Jottage from Cambridge: Meals for Rainy Days: Pinto bean chilli and North African squash and chickpea stew

Chickpeas stewing away

Pinto bean chilli

Luckily for my parents I never came home from school one day declaring that I had turned vegetarian, and would never ever be tempted by sausages or bacon again. Growing up surrounded by farms full of plump chickens and cows grazing in lush green fields I can’t imagine the horror they would have felt from such a statement. However, although I have never completely renounced meat, I’ve never been afraid of nut cutlets, and I was over the moon when a large Amazon package arrived containing Hugh’s Veg book (a birthday present from my mother). With this addition to our collection of cookbooks Theo and I have decided to have one vegetarian meal every week. (In fact I was a little tempted to suggest that we both become vegetarian for a month, but this seemed a bit drastic.) I am certain we will save a few pennies as meat seems to be terribly expensive these days. Whenever I go to the supermarket, I am always amazed at the prices – who wants to pay £6 for a small pack of some miserable looking chicken breasts? Also, it seems terribly healthy eating beans and lentils – though I must never tell Theo that I’ve added lentils to anything as he claims he doesn’t like them. Having just read the introduction to Hugh’s Veg book (and made two of the recipes in it) I am in absolute agreement that meat free dishes have what he describes as ‘tastes, scents and textures’ that both ‘tempt and gratify’. 

I thought I would try out a couple of the recipes yesterday as Tristan seemed content crawling about the floor, and the sizzling sounds of onions frying, and smells of turmeric, ginger and cinnamon wafting around the kitchen couldn’t do any harm to his cheerful mood. It was a drizzly day in Cambridge and, looking at my washing outside which has been damp for days, I began to assemble all the ingredients I would need – pots of cumin, ginger, cinnamon, as well as all the vegetables sitting in the bottom of the fridge. I decided to make the Pinto Bean Chilli and African Squash and Chickpea stew. (n.b.  making vege dishes in tandem is very easy, as there are no concerns about knifes, pans and chopping boards becoming contaminated with raw meat and needing to be washed up quickly.) I left out a few ingredients from both recipes: the wine, oregano and coriander from the Pinto Bean Chilli, and the celery and coriander from the stew. However, looking at the variety of colours of the veg and spices in the pans, I was satisfied that both meals would be delicious. 

Tristan had the stew for his dinner (the squash was squashy enough so no blending was necessary) and, although I received a few grudging looks, he ate quite a lot of it. I, meanwhile, decided to try and Pinto Bean Chilli, and put some generous spoonfuls in a tortilla wrap. Although I had soaked the pinto beans overnight they were still a bit hard (they didn’t have any tins of pinto beans in Sainsbury’s), but overall it was a perfect meal. Tonight we are going to try the stew and, as long as I remember not to tell Theo about the lentils, I am sure it is also going to be a success. 

Jottage from Cambridge/Lancaster - Baked Chicken Curry

The thing about cookery books which puts me off the most is the long
list of ingredients required to make the meal, usually tantalisingly
illustrated opposite the very detailed, and occasionally wordy,
method. Who has fenugreek, turmeric or chilis on hand? Well,
strangely, and given that I now have a baby to feed who probably
shouldn’t be fed custard creams – note that there has never a custard
cream shortage in our household – I do have all of the above in our
larder. (Note that Tristan doesn’t need a teaspoon of fenugreek on his
banana porridge in the morning to make it go down, but I generally
spend much more time in the kitchen now, and I’m out and about more so
I have built up an impressive selection of herbs and spices.)


So, picking up a recipe book now doesn’t seem quite so daunting, and
when I turned to page 223 of the Everyday book the Chicken Curry
seemed like quite a straightforward dish. Of course I didn’t quite
have everything, but I thought that I probably wouldn’t be able to
taste the fennel seeds so why add them?, and a wilted red chilli which
had been in the fridge for a number of weeks would work in place of
the green chili specified in the recipe. And that I think is what
cooking is all about – knowing when to leave things out, and making
substitutions wherever possible. For a kick off this means that every
time I make the chicken curry it will taste slightly different, and
also I’ll hopefully end up throwing away less food from the fridge.
But cookery writers are loathe to admit that their recipe will still
work without that all important spoonful of cornflour, or that two
garlic cloves will work just as well as three. However Hugh (my mother
and I now refer to him by his first name as we feel that he is already
part of the family) does start off the method with the line … ‘If
you’ve got the time, toast the cumin etc.’ which does seem to imply
that if you want to knock up a chicken curry between the end of
Neighbours and getting the baby prepared for his bath then it’ll
probably taste just as nice. However, if your way of winding down is
by spending time in the kitchen then why not? – you might just end up
tasting that moment of extra trouble.


Well, how did it taste? It was just delicious – the chicken swimming
in a rich turmeric stained liquid and, like Hugh, we served it with a
neat pile of white rice. In fact my chicken curry looked exactly like
the picture in the book! I blended up a few of the leftovers and gave
it to Tristan the next day. He had no complaints either, though I
think he thought I should have added an extra teaspoonful of fenugreek
which I’ll make sure to do next time I turn to page 223.


I am adding a postscript here as I made the Chicken Curry after Heather tried it. We both made enough for two nights and she didn't think it was as good the second night - but we loved it just the same. As Heather says - it comes out exactly like the picture in the book...


Heather's Chicken Curry

My Chicken Curry...

The picture in the book...

 Amazing!!!!