![\"Heinz](\"..\/..\/Images\/20201229\/_beans.jpg\")
<\/p>\n2020 Food Challenge \u2013 main course<\/p>\n
Roll out the red-carpet cause wur havin BEANS!!!!!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
This is the second part of my works cooking challenge which is to make a main course from Egypt. Since our team is from all over Europe and the Middle East the brief was to select and make one or more of these:<\/p>\n
Starter from Romania: Salata de Boeuf <\/a> So, the main course option was Falafel and if you check the recipe there is no mention of baked beans \u2013 so what gives\u2026 enter Nadiya Hussain<\/a>. I have blatantly ripped off her recipe for Baked bean falafel<\/a> to smash this challenge out of the park. <\/p>\n This recipe fixes everything that is wrong with Falafel: Enter the humble tin of baked beans, well 4 actually, which provides a moist base for the falafel and a sauce that rocks cause it uses Sriracha and mayonnaise..<\/p>\n The only thing I am going to change on Nadia’s recipe is to skip the slaw she uses in her recipe and instead make some “quick” pickles if you call 2 days quick. For quick pickles, a basic brine is equal parts vinegar and water, but you can adjust the ratio to your preference. Use any basic vinegar like white vinegar, apple cider, white wine, and rice vinegar all work well. You can use these vinegars alone or in combination. Do not use aged or concentrated vinegars like balsamic or malt vinegar for pickling.<\/p>\n Pickling Ingredients: 2 cloves garlic thinly sliced<\/p>\n Spices and Seeds Vegetables To make the brine place all the pickling ingredients in a small saucepan over high heat. Bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve the salt and sugar then remove from heat to cool.<\/p>\n Once liquid has cooled to room temperature, pour over vegetables in clean jars. Top with clean lid and store in fridge for at least 2 days and up to 1 month.<\/p>\n Here they are ready for the fridge \u2013 back in a couple of days\u2026. Let’s get started, firstly we need to drain and wash the beans.<\/p>\n Just a note about the sauce. Nadia says to use 150g\/5\u00bdoz of the drained bean sauce from the tins. Don’t believe it\u2026 use all the sauce. With my brand of beans there was 382g of sauce so I just doubled all the rest of the sauce ingredients, you can thank me later.<\/p>\n Prep time for the falafel ingredients. I am using red onion for the added kick and cheats garlic cause I am lazy when you are putting garlic into something.<\/p>\n Here are the spices \u2013 I LOVE the smell of cumin\u2026.<\/p>\n Get out the food toys\u2026 in go the beans and an egg for a quick blitz.<\/p>\n Add all the spices, onion and garlic and stir. Then mix in the Gram Flour (Besan).<\/p>\n You will need a bowl of water to keep the dough from sticking to your hands but don’t be tempted to make them smooth because the edges will brown up nice and crunchy in the oven. Then spritz them then with one of those 1 calorie cooking sprays, I use Sunflower.<\/p>\n Into the oven for 25 minutes and here they are ready to trough\u2026 go on dip one in the sauce and try it!<\/p>\n Heat a pita bread in the microwave and cut the top off. Break the falafel in half and stuff into the warm bread. Tuck some of the drained quick pickle in the spaces between the falafel and drizzle with the sauce. Sweet, sour, moist, crunchy and spicy with a sriracha afterburn nice.<\/p>\n 2020 Food Challenge \u2013 main course Roll out the red-carpet cause wur havin BEANS!!!!! This is the second part of my works cooking challenge which is to make a main course from Egypt. Since our team is from all over … Continue reading
\nMains from Egypt: Falafel<\/a>
\nDesert from Portugal, Germany, UK, Italy and France: Yule Log<\/a><\/p>\n
\n1. They are dry as dust \u2013 and I quote from the recipe provided “Dry chickpeas are naturally starchy” like that is a good thing.
\n2. They are usually deep fried \u2013 major hassle\u2026 what do you do with the oil you just ruined?
\n3. If they were not dry enough sometimes tahini is used as a sauce \u2013 have you every tasted tahini\u2026 it sucks all the moisture out of your mouth in an instant. Nice for practical jokes but not really something I use a lot of.
\n4. No 24-hour soaking \u2013 this is a store cupboard recipe if you have 4 cans of beans and Garam Flour (Besan) in your cupboard. Surprisingly, I do have them most of the time because my children are vegetarian, and this is the “go to” recipe if they pop by. I also have Garam Flour (Besan) because I use it instead of wheat flour for making fruit\/vegetable breads and cookies.<\/p>\n
\n1 cup white wine vinegar
\n1 cup water
\n1 tablespoon sea salt flakes
\n1 tablespoon sugar (Xylitol)<\/p>\n
\n\u00bd tsp black peppercorns
\n\u00bd tsp coriander seeds
\n\u00bd tsp mustard seeds
\n\u00bd tsp Nigella seeds – onion seeds
\n1 tsp Dill
\n![\"Pickling](\"..\/..\/Images\/20201229\/_PicklingSpices.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n3 inches of Cucumber cut into long strips
\n1 medium Carrot peeled and julienned
\n\u00bd Red Onion cut into \u00bc moons
\n5 Radishes thinly sliced
\n2 sweetheart Cabbage leaves with the stalk removed and cut into strips<\/p>\n![\"Pickling](\"..\/..\/Images\/20201229\/_PicklingVeg.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n![\"Pickles\"](\"..\/..\/Images\/20201229\/_Pickles.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Drain](\"..\/..\/Images\/20201229\/_BeansDrained.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Sauce\"](\"..\/..\/Images\/20201229\/_sauce.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Onion](\"..\/..\/Images\/20201229\/_OnionGarlic.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Spices\"](\"..\/..\/Images\/20201229\/_spices.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Blitzed](\"..\/..\/Images\/20201229\/_blitzed.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Mixed](\"..\/..\/Images\/20201229\/_mixed.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Raw](\"..\/..\/Images\/20201229\/_Balls.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Baked](\"..\/..\/Images\/20201229\/_Baked.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Plated](\"..\/..\/Images\/20201229\/_plated.jpg\")
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"