground cayenne, cumin, coriander

---

METHOD:

In a suitable mixing bowl, add the beef, oatflakes, break in the eggs, add the rest of the "Rissoles" ingredients and mix well. I suggest spoon mixing for a few minutes, letting it sit for a few, mixing again. You're aiming for a slightly thicker consistency than sugar cookie dough. 

Keep it cool (maybe in the fridge) until ready to make. (You could make this a day ahead.)

When ready, put about two cups of fine polenta  in a deep plate, take rissole mixture and form into balls about 3cm diameter, then roll them in the polenta and flatten them into thin disks. Pat more polenta onto both sides, shake off, then in batches fry crispy on both sides in olive oil and set aside. 

Make sauce by simmering salsa, olive oil, and spices in small saucepan, drizzle over rissoles and toss to coat. 

---

SERVING:

Serve with rice and a few sides. (See later recipes, I'll add recipes for some reasonable side dishes.) 
Serves 2 - 4 depending on other dishes / side dishes.

---

NOTES:

As noted in Method, the rissole mix can be made up to a day ahead of time if covered and refrigerated.

Refried beans, spicy green beans, and spicy fried cabbage are all good matches to these. You don't need to coat them in the salsa but damn - it makes them sing.  I suspect they'd also go well with my Green Tomato Chutney.

---

ENJOY!

---

Footer

Green Tomato Chutney

NAME: _Green Tomato Chutney a la Ted

---

INGREDIENTS/UTENSILS:

For every:

1 kg green (un-ripe) tomatoes 

Use:

2 - 3 onions ~~450 - 550 grams, diced a bit chunky

4 tsp salt un-iodised table salt

2.5 - 3 cups raw sugar

95 ml Ezi Sauce *see my recipe for clone Ezi Sauce here.

1 teaspoon mustard powder

1 teaspoon curry powder

1 teaspoon cornflour

1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric

Also needed:

Quantity of pickling jars with lids, washed and sterilised, enough for the quantity you intend to make. 

---

METHOD:

Chop tomatoes to roughly 1cm - 2cm. Keep seeds and gel with them. 

Chop onions roughly around 1cm - 2cm. Add to the tomatoes.

Use a bowl big enough to hold those quantities of ingredients, add the required amount of salt, stir through, then cover and leave in a cool place or the refrigerator for 12hrs at least. 

Put the tomato/onion mix into a pot, keeping all the liquid that the salt drew out as well, bring to the boil over low heat. 

Add relevant amounts of sugar and Ezi Sauce and stir together, then simmer it uncovered over low heat for 2 hours, stirring occasionally. Make sure it doesn't catch and burn. 

Turn off heat, add remaining ingredients (curry and mustard powder, turmeric, cornflour) and stir then turn heat back on for ten minutes to simmer and combine. 

Put into the prepared sterile jars, put lids on, let cool. 

 

---

SERVING:

Look up uses for chutney, hehehe. I cook with it sometimes, and we definitely have cheese/chutney and cold meat/chutney sandwiches regularly. 
 

---

NOTES:

A weird and late start to my tomato plants gave us around five kilos of green tomatoes  towards the end of the season, and you can only eat so many fried green tomatoes . . . So I dug around in my recipes and found an old recipe I've used in the past (also works for apple cucumber chutney BTW, just adjust cooking times and cornflour a bit) and then realised it used Ezi Sauce so I hunted down a recipe online, tried it, realised it wasn't the way I remembered Ezi Sauce, and put that recipe on here as well.

Make sure your jars are well cleaned, sterilised, and boiled for this, get the chutney into them very hot and seal immediately, and they'll keep a few months in a cool place. (Ours won't last long enough to be a problem...) We had around 4kg of tomatoes and used 12 jars of 210ml size with a bit of chutney left over. 
 

---

ENJOY!

---

Footer

Home Made Pickling Vinegar (Ezi Sauce clone)

NAME: _Home Made Pickling Vinegar (Ezi Sauce clone)

---

INGREDIENTS/UTENSILS:

15 grams whole cloves ---------------\

15 grams whole black peppercorns---- (See Note 1)

7 grams chilli flakes mild

30 grams ginger fresh, washed, scraped, and chopped (See Note4)

400- 500 ml double-strength white vinegar 8% acidity

1 tsp un iodised cooking salt 

1 litre double-strength white vinegar 8% acidity (See Note 3)

 

---

METHOD:

Use a glass jar with tight-fitting lid that's 1.2 - 1.5 litres in size. Put in the vinegar, salt, and sugar/molasses if using, stir or shake until dissolved. Add in the other ingredients, put the lid on tightly and shake. Leave it to stand for at least 12hrs, 24hrs preferred, then strain through some fairly fine weave like calico or handkerchief cotton into a clean glass bottle. It'll keep for ages, months, if left unopened. (Note 5)

 

---

SERVING:

It's not actually a serving idea per se, instead it's used in pickles and chutneys etc. I've also added a small splash to a salad vinegar/oil vinaigrette for interest. 
 

---

NOTES:

Note 1: Purists will say "whole" black peppercorns and cloves, I say put them in a piece of parchment paper then into a teatowel and crack them with whatever you have. Don't pound them to dust, just break them open a bit. 
Note 2: Experiment - I've improved over the original recipe by adding 1 tsp of crumbled cinnamon bark as well. Also 1 tsp raw sugar or molasses (molasses preferred) adds "body" to the end product.   

Note 3: DON'T be tempted to use the normal white vinegar, pickling needs more acidity that only double-srength can provide. Usually only a half litre is used for the amount of ingredients but I've found that the flavour is overpowering at that strength so I opted to add half a litre more vinegar. Start with the 500ml, taste test after 12hrs, and if, like me, you found it unpleasantly strong, add 250ml - 500ml more double strength.

Note 4: I don't peel the ginger, rather wash and scrape lightly with a spoon, also thin slices with a mandoline are as good as chopping.

Note 5: The vinegar goes dark - it's meant to. Also - keeping it in a dark brown bottle will retain the colour, clear glass lets light in and that fades the colour after time. 

Also, you can find my recipe for Green Tomato Chutney here where I've already used the vinegar to make several batches.

---

ENJOY!

---

Footer

Really Quick Potato Breadlings

NAME: _Really Quick Potato Breadlings

---

INGREDIENTS/UTENSILS:

250g mashed potato only - no butter etc, just mashed spuds

250g AP flour

2tsp instant yeast

milk (see recipe)

24 x mini muffin baking tray, two if you have them.   

---

METHOD:

Mix the potato and flour in a stand mixer for about 5min using the dough hooks. Add the yeast, mix a bit more. 

(I know, I know, you mix the yeast with some warm water yada yada yada. Do you use your yeast? Did it work last time? Was that last time less than six months ago? It'll probably still work. Or you can use the clever technique in the Notes.)

The first batch was in the oven
about 4 minutes too long. And
yep we ate a few just to test them. 

Add milk a bit at a time, you want a consistency softer than bread dough but a fair bit firmer than pancake batter. 

Keep kneading the dough in the mixer for about another 5 - 10 minutes. You want it to start pulling the skirt away from the bowl as it kneads, then it's just about right. 

Whack a tea towel over the mixing bowl and let it sit and rise for an hour or two, in which time it should just about almost sorta double. Oil the muffin tin while you decide if it's about doubled in size or not. Maybe preheat the oven to 220C - 230C about now, too.

Decide "what the heck!" and go for it anyway. Now this stuff will be sticky so - use two teaspoons and try to fill each muffinette spot about 1/2 full with batter then put the tray in the oven for about 10min. They go quickly so stick around and check.

If you only have one 24pc tray then you'll notice you have a lot of batter left, probably enough for another 24pc tray. . . Hmmm . . . When the tray comes out of the oven turn it over. The muffinettes will fall all over the floor, probably should have told you to invert it over a clean solid surface with a tea towel on it. Sorry.

Let the tray cool, oil again, and the remaining batter should fill the tray again. Return to the oven and do it all again.     

---

SERVING:

Serve warm or cold ad sides or as the carb in a meal. They take only a few minutes for the inside to firm up.

(I made some pulled pork and shredded ham fried with fine chopped onion, some caraway seed, and eventually about a tablespoon of flour stirred in and then splash a bit of water over and adjust until the meat has a slight moist saucy glaze to it. And some sauerkraut in a very similar way. Then we chopped muffinettes in half and used them like baby potatoes as the main carb in the meal.)   

---

NOTES:

So you didn't keep your instant yeast in the fridge and nothing rose. Add 2 tsp of baking powder and mix that in, then proceed as if the yeast had risen. Or add 3 tsp and some more milk, and fry them in butter in teaspoon-sized portions to make pikelets...    

---

ENJOY!

Mushroom Season

NAME: _Mushroom Season

---

INGREDIENTS/UTENSILS:

500g fresh local mushrooms (about 700g if you remove stems, see Notes)
50g salted butter

1 tsp yeast flakes

1/2 tsp Vegemite

2 tsp AP flour

1/2cup - 1 cup water

salt and ground black pepper to season

---

METHOD:

Slice the mushrooms (with or without stems) and fry medium hot in butter until they start to smell mushroomy then reduce the heat. (Sorry, I don't know a better way to describe this. Cooking fast initially starts browning the mushroom and gives some nice flavour, and you can smell it.)

Keep the mushrooms stirrring for about five minutes then add the flour and stir it into the mushrooms, add water, reduce heat further, add yeast flakes and vegemite, taste and season if needed. 

 

---

SERVING:

As a side dish to many meals, or on toast, just get those mushrooms into your belly! Yumm!
 

---

NOTES:

Some people find the stems of field mushrooms a bit woody, and yes, if they've lived part of their life in a plastic tray in a chiller room or left to grow too long then they may well be. I often cut half the stems back before slicing, and sometimes, with the store bought white and Swiss mushrooms, the whole stem has to come off. (But don't throw them away! Give them a quick wash/brushoff and freeze them in a ziplock bag to use in a future stock! Don't waste such a flavour resource.)

 

---

ENJOY!