Broadbeans in tomato sauce

Broadbeans make their appearance fleeting once a year in Spring. If you see them in the produce section and have no idea what to do with them, here's a simple Cypriot family recipe which my kids and I love:

Ingredients:

• 500g (approx) fresh broadbeans in their pods
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 garlic cloves, diced
• 4 tablespoons tomato puree or tomato passata
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon white wine
• 2 tablespoons butter
• unrefined salt
• cracked pepper

Directions: 

Peel the sides of the broad bean pods with a vegetable peeler to remove the tough stringy sides (this is critical otherwise you will have an unpalatable dish). 

Leaving the beans inside their pods, cut into approximately 2-3 inch lengths. Steam until soft. This will only take a few minutes.

To make the tomato sauce, sautee onions and garlic in butter in a large frying pan on low heat for approx 5 minutes or until soft and golden brown, stirring occasionally.

Add wine, vinegar and tomato puree and continue to cook for another few minutes stirring occasionally. 

Add beans to tomato sauce and stir gently to combine. Season well with salt and pepper.

This make a wonderful side dish! Kali Orexi (that's Greek for 'Good Appetite'!)

Steamed Mussels with garlic and parsley (and why seafood is sexy)

Not so long ago, I used to be scared of buying mussels in their shells as I had no idea how to cook them. They just looked cumbersome and tricky. So I used to stick to safe ol' wild fish. But this recipe that I put together after some inspiration from a few foodie friends is embarrassingly easy, quick and fun to eat (there's something very primal/tactile about using one hands to eat - I simply use one of the mussel shells as a utensil to pull the other mussels from their shells. Watch your kids have fun with this one!!!). And in keeping with my culinary signature style, there's only a handful of ingredients and they all go into the pot together. I especially like to keep seafood dishes very 'clean' and unfussy to let the flavour of the seafood shine through. (Yes I prefer my oysters served a la natural thanks, with no bells and whistles!).

I serve this meal every now and again instead of fish (on one of my twice-weekly seafood dinner nights at home) or pull it out as an impressive dinner party number.

I like to serve steamed mussels with a cup of extra fish broth blended with butter, fresh Sydney Rock Oysters drizzled with lemon juice, and a green leafy salad topped with shaved parmesan cheese or crumbled goats curd. I buy my mussels from Bondi Road Seafood (it's cheap and been there forever) but any old fish shop will do. You can either buy the mussels that are vacuum sealed in the packets or loose. The latter tend to be cheaper (eg I bought Edam Black local mussels at $8.99/kg).

One of the mistakes I made when I started eating an ancestral / traditional wholefoods diet is that I ate red meat 7 days a week. I inadvertently kept forgetting about seafood. But there's a lot of minerals in seafood that you can't get as readily in land animals (especially iodine, omega 3 fats (DHA and EPA), zinc and B12).  So a combination of both wild or pastured land animals and wild seafood is important, not just for a broad nutrient-density profile but also to fend off taste-fatigue and boredom.  And as one of my friends is fond of saying, "seafood is sexy". I'll let you make your own judgements there.....

Ingredients:

1kg of fresh mussels in shells (or could use vongole or a combination of the 2
1 cup fish stock (preferably home made)
½ cup parsley, roughly chopped plus extra for garnishing
20g garlic, diced
1 cup of tomato purée
extra virgin cold pressed olive oil
cracked pepper
unrefined salt

Directions:

IMG_4414

Add all ingredients to a large saucepan (other than olive oil and extra parsley for garnishing). Cover and cook on low heat until the mussels open (anywhere between 10-20 mins). The liquid and steam in the saucepan cooks the mussels. Divide mussels among 4 shallow plates and pour some of the broth from the saucepan on top. Drizzle with olive oil, garnish with extra parsley and season with salt and cracked pepper.  The rest of the broth from the saucepan can be consumed separately in cups (much like a fish stock). Alternatively all of the broth from the saucepan can be poured onto mussels directly into deeper bowls.

Serves 4.

Tell me how you go.....Do you have a favourite fresh mussels recipe? If so, please share it!

Crustless creamy chicken pie / Shepherd's pie

This one's for you Melissa! "I want to make a chicken pie, but what do I do about the crust?"

I often get asked this question. Mashed potato topping is my crust substitute! Gluten-free and no fiddling with pastry! Boy, what a relief those days of laboriously making sourdough pastry and rolling it out by hand are behind me! Here's the recipe for my crustless creamy chicken pie which my kids and I enjoyed tonight. Very easy and befitting of a winter's evening:

Pie filling ingredients:

• 300g left over cooked chicken pieces (e.g. reserved from making bone broth- yes another way to use up that darn chicken meat!!)

• 1 onion, diced

• 1 knob of garlic, diced

• ¼ cup tomato puree

• 2 carrots, chopped (approx. 200g)

• 1 small sweet potato or piece of pumpkin, chopped (approx. 200g)

• A few florets of cauliflower, chopped (approx. 145g)

• 1 ¼ cups frozen peas (approx. 170g)

• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil leaf

• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

• 1/8 teaspoon paprika

• Handful of fresh parsley or coriander, chopped (approx. 30g)

• 2 tablespoons butter for sautéing

• 200ml full fat cream

• Unrefined salt cracked pepper

Mashed potato topping:

• 4 potatoes, chopped (approx. 480-500g)

• 80g butter or cream

• unrefined salt

• cracked pepper

• Gruyere OR reggio cheese, grated (approx. 60g)

this is what pie looks like pre mashed potato topping

Directions:

Sautee onions, garlic and dried herbs in butter on low heat, covered, in a large frying pan until soft (5 -10 minutes). Add parsley, tomato puree and frozen peas. Sautee for another 5-10 minutes stirring occasionally.

Steam carrots, sweet potato/pumpkin and cauliflower until soft. Add vegetables, chicken and cream to onion mixture in frying pan and mix well. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer to an oven proof baking dish.

To make mashed potato, steam potatoes until very soft. Place in jug or canister and add butter/cream, salt and pepper and blend with hand held blender until smooth. Spread mashed potato on top of pie and top with grated cheese.

Place dish on an oven rack just above the middle of the oven under a heated grill element to melt the cheese and brown the top of the pie. This will only take a matter of minutes. Be careful to ensure that it does not burn. Because the ingredients in the pie are all cooked the pie does not need further cooking in the oven, unless you have prepared the pie ahead of time and need to heat it up.

To make a Shepherds'  pie simplysubstitute cooked beef or lamb pieces (eg reserved from making beef bone broth) instead of chicken and omit the cream.  

Kali Orexi!