Experiments

One of the recipes I thought I'd try out for the autumn was this recipe from 101Cookbooks , Olive Biscuits, because sweet salty combinations are intriguing and taste enhancing. I followed the recipe pretty exactly simply veganising it by substituting a good vegan margarine for the butter. Although things looked promising oven troubles meant I burnt the first batch and undercooked the second.  Worse than that, I didn't really like what I tasted. It was too sweet, too greasy. I needed to rework the recipe (which I'm sure is fine with butter) to compensate for the different properties of the vegan margarine.

Into a tin they went, because throwing them straight away seemed such a waste, and it wasn't until a few days later that I went back to the tin in search of something to have with my self indulgently sweetened coffee. I found no Speculoos but tentatively tasted the almost stale olive cookies and was almost blown away. Against the (I must admit tremendously) sweet coffee they were fantastic.  So, the effort of reworking them seems worthwhile and I'll be returning to the attempt when I'm back in the UK with a reliably controlled oven.


While he was here Mr. Stripey bought me a food processor, quite an addition to this largely unplugged kitchen. It's already been useful for rapidly slicing big black radish for our favourite pickle but I thought I'd give it a test on runner beans. Unlike french beans these are usually prepared by slicing and an essential part of any British kitchen is one sort or another of patent bean slicer. I've never seen one in France and slicing the beans by hand was painstaking and tedious work, especially for one.


Of course, the processor is equipped with nothing that would produce the long slivers of vegetable normally used but the speedy reduction to fine pieces that it did give was inspirational enough.


Gratin of Runner beans with Garlic and Sherry Vinegar

Handful of runner beans per person
Tomato passata
Garlic
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
Sherry vinegar
Stale bread for croutons

Slice the beans finely.

Heat a little oil in a saucepan and add the garlic, finely sliced. How much you use is up to you, I suggest lots.

Allow the garlic to cook without browning then add the sliced beans stirring them around to coat in the oil, then add three or so tablespoons of passata, just enough to moisten the beans and salt and pepper to taste. Put a lid on the pan and set over a low heat for five to ten minutes. The beans should be cooked but not mushy.

In the meantime, make tiny croutons from your bread, use about 1 big slice per person. I used the crusts from a summer pudding (of which more later) but any bread you like will be fine. Fry them quickly in a little more oil until they are brown and crispy.  Keep warm until the beans are done if necessary.

Finally put the beans into a serving dish, sprinkle over sherry vinegar to taste (good sherry vinegar is divine) and top with fried crumbs. Serve immediately as a side dish or light lunch.