Bigilla – Broad Bean Paste

You might remember me being reminiscent recently of my childhood and Maltese heritage? I mentioned a desire to reclaim some of the lost cultural cuisine. Well, I’ve been a busy girl on that front! Lately I have been scouring the internet for some delicious Traditional Maltese recipes that I remember. I also thought some people might like a little history lesson about Malta.

Malta is located in the Mediterranean Sea, 80 km south of Sicily. It is made up of a group of islands, although only 3 are inhabited. It has a land mass of  just 316km² making it both one of the smallest and most densely populated countries in the world. It has two nationally languages; Maltese and English. Historically, just about every ancient super power has had a crack of owning this expensive little piece of real estate; Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Normans, Aragonese, Habsburg Spain, Knights of St John, French and the British to name a few. After a long associate with England, Malta gained independence from the mother country in 1964 and became a republic 10 years later.

Malta is capable of producing only 20% of its agricultural needs. The rest is imported from neighbouring countries, accounting for the expense of much of the produce available. As such, Maltese cuisine has several recurring staples; rabbit, tinned corned beef, broad beans, soft cheeses (particularly ricotta) and pasta.

Today I am making Bigilla. This recipe was originally posted on Silvia’s Corner. It is a paste that is served hot with fresh crusty bread. I remember eating this as a kid, and the smell of it just takes me right back. Enjoy!

 

[  SERVES: 2 - 4  |  TIME: 2 days + 60 MIN  |  COST: <$3  ]
[  Joes' Rating: 3.5 / 5  |  My Rating  4 / 5 ]

INGREDIENTS

250 grams dried broad beans
handful flat leaf parsley
1 – 2 tablespoons minced garlic
drizzle of olive oil
pinch bicarbonate of soda
salt and pepper to taste

Method

1. The dried beans should be washed under running water before being placed in a container with ample water and a pinch of bicarb soda. Check the water after several hours, and top up if needed. Change the water every 24 hours. See photo below.
2. After two days, the beans will have doubled (or tripled!) in size. Rinse the beans under running water. Bring a pot of water to the boil and add the beans. Cook for 30 – 45 minutes, or until soft and cooked. Drain and allow to cool slightly – until comfortable to handle.
3. Press the beans between your fingers to burst the skins open. Place the bean pulp into a blender bowl, discarding the harder casings.
4. Add the parsley and garlic to the bowl and a drizzle of olive oil. Blend until smooth, adding more oil if needed.
5. Season well, and serve warm with hot crusty bread.

Observations

• Joe and I just devoured a whole bowl full of this spread with a sour-dough baguette for lunch! I sliced the baguette into thick slices on the diagonal and popped them into the oven for 10 minutes until crispy.
• I remember when I was a little girl and Nana would dip the bread into olive oil before putting on the spread. I am not sure how traditional that is, but I would say its pretty solid in tradition. We omitted the extra oil today.
• I was intensely satisfied with this dish. Joe said it lacked a distinct flavour, and was just “warm, mellowy goodness”, but I could definitely taste the beans. Either way, it would make a great finger food for intimate friends.
• Diabetic Note: I am pretty sure all that sour dough is going to be bad for me somehow…….. Lets just hope my dietitian doesn’t read this post! (Hi Richard, if you are stalking!) To make this more diabetic friendly, go a little easier than I did on the hot, delicious, crusty brea……………… *drool*
• Ethical Note: I was really thrilled to find out the beans were a product of Australia! I just got them form a health food store. In larger cities with continental grocers, you may even get them fresh.

Related articles

• Garlic Zucchini and Leeks on Toast (mizrhi.wordpress.com)

 

Homemade Baked Beans

I recently watched the Masterchef master class series on a DVD and saw George make a wonderful homemade baked beans. It looked divine, and I have tried to copy it, with my own twists.

Ingredients – serves four

2 cups dried beans
4 bacon rashers
4 chicken sausages
1 – 2 tins tomatoes (to taste)
1 litre stock
1 litre water
3 sticks celery
2 carrots
1 onion
4 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon thyme
4 bay leaves
splash of olive oil

Methods

1. Soak the beans overnight.
2. Preheat oven to 160°C. Cut all the vegetables into bite size pieces.
3. In a hot oven proof saute pan, add the oil, garlic and onions. Sauté until transparent before adding all other vegetables and drained beans. Warm through for 2 – 3 minutes before adding the thyme, bay leaves and enough stock to cover the ingredients. Turn heat down to medium and simmer on the stove for 20 minutes.
4. Check for water content and add stock / water as needed. At this point, I added the second tin of tomatoes.
5. With the lid on, place the pan into the oven. You will need to check on it every 20 minutes religiously, stir through and add water / stock as needed. It will take 4 – 6 hours in the oven.
6. Dice the bacon into small pieces and fry in a small frying pan. While cooking, twist each sausage to form three bite size pieces from each sausage. Use scissors to cut and cook gently in the frying pan.
7. About half way through the cooking time, place the bacon and sausages into the bean mixture and stir through well. Ensure the bean mixture stays moist at all times, using any left over stock or water as needed.
8. Before serving, add a little salt to taste and a splash of vinegar to refresh the dish. Enjoy with toast or as is for a hearty delicious meal!

Observations

• I used canellini beans but other recipes I have seen used navy beans. I think you can use any beans you fancy, as long as you soak them well and don’t let them dry out during the cooking process
• This recipe could (and will!!) be adapted to cook in a slow cooker. The trick would be to ensure that it doesn’t get too dry during the cooking process.
• After letting it dry out once (I forgot to set the timer to tell me 20 minutes was up!) and almost ruining 4 hours of work, I ensured it never happened again by setting the alarm each time. I can not stress how important it is to check it every 20 minutes and ensure it stays moist. Its better to be a little too moist than too dry.
• George said it was really important to give it a splash of vinegar before serving, but I must admit that I actually forgot. I can see why it would be good, but make sure you limit it to a splash.
• The chicken sausages could be left out if desired, but I opted to include them instead of the pork sausages suggested in the original recipe.
• Just a FYI, everyone in the family loved this mean, including the fussy teenager. Joe really enjoyed it and wants it to be on regular slow cooker menu cycle through winter.
• Ethical note: I am still having a lot of trouble sourcing free ranged pork. I am using up old freezer stock of bacon, but am very hopeful of finding an ethical alternative in the near future.
• Diabetics Note: My BGLs were fantastic after this meal. I decided to avoid having toast with my dinner to keep my carbohydrates down. I should also point out that although I didn’t add much oil to this dish, there was a fair amount of fat in the sausages. Cooking them in a pan allowed me to drain off any oil that leaked out.

 

Veggie Patties with Bean Salad

Thursday night is pulses and lentils night in our house. I was going to do up a quick dahl, but ended up with this creation. The veggie patties were purchased from one of our all time favourite local veggie shops - Beanz Salad Bar. They were absolutely delicious, so locals should definitely check them out!  The low fat salad was inspired by the That’s Life recipe book that is on the cover of the current edition. I am not one for buying magazines generally, but there was a recipe or two that caught my eye so I decided to buy the magazine to get the free recipe booklet. Well worth it, cause this recipe is a gem!

Ingredients

1 can of cannellini beans – rinse and drain well

1 continental cuecumber – seeded and cut into bite size peices

1 container of baby roma tomatoes – cut in half

¼ - ½ cup basil leaves

½ cup flat leaf parsley

2 cloves of garlic (or more!)

juice of one lime

splash of olive oil

toasted pine nuts to garnish

salt and pepper to taste

Method

Toss all ingredients in a bowl, ensuring an even coating over all the vegetables. Serve.

Observations

This was an absolute treat, flavour wise. Joe and I adored it, but Brittany rejected the beans. For me, nothing beats loads of garlic with slatherings of flat leaf parsley. It just reminds me of my childhood, and I thought of my grandma a lot while cooking this. (She made a very similar dish with potatoes when I was a kid which I will recreate in the very near future!)

I suspect that other pulses such as red kidney beans or butter beans may be substituted with similar results.

Diabetic Note: My BGLs were a tad low after this one. I suspected there would be enough cabs in the beans, but I was wrong. A slice of bread probably would have worked.