Red Bean and Lotus Seed Dessert

Red Bean and Lotus Seed Dessert, is usually served in Chinese homes during the weekends when everyone is around to enjoy a bowl. It can be served as an afternoon "snack" for tea-time, or as a light warm dessert, after dinner. Or have a bowl anytime of the day!

Very easy to prepare. Rinse the ingredients, bring a pot of water to a boil, add the ingredients, let it come to a boil again, then reduce heat to low and simmer for 1 to 1-1/2 hours until the red beans, lotus seeds and lily bulbs are tender. Add some rock sugar, either white or brown, your preference, to taste. May be served warm or at room temperature. I like it best when it is still very warm, almost still hot!

The ingredients ; dried lily bulb, dried red beans, dried lotus seed, dried tangerine peel and rock sugar. Each of these ingredients has its own health benefits according to TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine). Click on the ingredients for the link to TCM to read more on the medicinal properties of these ingredients. This dessert is not only delicious, but good for you!

Red Bean and Lotus Seed Dessert

(makes about 6 servings)
1 cup dried red beans (adzuki beans)
1/3 cup dried lotus seeds
1/3 cup dried lily bulb
1 small piece dried tangerine peel
3 liters water
rock sugar (brown or white), to taste

Rinse dried red beans a couple of times with clean tap water and drain. Rinse the rest of the ingredients once and drain. 

Bring water to a boil in a medium sized stockpot, add all the ingredients. Bring to boil once again, reduce heat and simmer for 1 to 1-1/2 hours until the beans, lotus seeds and lily bulb are soft and tender. Add rock sugar to taste.

This dessert may be served at room temperature, but it is especially good when served still very warm.

* remove the tangerine peel before serving

Ribolitta

This week's theme at I Heart Cooking Clubs (IHCC) is "Foodgoals!". Having missed a few weeks of cooking with IHCC, I hope to get back on track as the new year starts. For this week, I've made Heidi Swanson's, Ribolitta, a thick Tuscan vegetable stew, in line with my foodgoals for the year, more healthy grains, beans and vegetables, and less of meat.

I've used dried haricot beans which I've soaked overnight and boil till tender the next morning before using them for the recipe. And some fresh kale leaves from my garden pot. For the stock, I've used Rapunzel vegetable stock bouillon, and later read that it is one of Heidi's favourite vegetable stock to use. I have some homemade leftover bread in the freezer, and it is a great way of using up the leftovers, just a small amount is needed to to thicken the stew.

To serve the stew, topped with some chopped oily black olives. I did not have oily black olives, so I have used black olives soaked in brine. And have omitted the drizzling of olive oil. 

I find that this is quite delicious. The recipe makes quite a lot, so I've made only about a third of the recipe. This stew freezes well. I thawed the frozen leftover, reheat over low heat with a few tablespoons of warm water, and it was just as good.

Ribollita
(adapted from 101cookbooks.com, Heidi Swanson)
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
4 celery stalks, chopped
3 medium cloves garlic, chopped
2 medium carrots or equiv. winter squash, chopped
1 medium red onion, chopped
1 14-ounce/400ml can crushed tomatoes
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 pound/450gm cavolo nero (lacinato kale, Tuscan Kale), stems trimmed off and leaves well chopped
4 cups (620gm) cooked white beans
1/2 pound (225gm) crustless loaf of bread
1-1/2+ teaspoons fine grain sea salt
zest of one lemon
lots of well-chopped oily black olives

In your largest thick-bottomed pot over medium heat combine the olive oil, celery, garlic, carrot and red onion. Cook for 10-15 minutes sweating the vegetables, but avoid any browing. Stir in the tomatoes and red pepper flakes, and simmer for another 10 minutes or so, long enough for the tomatoes to thicken up a bit. Stir in the cavolo nero,  3 cups of the beans, and 8 cups/2 liters water (I use vegetable stock). Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer until the greens are tender, about 15 minutes.

In the meantime, mash or puree the remaining beans with a generous splash of water - until smooth. Tear the bread into bite-sized chunks. Stir both the beans and bread into the soup. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the bread breaks down and the soup thickens, 20-30 minutes. Stir in the salt, taste and add more if needed. Stir in the lemon zest.

Serve immediately, or cool and refrigerate overnight. Serve reheated, or "ribolitta" meaning reboiled, the next day ladled into bowls. Finish each serving with a drizzle of olive oil and some chopped olives.

Makes a large pot of soup - enough for 10 servings.

Prep time : 20 min  -  Cook time: 60 min

I'm linking this post with I Heart Cooking Clubs (IHCC), theme for this week

Foodgoals!

and Souper Sundays @ Kahakai Kitchen

Cookbook Countdown #4 : Simple Sausage And Bean Bake

Cookbook Countdown is a monthly cooking/baking event, which I'm co-hosting with Emily's Cooking (Makan2) Foray.  Everyone is welcome to join us. How does it work? To summarize, you may select a cookbook from your own cookbook collection, to cook or bake from each month. That selected book shall be your cookbook of the month. You may cook any recipes and as many recipes as you want from your selected book of the month. This is a fabulous way of using your cookbooks at least once! For more information on how to join Cookbook Countdown, please click here. 

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Cookbook Countdown #4 : Recipe No. 6 - Simple Sausage and Bean Bake

from my selected cookbook for this month, Bake by Rachel Allen

Just as it is named, this is a simple sausage and bean bake. According to Rachel Allen, you can use any kind of sausage you like for a different result each time. I've used Hot Italian Sausages, and for the beans, I've used borlotti beans since I have that in my pantry. Very easy to cook, firstly, saute the onion and garlic in a little oil until onions are soft, about 5 minutes, Season with salt and pepper, add the tomatoes and beans, and bring to a boil, season to taste with some pinches of sugar. Add the sliced sausages and transfer everything to the baking dish, bake for about 40 minutes until bubbling. 

This is delicious! We ate this with my Homemade Sour Bread (from Rachel Allen's recipe), which I kept frozen and simply thaw and reheat it again, wrapped in foil for a few minutes. We had a most satisfying lunch and request from the kids to cook this again! I will definitely be baking this simple bean bake again, with different sausages the next time. 

Simple Sausage And Bean Bake
(adapted from "Bake", by Rachel Allen or here)
3 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, peeled and sliced
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed or finely grated
salt and freshly ground black pepper
400gm tin tomatoes, chopped
410gm tin haricot beans, drained (I used borlotti beans)
few pinches of sugar
225gm (8oz) sausages (any type works well), cut into 2cm(3/4 in) thick slices

Medium ovenproof pie dish

1. Preheat the oven to 200C (400F), Gas mark 6.
2. Heat the olive oil in a saucepan set over a medium heat, add the onion and garlic, season with salt and pepper, cover and cook, stirring every now and then, for 5-8 minutes until the onions are soft.
3. Add the tomatoes and beans and bring to the boil. Season to taste with a few good pinches of sugar and more salt if necessary.
4. Add the sausages to the tomatoes and beans, then tip everything into the pie dish and bake in the oven for 40 minutes or until the sausages are cooked and the mixture is bubbling. Serve with baked potatoes or pasta or lots of crusty white bread.

I'm linking this post with Cookbook Countdown hosted by 

Kitchen Flavours and Emily's Cooking (Makan2) Foray

Cookbook Countdown has a new website :

We are happy to inform everyone that Cookbook Countdown has it's very own website blog, which you can find here. Effective from May 2016, please link your posts at the Cookbook Countdown new website, in the linky provided. We hope to see you there! Thank you!

An InLinkz Link-up

Beans On Toast

"Lentils, Legumes & Pulses, Oh My", the theme for this week at I Heart Cooking Clubs (IHCC). 
Made this simple bean dish, using canned fava beans. 

There's bacon, chopped celery, chopped carrots, onion and canned chopped tomatoes (I've used my last jar of homemade canned chopped tomatoes which I've made a couple of months ago). Nigel has used a teaspoon of black treacle for flavour, and since I do not have any, I have used black molasses instead, of which I've used about 2 teaspoons. I have used canned fava beans and made only half a recipe. This dish is done in 30 minutes. Fast, simple and tasty.

Nigel made this bean dish on a cold windy day, and served it with warm sourdough bread. But since I have some leftover homemade Part Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread from the day before (my previous post), I served it with this bean dish, for my lunch.

I can understand why Nigel is looking forward to have this "Beans On Toast" on a cold day. I served the beans piping hot with bread, and I had a very tasty and really nice lunch. I can just picture how cozy it is to have this hot steaming beans on a cold day!

Beans On Toast

(adapted from "The Kitchen Diaries II", Nigel Slater)
200gm lardons or cubed bacon or pancetta
an onion
a little rapeseed or olive oil
a rib of celery
2 small to medium carrots
two 400gm cans chopped tomatoes
two 400gm canned beans (pinto, haricot, butter beans etc)
1 teaspoon black treacle
a lump of sourdough loaf

Fry the lardons in a deep pan over a moderate heat. Peel and roughly chop the onion. When the lardons and their fat are golden, add the onion, together with a little rapeseed or olive oil if there seems too little fat in the pan. Chop the celery and carrots, add to the pan and leave to cook for a full five minutes, till fragrant and starting to soften. Add the tomatoes, simmer for ten minutes, then stir in the drained beans and simmer for another ten minutes. Season with the treacle, a little black pepper and some salt.

Warm the bread in the oven, tear into chunks and serve with the beans.

Enough for 2.

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I'm linking this post to I Heart Cooking Clubs (IHCC), theme for this week "Lentils, Legumes & Pulses"

and

Cook-Your-Books #16 @ Kitchen Flavours

Spicy Edamame Dip

I'm submitting this post to two events, firstly, Little Thumbs Up, hosted by Mich from Piece of Cake, where the ingredient for this month is Soya Beans. The second event is with I Heart Cooking Clubs, the theme for this week is October Potluck, where we can make any recipe from any of our previous featured chefs. And this Spicy Edamame Dip recipe is from one of our previous featured chef, Rick Bayless. This is my second link with IHCC this week! 

Usually when Edamame Beans are mentioned, the first thing that came to mind are the beans still in their pods, steamed and seasoned, served at Japanese restaurants. Edamame beans are young soya beans usually still in their pods, the beans are soft and edible, unlike the mature beans which are hard and dry, used to make soy milk and tofu. These young pods are usually sold frozen and all you have to do is thaw them, either steam or boiled in hot water still in their pods or remove the pods, for  a few minutes until tender. 

Edamame beans are great in stir-fries and can be added to fried rice. And it is delicious cooked with tofu, which I have posted in my older post, Spicy Tofu and Edamame Beans. 

If you love eating hummus, and have not tried making one with edamame beans before, then I urge you to try it! It is delicious!

Edamame Beans

Ingredients for the dip; olive oil, fresh cilantro, cayenne powder, cumin powder, coriander powder, salt, lime juice, toasted garlic, edamame beans (remove the pods, boil the beans in salted boiling water until tender, about 5 minutes), retain some water to be used later.

Process all the ingredients in the food processor, adding some water from the boiled edamame beans until you get the consistency you like. I have added in about a pinch more of the spices, salt and lime juice, and about 1/3 cup of cilantro leaves, adjust according to taste.

Look at the lovely Edamame Dip. It is not spicy at all! Just plain delicious! And a healthy snack!

I have two pieces of Wholemeal Tortilla Wraps which I wanted to clear. I toasted them in a dry pan over low heat on both sides until crispy. Cut them to triangles and serve with the Spicy Edamame Dip. You can serve the dip with fresh cut vegetables. 

This is really good! I was standing and enjoying myself eating a few pieces of the tortilla crisp dipped in the yummy hummus (very addictive!), until I remember...

.......  the Edamame beans which I've reserved earlier. I always forget my garnishes!

Note : Recipe says this serves 10!  Maybe, if you are serving as a starter! To me it serves two! Or one, if you are eating this as a meal for lunch, like me! wink!

Spicy Edamame Dip
(adapted from Rick Bayless, here)
2 garlic cloves, unpeeled
1 cup shelled edamame beans (fresh green soy beans)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon cayenne powder
1/8 teaspoon ground cumin
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/8 cup fresh lime juice
1/8 cup chopped fresh cilantro
fresh cut vegetable, for dipping
pita bread, cut in wedges, for dipping

1. In a dry skillet over medium heat and turning frequently, roast the garlic until softened, about 15 minutes, they will be dark in some spots; let them cool and remove the skins.
2. In salted water to cover, simmer the edamame until they are tender, about 5 minutes; drain, reserving 1/3 cup of the boiling water, and set aside to cool.
3. In a food processor or blender, coarsely chop the peeled garlic.
4. Add the drained edamame, salt, coriander, cayenne, and cumin, and process until smooth, adding as much of the reserved cooking water as necessary to make a puree.
5. Add the oil, lime juice, and cilantro, and pulse to combine.
6. Place the dip in a serving dish, and serve with vegetable and pita wedge dippers.

This post is linked to :

This post is linked to the event, Little Thumbs up organised by Doreen from my little favourite DIY and Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids, hosted by Mich of Piece of Cake at this post.

Ingredient for this month is Soy Beans

and to I Heart Cooking Clubs (IHCC), for the theme of this week "October Potluck". 

and I'm sharing this post with :

See Ya In The Gumbo @ Ms. enPlace