Slow cooked Borlotti Beans with Nutmeg

The ultimate in slow food cooking, this recipe needs to be started at least a day and a half ahead of eating it.
Ingredients
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 cup dried borlotti beans
6 rashes of prosciutto, roughly cut
4 cloves of garlic
freshly grated nutmeg
bay leaves
Salt or grated parmesan to taste

Special Utensils
A ceramic or cast iron enamel pot with a good fitting lid.

Method
1. Soak borlotti beans in cold water overnight or for at least 8 hours. Drain.
2. Set oven to 150 degrees celsius.
3. Place oil in bottom of pot.
4. Crush whole garlic with the back of a knife and put in bottom of pot (still whole or in large chunks), followed by strips of prosciutto.
5. Grate at least a teaspoon of nutmeg on the bottom.
6. Place beans on top and bay leaves.
7. Pour enough cold water to come just above the beans.
8. Place pot in oven and cook for around 6 hours. Let beans stay in oven until the oven is completely cool. Wait at least another 12 hours before eating, although if you're really hungry you can eat them straight away.

Salt to your taste, or use parmesan cheese. Great with fresh chunky bread or as an accompaniment to meat or polenta type dishes.

Persian Love Cake Adapted...

As I said in my earlier June posting on 'Nutmeg', this recipe has been adapted from a recipe in the September 2008 issue of the Australian magazine, Gourmet Traveller. I tried the original, which to my taste was way too sweet. I then remembered a Greek style baked tart my mother would make with honey, eggs, yoghurt and of course nutmeg. I adapted the original recipe, and I reckon it's heaps better.. but that's me commenting on my own recipe.. and I'm biased. Enjoy.. both the cooking and the eating.
Ingredients
360 gm (3 cups) almond meal
110 gm (1/2 cup) brown sugar
1/2 cup honey
120 gm unsalted butter, softened
2 eggs, lightly beaten
400 gm Greek-style yoghurt
1 tbsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 to 1/3 cup pistachio, coarsely chopped

Method
1. Heat over to around 180 degrees celcius. Butter a 26 cm springform cake tin, and line it with baking paper.
2. Combine almonds, sugar and butter and rub together. Spoon half the mixture in tin.
3. Mix together, egg, yoghurt, honey and nutmeg with a spoon whisk. Gradually add to dry mixture and whisk gently until smooth.
4. Pour mixture into cake tine, and sprinkle pistachio nuts around the edge.

5. Bake in oven for between 35 and 40 minutes and cool completely in pan before serving.

Nutmeg

Nutmeg is a seed from a tree, that is finely grated or ground to create a spice.. and then there's Mace.. which we'll get to later.

As a teenager I would often look at the whole nutmegs in my mother's pantry and wonder at the rumors of nutmeg being a narcotic.. I just couldn't see it. Thirty years on and the internet can provide me with all the information I need to confirm these rumours. Yes, it can cause hallucinations if you eat a lot of it (a substance called myristicin).. but also some other symptoms such as vomiting etc.. and apparently takes a while to work. This is all hearsay and internet research.....

In terms of cooking, I am a big fan of nutmeg in both savory and sweet dishes. For savory dishes I use nutmeg in besciamel sauce, in the filling for chicken tortellini, pumpkin soup, but my favorite dish is slowed cooked borlotti beans with nutmeg and prosciutto. My favorite sweet dish is an adaptation of the recipe for a Persian Love Cake, found in the September 2008 issue of Gourmet Traveller.

For these recipes, you will need to go to early August, 2010.

Just to finish off: Mace versus Nutmeg. Yes, they are so similar you could almost, I say almost, interchange their use. I used to think Mace was the cheaper version of Nutmeg, but not necessarily so. Nutmeg is the seed, and Mace comes from the covering of the fruit. For further info, this site is well worth a visit:

http://www.moscowfood.coop/archive/nutmeg.html

My best Pumpkin Soup

Ingredients
A good piece of pumpkin
4-5 cloves good garlic (preferably organic)
Extra virgin olive oil
1 good sized onion
1 carrot, chopped into medium bits
1 small potato, sliced
grated nutmeg
Rosemary
2-3 cups milk
salt

Method
1. Seed, skin and and chop pumpkin into medium sized pieces.
2. Place in a baking dish with garlic and rosemary, and dribble with olive oil. Move the pumpkin around so that all the pieces and garlic are covered in olive oil.
3. Bake in a medium to hot oven until just beginning to go brown on edges.
At the same time....
4. Heat 1 to 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a heavy cast iron pot which has a lid (stainless steel saucepan will suffice.)
5. Add onions and saute for at least 15 minutes until they are starting to caramelise.
6. Add carrots. Keep the heat very low and saute, covered for around 15 to 20 minutes.
7. Take lid off and add baked pumpkin (leave the garlic out), and sliced potato. Add around a cup of water and grated nutmeg and put the lid back on. Cook for at least another 20 minutes to a half hour until all the vegetables are well cooked.
8. Puree the soup with a stab blender. It doesn't need to be too smooth.
9. Add milk until you reach your desired consistency, add salt to taste and crumble in roasted garlic.
10. Heat through (don't boil), and serve with garlic croutons.

Some comments from friends would couldn't put up a post:
Don't use celery.
Try sweet potato in addition to other vegetables.
Replace milk with coconut milk and add five-spice.