Monday, 23 May 2011

Gods favourite bean stew is Grah ( trust me its true )

I have a confession to make, I actually didn't like Grah when I was younger, go with me on this I'm going to go Freudian psychoanalysis for a moment and explain why. Mealtimes when I was a kid meant exactly that MEAL TIME and mum kept a traditional Croatian kitchen which meant we had to clear our plates no matter how piled up they were, It was also around this time ( 8 years old ) that I started flirting with some revolutionary ideas I had picked up at school such as announcing I didn't want grah and, demanded fish fingers that i had spied at my friend Craig's house ( not that they offered me any ) so 3 hours later I was still sitting at the table finishing off my last mouth full of cold grah whilst my brother was watching Starskey and Hutch or was it Fantasy Island I can never remember, anyway it was a few years before I was embraced in the grah fold again, I digress, for the best results use good quality small goods and don't take shortcuts with the recipe.

400G    Red kidney beans dried
200G     Slanine ( smoked bacon you can find it a balkan or polish delis ) or speck
2            onions
100G      diced celery
2             carrots
1/2          diced capsicum
1            bay leaf
2            hot chillies not birdseye but larger variety ( feferona )
40G       Lardo ( pork fat ) or lard
1tbs       sweet paprika
40G       flour
              salt and pepper

soak beans in cold water overnight, drain and bring to simmer for 10 min in water, drain once more add fresh water and bay leaf and bring to simmer once more.
In another pot heat lardo with finely diced onion, diced carrot, celery, capsicum, paprika  and slanina add flour to form a roux add water and simmer on a low heat, when the beans have softened strain and transfer to pot with vegetables mix well and season to taste cooking time all up 1 hr 40 min you can add Krajnski sausages ( no they were not invented in Yarraville Australia as some think but Kranj in Slovenia ) or a pork hock with the slanina, which to serve you can remove and serve on a side plate washed down with a fine beer.

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