Spicy food for hot weather

When the temperatures rise over 37 degrees Celcius, we get unconfortably warm. The body can't lose the heat that is building up and this makes us feel tired, listless and with some people even get unwell. Preparing and eating big hot meals do not appeal to most of us in this time of year. However, in Tropical countries, temperatures rise often higher and people have to eat. It seems that the hotter and more humid the country, the hotter and spicier the food. My experience in Sri Lanka and Nigeria is that spicy hot food is perfect in these climates. Also Asian noodle soups are great food, and it repletes the moisture in our bodies at the same time. Below are a few recipes, which are easy and fast to prepare, and nevertheless very healthy and nourishing.

Singapore Noodle soup

Ingredients:


2 tbsp sunflower oil
3-5 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
1 1/2 cm of ginger, peeled and finely chopped
1 white onion or 3 spring onions, chopped or in rings
piece of lemon grass, the marrow finely chopped, or 1 tsp grated lemon rind
vegetables, like courgette, carrot, green beans, bean sprouts, (chinese) cabbage, broccoli, clean and chopped
1 tbsp curry powder
1/2 can of coconut milk
2 packets of 2-minute noodles
2-4 eggs

Method:

1. Heat the oil in a wok or large anti-stick pan. Add the garlic, ginger and onions. Stir fry until the onion is glazy.
2. Add the lemon grass (if available)
3. Add the vegetables, the harder types like carrot and broccoli first, stir frying all the time, the softer ones later, beansprouts last, until they get slightly soft
4. Add the curry powder and mix well.
5. Add the coconut milk and lemon rind if not using the lemon grass. Add water until the vegetables are well under.
6. Bring to a boil. Add the noodles, the stock powder, that comes with it, to taste. Stir until the noodles start to loosen up.
7. Add the eggs, letting them slide slowly into the soup. Use a laddle or spoon to spoon a little of the broth over the eggs. Cook the eggs to the hardness you like (runny or cooked through). 
8. Serve the soup immediately with chop sticks and chinese porcelain spoons (or just with spoons). As side dishes you can offer: soy sauce, fish sauce, chopped coriander, sweet chili sauce, sambol, fried onion etc.

Variations

1. Marinate chicken filet in soy sauce, garlic and ginger for 30 min. Take out of the marinade and grill on BBQ or grill plate. Serve in thin slices on top of the soup, instead of the eggs.
2. Same as above but use any type of pork. Pork belly is very good, but pork choppes are good as well.
3. Grill or stir fry some prawns and serve on top of the soup.
4. Any type of white fish can be substituted for the eggs and poached in the broth of the soup. You can marinate the fish first or use it pure.

Indian dahl, fast recipe

Ingredients:

2 knobs unsalted butter

1 small fresh onion, finely chopped

4 gloves galic, sliced

1 cm ginger, finely chopped

1 tsp ground coriander seeds

2 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp garam masala

1 tsp tumeric

2 jars of lentils (best are the red lentils, but any lentils will do)

2-3 red or green hot chillies, according to your taste. If fresh chilli is not available, use the small dried birds eye chili peppers

2 tomatoes, chopped

Method:

1. Melt the butter in a deep non stick pan. Do not let it brown!
2. Add the onion, garlic and ginger. Stir fry until the onion gets soft.
3. Add the coriander, garam masala and cumin, stir.
4. Add tumeric, lentils, chili and tomatoes.
5. Add water if necessary (All ingredients should be just under)
6. Bring to a boil and let simmer for 15-20 minutes.
7. Serve with rice or naan bread.

Note: You can easily make your own mixture of garam masala: Mix 1 tbsp ground coriander, 1 1/2 tsp ground corander, 1 1/2 tsp gound cardamon, 1 1/2 tsp ground black pepper, 1 tsp ground cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ground cloves, 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg. Keep the mixture in a well seeled jar and you can use it when needed. The taste is even better when you use the whole seeds and grind them together in a coffee grinder.

Lassi, Indian yoghurt drink

There are many variations of Lassi yoghurt, but this one is my favourite. A treat at any time of the day.

Ingredients:

250 g (Greek) yoghurt

50 ml tepid water

200 ml cold water

2 tbsp sugar

the juice of 1 small lemon or lime

ice cubes

some mint leaves

Method:

1. Dissolve the sugar in the tepid water.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients, except the mint. Mix well with hand mixer or blender.
3. Put ice cubes in four tall glasses and pour in the Lassi.
4. Sprinkle with mint leaves and serve.

Bami (Indonesian fried noodles)

Ingredients:

3 packets of 2-minute noodles

2 tbsp sunflower oil

4 gloves of garlic, peeled

1 1/2 cm ginger, peeled and roughly chopped

1 onion, peeled and roughly chopped

4 pork belly chops, cut in cubes

3 large carrots, in thin strips

1/2 chinese cabbage, cut in strips

100 g bean sprouts

Soy sauce

sambal or minced chili peppers to taste

salt and ground white pepper to taste

Method:

1. Cook the noodles according to instructions on the package, ommiting the seasoning. Drain.
2. In a blender or mortar, mince the garlic, ginger and onion.
3. Heat oil in a wok, stir fry the minced garlic mixture for a few minutes without letting it brown.
4. Add the pork belly and fry until slightly brown.
5. Add the carrots, Stir fry until the carrots begin to soften, then add the cabbage. 
6. Add a little water if the mixture gets to dry and starts to brown to quickly.
7. Add bean sprouts, a splash of soy sauce, sambol (or minced red hit chili) to taste. 
8. Add the noodles, mixing everuthing well together. Add salt and ground white pepper to taste, or use one or two of the noodle seasoning packages.
9. Serve the Bami with all or some of the following:

• gurkins
• fried onions
• extra soy sauce
• extra minced or finely chopped hot chili peppers
• fried eggs
• omelet
• ham slices
• peanut butter sauce
• chopped spring onions

Broad bean recipes

May and June are the months that there is fresh broad bean available. The Spanish prefer the beans very young and eat them as mange-tout. They cook them, dip them in batter, fry them and then marinate them in a mixture of vinegar, garlic, sugar and saffron. However, in Northern Europe we like to eat the grains of the broad beans. There are many recipes for these broad beans and I like to share a few with you on this blog.

Broad bean dip

Ingredients

300 g broad beans, podded

3 tbsp Greek yoghurt

1/2 lemon

1 tbsp fresh dill

bread, bread sticks or vegetables to dip

Method

• Bring a large pan of water to the boil. Add the broad beans and cook until tender. Drain and refresh in iced water. 
• Puree the broad beans, yoghurt and a little seasoning together in a food processor or with a blender. 
• Squeeze in the lemon juice. Finely chop the dill and spoon through the mixure.

Ful medames

Ingredients

2 cups podded broad beans

Olive oil

1/2 onion, finely chopped minced

2 cloves of garlic, chopped

small piece of ginger, minced

1 tsp ground cumin
pinch of chili powder (or to taste)

salt and pepper
lemon juice (optional)

Method

• Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a large pan. Add the onion and garlic. Stir fry for 5 minutes until onion is soft.
• Add cumin and chili powder, then add the broad beans.
• Add a bit of water until the beans are almost under. Cook until the beans are tender.
• Add salt and lemon juice to taste.
• Mash or blend the mixture to a semi-smooth texture.
• Serve in a bowl with olive oil dribbled over it.
• Serve with fresh (warm) bread

To make the dish more nourishing you can top it with:

• diced tomato
• hard boiled eggs
• scrambled egg
• chili flakes
• diced sweet paprika
• onion rings
• a dollop of greek yoghurt
• parsley or coriander

Note: this is a recipe I got from Ethiopia, but it is also very popular in the Middle East and prepared more or less the same way. In Ethiopia it is made with older fresh beans or dried beans (soaked overnight and boiled for 1 to 2 hours), and is a favourite breakfast, served with strong sweet coffee, scrambled eggs and bread.

 Broad beans with bacon, onion and white wine

                                                      Ingredients

300 g broad beans, podded

Olive oil

1 onion, chopped

4 rashers of bacon, chopped

2 gloves of garlic, minced

100 ml white wine

2 sprigs fresh rosemary

2 bay leaves 

salt and pepper to taste

Method

• Fry the onion, bacon and garlic in 1 tbsp olive oil until onion is soft and bacon slightly browned.
• Add the broad beans and stir through the mixture.
• Add the wine, herbs and pepper (do not add salt yet, because it makes the beans tough)
• Cook until the beans are tender and the wine almost evaporated (if it becomes too dry, add some water).
• Season to taste. Serve as a side dish.

To make this a vegetarian dish you can replace the bacon with mushrooms.

Broad beans with anjovy

300g of young broad beans, podded

Olive oil

A handful of cherry tomatoes, halved

1 white onion, chopped

1 can of anjovy fillets, chopped

2 tbsp fresh parsley or marjoram

• Cook the beans for 3 minutes in boiling water. Drain and refresh with cold water.
• In a frying pan, heat 2 tbsp oil. Add the onion and tomatoes. Stir fry until the onion and tomatoes turn slightly brown.
• Add the broad beans and anjovy.
• Season with salt and black pepper. Sprinkle with chopped parsley or marjoram.

Paella with broad beans

Ingredients:
Olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1/2 chirozo picante, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 can of tomate troceado
1 cup rice (arroz redondo)
2 cups stock (chicken or fish), simmering
1 red sweet pepper, diced
1 cup fresh broad beans (podded)
2 sprigs rosemary

Method:
Use a pealla pan or a flat frying pan. Heat about 1/4 cup olive oil in the pan. Add the onion and fry until glazy. Add chorizo and garlic. Fry for 5 minutes.
Mix in the tomato and the rice. Keep stirring until the rice is glazy. Add the stock. Stir well.
Top the dish with sweet pepper, broad beans and rosemary and press a bit into the rice mixture. From now on, do not stir but let the dish cook gently for 20 minutes. If it becomes to dry, add some more stock.
Check if the rice is tender by removing a grain and feel it is soft.
Remove the rosemary and stir the paella.



Tips for preparing and preserving broad beans

1. To avoid discolouring after podding, keep the beans in cold water with a few drops of lemon.
2. Do not add salt before of during cooking the beans. Salt will make the skins tough and the cooking time will be considerably longer. Season the prepared dish after cooking.
3. The whole pods you can keep in the fridge, wrapped in plastic, for up to 2 weeks. Podded beans, will discolour after 1 day, cooked beans you kan keep in a closed container for about 3-4 days.
4. Freezing broad beans: Pod the beans. Blanch them for 1-2 minutes in boiling water, drain and refresh under cold water. Spread the beans on a clean towel and let them dry. Freeze the beans in layers on trays. After freezing, keep them in plastic containers or freezing bags.

Spring time

The seasons in the Extremadura seem to be different every year. I have been living in Alcuéscar since 2011 and every season is a surprise. Having a vegetable garden, I am always very aware of the weather and the weather patterns. Everything I do in the garden is dependent on the weather that was and the weather that has to come. When to plant, what to plant and how to plant, it all hangs together with the rainfall, the temperatures, the day length etc.

celandine

This year the winter was quite mild, in comparison with the last 4 that I have seen here. There was hardly any frost in the morning, and the day temperatures were mostly around 10 centigrades. Spring started therefore early, The first spring flowers appeared already in the beginning of January, like the celandine. Celandine is usually the first spring flower to appear. But soon other flowers followed and now, the beginning of March nature is at its best and there are flowers everywhere. The grass is green again and it is hard to imagine that the landscape will be brown and dry again in a few months.

white broom

jara (rockrose)

The evergreen bush of the Cistus or Rockrose (Jara in Spanish) is endemic to the Mediterranean region and grows abundantly in the Extremadura. The flowers appear normally in March, although this year a few bushes started flowering in early February. Many of the flowers show little chocolate or dark red spots on the petals. The bush itself is a bit sticky and when the sun warms the leaves, they spread a lovely spicy scent, so typical for the hot summer months in the Extremadura.

wild radish and common fumitory

wild crocus

camomile

In the garden the wild flowers are also abundantly present. Although we always leave the borders of the finca and strips in the middle, we have to cut the gras and herbs regularly. The flowers that we leave are to attract bees. There are very little bees in our area and especially when there are so many flowers everywhere, it is hard to attract enough to our garden. In this season we need the bees to pollinate the broad beans. Many legumes are self pollinating, like peas and beans, but not the broad bean. The flowers of the broad beans spread a rich honey like scent. On a warm sunny afternoon the broad bean plants can be buzzing with bees. 

dehesa with Los Gredos in the back ground