broad beans with pancetta and tuna

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.

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three pig stew

Or, I suppose, a sort of goulash :)  The transfer of contents from one freezer to another has brought forth some nice things.  There’s a whole Gressingham duck defrosting for today’s Easter feast, and there was also a couple of nice pieces of belly pork, and some uncooked chorizo sausages.

I skinned a piece of belly pork, cut it into chunks, and fried it in olive oil in batches, until the pieces were crispy.  Into the same oil went a packet of pancetta cubes, which were fried for a few minutes, then I added a chopped onion, some garlic, and four chorizo sausages, cut into slices.  Oh, and some cumin seeds, and a couple of teaspoons of smoked paprika. Fried these gently until the onions were translucent, then added a tin of tomatoes, a glass or so of red wine, and salt and black pepper.

Tipped everything into the slow cooker, added some haricot beans (which I had soaked and cooked yesterday), and waited six hours.

Served it with rice - lovely.

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cabbage with mozzarella and pancetta

This is one of our favourite Things To Do With Cabbage - it’s incredibly quick to make, and very nice to eat.

Shred half a cabbage - doesn’t matter what sort; this works with savoy, with hispi, with white, with green. Chop an onion, and a couple of cloves of garlic if you like - sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t.

I also used some cubed pancetta on this occasion, but it’s not essential either - it’s just as nice without.

Sauté the onion, and the optional garlic, in some olive oil until it’s soft - use a shallow pan with a lid - then add the cabbage, and keep stirring until it has started to soften.  Give it a good sprinkling of black pepper, then put a lid on it and cook for, oh, ten minutes.  Or more if you like your cabbage more soggy, or indeed less if you like it crunchier.  Keep an eye on it - depending on the cabbage you might need to add a little water.  Or I’ve added white wine, or vermouth.

While this is going on cook some pasta - tagliatelle works well.  Drain it, rinse it, add it to the pan, and hurl in one mozzarella cut into cubes.  Stir this all around until the cheese starts to melt, then decant into bowls and scoff.

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