Home-grown bean salad

"Attractive purple pods that turn green upon cooking." This is what it said on a package the Cantabrigian Swede-Pole found in his local whole foods store when looking for things to plant in his little town house garden. You got me at purple, you might say! As is well-known to some readers, our food blogger has a thing about that particular color. Hence, purply-podded French beans were sown in early April, and their progress and growth, and struggles and misadventures (primarily related to the activities of the Cantabrigian Slug), have been dominating the life of our blogger ever since.

While the beginning of summer was cold and wet, the weather in Cambridge picked up towards the beginning of July. Happily, the sunny days that followed repelled the slugs, and encouraged the by now famous beans to blossom. Soon little podlings appeared. The excitement! The postdoctoral research fellow then went off to Stockholm for a week to do his postdoctoral thing, and visit his old haunts, and was greeted upon his return by some (very attractive) purple pods that seemed ready to be eaten. Excellent!

After a week and a half of not having done any cooking and hence feeling lazy, and not having a lot of groceries at his house, our blogger came up with this little evening meal. It turned out pretty delicious, and really allowed the beans to showcase their wholesome (and attractive) homegrown flavor.

Ingredients:

- 1 handful of (attractive) purple pods
- 1/2 yellow onion
- 3 tomatoes

- salt
- black pepper
- fresh cilantro leaves

Rinse the pods. Fill a small pot with water, add some salt, and bring it to a boil. Throw in the pods, and watch as they (attractively) turn green. Be careful not to leave the beans in too long, we don't want them to get soggy. 

In the meantime, finely chop the half onion. Wash the tomatoes and chop them up also, then mix onion and tomato in a bowl. Take a handful of cilantro, wash it carefully, and shred it into the bowl. Sprinkle a little salt and pepper on top of everything and give it a mix.

Once the beans are done (this will only take about 2 minutes or so), chop them up into smaller pieces. (The average pod into three, say.) Let the beans cool off for a little while, then mix them into the salad. Done!

Serving suggestions: "Harvest" by Neil Young on the side, a bottle of Manchester Bitter from Marble Brewery, Manchester.

Key Lime Pie, Finally!

It has really been a while since this food blog was last updated, and in fact, during a recent visit to Stockholm, the status of the blog was enquired into (by more than a single person!)--had it been abandoned?

As usual, there are many explanations and excuses our Cantabrigian Swede-Pole could try: math research and a busy travel schedule taking up all his time; the twin temptations of pubs and coffee shops preventing evenings being spent cooking at home;  the continuing battle with bean-eating slugs and snails leaving him exhausted and despondent. These are all pretty lame--a better excuse is that our mathematician's house has been receiving a fair amount of visitors, both local and from abroad, in these last couple of months. This has been very nice indeed, as the British would say, and a lot of cooking (and even BBQing in the garden!) has been happening; writing a food blog post is, however, a solo activity really.

Another thing, beside food blogging, that used to be happen more frequently, at least last summer and fall, was the making of key lime pie--that empress of deserts! It really is the world's most delicious pie, and it's pretty easy to make; so it seems very hard to come up with reasons for not eating it more often. ("Every day! With bacon, for breakfast! Try the high carb high fat (HCHF) pie diet!")  Clearly, this current reduced intake of zesty pie would eventually have a detrimental effect on our blogger's health. (Citrus fruits are good for you!) And so, on this sunny evening, a delicious key lime pie was made, and enjoyed in the garden together with a cup of tea and some Kingsley Amis.

Advertisement: the availability of home-grown french beans seems to be within the realm of possibility, so stay tuned for blog entry featuring bean casserole.

Ingredients:

4 limes
1 can of condensed (sweetened) milk (400g/14 oz.)
4 egg yolks

250 ml/1 cup of flour
150g/5 oz. of butter
salt

1 pie form

Start by preparing the pie crust. Preheat the oven to 325F/150C. Cut the butter into strips, and then into little cubes. In a large bowl, mix the flour and the butter carefully. Add cold water, about half or one third of a cup, until the dough has the right texture. Sprinkle a little flour on the counter and use a pin to roll out the dough; it should be pretty thin. (And adapted to the size of your pie form obviously). Prepare the form, making sure the "walls" of the form are lined, and then place the crust in the oven.

While the crust is in the oven, it's time for some lime action. Wash the limes carefully, and then zest them, using one of those cool zesters if you have one (I don't), or a grater. Keep the limes; we'll need the juice! After you're done with the now not-so-green little fruits, it's usually a good time to remove the pie crust from the oven.

Pour the lime zest into a large bowl, add 4 egg yolks, and whisk everything together. Pour the condensed milk into the bowl, and give the filling another beating. Finally, cut the limes in half and squeeze the juice into the bowl. Give the filling a mixing in between the individual limes. (You'll notice that the condensed milk reacts in an interesting way with the acid in the lime juice; the texture gets a little thicker. Apparently there are versions of key lime pie that are not baked, but rely on this souring process alone.) Depending on your preferences and the brand of condensed milk you're using, you may want to add a little sugar to the mix.

Finally pour the filling into the crust slowly, and use a spoon to make sure it is spread evenly. Bake the pie at the center of the oven for about 15 minutes. Take out the pie and let it cool off. Done!

Serving suggestions: "The Life Pursuit" by Belle & Sebastian on the side, a cup of Taylor of Harrogate's Yorkshire tea with milk.

Roasted & Squashed again; or, The Blog is Back!

What is this--"the blog is back?" And what exactly is a Cantabrigian, and are they nice?

For readers joining us for the first time, here is the back story. A while ago, as a new PhD, a Swedish mathematician of Polish extraction found himself living on the plains of Oklahoma, working in the Mathematics Department at Oklahoma State University (OSU) in Stillwater. Before he left Stockholm, some of his friends expressed a desire to follow the Swede-Pole's adventures in the American South on the internet. Our hero was wary of blogging at first (what would he write about? he is a little boring.), but then it was suggested he should write about his meals (there were some doubts whether he would be able to feed himself in the Sooner State--he mostly eats vegetarian meals and beef is one of Oklahoma's main exports...). A blog about cooking sounded like a good compromise--and the Swedish-Oklahoman Food Blog was born!

Our blogging hero's Oklahoman year was an interesting and in many ways very rewarding experience; and he did make many good friends in Stillwater and elsewhere. (Interested readers may learn more from the Swedish-Oklahoman Food Blog Archives.) But in June 2011, it was time to keep on movin' on, as the songs have it. After spending a few months back in Sweden at Institut Mittag-Leffler, an institute for research in the mathematical subjects located in the suburbs of Stockholm, it was time for our old mathematician/blogger to try his luck in famed Cambridge, home to so many great scientists, writers, politicians, and royals over the years. (And at one time, Nick Drake and Syd Barrett were Cantabrigians, or inhabitants of Cambridge, too. ND was an English Literature student in Fitzwilliam College.)

Our blogger certainly feels very lucky and privileged to be part of this remarkable academic institution, and is excited about the scientific possibilities that await. Cambridge is also a very pretty town, located in an area of England known as the Fens that used to consist of marshland, and that used to be the center of the eel industry (true story). And yes, Cantabrigians are very friendly. More on Cambridge soon--

But now it is time for dinner. After moving to Cambridge, our blogger was delighted to discover that the delicious butternut squash is readily available in England; after all, the roasting of a beautiful homegrown squash he was presented with by a colleague back at OSU was the subject of a blog entry. New, improved, and served with pasta--the squash is roasted again!

Ingredients:

1 butternut squash
1 yellow onion
1 bell pepper
4 cloves of garlic

passed tomatoes
spaghetti

olive oil
salt and pepper

aluminum foil

Turn to oven to 200C/400F, cover an oven tray with some aluminum foil . Start by cutting the butternut squash in half (N/S direction). Scoop out all the seeds and put them aside for the moment; they will be roasted later. Next, cut the squash into smaller pieces to make peeling easier. After you get the skin off, cut the squash into medium-size cubes.

Soak the squash cubes in some olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. Pour the squash onto the foil covered tray, and into the oven it goes!

While the squash cubes are roasting, chop up the onion and slice the garlic cloves. In a frying pan, sautee the garlic and the onion in olive oil. Slice the bell pepper (we want longish strips) and add to the pan. Turn down the heat a little, season with salt and pepper, and add the tomatoes. After a while, turn down the heat and let the sauce simmer.

Check on the squash. We want the cubes to be soft, and a little crispy around the edges. If the squash is done, remove the tray from the oven, pour the squash cubes into a bowl and cover them.

Next, pour just a little olive oil onto the foil and add the squash seeds. Make sure they're evenly spread, and put the oven tray back into the oven.

While waiting for the seeds, cook the pasta. It is not difficult, just follow the instructions on the package, if necessary; just make sure to serve the spaghetti al dente.

Once the seeds are roasted, turn off the oven, and toss the spaghetti with the sauce. Prepare a serving of pasta on a plate, add the squash, and the roasted seeds as topping. Done!

Serving suggestions: "The English Settlement" by XTC on the side, a bottle of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale from Chico, CA.