West African Style or "what to do with a lonely banana"

What to do with a lonely banana? I was cooking for myself tonight so the banana wasn't the only lonely thing, but a distinct advantage with one person cooking is the freedom to experiment without fear of offending or upsetting others. Now fruit in savoury cooking does not at first conjure up great ideas but the banana was calling out to me for salt and savoury flavours of an african style curry.
    Growing up I don't remember many of my Grandma's meals but my father told me recently she would make a West African curry and put bananas in it. I've always liked the taste of savoury and sweet together so perhaps my memory from being a toddler is purely in my palate. The only recipe I ever got from my Grandma's time in West Africa was peanut soup so the use of bananas was definitely a revelation. At first I thought my father had been talking about plantain with its firm starchy sweetness or more of a South African style fruit curry with dried apricots and things, but no, he was certain Gran had used bananas, especially as she used to use the small sweet ones you could get out in Ghana. A quick trawl of the net reassured me that banana's are definitely a good addition to curry, so with the lonely banana, an onion and handful of other additions I made my attempt to honour Gran's memory.

Lonely Banana Curry

This is what I had:-

1 banana
1 onion
A bunch of greens (Pak choi / chinese cabbage / spinach )
1 length of lotus root
some tomato puree
A palmful of spices ( the ususal suspects; chili, turmeric, cumin, ginger)
A couple of stalks of celery
A sprinkle of shredded coconut

1. I fried the onion off with chopped greens, sliced and peeled lotus root and chopped celery, adding the spices towards the end.

2. A dollop of tomato puree was added and stirred in thoroughly along with a sprinkle of coconut.

3. A splash of water was added to sauce it up and break open the spices.

4. The banana was added in slices and stirred in with a good seasoning of salt

5. After a further 10 minutes cooking the dish started to thicken up, cook longer if needed until the curry tightens up.

6. I then took it off the heat and rested for a few minutes then served with pitta,

I have to say the combination of sweet banana and spices was pure brilliance. Don't skimp on the chili as the banana can take the heat! I served with pitta as its all I had in but I dreamt of eating it with thickly sliced white bun bread from the carribean market, but  I guess its also delightful with rice. A dressing of scallions sprinkled on top would also pimp it up or some toasted peanuts too.

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Left over Dhal burgers

Looking over my recipe notes lentil dhals feature numerous times and when it's "dhal day" usually there are few leftovers , but last night I made a big mis-judgement in quantities and there was a good meal left the next day.
Dhal is nutritious and tasty whatever lentils you use and the high protein easy cook recipe with plenty of flavour is good enough with rice, bread or plenty of steamed veg.
Last night's dhal was made from mung dhal spiced with turmeric, nigella and mustard seeds and some cumin and chili and wanting to adapt the left over dhal into another meal I opted to go down the lentil burger route. The recipe here uses gari , a pre-cooked cassava flour that is a good store cupboard food and great for making things go further and easily reconstituted with a little hot water or added into stews adding thickness and taste. Here's what I did:-

Dhal burger and chicory peanut salad

1. In a bowl put in a handful of gari and add enough hot water to reconstitute to the consistency of mashed potato.

2. To the gari add the leftover dhal with a drizzle of oil and stir together until blended. Add extra seasoning if needed and pour into an oiled baking tray.

3. Bake the dhal mix in a medium oven ( about gas mark 6) until brown and crispy on the edges.

4. Meanwhile toast some red skin peanuts in a dry pan until lightly brown. Leave to cool.

5. Break open and slice two chicory heads and toss into a salad bowl. Mix up a vinaigrette according to Jane's prescription; olive oil, balsamic vinegar,salt and pepper and crushed garlic, pouring over the chicory. Add the peanuts and toss.

6. Remove the baked dhal mix from the oven, slice into shape and serve in a bun or between bread with your favourite relish or fried onion along with a generous helping of chicory peanut salad.

The lentils and peanuts combo is super protein and the toasty spicy flavours mix well with sweet relish, sweet onions and bitter crispness of chicory. You don't need much leftover dhal as the gari adds that extra bit to make a good six burger slices so very economical. If you struggle finding gari you can use instant potato however it tend to be a bit on the wetter side, so try and cook from fresh and mash your own spuds. Yam flours can also be used such as fufu , but this tends to be much more expensive than gari. Why not try gari instead of potatoes as a topping for a vegan cottage pie recipe, its just as good and adds a unique smoky dryness that you find gari seems to hold.

Mind Gardens project

It seems too long since I have blogged but the poor weather has kept me busy struggling to forage food or persevere in the garden. The rainy cold days have allowed me to catch up on study and research and I came across a wonderful project called Mind Gardens I want to share , knowledge reigns supreme!

The mission of Mind Gardens is simple: every child should have access to healthy food. Healthy food nurtures the body and the mind, making access to nutritious food options a crucial part of helping communities to grow and thrive.Launched in Kingston, Jamaica in late 2012, Mind Gardens is a non-profit initiative with the goal of establishing sustainable, organic community gardens that will provide fresh fruits and vegetables to school aged children in the community. Check out the website and take the pledeg to support them:-

http://mindgardens.org/

I've been waiting for this day when we can be inspired by projects like Mind Gardens to encourage communities to come back together and work together for healthy minds and bodies.Growing and eating our own vegetables and fruit gives many opportunities to share food, working partnerships and strength in our communities that can be replicated over and over and supports us in sustainable and economic futures.

Pot Herbs

Spring is still shy of showing through and I'm feeling the dregs of winter still hanging around having suffered a week of a really bad chest infection. Still convalescing I thought of building my strength back with a good solid broth, and whilst many are recovering from Easter with salad diets there are bargains to be had in potatoes and casserole type veg. Picking up a good casserole mix of potatoes, carrots, celery and onions at knocked down prices I set to soaking some split peas and barley.
There is a tradition of adding 'pot herbs' to casseroles and broths which nowadays appears to be a mix of leek, cabbage and soaked peas that you buy on the market. However more traditionally it would be whatever green leafy veg was readily available at this time of year. As my parsley is a bit sparse, despite surviving the snow, I decided to choose the reliable tops of nettles and a good handpicked bunch of lambs lettuce.

Having soak the split peas and barley, I started sweating off chopped celery, onion and carrot. To this I added the chopped pot herbs of nettle and lambs lettuce and finally the split peas and barley. After a good stir and sizzle a few chunks of potato was thrown in and enough water to broth up.
Continuing to cook on a simmering heat so it bubbles gently, I reserved seasoning until it had all cooked off and ready to serve, salt and pepper being just fine.

Drizzle with olive oil and dip in some bread.

Anyone for breakfast?

Well I can honestly say that I did not think it would be this easy to make tempeh. Having obtained a tempeh culture and followed the instructions on www.tempeh.info I have now a kilogram block of tempeh to enjoy, the size of a round of cheese.
Doing the math I estimate its cost me no more than £2 to make this, far cheaper than the cost of purchasing it in shops. It took a bit longer to ferment than expected from the online instructions , around 5 days , but this was mainly due to cooler temperatures. Instead of bags I used a recycled plastic sweets tin with holes punched in the lid.

Our first taste had to be ,as before, on toast and crisped on both sides, but I managed to sneak a little chunk off to taste raw which I have to say was delightful.
By my calculation I've enough to last a good month, however you are all invited to breakfast , just bring your own bread !

Tempeh protein breakfast

Being snowed in and wrapped up to our necks in blankets a sunday treat of tempeh slices crisped in a pan on toast with brown sauce seemed inevitable.
Tempeh does not immediately seem the cheapest vegan protein option but there is now lots of encouragement on the web to make your own making it affordable and accessible:-

www.tempeh.info

I'm keen to have a go, and thinly sliced, dry fried on both sides, provides a tasty treat full of B12 and natural antibiotics. Weight for weight its a super hit of nutrition. The advent of making my own seems like a bonus in the veganomic manifesto , especially as the raw ingrediant of soya beans are both cheap and available. Here's to future breakfast treats but hopefully in warmer times!