I took this recipe from, At Home in Provence by Patricia Wells. This is an amazing book. I borrowed it from a friend about two years ago. I guess I've stolen it.Piri piri is a spicy oil, popular in France and posh pizzeria's the world over. Last year I made bottles of piri piri oil to give away as Christmas gifts. Seeing as I'd all these herbs lying around, I thought I'd make a bottle for myself. The oil can be as expensive or as frugal as you like, a simple garlic and chilli oil is terrific drizzled over pizza or added to tomato sauce. Patricia's Recipe
1 tablespoon dried oregano
2 teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes or to taste or 12 dried bird peppers
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
4 sprigs of thyme
4 sprigs fresh rosemary
4 fresh bay leaves
250 ml olive oil or sunflower oil
In a sterilized bottle layer herbs and peppers. Cover with oil. Set aside to mature for one week atleast. If you are worried about the slight chance of botchulism leave the oil in youre fridge and let mature for one month. You can add the same mixture to red wine vinegar for piquant dressings.
You can add whatever you like, be creative, the recipe is just a jumping off point.
This spring I planted a variety of vegetables and herbs in my garden. I wasn't sure how to go about planting a garden. House plants under my care had never lived longer than six months, understandably, I was nervous. The first day we started digging the soil was incredibly rocky and a foot below the rocky soil, lay concrete. It was unfortunate, I had already surmised the inevitability of stony soil, all one has to do is look at the landscape of Connemara to know that big rocks and little rocks will play a starring role in, The Things That Annoy You About Gardening in Galway. The concrete was a bummer, I had hoped to grow kohlrabi, carrots and onions. My root veggie dreams were smashed between rocks and concrete. I soldiered on with lettuce, garlic and gooseberries. I only found out last week, pretty much any idiot can throw down some seeds and they'll grow. All the gardening books I had read made me wonder how anything grew in the wild without the helping hand of man, between that and the plant hypochondria ... One gardening book in particular showed pictures of plants with various viruses, diseases, bugs and fungus. I was convinced my raspberries had some sort of virus. It was almost nice to of set actual hypochondria with this new plant one. Last week I ate the first head of lettuce it was amazing, all that garden to fork crap is true. It felt great to make a bouquet garni from my herbs. If I were to buy the herbs at the shop it would have cost almost ten Euro to assemble. It was probably about twelve Euro to buy my herbs, pots and compost. I almost made my money back from one measly bouquet garni. I have enjoyed gardening, It wasn't nearly as time consuming or as hard as I had envisioned. I haven't mastered it by any means. But hey, any idiot can throw down some seeds and see what grows. It's brilliant!
I love refried beans. Of late, I have been following The Homesick Texan's blog. She talks a lot about lard. She cooks a lot with lard. In fact, she raves about the stuff. As children, we were told lard was evil, terrible, it was horrible stuff. I remember the same said about butter, however, I also remember mothers, grandmothers etc. pooh poohing margarine when baking. Butter was the only way. Thanksgiving and Christmas were special in part because we got real butter on our spuds instead of margarine. The Homesick Texan was the first person I'd heard say, 'lard is good.' I was curious and the gods of lard were listening. On Friday, I stumbled on to the lard section in Tesco's. It was the perfect price too, 30 cent a go. Authentic refried beans are supposed to be made with lard. I have been searching for the perfect refried recipe for literally years. Until today I had never made beans with lard. I've used butter (yum) olive oil, sunflower oil, bacon fat and the list goes on. Truthfully, I enjoy butter the most. Pinto beans are quite neutral. Most beans seem to be. You can really taste the butter in the refried beans and I really like that. Vegan versions are very tasty too, oil can be substituted easily and the results are delicious. As far as lard is concerned, my partner loves beans fried in them. Lard seems to be neutral in flavor and I didn't feel that it lent the beans any special texture or flavor. They were really nice, but I still don't have my dream beans. This hasn't put me off lard though. I've only begun.
I don't have a definitive recipe for beans, like I said before. I'm going to write down the ingredients and if you wish to make these beans you'll have to do everything to your own taste, and the volume you require.
Ingredients
Dry pinto beans or whichever beans you prefer
1 tablespoon baking soda
Half an onion
Cumin
Garlic
Bay leaf
Salt and pepper
Soak your beans overnight in water and 1 tablespoon of baking soda. Alternately, soak beans in water that has been brought to the boil plus 1 tablespoon of baking soda (then taken off the heat) for an hour. When you are ready to cook your beans rinse them thoroughly, or they will taste of baking soda. Fill a pot with water and your beans put on the hob uncovered with bay, garlic and half an onion. . DO NOT add salt to the pot!!!!!! Your beans will never get soft. Cook at med-med low for about an hour and then rinse beans again. Add new water to the pot. The amount depends on how done your beans are. If your beans are soft, just cover with water. If your beans are hard more water is needed. When your beans are soft and the water has mostly evaporated as pictured above mash the beans with a fork as little or as much as you would like. Toast your cumin and grind into a powder. Add the cumin, lard, salt and pepper to your beans to taste. Enjoy!!!!!!
Patricia's Recipe
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