Finally the plague of illnesses ended and so did 3 weeks of eating Em (what will we have for dinner tonight) ily creations. These tended to be mutations of the classic vego burger, pasta salad., or nutella on anything. All very tasty, but as my wonderful Irish Princess said in her best Irish accent “you know Em, perhaps we could be doing with something else in our diet ”
At last, cooking healthy Carole was back on the scene and all our taste buds jumped for joy!
Tinned Chickpeas (don’t get the fresh ones, even if your back pocket is screaming at you to buy the 1kg packet of raw chickpeas because economically they’re cheaper and it means you don’t have to cart around more rubbish in the back of the car and and and… just buy the tinned ones even if your not camping)
What you need…
Full bodied red wine, good quality
Tinned tomato
Soft and juicy prunes
Teaspoon of fennel seeds
Fresh pitta pockets (they will only puff if they’re fresh) otherwise any yummy solid bread (sour dough, rye bread etc)
2 cardamom pods…and yes, we do carry these whilst camping
1 shallot or onion (but a shallot is better)
Parsnip diced into chunky cubes (or any other root vegetable that needs to be eaten). — Keep the cubes chunky as they are going to be cooked slowly, and you don ‘t want it to be all mushy at the end.
Capsicum (peppers for our European readers) thinly sliced
Olive Oil – good quality Jane Jones! No excuses
Good friends to chin-wag with whilst she’s cooking, half the fun of this dish is its aroma’s…sob…we were in short supply of good company, basil didn’t say much,Pearl was too tired after a long drive and Carole and Emily had been talking with each other all day LONG…. There’s that Twitch again.
How the creation begins…
Open a bottle of good full bodied red wine, as this is going to take a looong time.
On low heat Dry fried the fennel and cardamom seeds to release the aromas
Add olive oil and fry off shallots with the seeds.
Add sliced capsicum, put the lid on and let sweat for 5 minutes on low heat (or until caps are soft)
Add parsnip, as above for another 5 minutes (lid on)
Add chickpeas, gently stir and allow chickpeas to soak flavour for around 10 minutes (lid on).
The mixture should be moist, so add some extra water if it looks too dry.
When the parsnip starts to soften add the tin of chopped toms and prunes, leave on low heat for a further glass of wine (lid on) or until parsnip is at desired texture.
We ate this with pitta bread that had been cooked in a large dash of olive oil and good knob of real butter cooked over a high heat and hot pan, the bread should be moist with artery furring goodness, puff up and bubble.
Rice, cous cous, or any bread would be good…or not for those non carbohydrate people out there. Madness!
