Red Beans and Yellow Pepper stirfry

I was initially planning to just post this quick fix but extremely delicious beans stirfry at Healthy and Tasty, a blog by a group of working/at home mommies wanting to exchange ideas for easy meals for babies and kids. But I feel this is something I haven't made like this before and it tasted so good that I felt like sharing this rather simple recipe with you.

Kidney beans or red beans (scientifically Phaseolus vulgaris) are supposed to have many different good qualities as food. They are high in protein and fibers which apparently help lower or control cholesterol levels and prevent a rapid increase in blood sugar levels. They are also packed with a number of healthful trace elements (minerals), a notable one being molybdenum. Molybdenum is a part of a number of enzymes which are required for a healthy metabolism of the body.

I combined this quick and easy beans stirfry with a little more time-consuming but healthy Indian flatbreads - Rotis- made without using any wheat flour. No, it wasn't glutenfree as I used barley in it. Their recipe will have to wait for now. I'm still trying to perfect the recipe of a wheat or spelt-free roti. Why, when it is not gluten free, I'll tell you soon (you can surely guess where I'm pointing towards).

So, here comes the recipe:

Red Beans and Yellow Pepper stirfry

Recipe by PG of My Kitchen Stories

Ingredients:

3/4 can of red / kidney beans, washed and letting excess water drip off
2-3 tbsp olive oil
1 garlic, peeled and sliced
3-4 dried tomato halves, chopped
1 pinch red chilli powder
a few dashes black pepper, fresh from the mill
a few small sprigs rosemary, broken coarsely
1 yellow bell pepper, cut into bite sized pieces

Method:

• heat 2 tbsp oil in a fry pan on medium high
• add the beans and garlic and stir, reduce heat to medium
• after a few minutes add the dried tomatoes, rosemary and the spices
• add one more tbsp oil, if required
• keep stirring in between, for about 10 minutes
• once you get a nice smell coming from the beans and they look nicely roasted add the yellow bell pepper
  
• increase heat and fry for a few minutes on medium high, stirring in between
  
• serve warm with bread, roti or steamed rice
  

I loved the aroma which was coming from the beans being roasted in the pan. Sunny boy ate the beans willingly and since he believes that he 'only' likes yellow bell peppers (he at least keeps saying so), he was happy to have it on his plate along with roti (Indian flatbread) and also ate everything except for - you have three guesses. Grrrr! When will he learn to eat the so-full-of-health, vitamins rich, blah blah blah peppers?! :(
But, despite all that I love the way he says "Umm, .... umm, so lecker (so tasty)!"

I had been seeing the beautiful logo of MLLA-8th Helping everywhere and had been wanting to send a recipe too. I also had one, but then time constraints were preventing me from posting it. But, then I made this and decided upon this one for this month's event.

So, here it goes to Susan's My Legume Love Affair - Eighth Helping and with the hope of winning the copy of Cynthia's brand new book. :)

My Oregon Pink Shrimp stories and Teach A Man to Fish 2008

Well, these are actually more recipes and less stories, but then doesn't each recipe tell a story?

Now, before I begin I would like all of you who eat fish to take your time out to go and visit the Roundup of this wonderful event Teach A Man to Fish 2008 started by Jaqueline Church, a wonderful writer (a lawyer) and very actively involved in increasing awareness about Susutainable Seafood, as you will see. You will see how easy it is to cook up some good food by making a good choice using sustainable sea food.

Now, what's so special about these Oregon pink shrimps. Well, I think, almost everything. Thanks to Jaqueline Church andTeach A Man to Fish I got to know of a very good source of information (Montary Bay Aquarium) on which shrimp- / prawn varieties are classified as stainable seafood. The ones I could get locally by then were only the Northern cold water shrimps (Pandalus borealis), which was not the best choice but a good alternative, so to say and was also recommended by German Greenpeace as the best alternative available here. But, thanks to Penny Markt (Now, if you are from Germany, you might wonder, "what! , of all the places Penny!". But, yes, Penny and only Penny - here at least) has recently started selling these Oregon pink shrimps here in Hamburg instead of the Northern cold water shrimps, which they were offering earlier. I don't know for how long they will continue it, but I find it wonderful. In the last couple of years and especially in the last few months I have seen almost all the supermarket chains offering sustainable seafood in the form of MSC certified products more and more, which of course doe not mean that they do not offer other fish which are on the RED List . But, at least I can make a choice. It looks as if there has been some realisation that the demand for sustainable seafood exists which is good.
Pandalus jordani is the Latin name of these pink shrimps. They are one of the varieties of cold water shrimps (called Tiefseegarnelen in German -the equivalent for cold water shrimps- and belong to the family Pandalidae). These are smaller in size than the warm water or tropical shrimps and for that reason usually sold as already peeled, individually frozen seafood. Pink shrimps are caught in the states of Oregon sand Washington, USA by trawl and for pink shrimps bycatch reduction devices have brought the bycatch levels to very low. Fishing methods for Oregon pink shrimps have been certified as sustainable by Marine Stewardship Council (MSC).


Following are some of the recipes I made with them :

1) Fried Rice : I just added two handfulls of frozen peeled shrimps to the usual ingredients with the left over rice I had. Depending on the quantity of the rice and preference one could vary all the ingredients. I think all of you are experts in making fried rice that I really don't need to give you any recipe, or just ask me.
2) Bok choy with shrimps, the same as I made the last time. We ate it with steamed rice. This is a real quick fix, just like fried rice.

3) Thai green curry with lots of veggies and the shrimps:

Arugula Tomato Raita (stirred yoghurt with arugula and tomatoes)

...with home grown tomatoes!

Now this is such a simple dish that you might wonder why I'm posting it here.
Well, for two reasons. First of all it contains my very first ever home grown pesticide-free organically manured garden tomatoes. Secondly, because I just love this creation of mine, however simple it may be.
Now, if you have eaten arugula, then you know what I'm talking about. If not, these are a wonderful variety of salad leaves with a wonderfully pleasant pungent and spicy flavour, similar, but only similar, to that of radish beans (beans of the radish plants), if you have eaten them.
Although since my visit to Italy last year I know arugola is not always arugola. I knew about the difference between the varieties available in the US, which were much milder in taste than those available here in Germany, but after having eaten those wildly growing spicy and pungent arugola leaves and flowers in a village near Bari, I was so overwhelmed by its rich flavours that I needed time to get adjusted to these varieties available in the markets back here which almost tasted bland in comparison to those I ate in Italy last September.
And that brings me back to the second reason of my writing this post. These arugola leaves I bought this time tasted the nearest to those from Italy and since I love this green salad I had just chopped some leaves into the yoghurt and added one tomato from my garden into my Raita and I had a delicious side to the paranthas in no time.

Preparation time: 10 minutes
serves 2-4 people

Ingredients:

300 -450 g probiotic Yoghurt
1/2 tsp ground roasted cumin seeds
1/4 tsp black salt (available in Indian and Asian shops)
1/4 tsp table salt (regular salt), or to taste
1 pinch chilli powder (or even more; optional)
1 nice bunch of Arugola leaves, chopped coarsely into large pieces
1 large tomato, chopped


Method:

• Stir yoghurt throughly along with the salt and roasted cumin
  
• just before serving, add the chopped leaves and tomatoes and stir gently
• eat it plain, as it is, or served with other Indian savourys like paranthas or rotis or even rice (check previous post for it too!)
  

When hubby cooks.....

....spaghetti with tomato sauce!
I had an appointment with the doctor for my son. It was late in the afternoon. Since hubby came home earlier than us, he started cooking his favorite dish which he is of the opinion nobody can cook better!
Since I don't exactly know the proportions, I 'll write down all that I could figure out while sneaking from behind and partly because he asked me for the ingredients ;-) !
Ingredients:

1/3 packet of whole wheat spaghetti noodles (1 packet=500 g)
1 tsp salt
water for cooking the noodles

Tomato Sauce:
olive oil, lots of it! (~3-4 tbsp)
1-2 large cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 large tomato, chopped finely
3 tbsp tomato paste
1/3 box Igloo frozen 8-Kräuter chopped herbs
1/4 box Igloo frozen chopped parsely
1 tbsp capers along with a few tsp brine
salt, to taste
a 1 inch (2-3 cm) piece of parmesan, grated

Method:

• Bring water to a boil and add salt and noodles. Stir in between. Cook till done (al denté, or as per taste). Pour out the water and wash them shortly with cold water and if the sauce is not already ready, add a little olive oil to coat the noodle with oil to prevent from sticking.
• Fry the garlic for short in olive oil and add the chopped tomatoes and stir
  
• add the tomato paste and stir. Cook till everything has become homogenous
• add the frozen herbs, the capers and salt to taste and stir
• Either mix the sauce with the noodle or serve separately garnished with grated parmesan, as per choice.
  

Since we have a 3 year old, who can make a big drama if he does not get to see the noodle pure, without anything, we always keep things, whenever possible, separate and mix in our own plates later!
The noodle were very well done. A quickfix which was also tasty! The only thing I missed was the pinch of sugar. They say here that tomatoes always need a pinch of sugar to enhance their taste, and I feel it is quite true.

Fusion food

I had 2 small chicken breast filets from the day before and I wanted to make something quick and easy with them. I initially started thinking of making a simple Italian dish. Just frying the chicken and adding some mushrooms, paprika, olives, dried tomatoes, parmesan, capers, a bunch of chopped fresh basil at the end and mix with cooked penne and that's it!
I had already cut the dried tomatoes and wanted to take out the chicken and rest of the things from the fridge. But, then I saw something which changed my plan completely. On opening the fridge I saw the half empty glass of baby corn in brine which my son had requested me to buy the last time we had gone shopping, and to which I had given in, thinking "why not?! it's been long since I used it". I had used some of it it for some Indian veggys I had made.
But, the sight of the baby corns triggered in my brain a totally different idea and my brain started working fast, scanning my memory, prompting my eyes and hands to double check every thing [in the fridge] and Lo! I had another recipe at hand, or actually in my mind. And this is what I made out of it, which was easy too.
So, this dish is a fusion between Chinese and Indian and Italian!

Ingredients:

2 small chicken breast filets, cut into thin and small stripes
Chicken marinade:

• 1/2 tsp turmeric,
• 1 tsp coriander powder,
• 1 tbsp grated ginger
• 1 tbsp grated garlic
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 pinch of chilli powder or black pepper
• 1tbsp sesame seeds
  

1 lemon grass, chopped into large pieces, the soft white part chopped fine
2 small carrots, juliened
dried tomatoes, chopped (yes! and they were fantastic!)
1 red paprika, diced
4 spring onions, cut into thick rings
12 mushroms, quartered
some more turmeric and coriander powder for the mushrooms

sunflower oil (or sesame seed oil)
soy sauce

Method:

• Cook penne in boiling water with salt untill done (al denté).
  
• Marinate chicken while cutting vegetables
  
• Stir fry the shortly marinated chicken in 1 tbsp sunflower oil, first on high heat and then reduce heat to medium and cover with a lid. Cook until done. Add some more soy sauce, while frying it. Set aside and keep warm.
• Fry lemon grass and carrots in some oil on high heat, add dried tomatoes, stir for another minute, add red paprika and stir further.
• Now, every thing should have still retained its colour and carrots and paprika should still be firm, before adding spring onions. Fry for a minute on high heat. Add about two tbsp of soya sauce and stir once and then take out to mix with the chicken.
  
• In the same pan add the mushrooms, a tbsp oil, the spices and stir on high heat. Once done, add soy sauce, stir once to mix and add every thing back into the pan. Stir. add the cooked penne.

I think, the Penne was quite good. It was appreciated by my hubby - as he loves chinese (but I knew that the chances were high that he would like it) and my son too.
I felt the lemon grass wasn't really required. It was some how out of place. I also wanted to add some fish sauce to it, but restraied myself this time, as I wasn't sure if it will be appreciated by both my men in pasta.

Chocolate dessert

Preparation time: 5 minutes
3 servings

Ingredients:
For the smoothie:
2 cups yoghurt (from the fridge)
1 cup cold milk
1/2 Banana, sliced
1 tbsp haselnut spread (like Nutella)
1 chocolate muffin, cold (from the fridge)











In addition:
3 muffins with chocolate glaze

Method:

• Mix the smoothie ingredients in a Blender.
  
• Cut the muffins horizontally into two halves.
  
• Take 3 dessert glasses. Put in each: the lower half at the bottom.
• Put some fruit pieces over it.
• Add the smoothie.
• Followed by the other half of the muffin.
• Decorate with another piece of fruit. and serve.

I have tried to make it as healthy and low in calories as possible. Basically this is another effort to feed my son some milk and yoghurt. And it surprisingly turned out better than I feared. But I do need to optimise it further. This was a very spontaneous idea which I just made with my gut feel.

Strawberry youghurt smoothie

Call it a smoothie or a shake, this is how I often make a strawberry drink, earlier for me and my hubby and now more often for my 3 yr. old son. Like today!

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Ingredients:

6-8 strawberries, washed and pat dried, cleaned of the green cap or any other blemishes
2 small tubs (300 g) Yoghurt
1 scoop of strawberry icecream (or any other)
1 tsp sugar (optional)
2 mint leaves, chopped finely (optional)
a mint leaf as garnish

Method:
Mix everything with a blener untill smooth and homogenous.
Pour in a glas and serve garnished with a mint leaf.

Tips:

• Substitute the strawberries with other fruits like raspberries, blueberries or blackberries.
• When using tropical fruits, like mango (delicious!) adjust the sugar accordingly.
  
• If it is too thick, just add some milk. Yes, you can replace yoghurt completely with milk too!
  

Vegetable stew with black bread

This was a simple but a really tasty midday meal for me a couple of days back- the left over stew from the day before and a slice of black bread heated in the toaster for short and spread with creamcheese with herbs.
I enjoyed it to the full. The vegetables tasted even better than the day before.

BTW, I have to mention that it was my 3 year old son who gave me this idea. He insisted on cutting the vegetables and this was how he did it. He uses a sharp cutlery knife, which is quite harmless. I cut the kholrabi though and a part of the carrots and the onion of course. He does not like the onion as it irritates his eyes a lot. We had eaten it with fish made by my hubby and baked potato croquettes. That tasted good too. But I enjoyed the stew the day after so very much. The weather wa also perfect. Clear sky and sunny at 26°C and I could sit at my garden table and enjoy it.

This is how I made the stew:

Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes

Ingriedients:
1 kohlrabi
3 medium carrots, rounds or large chunks
1 1/2 zucchini, lengthwise or just thick rounds
2-3 small onion, sliced lengthwise
1/2 tsp Turmeric
1 tsp, heaped, Coriander powder (seeds)
1 tsp Kitchen King from Everest, a curry spice mixture
salt to taste
1-2 tbsp Butter
1 tbsp mustard or rapeseed oil

Method:

Clean and cut the vegetables. Heat 1/2 tbsp butter in a large saucepan. Add the spices, stir once and then quickly add the vegetables except for zucchini and stir to mix on high heat for a minute. Add the rest of butter and oil and 1/2 cup water and Let cook for about 5-10 minutes on medium heat, stirring in between. Add Zucchini when the vegetables are not completely done and stir once and let cook further till done. Don't make Zucchini too mushy. They should still remain a bit firm and still retain a good colour. Switch off the heat and let it cook further for a while before serving. If you want garnish with finely chopped parsely or coriander (cilantro).

Note: I used a readymade spice mixture which is very much like any curry powder found outside India. And can be replaced with many other varieties of spice blends available in Indian shops.
Butter gives the stew a good flavor, but can be replaced with any type of plant oil or reduced in amount.

Spaghetti with spinach

This is an easy and quick recipe which I made today after coming back from a local 3 day festival, where we had gone to after breakfast. Since it was already half past one in the afternoon, I had to think up of something quick. I had to come back home as my son wasn't feeling so well , partly because it was too hot. So, nobody was in a mood to eat the snacks which were being offered there- crepe, grilled stuff and hotdogs (I don't eat them in any case) ans things like that. And this is what I made at home and was appreciated by both of my "boys"- my hubby and my son.

For 3-4 persons
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 20-25 minutes

Ingriedients:
300 g whole wheat spaghetti
300 g frozen spinach
100 g cooked shrimps
1/2 each of yellow and red bellpeppers, diced
1/3 tin of chopped tomatoes or 1 large fresh tomato, chopped
1 tsp thyme leaves, fresh
1 large piece (4-5 cm) parmesan (4-5 tbsp)
1 tbsp saurcream (schmand)
1 1/2 tsp, heaped, vegetable stock (powder)
2-3 tbsp olive oil
salt to taste
1-2 tbsp finely chopped parsely


Method:

• Cook spaghetti for 8-10 minutes in boiling water with some salt till done (al dente).
• Thaw the spinach in the microwave with 2 tbsp of water in a bowl (6 -7 min.)
  
• or heat in a pot with little water on the cooktop.
• Dice the bellpeppers and tomatoes
  
• Sauté the shrimps quickly on high heat in 1 tbsp of olive oil with a pinch of salt and take them out befre they get too dry. If using fresh (uncooked) shrimps, then cook for longer till they get their pinkish red colour and curl up.
• Saute the bellpepers in 1 tbsp oilve oil on high heat
  
• add spinach, stir and reduce heat to medium
• add chopped tomatoes, thyme and the vegetable stock and stir.
  
• Cook further for two minutes and add the cooked spaghetti, stir.
• Add 1 tbsp saurcream and 1 tbsp of oilveoil and mix.
• Grate parmesan over it and mix.
• Garnish with a tablespoon grated parmesan and the parsely and serve
  

Spaghetti Frutti di Mare

Ingredients:
300 g Spaghetti
1 tbsp. Olive oil
1 Zucchini, diced
2 Cloves garlic, grated
1 cm piece ginger, grated (optional)
1-2 Tbsp. Olive oil
200-250 g Frutti di mare (seafood), fresh or frozen
1 tbsp. Rosemary leaves, finely chopped
1 pinch Thyme, dried or fresh
3-4 ripe Tomatoes, large to middle sized
25g Parmesan Cheese, grated
½ tsp. good quality Vegetable stock (optional)
Salt to taste
1 tbsp flat-leaved Parsely, chopped
1 sprig Rosemary

Method:
Cook spaghetti pasta in boiling water and 1 tsp salt until done. After draining away the water, add a tbsp of olive oil to it . In the meanwhile, fry Zucchini in a tbsp. olive oil with a tsp. of Rosemary and half of the ginger and garlic each on high heat to get a nice golden colour. Don’t overcook, and keep aside.

In 2 tbsp. Olive oil fry the frozen or thawed frutti di mare along with the rest of ingredients (ginger, garlic, rosemary, thyme and vegetable stock) on high heat for a minute and then add tomatoes. Reduce heat to medium and cook until the tomatoes get mushy. Keep stirring in between. Add pasta and zucchini, and mix. Serve warm. Garnish with 1 tbsp. flat-leaved parsley or with a sprig of rosemary on top.

Variations:

Use any other pasta variety you have, like penne.

2 sun dried tomatoes, finely chopped can be sautéd along with the zucchini or one middle sized yellow bell pepper, and capers can be added to the tomatoes along with a few teaspoons of the brine.

You can also use another dried cheese like Grana padano.

For vegetarians: Try out eggplant, which makes a wonderful combination with rosemary, thyme or any other herb you like. If no fresh herbs are available, try dry herbs-use sparely. For Indians: Try it out with coriander and mint!

Muffins

Once I got a lovely birthday present from a friend of mine. A muffin tin with a muffin recipe book. Since then, and especially because of my son, I've been baking endless number of muffins now. They so pratical as they are really quick, need less time to prepare and less time to bake, and very easy to make. I do not look in my recipe book anymore!

This is the quickest recipe I know of when you want to make something sweet spontaneously and quickly for teatime for guests.

You need a muffin tin for 12 muffins, two deep bowls, one whisk, one spoon, spoon measures (tsp., tbsp.) and a kitchen scale.

Time: 20-30 minutes for preparation and 20-25 minutes for baking.
Basic recipe:
Preheat oven to 180°C [356°F] (see below).

Mix in a large bowl:
250g (8 oz) wheat flour (use any kinds, whole wheat, or a mixture),
2 1/2 tsp baking powder,
1/2 tsp soda powder,
(Note: Soda or both the raising agents can be replaced with cream of tartar based baking powder. It usually also contains soda. So, 3 tsp cream of tartar baking powder).
OPTIONAL:
50g (1 1/2 oz) grated nuts (any kind: almond, hazelnut, walnut or any other, even coconut),
or
3 tbsp. cocoa powder (for some recipes)


In another deep bowl stir gently and shortly (DO NOT mix for long or make it frothy) the following:
1 egg (leave out egg, if egg-less is desired; 1 tbsp. apple puree or just joghurt or milk can be used to replace the egg),
250 g (8 oz) Yoghurt or 300 ml (1 1/5 cup) Buttermilk,
60-80 ml (1/4 - 1/3 cup) veg. oil (makes the cake juicier than butter; or use 100g butter),
150g (5 oz) sugar

Add to it:
150-300g (5-10 oz) Fruits of choice, sliced or chopped or whole berries, or chocolate pieces or any kind of chocolate which can be baked. You can also add these after pouring the batter into the muffin moulds.

Now mix everything together with a whisk or spoon really quick. DO NOT WHIP OR MIX FOR LONG! The muffins will come out soft only if you do not beat it , but just gently mix everything and immediately start baking. As soon as all the ingredients are wet, stop mixing and pour the batter into the greased muffin moulds.
Bake at 180°C (160°C convection oven) [356°F (320°F)] for 20-25 minutes.

Tips: Add 1- 2 heaped tbsp of cornflour to the flour, add 1 or 2 tbsp milk for it to the batter, and they turn out really soft and fine grained. Has been my experience with baking so far.
If you are using fruits in the recipe, use paper muffin liners for the tin.
If using a muffin tin without the paper liner, then grease the tin with butter and put in the freezer and take out just before pouring the batter. No greasing and freezing is required if using silicone cups for baking.
Let the muffins cool down for a minute or two before you take them out of the moulds, otherwise they might crumble.
Twist them from above while taking out.

Pasta with home made Green Pesto

For 4 portions:
Ingredients:

300-400 g Pasta (chonchiglie-shown above)
1 small yellow bell pepper, cut into small squares
1/2 Aubergine, cubed small
3-4 sun-dried-tomato halves, chopped finely
2 large garlic cloves, grated
1 tsp pine nuts
1/2 tsp fresh thyme / a pinch of dried thyme
3-4 cm piece of parmesan, grated
1/2 cm piece of ginger (optional), grated
olive oil
salt to taste

For the Green pesto, grind together:

2 handfuls of Basil leaves (1 small pot of sweet basil)
a handful of pine nuts, roasted slightly
a 5 cm chunk of Parmesan or Grana padano or Pecorino
1-2 tbsp olive oil
a few drops of lemon juice (optional)
salt, if required

Cook pasta in boiling water with 1 tsp salt for 8-10 minutes or until done. After draining away the water, add a tbsp of olive oil to it.
In the meanwhile, cut the vegetables and prepare the pesto.
Sauté the garlic in olive oil with the pine nuts, thyme, ginger and sundried tomatoes for short, add vegetables, saute till done.Add the cooked pasta and the pesto and mix. Turn off the heat, let cook further for half a minute.
Serve hot sprinkled with parmesan and garnished with a basil leaf.

Note: I prefered not to add any garlic to the pesto, instead fry it in oil and add to the veg. to reduce smell.