Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Wednesday: Almond joy



Yellow cauliflower with roasted almonds and cranberry beans, served with quinoa.

We adapted this recipe from a Chinese one in Madhur Jaffrey's World of the East, substituting cranberry beans for lima beans (which Giselle has refused to eat since infancy). It's a very quick preparation, in which pre-cooked cauliflower and beans are stirred in oil with a little garlic and ginger, and then sherry is added in. But what really makes the dish is the first step, in which you fry almonds in the oil you will use to cook the vegetables. Who knew almonds could taste like that??

Incidentally, if you're wondering why those little purple beans are named "cranberry," you should check out how they look before being cooked:



Last year a farm came to the market which sold several other types of shell beans (beans sold fresh in their inedible pod), and we got to try a couple, but unfortunately this year cranberries are all we can find. If anybody knows where in New York you can score a couple other types of shell beans, please let us know.

1 comment:

  1. favorite madhur jaffrey recipe:

    One butternut, cubed

    In frying pan put:
    Olive oil
    1tsp mustard seeds
    1tsp cumin seeds

    When seeds start to pop, add
    1tsp fenugreek seeds (can be omitted)
    red pepper flakes to taste

    Stir all around and then add butternut and stir to cover squash

    Cover the frying pan completely and turn down to medium heat

    Let cook for 45 minutes stirring every 10 minutes or so until you can begin to mash the squash a bit but it's still mostly chunky

    Add salt, pepper and 1/2 cup brown sugar and stir

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