ramtops

I put a stack of kidney beans into to soak on Thursday night, and boiled them up in the slow cooker on Friday. I really do recommend slow cookers for beans – they don’t fill the kitchen with steam, they don’t need topping up, the beans don’t stick.

On Saturday, I made a tuna and bean salad with what I was hoping would be half the beans, but for once I had underestimated (we normally have Far Too Many Beans when I used dried), so I had to have a mull. Which I did, and the reply comes next.

Into a bowl went the beans, a well drained can of tuna fish, some chopped onion, some coriander leaves, enough mayo to stir it together, and some lime juice, salt and pepper. It was very nice, except it lacked … something. I don’t know what. But the flavour wasn’t all that nice.I shall mull.

But it was quick and cheap, and used up beans, so that’s OK.

Mirrored from Reactive Cooking.

We don’t as, as a rule, eat takeaway food. It’s cheap here in Hull, but it’s not terribly good for diabetics :) But we did have a kebab on Saturday night. Now, this is not the sort of kebab you get from the corner van, that smells so inviting when you’re on your way home from the pub – this is from a Lebanese restaurant, Ranoosh, on Beverley Road, and their food is just gorgeous.

We had Makanek (Lebanese sausages flambeed in lemon), Halloumi Cheese, Mixed Grillof 4 skewers: Lamb meshwi, shish taouk & 2 kofta, and Mixed Chawarma – Slices of marinated lamb & chicken roasted on a skewer. It arrived with two portions of rice, salad and a selection of dips, and was delivered to the door for the princely sum of £21. And there was too much to eat, so we put the leftover meat into the fridge.

For today’s lunch, I chopped up the meat, and added radish, cucumber, red pepper, spring onions and half a can of chickpeas, plus lemon juice, black pepper and a little mayonnaise. Pete had some Indian flat bread too. ‘Twas lovely.

Mirrored from Reactive Cooking.

A bag of broad beans arrived in the veg box on Friday; we like ‘em, but you don’t get many once you’ve removed them from the huge furry pods.

I simmered them for about ten minutes, then drained, blanched, and put in a big bowl. I fried off a pack of pancetta cubes and put them to drain on some kitchen roll, then fried some cold potatoes from the fridge in the fat, and drained them similarly. Then they went into the bowl with a tin of tuna and a dressing made from the juice of half a lemon (that was in the fridge in clingfilm), a little walnut oil, and a generous teaspoon of dijon mustard.

Lovely summer food.