Hi everyone and welcome to the blog. This week’s blog is entitled The Apple of Our i and is dedicated to one man, whose visionary creations helped change the world forever Steve Jobs, who sadly lost his fight with cancer on October 5th. And in honour of Steve and his achievements all the featured recipes this week have apples as their main ingredient, they areSpiced Apple Samosas, Apple-Cobbler, and Chicken and Apples in Honey Mustard Sauce.
I’ve decided to have a little change in direction with a feature of this blog. Instead of a featured herb or spice, I’m going to feature a much maligned and/or forgotten about ingredient. And this week’s much maligned ingredient is Broad Beans.
Steve Jobs Steven Paul Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American computer entrepreneur and inventor. He was co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Apple Inc. He also previously served as chief executive of Pixar Animation Studios; he became a member of the board of directors of The Walt Disney Company in 2006, following the acquisition of Pixar by Disney. He was credited in Toy Story (1995) as an executive producer.
In the late 1970s, Steve Jobs, with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, Mike Markkula, and others, designed, developed, and marketed one of the first commercially successful lines of personal computers, the Apple II series. In the early 1980s, Jobs was among the first to see the commercial potential of Xerox PARC's mouse-driven graphical user interface, which led to the creation of the Macintosh. After losing a power struggle with the board of directors in 1985, he resigned from Apple and founded NeXT, a computer platform development company specializing in the higher-education and business markets. Apple's subsequent 1996 buyout of NeXT brought Jobs back to the company he co-founded, and he served as its CEO from 1997 until 2011. In 1986, he acquired the computer graphics division of Lucasfilm Ltd which was spun off as Pixar Animation Studios. He remained CEO and majority shareholder at 50.1 percent until its acquisition by The Walt Disney company in 2006. Consequently he became Disney's largest individual shareholder at 7 percent and a member of Disney's Board of Directors.
His aim to develop products that are both functional and elegant earned him a devoted following.
On August 24, 2011, Jobs announced his resignation from his role as Apple's CEO. In his letter of resignation, Jobs strongly recommended that the Apple executive succession plan be followed and Tim Cook be named as his successor. Per his request, Jobs was appointed chairman of Apple's board of directors. On October 5, 2011, Apple announced that Jobs had died at the age of 56.
My first recipe is Spiced Apple Samosas, courtesy of Good Food Channel website.
Makes 2, takes 30mins plus resting to prepare and takes 15mins to cook.
For the apple filling
A Knob of Butter
A Pinch of Ground Cinnamon
A Small Handful of Sultanas
4 x Bramley Apples, peeled, cored and finely chopped
For the pastry x Self-Raising Flour, plus extra for dusting
100g x Butter
4tbsp x Water
Vegetable Oil, for deep-frying
Caster Sugar
A Pinch of Ground Cinnamon
A Pinch of Ground Allspice
Vanilla Ice Cream, to serve
For the apple filling: melt the butter in a pan, then add the cinnamon, sultanas and apples and slowly stew them. As they become soft, take off the heat and gently mash with a potato masher. Leave to cool.
For the pastry: tip the flour into a mixing bowl and with your fingers slowly rub the butter into it until it resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Moisten with the water and mix with a wooden spoon. Squeeze the mixture into a dough, adding more water if necessary but making sure it doesn't become sloppy. Leave to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Flour your surface and gently roll the pastry with a rolling pin until very thin. Cut two circles in the pastry using a breakfast bowl. Cut each circle in half, then dip your finger in water and run it across the straight side of the semi-circle, fold over and seal the moistened edge. Carefully open the pastry in your hand to create a cone.
Spoon the cooled apple filling into each pastry cone, leaving enough space to fully seal the pastry. Using a wet finger, seal the edge of the cone and check all edges. Heat the oil in a deep saucepan or deep-fat fryer. Mix together the sugar, cinnamon and allspice.
Carefully add the samosas to the hot oil and cook until puffed up and slightly coloured. Drain on kitchen towel, then toss in the spiced sugar. Place two samosas in a serving bowl and serve with a large scoop of good vanilla ice cream.
My next recipe is Apple-Cobbler, courtesy of Landolakes.com.
Serves 12, takes 20mins to prepare and takes 40mins to cook.
2kgs x Tart Cooking Apples, peeled, cored, sliced 1/4-inch
220g x Sugar
3/4 tsp x Ground Cinnamon
450g x All-Purpose Flour
450g x Sugar
2 x Large Eggs
2tsp x Baking Powder
3/4tsp x salt
150g x Butter, melted
Heat oven to 350°F. Place sliced apples in ungreased 13x9-inch baking pan.
Stir together 220g of sugar and 1/2tsp of cinnamon in small bowl; sprinkle this over the apples.
Combine remaining cinnamon, flour, sugar, eggs, baking powder and salt in large bowl. Beat at medium speed until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle over apples. Pour melted butter over topping. Bake for 45 to 55 5minutes or until lightly browned and apples are tender. Serve warm with ice cream, if desired.
Much Maligned ingredient of the week – Broad Beans
Vicia faba, the Broad Bean, Fava Bean, Field Bean, Bell Bean or Tic Bean, is a species of bean (Fabaceae) native to north Africa and southwest Asia, and extensively cultivated elsewhere. Broad beans have a long tradition of cultivation in Old World agriculture, being among the most ancient plants in cultivation and also among the easiest to grow. It is believed that along with lentils, peas, and chickpeas, they became part of the eastern Mediterranean diet in around 6000 BC or earlier. They are still often grown as a cover crop to prevent erosion, because they can over-winter and because as a legume, they fix nitrogen in the soil. These commonly cultivated plants can be attacked by fungal diseases, such as rust (Uromyces viciae-fabae) and chocolate spot (Botrytis fabae). It is also attacked by the black bean aphid (Aphis fabae).
The broad bean has high hardiness cvs. This means it can withstand rough climates, and in this case, cold ones. Unlike most legumes, the broad bean can be grown in soils with high salinity. However, it does prefer to grow in rich loams.
In much of the Anglophone world, the name broad bean is used for the large-seeded cultivars grown for human food, while horse bean and field bean refer to cultivars with smaller, harder seeds (more like the wild species) used for animal feed, though their stronger flavour is preferred in some human food recipes, such as falafel. The term fava bean (from the Italian fava, meaning "broad bean") is usually used in English speaking countries such as the US, however the term broad bean is the most common name in the UK.
Broad beans are eaten while still young and tender, enabling harvesting to begin as early as the middle of spring for plants started under glass or over-wintered in a protected location, but even the main crop sown in early spring will be ready from mid to late summer. Horse beans, left to mature fully, are usually harvested in the late autumn. The young leaves of the plant can also be eaten either raw or cooked like spinach.
The beans can be fried, causing the skin to split open, and then salted and/or spiced to produce a savory crunchy snack. These are popular in China, Colombia, Peru (habas saladas), Mexico (habas con chile) and Thailand (where their name means "open-mouth nut"). Broad bean purée with wild chicory is a typical Puglian dish in Italy.
In the Sichuan cuisine of China, broad beans are combined with soybeans and chili peppers to produce a spicy fermented bean paste called doubanjiang. In most Arab countries, the fava bean is used for a breakfast dish called ful medames.
Fava beans are common in Latin American cuisines as well. In central Mexico, mashed fava beans are a common filling for many corn flour-based antojito snacks such as tlacoyos. In Colombia they are most often used whole in vegetable soups. Dried and salted fava beans are a popular snack in many Latin countries.
In Portugal, a fava bean (usually referred to as fava in Portuguese) is included in the bolo-rei (king cake), a Christmas cake. Traditionally, the person who gets fava has to buy the cake the following year.
In the Netherlands, they are traditionally eaten with fresh savory and some melted butter. When rubbed the velvet insides of the pods are a folk remedy against warts. Broad beans are widely cultivated in the Kech and Panjgur districts of Balochistan Province in Pakistan, and in the eastern province of Iran. In the Balochi language, they are called bakalaink, and baghalee in Persian.
Broad beans are rich in tyramine, and thus should be avoided by those taking monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibitors. Raw broad beans contain the alkaloids vicine, isouramil and convicine, which can induce hemolytic anemia in patients with the hereditary condition glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency (G6PD). This potentially fatal condition is called "favism" after the fava bean. Broad beans are rich in L-dopa, a substance used medically in the treatment of Parkinson's disease. L-dopa is also a natriuretic agent, which might help in controlling hypertension.
Areas of origin of the bean correspond to malarial areas. There are epidemiological and in vitro studies which suggest that the hemolysis resulting from favism acts as protection from malaria, because certain species of malarial protozoa such as Plasmodium falcipacrum are very sensitive to oxidative damage due to deficiency of the glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase enzyme, which would otherwise protect from oxidative damage via production of glutathione reductase. The seed testas contain condensed tannins of the proanthocyanidins type that could have an inhibitory activity on enzymes.
My final recipe is Chicken and Apples in Honey Mustard Sauce, courtesy of simplyrecipes.com.
Serves 4, takes 5mins to prepare and takes 25mins to cook.
125ml x Cider
1 1/2 tsp x Cornflour
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1tbsp x Honey
2tbsp x Dijon mustard
100ml x Flour, for dredging
500g x Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts
2tbsp x Olive Oil
2 x Small Unpeeled Apples, cored and cut into eighths (use Golden delicious, Granny Smith, Jonathan, Jonagold, Pippin, or McIntosh apples, good cooking apples)
125ml x Chicken Stock
Fresh parsley for garnish
Whisk the cider, cornflour, mustard, honey, salt and pepper (to taste) in a bowl. Set aside. Salt the chicken well and dust in flour. Shake off the excess. In a large non-stick pan, heat the oil and add the chicken breasts. Cook over medium heat until golden brown on one side, approx. 3-4 minutes. Turn the chicken, add the apples, and cook until browned on the other side.
Add chicken stock and cider mixture and bring to a boil. Turn the heat down to low, cover the pot and simmer until chicken is tender, approx. 15 minutes. With slotted spoon, remove chicken and apples to serving plates. Spoon sauce over the chicken and apples and sprinkle with parsley. Serve with rice or noodles.
If you have enjoyed my blog, or have tried out the recipes I have included and wish to comment, please feel free to comment using the comment button or by visiting my guestbook, all comments and suggestions will be gratefully received.
Hope you enjoy!!..... ChefGarfy =D
