Spicy mung beans and rice

When will I ever learn not to get drunk on Sundays? Really, I'm old enough to know better

The thing is that, recently, my weekends have actually been quite sensible, it's just those bloody Sundays I can't get under control. Of course, it's always fun at the time otherwise I wouldn't do it. But what I was really looking forward to the whole of last week was having the whole of Saturday to myself, in my flat. I spent it pottering round, cleaning, doing laundry, reading cookery books and generally sorting stuff out. And in the evening, rather than going to a party, I chose to watch series 2 of The Mighty Boosh. Heaven. I also made this mung bean dish. This is a first for me as I've never cooked mung beans before. Previously, I've used this recipe for lentils and thought it could work. It did. Even better than with the lentils, which tend to fall apart. The measurements down there make about 4 portions

Ingredients

250g brown rice

250g mung beans

2 red chillies

Small onion

2-3 inches ginger

Garlic clove

2 tblsp garam masala

Olive oil

Butter

Salt

Soak the mung beans according to packet instructions. Fry the chopped chillies, garlic, ginger and onion for a couple of minutes in a mixture of olive oil and butter, then add the garam masala powder. Add a tiny bit of water so that the spices don't burn. After a few minutes add the mung beans and rice, and cover with a couple of inches of water. Bring this to the boil, then cover and allow to simmer for about half an hour. Add salt. Keep making sure that it is still liquidy and add more water if it dries up. After half an hour, try a tiny bit and see if it is soft, if not cook for a further 10min. Finally, add some more butter and fluff it all up gently. It's really nice served warm with a fried egg and some tabasco (if, like me, you're a heat addict), or cold as a bean-rice salady type thing