An Autumn stew with beans and pumpkin

I was in Athens the other day visiting my heavily pregnant friend and wanted to make a huge pot of something that we could eat for dinner, then freeze for the busy days ahead. It's getting a bit chillier, even in Greece, so I was thinking warming and substantial dishes, and of course, the French cassoulet came to mind. The last time I made it was in the French Alps, and we ate it with great joy and relief almost (as well as fresh baguette), after a day on the slopes. But this was Greece - a different climate, different ingredients, so I reworked the recipe to include some lovely pumpkin that we found at the market, two types of dried Greek beans (black eye beans and another type I didn't recognise), Greek sausage with leek (rather than the traditional French garlic sausage). I made the recipe skinnier not for health reasons but because of the temperate climate here, so gone is the duck confit and goose fat and in come more meditterean vegetables. The French bouquet garni was also replaced, with local, wild oregano. This isn't fusion cuisine; this is using local, seasonal produce and creating a new version of a dish, based on a classic

Soak the beans overnight, then cook them slightly before you start the stew - about 15 minutes of simmering in salted water, then drain. Fry the chopped sausages first, in some of the olive oil, then remove from the pan, Add the lardons and the chopped onion next, fry for a couple of minutes, then add the grated carrots, chopped celery (which, incidently, looks completely different in Greece) and keep frying on a low heat, stirring now and again. After about 5min add the tomatoes, beans, white wine, garlic, herbs and spices. Bring to the boil then turn the heat down again and allow to simmer for about 10min or until the tomatoes start to disintergrate. Add some water and put the sausage back in the dish. Allow to simmer for about 45min, before adding the pumpkin and more wine/water if needed. After another 45min season the stew with plenty of salt pepper and taste. Perhaps it needs more paprika or oregano? I'd give it another half an hour on top of that before serving with crusty bread - so 2 hours of cooking time in total. The ingredients down there are approximate, as usual, so just experiment with the flavours and go with the flow

Ingredients - makes about 10 portions

1/4 large pupkin, roasted for 20min, peeled and chopped
6-8 leek sausages, chopped into bitesize pieces
200g lardons
1.5kg dried beans (2 types)
Bunch of celery (Greek celery is much thinner, so probably about 6 stalk of British celery)
3 red onions, chopped finely
4-6 cloves of garlic, chopped or crushed
10 large tomatoes, peeled and chopped
6-8 carrots, grated
1 tablespoon dried, wild oregano (if available)
1 teaspoon paprika
4 bay leaves
Half a bottle of white wine
Salt and pepper
Mild olive oil
Chilli flakes and crusty bread to serve

Nettle soup with chickpeas and feta

If your garden is anything like mine then you'll have plenty of stinging nettles in it at this time of year

This is in fact the ideal time of year to cook with them, as they are still young. Once they have flowered, they are too old

Pick them with gloves on, obviously, then pour some boiling water over them, and they're ready to use! I added mine to this refreshing, zingy soup, but you can use them in any recipes that require spinach or greens

For the soup, you will need to soak the chickpeas and peas over night (you can also use lentils instead of the peas), then simmer in a large pan of boiling water with some fresh ginger and the chopped red chilli for about an hour, taking any scum off the top when it starts bubbling up. At the same time, cook the rice. After about an hour, add the halved cherry tomatoes and the chopped nettles to the soup and squeeze in one of the limes. Season with fish sauce, black pepper and paprika and allow to simmer for another half an hour or until the tomatoes have completely disintegrated. To finish, squeeze in the remaining lime and serve on top of the rice, crumbling feta cheese on top. The amounts below are all approximate, use whatever you feel is appropriate to your tastes

Ingredients

200g dried chickpeas

50g dried peas or lentils

Large handful of nettles

100g cherry tomatoes

2 limes

Red chilli pepper, chopped finely

Tablespoon fish sauce

Inch of fresh ginger

1/2 teaspoon paprika

Black pepper to taste

200g feta

50-100g cooked rice per person

Black beans with feta on a night in

I crave simplicity in the midst of chaos. This is especially true of Friday nights when all I want to do is get home as quickly as possible and is stay in, drinking green tea and eating wholesome food. Certainly no alcohol. By no means am I suggesting that I'm a saintly clean liver. Only on Fridays. Beans, rice and lentils all epitomize this simplicity that I am looking for on this, the most hectic, hysterical day of the week (in London at any rate)

Fry the chopped onion in oil and after a couple of minutes then add the drained black beans and chopped tomato. Season with paprika, a pinch of cinnamon, garlic salt and pepper. Squeeze in half lemon. Simmer for about 5min or until the tomato disintegrates. Add the feta and more freshly ground black pepper before eating with bread, tortillas or rice. Preferably in bed with a cat by your side. While it's raining outside

Ingredients

Tin of black beans, drained
1 small red onion, chopped
1 teaspoon paprika
Pinch of cinnamon
100g feta, cubed
Half a lemon
1 tomato, chopped
Garlic salt and pepper to taste
Mild oil for frying

Chocolate Chlli Con Carne

I've had some kind of awful throat infection the past week, so I haven't been able to get much food down me, yet I've been craving Chilli Con Carne - melt-in-the-mouth beef and vegetables filling me with warm, spicy goodness. The Chilli that I make is always vegetable-rich and always cooked for as long as possible - usually between 2 and 3 hours. P loved it, and I asked him about Chilli Con Carne in Mexico, where he has spent a lot of time. He told me that they often add chocolate, an idea that I fell in love with immediately. So the next day I added some Green&Blacks dark chocolate to the Chilli that I'd made and it really has elevated it to a whole new level for me

I love chilli, and each time I cook it I feel like it tastes just that little bit better than the last time. This is because I have picked up many little "chilli secrets" along the way, and found some things out through the repetitive cooking of this dish over the years. Adding plenty of vegetables is one of these little secrets - they really do add so much flavour - yet they must be chopped as finely as possible for maximum effect. For some reason, this makes a big difference. So once chopped, fry the onion with the grated carrot and celery in plenty of olive oil for about 5 minutes, add the beef and chopped chillies and fry while stirring and breaking up the mince for another 5 min. Add the paprika and ginger, add the wine, keep stirring. Add the chopped tomatoes, crushed garlic, plop the whole chilli in the pan, some salt and pepper and bring to the boil, then turn the heat down and simmer for about 2 hours, stirring occasionally. Add more wine if at any point it seems a bit dry in there - we want enough extra liquid for there to be bubbles. After two hours, taste it and season to your taste, add more paprika if required. Add the chocolate, kidney beans and most of the chopped coriander, reserve some for garnish. Allow the chilli to simmer for another 20min or so like this, then serve on top of rice, with fresh coriander on top and, if you fancy, some sour cream on the side. It's easy to make a good chilli, but to make a really excellent one, you really must put a bit of love and care into it, don't just cook it automatically, but strive to improve and perfect it. Perhaps sometime in the future I will learn a few more secrets and make a better chilli than this, but at the moment, this is the pinnacle 

Ingredients

500g organic minced beef

3 red chillies, 2 chopped finely, 1 whole

2 garlic cloves, chopped and pressed with the back of a knife

2 carrots, grated

1 onion, chopped finely

2 celery sticks, chopped

1 tin of chopped tomatoes

2 glasses of red wine

1 tin of red kidney beans (the ones in chilli sauce work especially well)

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

1 tablespoon paprika

1 teaspoon ground ginger

50g good quality dark chocolate

Large handful fresh, chopped coriander

Okra with black beans

I'm going through a bit of a veggie phase right now, coming up with random combos of vegetables with various sauces and spices. This okra and black bean West Indian style curry was a particularly tasty invention

I stir-fried some chopped fresh ginger, chilli and garlic in vegetable oil (olive oil is too overpowering here), then added a mixture of Caribbean mild curry spices (turmeric, coriander, cumin, fennel, ginger, chilli, fenugreek, salt and pepper) and grated some fresh nutmeg. Then the okra. After stir-frying on a high heat for about 7 minutes, add a tin of chopped tomatoes and the drained black beans and season with garlic salt, pepper and chilli sauce. I used this one down here - it's a mild chilli sauce I bought in California. It tastes a bit like Worcestershire sauce. Allow to simmer for about 10min and serve with rice

Ingredients

Okra

Tin of black beans

Tin of chopped tomatoes

Red chilli

Fresh ginger

Garlic clove

Caribbean curry spices

Fresh nutmeg

Vegetable oil

Chilli sauce

Garlic salt and pepper

Rice

Refreshing bean salad

Ah those dreamy days... 

You know the ones I mean - when it feels like you are receiving a special gift from the universe: the sun is shining, you are in the right place at the right time, old friends reappear as if by magic and you happen to be in the most perfect, remote, rural setting. Sometimes you forget that these places even exist while living in London

So it was on one of those days that I decided to make this bean salad, shared with me on the beach in Birling Gap by my old pal, Lou Lou, who I hadn't seen in two years but just happened to be at her parents' house at the same time that I'd decided to visit my dad

A bean salad may not seem like the most refreshing food on the face of this earth, and yet this one really is. It's that East European combination of sour cream, cucumber and dill that does it. You blend the sour cream with the crushed garlic, salt, pepper and dill first, then pour over the beans and cucumber

Ingredients

Tin of cannellini beans, drained

Tin of butter beans, drained

Cucumber, peeled and chopped

Handful chopped dill

250ml sour cream

2 garlic cloves, crushed

Salt and white pepper

Spicy springtime buckwheat with crunchy vegetables

Can you miss yourself? Because that's how I've felt recently. Tonight was the first proper,  whole evening I've had just chilling by myself for what feels like forever. In the past few months there's been a lot of work, city-travel, late nights, early mornings of coffee and writing,  evening fun with friends and family... but not much quality me-time. Probably also something to do with the fact that my friend Petey was staying on my couch for over two months. So this was the night. I wanted to cook the sort of meal that I enjoy cooking the most; wholesome, spicy, light. Followed by an evening of doing whatever the hell I felt like

There was hardly anything in the fridge and cupboards to cook with and I didn't want to waste my precious me-time in a supermarket, so it was always going to have to be simple. What came out was a dish I've made various versions of in the past, with various grains, vegetables and sauces... but never quite like this. It became a perfected, polished, cookbook-worthy version of itself. Hence, I share it with you. This is not something you'd cook for a dinner with friends, unless they're close enough friends to just chill with. That down there will make about 4 portions. All the vegetables need to be roughly chopped, the buckwheat needs to be cooked according to packet instructions, and we're off

Ingredients

300g (untoasted) buckwheat, cooked 
Small red onion, finely chopped
1 carrot
1 packet cauliflower/broccoli florets or a bit of each, chopped up (could also replace one or the other with a bit of cabbage)
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
1 tin of red kidney beans
3 tablespoons of peri-peri sauce, or another chilli sauce
1 tin of mackerel fillets (in tomato sauce)
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon mild curry spices
Salt and pepper
Olive oil

Heat the oil on the biggest frying pan you can find and add the red onion. Fry while stirring. After a few minutes, chuck in the carrot, broccoli and cauliflower bits, then cover and allow to fry on a medium heat for about 6-8min, stirring occasionally. Add the mackerel and the spices. Stir together for a couple of minutes, before adding the tin of tomatoes. Now bring it all to the boil, then turn the heat right now. Cover and allow to simmer for 6-8min. Add the salt, pepper, honey, peri-peri sauce and buckwheat. Mix it all in very well, then cover and cook for a further 5min before serving

Curried aduki beans

Look, some meals, like people, just aren't that photogenic

And we all know this doesn't make them any less worthwhile. Sometimes, in fact, it's the opposite. Just as you wouldn't want all your friends to be models, it would also be unhealthy to be too concerned with how photogenic your food is. I have nothing against models, of course, a close friend of mine used to be one and she's an incredibly interesting person. However, she is not your average model, or person, in fact, and I still believe that if all your friends were models, your life may be a little dull. More often than not, the camera doesn't capture the more important qualities in life and is all too easy to trick with superficialities. It's like parties where everyone looks amazing on the photos aren't usually the best parties. Or the way a beautiful landscape can look a bit flat once you've tried to immortalize it... I think I've proved my point now. So I do hope that you try my new recipe, because even though it may not look like the most beautiful meal out there, it was one of the most delicious I've made in recent weeks and probably the most healthy too...

Ingredients

Aduki beans (soaked overnight and cooked according to packet instructions - aprox 300g

Half an onion

Garlic clove

1 green chilli

2 inches of ginger root

Handful coriander

Juice of 1 lime

Coconut oil

2 handfuls cherry tomatoes or more

1 tsp turmeric

1 tblsp garam masala

Tin of coconut milk

Sea salt

(Handful cooked brown rice to serve if you wish)

Blend the ginger, garlic, onion, turmeric, chilli and a bit of lime juice, either in a blender or by hand with a pestle and mortar like I do (or get LT to do), then fry with the coconut oil. After 5min add the cooked aduki beans and a splash of water, then very soon after, the cherry tomatoes. Cover and allow to fry for about 5min, stirring occasionally. Add the coconut milk and chopped coriander, then cover again and continue frying for 10min. Add the garam masala and salt and keep stiring. Finally, add the lime juice. Either serve this on top of the rice or stir the rice in at the end. Make sure you save any leftovers for lunch the next day, this tastes great at room temperature also

A stir-fry to alleviate the dreaded dampness (acc. to Chinese Medicine)

According to Chinese Medicine living in a place like the UK, as well as eating processed foods and sugar will increase our chances of catching damp-related disorders. Now, I'm certainly not an expert in Chinese Medicine, but I am interested in various life-and-food philosophies. I've heard many people argue that Eastern medicine simply isn't "scientific", but the science argument proves absolutely nothing if you take into account the constant changes in science. After all, what people thought was healthy 100 years ago in the West has changed, so why would we assume that what the way that Western science views the world right now is the ultimate truth?

I love to experiment and experience life from different perspectives, so Chinese Medicine really interests me (though in no way do I condone or agree with any practices that involve animal cruelty - that is not a price we should be willing to pay anywhere in the world). Chinese Medicine was developed by watching the natural world, and works on the principle that everything on our planet, no matter how big or small, operates under the same set of rules. That seems pretty sensible to me. However, it was difficult to find two sources that agree on absolutely everything when it comes to the dreaded damp. What they do all agree on is that cold, raw foods should be limited, processed foods and deep fried foods avoided, and that brown rice, beans and warming spices such as cinnamon be eaten more. So I stir-fried some broccoli and garlic in a small amount of sesame oil, and chucked in some brown rice left over from last night's dinner. I added soya sauce and cinnamon, and carried on stir-frying on a high heat for about 7min - left over rice needs to be heated thoroughly before eating (and only once). Finally, I drained and added a tin of black-eyed beans. Heat this through, squeeze in some fresh lemon and serve with roasted sesame seeds on top. It was delicious, but I made a conscious effort to eat it slowly (rather than shoveling it in as normal) and stop when I was nearly full, according to the principles of Chinese Medicine

Butter beans with majoram and tomato aka "Brittany-style beans"

I have just returned from a short stay in Belgrade, which I will tell you all about as soon as I've had a moment to digest it all. It's one of those places that stays with you, and despite the short amount of time I spent there, I feel like I have brought a bit of it back with me. I feel more romantic, more emotionally honest and more chilled out about time. But before Belgrade, I had to take my baby, Coco (that's my cat to those of you who don't know us personally), to her grandparents house, and this is where we made butter beans beans "Brittany-style". They are, of course, Polish-style, for as you know the Poles have strange ways of naming things, which are sometimes relevant to where the dish came from and sometimes not relevant at all. I'm afraid that I don't know which one of the above the "Brittany-style beans" are... They are, nevertheless, one of mine and my dad's favourite dishes. What's in a name when something tastes this sweet

Ingredients

Butter beans (2 tins)

Bacon

Onion

Chopped tomatoes (1 tin)

Majoram

Paprika

Fry the the chopped onion and bacon bits for a few minutes. Add plenty of majoram - don't be shy - and some paprika, perhaps a teaspoon. Once they're all glossy, add the tin of chopped tomatoes and the drained butter beans. Cook for a further 20-30min all together. You can eat this with warm crusty bread, or with your dinner as we did. You can see it up there with some mashed potatoes, beetroot and a duck's bottom. I've just realized that I'm probably being weird again - by duck's bottom I mean not the actual bum, just the sort-of-tail-bit at the end of the body, attached, of course by it's very nature, to the bum. Am I the only one?

A sweet bean salad

Last week I understood why funerals were invented. For me it wasn't about saying goodbye, because my gran wasn't there anymore and I was lucky enough to be able to do that a few weeks ago. This is a time to show respect for the life of another human being that touched yours. There's a distance and a severity to it. Or perhaps that's just a Polish funeral. But it's important to be there, to be honest and not hide away - to "man-up" anotherwords. I was amazed at my mum's inner strength and her ability to give a meaningful speech, in which she captured the essence of Babcia Ziuta, her mother, a person who "took life as it came", showing warmth and kindness to everyone she met. At the wake we were much more cheerful, reminiscing about gran's life and exchanging memories. We ate bigos, schabowe and this delicious, sweet bean salad made by auntie Majewska

Ingredients

Red kidney beans

Leek

Pineapple

Prunes

Mild hard cheese, cubed

Mayo

Salt and white pepper

A Bean and rosemary dip or How to Make the Best of a Bad Situation

The Experiment: Stuffing onions 

The Outcome 

Conclusion: Some things shouldn't be stuffed

The Solution: Blend the cooked onions with cannellini beans, fresh rosemary, some olive oil or a bit of butter, and salt and pepper for a delicious bean dip to have with bread, vegetables etc

Pasta e fagioli - Pasta and bean soup

I have an easygoing cooking style, improvising on the ingredients and/or techniques more often than not. I keep in mind the millions of people that have made a particular dish throughout history and all the hundreds of people that are probably cooking it right at this very moment - each one, their own version. So when Mr. Carluccio told me there are as many pasta e fagioli as there are political parties in Italy (regrettably not in person, but through his cook book "Vegetables"), I recognized immediately my type of dish: relaxed and fuss free. They don't have borlotti beans in Tesco? No problem, replace them with cannellini beans, for pasta e fagioli southern-style. So I improvised quite a lot with this one, and the recipe below can now only really claim to be inspired by Mr. Carluccio's



Ingredients (serves 2)

2 x 400g tins cannellini beans

100g tubatini or lumache pasta

Garlic clove

Red chilli

100g cherry tomatoes

1 Tblsp tomato puree

Handful finely chopped fresh onion

Garlic salt

Black pepper

Puree half the beans, while frying the chilli and garlic in some olive oil, followed by the tomatoes along with the tomato puree. After a few minutes, add the bean puree and the whole beans, drained. Cover with about a pint of hot water (just over half a litre). Add the garlic salt and pepper and bring to the boil, then chuck the pasta in and cook for a further 10 minutes. Allow to rest for 5 minutes, then serve with some fresh onion on top (or hot pepper sauce)

I won't rant and rave too much about this dish, even though I really want to - lets just say that I have made a friend for life, and like the people I love, it's warm, comforting and generous (and no effort at all, of course). The only thing I did question is whether it could have been even better had I used tubatini pasta as Mr. Carluccio had suggested. Of course, I couldn't find it and used lumache instead. They were, perhaps, just that little bit too big. In terms of shape, however, they were ideal, because they caught all the juices and even whole beans at times, transforming them into delicious little morsels

A very special beans on toast

What an amazing, wild Saturday night I had last weekend. And, boy did I pay for it. In short, lets just say that it's been a long week, and there was only one thing for it - beans on toast. I believe this to be one of life's undervalued little gems. It's healthy, comforting and with oh-so-many variations. I made a great one today, with cherry tomatoes, my mum's meatballs, parmesan and peri-peri-sauce. I fried the little tomatoes in olive oil until they sizzled, then added the tin of baked beans. The meatballs I cut into fine strips and dry fried for a few minutes, before adding to the rest. I finished it off with grated parmesan and peri-peri for the extra kick. Other great combos include garlic, chillies and coriander, and crispy bacon and onion bits

Being a bit of a bitch this week has it's advantages - I have sorted out many issues, which normally I lack the energy, will and heart to even think about. For example, I made an insurance company that was asking me for £300, apologize and give me money instead (in case you are wondering how it's done - you simply keep cool and friendly while calmly raising the stakes every time you hear something you don't like). I guess it's good to come out of my bubble sometimes and see the world for what it really is. But a week is enough, thank you

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

Pork chops and sweet potato mash with black-eyed beans and leeks (for a girly lunch)

There are few things better than clothes swapping and a girly lunch on a Sunday afternoon. Now some girls may be satisfied with a chicken salad or something equally dainty, but me and Rubes just ain't those type of girls. I needed to make something warm, comforting, full of flavour, and a bit different. I saw a recipe for black-eyed beans and leeks on 101 cookbooks, which I adapted slightly to go with the pork chops I really fancied. I decided to go for sweet potato mash, as sweet potatoes are so good for you, and I thought they would work with all the other flavours in this meal (which they did)

Ingredients

Pork chops

Paprika

Ginger

Garlic

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

Sweet potato

Butter

Garlic salt

Pepper

Leek

Sage

Dried thyme

Tin of black-eyed beans

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

I marinated the pork for a couple of hours in a mixture of olive oil, paprika, garlic, ginger and salt and pepper before baking for about 40 minutes in total. For 35 minutes the oven was on at 180 degrees, and for the final 5 minutes I put the grill on full blast, to crisp up the fat. The mash needs plenty of salted butter, garlic salt and pepper, to balance out the sweetness of the yams. You have the recipe for the black-eyed beans and leeks on the 101 cookbooks website - I simply replaced the butter with olive oil, and added fresh sage at the same time as the leeks. Then replaced marjoram with thyme. We drank a delicious, light prosecco from Treviso that my dad bought me in Borough Market

Brick Lane Farmers market and broad beans with bacon

I have decided to start following the Fife Diet. Luckily for me, this doesn't actually mean any form of dieting, but simply eating as much local produce as possible. I haven't ordered a veggie box just yet, but started off by going to a local farmers' market. Brick Lane farmers market opened just this month, so I decided to go check it out, and stock up. It's very small, though no doubt it will expand in time, but I managed to get a good supply of fruit and vegetables for the week, as well as a lovely organic burger for lunch, some jersey milk (Ok, so that's not very local, but it is incredibly delicious), and an earful from the Polish man who could not believe that I did not want to buy some pierogi and bigos for later, since I am Polish and everything...

When I got home, I made the rustic broad bean dish that you can see up there. It was dead simple, I just cooked the broad beans, and fried the bacon and onion separately. Then, I added some oregano to the crispy bacon and onion bits, and combined with the cooked broad beans. If you would like more precise instructions, you can see me making it here. Tomorrow, I will take the leftovers to work, and eat them cold on top of a bed of mixed salad leaves - can't wait!