Your Dreams Coming True In The Kitchen

Rajma (Kidney Bean) Curry Indian Bread Indian Bread(somethng between Naan, Chapati, Roti etc...) Delicious!!! I ndian food is easy if and an only if you have the required ingredients. Ok you can have a ready mix of curry powder bought from any super market but it is not the same as to make your own from scratch if you have the ingredients. By changing the quantities between each other you can go from a curry to tikka etc.

Y ep, now-a-days, we have to be careful of what we eat, and how much we spend. Garbanzo beans also known as Chickpeas are a good choice for a simple everyday meal. The idea here is to use them whole into a soup....

Adzuki Bean: Health Benefits and Nutrition Information....

F ava is a Greek word meaning the yellow machine cut bean. It does not need to be soaked overnight in water. It can be boiled for a maximum of 45 minutes with enough water to cover it by 3 cm when cold. Be careful to take off the foam when it start boiling.Once the fava beans are boiled to the soup consistency, you can take it one step further by letting more liquid evaporate leaving the fava beans "nearly" dry  but  NOT COMPLETELY DRY.   You would want to keep just enough fluid in there so when you purée it with the vertical  hand mixer, the outcome would be a thick, yet slightly fluid, purée. 

S ome friends of our went to the north west of Greece to the Prespes Lakes famed for their white elephant beans. These beans are even bigger than the giant beans you have maybe read about in my previous posts. They are perfect to half braze half bake with a tomato sauce and Italian chicken sausages. By the way these sausages are the only salty ingredient in the whole recipe. I am still aiming at a minimum Na+ (sodium) diet.

T he Italians have succeeded in making delicious sausages made from chicken, not pork. They taste very good and can be mistaken for the real McCoy! Of course, like any other charcuterie, they are salty. One sausage every now and then is not bad when everything else is without salt at all. Eating them with an omelet is fantastic, even more when the omelet is a frittata, Italian style....

A fter a day of eating fried, we should eat light. Baby beans soaked all night, boiled for 30 minutes in lots of water, when done cover until you decide what to do with them sounded like a good idea.   We had some broccoli a few days old, so I decided to add the florets 7 minutes before turning the fire off. Serves 4-6 Ingredients:  -  500 gr of baby white beans soaked in lots of water overnight. -   1 onion finely chopped. -   4 cloves of garlic thinly sliced. -   2 carrots finely diced. -   1 bunch celery leaves roughly chopped. -   1- 2 cups of liquid remaining after boiling the beans. -   No salt no pepper. -   1 Tbsp. soy sauce. -   1 Tbsp. ketchup -   250 ml tomato sauce. (Passato di pomodoro). -   Small head of broccoli separated  into florets. Method: -  Drain water from beans and add fresh water into a saucepan add the beans. -  Heat to...

I don't know what is wrong (or right) with me these days but I have the "hots" for curries!! Always, of course, staying on the main principles of my losing weight plan. Today I fixed black eyed peas with crunchy cauliflower florets. They were excellent. Here's how....

Garbanzo Beans otherwise called Chickpeas, are delicious. Everybody knows Humus. Well, humus is made with garbanzo beans. People in the desert eat garbanzo beans that is why these beans are very much consumed in the Middle East. Please allow me to share with you the benefits before I go to the more interesting part....the eating! Nutrients in Garbanzo Beans 1.00 cup cooked (164.00 grams) Nutrient%Daily Value -  molybdenum164% -  manganese84.5% -  folate70.5% -  fiber49.8% -  tryptophan43.7% -  protein29% -  copper28.9% -  phosphorus27.5% -  iron26.3% -  Calories (268)14% (Courtesy of  "The World's Healthiest Foods".  www.whfood.org) 

T he idea here is to cook the black eyed peas in lots of water add whatever needs to be added then finally to poach the fish filet on the surface during the last 10 minutes or so.  This is a warm, light, tasty meal to enjoy on a week day for lunch.  The orange piece you see is pumpkin.

E very Monday we eat pulses after having a fiesta during the weekend; Unfortunately we eat only once a week when it should be two. Now with Greece's situation it is going to have to be three times per week!! We are going to be lucky if we can even afford to eat these...! Anyway here is how I fixed our small white beans...

Chickpea Dish When Roasted Spices Were Just Added.  A different way to eat chickpeas....

In Absence Of The Real McCoy We Have To Buy Canned Fool. 75 million Egyptians nearly eat Fool Medammess Beans for breakfast or lunch every day. (The proper way to spell is FOUL. I am writing it Fool because that is how it is pronounced and not Fowl). It  is their primary source of energy and protein plus it is the cheapest food they can buy with the scant salaries they receive. However they have a certain ritual in eating this food, depending of course on their income, and standard of living. The better off they are the more they add to it....

 T oday I made a most delicious chili con carne. I liked it and the most difficult critics, my wife and daughter, loved it. I am basically writing this recipe for my own benefit. What better way is there? I am sure I would have forgotten the doses and steps by tomorrow! For those of you who like chili con carne (beans with chili powder and meat) this may be another way to cook it...

S ince Greece does not have Pinto beans we use the Bar-bou-no-fa-sou-la bean variety instead to make Greco-Texan style beans. The end result is the same. We can use the same to make re-fried beans "refritos"...

W hat do you do when you have 250 gr of giant white beans and 250 gr of normal medium sized white beans and neither of them are enough to feed 4 people??

H aving lived and associated with Americans for so long especially with those of the South, Tex Mex food has become second nature to me.  I bought some flour tortillas the other day ( I don't know why, the only corn tortillas I can find are in the ready combo packages for Mexican food - I used to be able to find them flat and canned by the "El Paso" brand).  I just thought of a filling that some of my friends liked and maybe you would let me share the recipe with you.

Garbanzo beans as they are commonly called in Mexico, are chicpeas, homos in Arabic, revithia in Greek. Soaked overnight and cooked by steaming or boiling. They are delicious when simply

C hickpeas and pasta cooked the Indian / Pakistani way is delicious especially for some of you who like the taste of mild curry, garam masala, yogurt, coriander, mango powder, cumin, and fresh ginger. Here is how I made this personal concoction because I just love these tastes.

I t is very interesting how many combinations there are when you have about 15 ingredients....and how many ways to cook them...