1/2 cup / 100 g / 3 1/2 ounces Colfiorito lentils OR Castelluccio lentils OR other small lentils
1 cup / 240 ml water
A small bay leaf
1 garlic cloves, peeled
1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt
For the lentil spread
Cooked lentils (ingredients above, method below)
2 tablespoons / 30 ml toasted sesami tahini (recipe below)
1 tablespoon / 15 ml fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoon / 30 ml extra-virgin olive oil
1 small garlic clove, minced
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon harissa mix
1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt, to taste
Additional water to achieve desired consistency, as needed
Instructions
Make the toasted sesame tahini
Toast the sesame seeds in a dry skillet on medium heat until they are tanned and fragrant. This will take just a few minutes. Shake the skillet often or stir the seeds with a spatula. Guard the seeds like a hawk as they burn easily. Transfer the seeds to a plate and let cool completely.
Process the sesame seeds in a small food processor or blender until a thick paste forms. Add the olive oil and process until smooth. Add sea salt and process briefly to distribute. Transfer the tahini to a glass jar, cover with a lid and refrigerate until ready to use.
Cook the lentils
Sort the lentils, rinse them, then place them in a small saucepan with the water, bay leaf and garlic. Cover the saucepan and quickly bring the water to a boil, then lower the heat and let the lentils simmer, covered, until they are tender, 20-30 minutes, as needed. Check after 15-20 minutes and estimate the time necessary to complete the cooking. Add the salt when the lentils are almost cooked.
Remove and discard the bay leaf and garlic. Let the lentils cool in the saucepan.
Make the lentil spread
Place the cooked lentils in a food processor. Add all the other ingredients: tahini, lemon juice, olive oil, spices and salt. Process until creamy, adding water as needed to achieve the desired consistency. I keep it fairly dense to serve it as part of a main dish combination (see below).
Transfer to a serving bowl and refrigerate. Take the bowl out of the refrigerator ahead of serving the spread.
Serve with crackers and/or fresh vegetables cut into bite-sized pieces as appetizer, or spoon on plate to accompany other dishes, like a salad or a slice of frittata).
small lentils, big flavor (placemat by La FABBRICA del LINO)
After reading the first six Adam Dalgliesh novels by P.D. James in order of publication, I skipped to #11 Death in Holy Orders which I purchased some time ago at a library sale. Then last month, at a local bookstore, I picked The Lighthouse which is #13 (2005). Death in Holy Orders ended with Commander Dalgliesh (Metropolitan Police Service at New Scotland Yard) in love with Emma Lavenham and I was glad to see her still in his life in The Lighthouse.
I love P.D. James’s novels: her writing is evocative, exact, engaging. I particularly enjoy her descriptions of landscapes and interiors. James’s descriptive skills are in full display in The Lighthouse which is set in the (fictional) Combe Island off the Cornish coast ‘a restful haven for the elite’. The immediate reason for Dalgliesh’s presence on Combe is the violent death of a famous novelist, Nathan Oliver. One of the plot’s twists is provided by one of the island’s guests falling gravely ill and being diagnosed with SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome)2
a viral respiratory illness caused by a coronavirus called SARS-associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV). SARS was first reported in Asia in February 2003. The illness spread to more than two dozen countries in North America, South America, Europe, and Asia before the SARS global outbreak of 2003 was contained.
Dalgliesh also falls ill and I will stop here before I reveal too much. I admit is was a bit chilling to read about that SARS-CoV. But the novel is intense and masterfully written: P.D. James spins her tale slowly and meticulously, keeping the reader engaged until the last line.
Given that Combe Island is a retreat for rich and powerful people, the food is formal and not particularly intriguing. What inspired me are various occasions in the story where characters come together: there are beverages (wine or tea), but never a bite to eat. I wanted to enter the story and bring a tray with foods, like a spread with crackers.
sesame seeds toasted and raw
In my archives I have recipes for spreads made with beans (fagioli) and chickpeas (ceci) but not lentils, so I started experimenting with those, using some ingredients from the recipe for hummus. I made tahini using toasted sesame seeds: I like the aroma of roasted sesame seeds and making tahini is quick and satisfying.
I stock up on lentils when I visit my home town of Perugia. The two special varieties grown in Umbria are lenticchia di Castelluccio and lenticchia dell’Altopiano di Colfiorito. Both are small with tender skin and cook relatively quickly. Their delicate, earthy flavor is a delight.
1/2 cup / 100 g / 3 1/2 ounces Colfiorito lentils OR Castelluccio lentils OR other small lentils
1 cup / 240 ml water
A small bay leaf
1 garlic cloves, peeled
Ingredients for the lentil spread:
Cooked lentils (ingredients above, method below)
2 tablespoons / 30 ml toasted sesami tahini (recipe below)
1 tablespoon / 15 ml fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoon / 30 ml extra-virgin olive oil
1 small garlic clove, minced
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon harissa mix
1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt, to taste
Additional water to achieve desired consistency, as needed
How to make toasted sesame tahini Toast the sesame seeds in a dry skillet on medium heat until they are tanned and fragrant. This will take just a few minutes. Shake the skillet often or stir the seeds with a spatula. Guard the seeds like a hawk as they burn easily. Transfer the seeds to a plate and let cool completely.
Process the sesame seeds in a small food processor or blender until a thick paste forms. Add the olive oil and process until smooth. Add sea salt and process briefly to distribute. Transfer the tahini to a glass jar, cover with a lid and refrigerate until ready to use.
How to cook the lentils Sort the lentils, rinse them, then place them in a small saucepan with the water, bay leaf and garlic. Cover the saucepan and quickly bring the water to a boil, then lower the heat and let the lentils simmer, covered, until they are tender, 20-30 minutes, as needed. Check after 15-20 minutes and estimate the time necessary to complete the cooking. Add the salt when the lentils are almost cooked.
Remove and discard the bay leaf and garlic. Let the lentils cool in the saucepan.
How to make the lentil spread Place the cooked lentils in a food processor. Add all the other ingredients: tahini, lemon juice, olive oil, spices and salt. Process until creamy, adding water as needed to achieve the desired consistency. I keep it fairly dense to serve it as part of a main dish combination (see below).
Transfer to a serving bowl and refrigerate. Take the bowl out of the refrigerator ahead of serving the spread.
Serve with crackers and/or fresh vegetables cut into bite-sized pieces as appetizer, or spoon on plate to accompany other dishes, like a salad or a slice of frittata).
[Depending on your set-up, the audio file will be played within the browser or by your mp3 player application. Please, contact me if you encounter any problems.]
This is my contribution to the 41st edition of Novel Food, the literary/culinary event that Lisa of Champaign Taste and I started 13 years ago and that I continue to host.
FTC disclosure: I have received the table linen free of charge from the manufacturer (la FABBRICA del LINO). I have not and will not receive any monetary compensation for presenting it on my blog. The experience shared and the opinions expressed in this post are entirely my own.
lenticchie piccole dal sapore grande (tovaglietta de La FABBRICA del LINO)
Per la seconda edizione della Fattoria ho preparato un piatto utilizzando una delle eccellenze dell’Umbria, la mia terra di origine. La lenticchia di Castelluccio di Norcia non ha bisogno di presentazione. Ma non è l’unica varietà di questo legume gustoso, nutriente e facile da preparare: c’è la lenticchia dell’Altopiano di Colfiorito, anch’essa caratterizzata dalle piccole dimensioni.
Lenticchia di Colfiorito, delizia umbra
Fare la spesa all’Antica Spezieria e Drogheria Eredi Bavicchi1 a Perugia mi ha fatto conoscere ed apprezzare questo ed altri legumi tradizionali umbri e non solo. Mi piacciono molto i sacchi a righe che contengono i legumi e i cartelli scritti a mano che presentano le caratteristiche dei prodotti. (La foto qui sopra è di qualche anno fa, quindi il prezzo non è corrente.) Nel negozio potete anche trovare spezie, cioccolato, cereali e farine e tanti altri prodotti.
semi di sesame tostati e crudi
Ho cotto le lenticchie come al solito poi ho deciso di preparare qualcosa di diverso, una crema spalmabile ispirata all’hummus (crema a base di ceci), in particolare per quanto riguarda l’uso della tahina. Qualche tempo fa ne comprai una versione fatta con semi di sesamo tostati, versione che ho provato a fare in casa e che è diventata per me standard.
Ingredienti per la tahina con semi di sesamo tostati:
150 g di semi di sesamo
2 cucchiai / 30 ml di olio extra-vergine di oliva
1/4 cucchiaino di sale fino
Ingredienti per le lenticchie:
100 g lenticchie di Colfiorito o di Castelluccio
240 ml acqua
1 piccola foglia di alloro
1 spicchio d’aglio pelato
1/8 cucchiaino di sale fino
Ingredienti per la crema di lenticchie:
Lenticchie cotte (ingredienti qui sopra, preparazione a seguire)
2 cucchiai / 30 ml tahina con semi di sesamo tostati (ricetta a seguire)
1 cucchiaio / 15 ml di succo di limone
2 cucchiai / 30 ml di olio extra-vergine di oliva
1 piccolo spicchio d’aglio, tritato
1/4 cucchiaino cumino in polvere
1/4 cucchiaino harissa in polvere
1/8 cucchiaino di sale fino, a seconda del gusto
Acqua in aggiunta per ottenere la consistenza desiderata
Preparare la tahina ai semi di sesamo toastati Tostare i semi di sesamo in una padella a secco su calore medio fino a quando siano dorati e fragranti. Scuotere spesso la padella o muovere i semi con una spatola. La doratura avviene in pochi minuti, quindi prestare attenzione o i semi si bruciano. Trasferire i semi su un piatto a farli raffreddare.
Frullare i semi di sesame fino a che formino una pasta densa. Aggiungere l’olio d’oliva e frullare a che si formi una crema omogenea. Aggiungere il sale e frullare brevemente per distribuirlo. Trasferire la tahina in un vasetto di vetro, coprire e tenere in frigorifero fino al momento dell’uso.
Cuocere le lenticchie Mondare le lenticchie e sciacquarle, poi metterle in un pentolino con l’acqua, l’alloro, l’aglio e il sale. Coprire il pentolino e portare a bollore rapidamente. Abbassare il calore e far cuocere le lenticchie, coperte, fino a quando siano tenere, 30 minuti o il tempo necessario. Controllare dopo 15-20 minuti e valutare quanto tempo manca al termine della cottura.
Rimuovere l’alloro e l’aglio e scartarli. Far raffreddare le lenticchie nel pentolino.
Preparare la crema di lenticchie Frullare le lenticchie cotte insieme agli altri ingredienti (tahina, succo di limone, olio d’oliva, spezie e sale) fino ad ottenere una crema omogenea. Aggiungere un po’ d’acqua, se necessario, per ottenere la consistenza desiderata. Io la mantengo piuttosto densa per servirla anche come piatto principale in combinazione (vedi sotto).
Trasferire la crema in una ciotola e metterla in frigorifero. Tirarla fuori un’ora prima di servirla.
Servire con cracker e/o verdure fresche tagliate a bocconcini (per esempio, carote, cavolfiore) come aperitivo, oppure come pietanza insieme ad un’insalata o un trancio di frittata.
FTC disclosure: Ho ricevuto gli articoli di lino gratuitamente dall’azienda produttrice (la FABBRICA del LINO). Non ho ricevuto e non riceverò alcun compenso per presentarli sul mio blog. Le opinioni espresse nel post sono interamente personali.
1/2 cup / 100 g / 3 1/2 ounces Colfiorito lentils OR Castelluccio lentils OR other small lentils
1 cup / 240 ml water
A small bay leaf
1 garlic cloves, peeled
1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt
For the lentil spread
Cooked lentils (ingredients above, method below)
2 tablespoons / 30 ml toasted sesami tahini (recipe below)
1 tablespoon / 15 ml fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoon / 30 ml extra-virgin olive oil
1 small garlic clove, minced
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon harissa mix
1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt, to taste
Additional water to achieve desired consistency, as needed
Instructions
Make the toasted sesame tahini
Toast the sesame seeds in a dry skillet on medium heat until they are tanned and fragrant. This will take just a few minutes. Shake the skillet often or stir the seeds with a spatula. Guard the seeds like a hawk as they burn easily. Transfer the seeds to a plate and let cool completely.
Process the sesame seeds in a small food processor or blender until a thick paste forms. Add the olive oil and process until smooth. Add sea salt and process briefly to distribute. Transfer the tahini to a glass jar, cover with a lid and refrigerate until ready to use.
Cook the lentils
Sort the lentils, rinse them, then place them in a small saucepan with the water, bay leaf, garlic and salt. Cover the saucepan and quickly bring the water to a boil, then lower the heat and let the lentils simmer, covered, until they are tender, 30 minutes or as needed. Check after 15-20 minutes and estimate the time necessary to complete the cooking.
Remove and discard the bay leaf and garlic. Let the lentils cool in the saucepan.
Make the lentil spread
Place the cooked lentils in a food processor. Add all the other ingredients: tahini, lemon juice, olive oil, spices and salt. Process until creamy, adding water as needed to achieve the desired consistency. I keep it fairly dense to serve it as part of a main dish combination (see below).
Transfer to a serving bowl and refrigerate. Take the bowl out of the refrigerator ahead of serving the spread.
Serve with crackers and/or fresh vegetables cut into bite-sized pieces as appetizer, or spoon on plate to accompany other dishes, like a salad or a slice of frittata).
the salad looks nice in a Limoges tureen (zuppiera)1 (tablecloth by La FABBRICA del LINO)
During winter months, usually soup is on the table more often than salad. This year, however, I am having an intense relationship with raw cabbage. It's not that I discovered it, but I've been reminded how much I like a salad of finely shredded cabbage, and how much I enjoy playing with it, adding various ingredients and tasting the results.
One such ingredient recently has been pan-roasted salmon, prepared according to the recipe2 in Jessica Fechtor's memoir Stir3, the current selection of our Cook the Books Club.
I enjoyed the book, both for the writing style — clear, concise, without frills but also rich in vivid images — and for the way the author deals with her health scare, the various setbacks and subsequent challenges. I like that she keeps her focus on her experience as individual. My favorite part of the book comes at the end of chapter 14, where she writes:
The doctor's question was a version of something I'd start hearing a lot. “Everything happens for a reason.” People said it to me all the time. I know they meant to comfort. […] I'd feel my chest tighten every time and do my best not to roll my eyes.
Everything happens for a reason? I don't see it that way at all. To me, only the first part is clear: Everything happens. Then other things happen, and other things, still. Out of each of these moments, we make something. Any number of somethings, in fact.
What comes of our own actions becomes the "reason." It is no predestined thing. We may arrive where we are by way of a specific path—we can take just one at a time—but it's never the only one that could have led us to our destination. Nor does a single event, even a string of them, point decisively to a single landing spot. There are infinite possible versions of our lives. Meaning is not what happens, but what we do with what happens when it does.
I'd like to meet Jessica Fechtor and give her a hug to thank her for writing this half page.
crisp ribbons of green freshness
Back to beautiful cabbage, fresh from the farmers' market, the recipe for the salad is mine and while you don't need to follow Fechtor's recipe for the salmon part, I recommend you give it a try: it is easy, fast and gives a very nice result. I also prepared black cod (a.k.a., sablefish) in the same way and was happy with my decision. I usually purchase king salmon (a.k.a., chinook) or coho, rigorously wild-caught.
Fuyu persimmons glow: impossible not to buy these sweet beauties
The weeks before Christmas (Natale) I bought a lot of persimmons at various farmers' markets in Berkeley. I mean, how could I not? They are excellent eaten out of hand or used as ingredients. Plus, the farmers' market were taking a break until early January, so I planned accordingly.
ready to be added to the shredded cabbage
One day, as I was shredding cabbage, I thought about adding sliced Fuyu persimmon. Leftover salmon invited itself to the party and tahini sauce convinced me it would bring the ingredients together in a nice salad. I loved the result. I made more salmon, had more leftovers (avanzi), prepared the salad again and again enjoyed it to the last bite, so I am sharing the recipe below.
I made roasted sesame tahini and tahini sauce for an earlier recipe4 and have since used the sauce with various vegetables always with nice results. For this salad, I made a batch without garlic. Tahini sauce offsets persimmon's sweetness and brings together the rich, oily salmon with the crisp, fresh-tasting cabbage.
Salad ingredients serve 1, to be multiplied as needed; tahini sauce ingredients make 1/2 cup
Ingredients for toasted sesame tahini:
1 cup /150 g / 5 1/4 ounces white sesame seeds
2 tablespoons / 30 ml extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
Ingredients for tahini sauce:
1/4 cup / 60 ml tahini, homemade or store-bought
1/4 cup / 60 ml water
4 teaspoons / 20 ml fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
Note: the recipe I used previously4 includes: 2 roasted garlic cloves, peeled and crushed OR 1 garlic clove, peeled and minced. I omitted the garlic in the tahini sauce for this salad.
For the salad, for each person:
2 ounces / 55 g roasted salmon
1/2 medium Fuyu persimmon
4 ounces / 110 g finely shredded cabbage
1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt, or to taste
2 tablespoons / 30 ml tahini sauce
Note: Fuyu is a non-astringent variety of persimmon. It can be eaten when firm or it may be left to ripen (and soften), as preferred.
How to make toasted sesame tahini Toast the sesame seeds in a dry skillet on medium heat until they are tanned and fragrant. Shake the skillet often or stir the seeds with a spatula. This will take just a few minutes, so guard the seeds like a hawk: they will burn easily. Transfer the seeds to a plate and let cool completely.
Process the sesame seeds in a small food processor or blender until a thick paste forms. Add the olive oil and process until smooth. Add sea salt and process briefly to distribute. Transfer the tahini to a glass jar and refrigerate until ready to use.
How to make tahini sauce Whiz all the tahini sauce ingredients until smooth. You will get more than you need for the salad, but this sauce (without or with garlic) can be used to dress roasted or steamed vegetables.
How to compose the salad If the roasted salmon is refrigerator-cold, warm it up slightly. Flake the salmon.
Wash the persimmon, halve it, pull away the stem and use the knife to remove the core. Slice half for the salad. If the slices are long, halve them crosswise.
Plate the salad: season the cabbage with the sea salt and toss. Distribute the salmon and the persimmon on the cabbage bed. Drizzle the tahini sauce on the top.
Serve with additional tahini sauce on the side. Each person will toss the salad before eating.
Serves 1
buon appetito!
If Fuyu persimmons are not available where you are, try substituting it with an Asian pear.
[Depending on your set-up, the audio file will be played within the browser or by your mp3 player application. Please, contact me if you encounter any problems.]
FTC disclosure: I have received the tablecloth free of charge from the manufacturer (la FABBRICA del LINO). I have not and will not receive any monetary compensation for presenting it on my blog. The experience shared and the opinions expressed in this post are entirely my own.
Federico García Lorca1 is one of my favorite poets, so when I came across a novel whose protagonist's name was Lorca, I had to read it: I am glad I followed my impulse. Jessica Soffer's Tomorrow There Will Be Apricots2is the current selection of our Cook the Books Club. The book brings together a group of people who all carry a heavy burden of pain: the pain of exile from homeland and from motherhood, the pain of an aloof mother and an absent father, the pain of loneliness, abandonment, inadequacy. Food is one way through which the novel's characters work through the destruction such pain causes in their life. All of them find that what they believed or hoped to be true wasn't, and the shock of discovery if partly absorbed by food.
While at times the plot didn't flow quite smoothly, what kept my attention alert was the shared yearning for a connection with someone close to us. We often express that yearning in awkward ways, but it is a cry that wants to be heard and we should honor it in ourselves and others. One of the ways in which such cry materializes in the novel is the determination of Lorca to replicate a dish her chef mother has praises above anything else she has ever eaten. On the one hand the dish acquires mythical qualities, on the other we know it is a stand-in for something different, but we go along and cheer Lorca in her quest. She is helped by Victoria, a recently widowed Iraqi Jewish immigrant who used to run a restaurant.
fagioli del Purgatorio (Purgatory Beans)
There is plenty of food in the novel and the reading made me focus on how many different foods contribute to my culinary world. I am also an immigrant, so there are foods I got to know in my country of origin, Italy, and foods I met in my adoptive country and I use all of them in my kitchen. While I sometimes have nostalgia for a specific food item or dish, I find inspiration in what I have available and like to explore flavors that were unknown to me when I was growing up.
In honor of Victoria's Iraqi heritage, I thought it was time I made my own tahini and made it using toasted sesame seeds (semi di sesamo tostati). I then used it to make a sauce with which I dressed fagioli del Purgatorio (Purgatory Beans)3, small white beans grown on the volcanic soil of a beautiful region of Italy, around Lago di Bolsena4. I bought them from my trusted legume provider in Perugia5, attracted by their name. I later read about the century old tradition of Pranzo del Purgatorio in the town of Gradoli. Every year on Fat Thursday the group of men called the Fratellanza del Purgatorio goes around asking people for contributions, products that are then sold at auction to finance the Pranzo which occurs on Ash Wednesday and on whose menu the beans are prominently featured6.
sesame seeds toasted and raw
The small beans cook relatively quickly, are firm in texture and delicate in flavor. I dressed them with tahini sauce, something that would probably raise a few eyebrows in their homeland, where they are served dressed with the local olive oil. Some finely diced Asian pear offers a nice lightly sweet contrast to the earthy beans and the intense tahini.
1 cup / 200 g / 7 ounces fagioli del Purgatorio or other small beans (see Notes below)
3 cups / 700 ml water
A bay leaf
2 garlic cloves, peeled
A 1-inch / 2.5 cm piece of kombu (optional)
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
Ingredients for the tahini sauce:
1/4 cup / 60 ml tahini, homemade or store-bought
1/4 cup / 60 ml water
4 teaspoons / 20 ml fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
2 roasted garlic cloves, peeled and crushed OR 1 garlic clove, peeled and minced
Additionally:
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt, or to taste
Asian pear (any variety)
Notes: You can use another variety of beans. The cooking time will vary. Also, you can purchase the tahini, rather than make your own, and follow the recipe starting from cooking the beans.
How to make toasted sesame tahini Toast the sesame seeds in a dry skillet on medium heat until they are tanned and fragrant. Shake the skillet often or stir the seeds with a spatula. This will take just a few minutes, so guard the seeds like a hawk: they will burn easily. Transfer the seeds to a plate and let cool completely.
Process the sesame seeds in a small food processor or blender until a thick paste forms. Add the olive oil and process until smooth. Add sea salt and process briefly to distribute. Transfer the tahini to a glass jar and refrigerate until ready to use.
How to cook the beans Rinse the beans then place them in a saucepan with the water, bay leaf, garlic, kombu (if using) and salt. Bring the water to a lively boil quickly, and keep it there for two minutes, then turn down the heat and let the beans simmer, covered, until they are tender. Taste them after 1 hour and estimate if/how much longer they should cook.
Let the beans cool in their broth, then remove the aromatics and discard them. Let the beans rest in their cooking broth until ready to use.
How to make tahini sauce Rather than raw garlic, I prefer to use roasted garlic, whose flavor is more muted. As I use the oven often, it is easy for me to wrap a few unpeeled garlic cloves in foil and put them in the oven for 10-15 minutes, depending on the oven temperature.
Whiz all the tahini sauce ingredients until smooth. You will get more than you need for the beans, but this sauce can be used to dress roasted or steamed vegetables.
How to finish the dish Drain the beans. (I use the bean broth in soups.) Add 1/2 teaspoon sea salt and stir well.
Finely dice the pear. Depending on its size, you probably won't need it all.
For each portion, place 1/2 cup of beans in a bowl, add 2 tablespoons of the diced pear and stir. Drizzle one tablespoon of the tahini sauce on the top. Serve with additional tahini sauce on the side.
Serves 4.
add broccoli and you have a nice meal
The result may not be a vibrantly colored dish, but it is one that surprises with its flavor. It's not Purgatory, but a small, simple Paradise.
[Depending on your set-up, the audio file will be played within the browser or by your mp3 player application. Please, contact me if you encounter any problems.]
1 cup / 200 g / 7 ounces fagioli del Purgatorio or other small beans (see Notes below)
3 cups / 700 ml water
A bay leaf
2 garlic cloves, peeled
A 1-inch / 2.5 cm piece of kombu (optional)
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
For the tahini sauce
1/4 cup / 60 ml tahini
1/4 cup / 60 ml water
4 teaspoons / 20 ml fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
2 roasted garlic cloves, peeled and crushed OR 1 garlic clove, peeled and minced
Additionally
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt, or to taste
Asian pear (any variety)
Instructions
Notes
You can use another variety of beans. The cooking time will vary. Also, you can purchase the tahini, rather than make your own, and follow the recipe starting from cooking the beans.
How to make toasted sesame tahini
Toast the sesame seeds in a dry skillet on medium heat until they are tanned and fragrant. Shake the skillet often or stir the seeds with a spatula. This will take just a few minutes, so guard the seeds like a hawk: they will burn easily. Transfer the seeds to a plate and let cool completely.
Process the sesame seeds in a small food processor or blender until a thick paste forms. Add the olive oil and process until smooth. Add sea salt and process briefly to distribute. Transfer the tahini to a glass jar and refrigerate until ready to use.
How to cook the beans
Rinse the beans then place them in a saucepan with the water, bay leaf, garlic, kombu (if using) and salt. Bring the water to a lively boil quickly, and keep it there for two minutes, then turn down the heat and let the beans simmer, covered, until they are tender. Taste them after 1 hour and estimate if/how much longer they should cook.
Let the beans cool in their broth, then remove the aromatics and discard them. Let the beans rest in their cooking broth until ready to use.
How to make tahini sauce
Rather than raw garlic, I prefer to use roasted garlic, whose flavor is more muted. As I use the oven often, it is easy for me to wrap a few unpeeled garlic cloves in foil and put them in the oven for 10-15 minutes, depending on the oven temperature.
Whiz all the tahini sauce ingredients until smooth. You will get more than you need for the beans, but this sauce can be used to dress roasted or steamed vegetables.
How to finish the dish
Drain the beans. (I use the bean broth in soups.) Add 1/2 teaspoon sea salt and stir well.
Finely dice the pear. Depending on its size, you probably won’t need it all.
For each portion, place 1/2 cup of beans in a bowl, add 2 tablespoons of the diced pear and stir. Drizzle one tablespoon of the tahini sauce on the top. Serve with additional tahini sauce on the side.
Add the beans and their cooking broth to the saucepan and stir. Cover, bring to a boil, then turn down the heat and simmer until the beans are quite tender.
Season with salt and give it a final stir. Serve hot.
