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The Hirshon Georgian Bean Dip – ლობიო

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The Hirshon Georgian Bean Dip - ლობიო

Lobio Image Used Under Creative Commons License From bestgeorgian.com

My Citizens, the undimmed culinary lighthouse that is TFD is proud to share yet another recipe from the culinary dynamo that is the proud country of Georgia! :)

Lobio (Georgian: ლობიო) is a traditional Georgian dish of various kinds of prepared beans (cooked or stewed), typically containing coriander, walnuts, garlic and onion. There are many varieties of lobio, both hot and cold.

The dish is said to have (unsurprisingly) originated in Georgia. The dish most likely predates any division of the lands into countries. As with many Georgian dishes, lobio is spicy, but not necessarily hot.

While there are many ways of making lobio, the most common of which is a cold dish called lobio nigozit, typically made with dark red kidney beans which are cooked and then mashed with garlic, onions, walnuts, coriander, marigold petals, chili pepper and vinegar, and then allowed to marinate overnight. A hot version is usually made with white beans.

In other hot varieties lobio may contain meat. Beans would be put in the pot with water and spices and allowed to sit overnight. The following day, the pot would be placed over a fire or, if available, in a small exposed oven, and the beans slowly cooked. At the appropriate stages, meat and other vegetables would be added to cook. The cooked lobio would then be served in the clay pot, along with a flat cornbread.

Lobio, in its traditional format, progressed to become a standard recipe the ingredients of which varied depending on the area in which it was cooked. Traditionally and best made in a clay pot, I love using these small ones for individual servings.

My version adapts from many of the classic styles of Lobio to make a knockout version of the dish that will be guaranteed to put a smile on the faces of your lucky guests at your next lunch, dinner, or gathering! :) Sources for the more unusual spices such as Pennyroyal, smoked chili flakes, Georgian blue fenugreek and Svanetian salt may be found on the Internet.

Battle on – The Generalissimo

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The Hirshon Georgian Bean Dip – ლობიო

Ingredients

  • 400 grams of dried red kidney beans
  • 100 grams of marinated mixed sweet and hot peppers, minced
  • 20 grams of fresh parsley
  • 1 large tomato
  • 1 onion
  • 30 grams fresh cilantro
  • A large pinch of ground Georgian marigold petals (preferred) or saffron
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 3 bay leaves
  • a pinch of freshly-ground coriander seeds
  • 3 ½ tbsp. walnut oil (preferred) or other oil
  • salt to taste
  • ½ heaped tbsp. lobio spices
  • ***
  • Ingredients for lobio spices:
  • ½ whole small head of garlic
  • ½ tbsp. of dried coriander
  • ¼ tsp of crushed dill seeds
  • ¼ tsp of dried Pennyroyal (also called squaw mint, mosquito plant and pudding grass), buy it from Daphnis and Chloe here or use regular mint if unavailable
  • ½ teaspoon ground Georgian blue fenugreek or use regular freshly-ground fenugreek seeds
  • ½ heaped tsp of dried Summer Savory
  • ½ heaped tsp of coarse red pepper flakes (TFD prefers smoked pepper flakes from Daphnis and Chloe)
  • Salt to taste, preferably Svanetian salt

Instructions

  1. For the Lobio spices - combine all in a food processor until finely ground
  2. Soak beans in cold water for two hours prior to cooking. Drain water and add beans, bay leaves and salt to a deep pot containing 1.5 liters of water. Cook on a medium heat until the beans are tender.
  3. Chop the fresh coriander, tomatoes and onions.
  4. Add fresh and dried coriander, Blue Fenugreek, garlic, black pepper and a pinch of salt to a mortar.
  5. Grind the ingredients with a pestle.
  6. Fry the chopped onions in a pan with hot oil.
  7. Drain the water from the cooked kidney beans but keep 200 milliliters in a separate jug to use later. Use the back of a wooden spoon to mash the beans on the side of the pot. Add the ingredients that were crushed in a mortar, together with fried onions and the oil they were fried in.
  8. Combine all remaining ingredients until completely mixed, add the 200 milliliters of bean water (saved when draining the beans).
  9. Transfer the ingredients to a pot and cook on a medium heat for 4-5 minutes, stirring occasionally. We baked ours in individual clay pots in the oven.
  10. Serve hot.
https://www.thefooddictator.com/hirshon-georgian-bean-dip-%e1%83%9a%e1%83%9d%e1%83%91%e1%83%98%e1%83%9d/

The Hirshon Welsh Anglesey Eggs – Ŵyau Ynys Môn

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The Hirshon Welsh Anglesey Eggs - Ŵyau Ynys Môn

Welsh Anglesey Eggs Image Used Under Creative Commons License From leeksandlimoni.blogspot.co.uk

Citizens, your supreme Leader and demagogue – I, the unavoidable TFD – have a very soft spot in my heart for one of the most beautiful places on Earth – the ancient and mist-shrouded land of Wales!

The Welsh have a number of delicious recipes for cheese and other local ingredients that have been featured before here on TFD and now I share with you another historical recipe from the depths of antiquity for your enjoyment!

Anglesey eggs come from Anglesey, a large island reaching out into the Irish sea separated from North Wales by the Menai Strait. This delicious dish of potatoes, leeks, eggs and cheese reflects a time when meat was a scarce luxury, similar to other more well-known recipes such as Glamorgan sausages and Welsh rarebit. Anglesey Eggs are very similar to Oeufs a la Bretonne, which is served in Brittany.

As noted on bodnant-welshfood.co.uk:

Leeks, the icon of Wales, were once amongst the only vegetables grown here. Used in place of onions, the hardy leek imparts a sweet subtle flavour and a gloriously silken texture. Make the most of the last of the leek season with this great seasonal mid-week supper dish. Anglesey Eggs makes the most of the natural partnership between leeks, potato and cheese, with added eggs for extra protein and flavour. Although it has long been part of the Welsh tradition there is some question as to the actual origin of the recipe.

Interestingly, an ancient tradition of “clapping for eggs” that had been consigned to the history books has now been revived on Anglesey.

The long-forgotten tradition, dating back centuries, had seen schoolchildren in North Wales clap their hands or wooden clappers and chant a rhyme outside homes and shops to get owners to give them eggs.

Pupils then proudly displayed their eggs at home. But the tradition, which was opposed by schools concerned about pupil attendance, gradually died out across the region and was extinct by the 1960s.

Now a school on Anglesey, where the custom was particularly popular, has put clapping for eggs back on the curriculum.

Pupils from Ysgol Beaumaris paraded through the historic town before stopping at a high street newsagent to clap for eggs.

Citizens, this classic recipe is one that you will greatly enjoy – please do use only the freshest organic eggs and look for genuine Welsh Caerphilly cheese at your local cheese supplier to make this in the most authentic way possible! :)

My innovation to this recipe is to use Welsh “Red Dragon” cheese, which is flavored with both mustard seeds and ale – I find it adds a great tang to the dish! You can buy it at many cheese shops or on Amazon here. I also use a touch of nutmeg in the sauce, which many Welsh prefer as well.

Follow my hard-learned tips to make the best hard-boiled eggs:

After much experimentation, I have found the necessary steps steps to turn out a perfect hard-boiled egg – the yolk deep yellow and creamy, not black where it meets the white and the whites with a firm yet tender texture.

These tips make all the difference:

– Placing the securely closed carton of eggs on its side the night before cooking centers the yolks.
– Salt in the water makes leaking white cook fast and seals cracks on any egg that may break.
– Running cold water over the eggs at the end of cooking cools them quickly to help prevent greening of the yolk surface and makes peeling easier.
– As for shelling, eggs about a week to 10 days old peel with the most ease. Start by cracking the wide end of the egg.

Battle on – The Generalissimo

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The Hirshon Welsh Anglesey Eggs – Ŵyau Ynys Môn

Ingredients

  • 1 ½ lb peeled potatoes
  • 4 medium leeks
  • 600ml/1 pint/2 ½ cups whole, organic milk
  • 50g/2oz/3 tbsp best-quality butter, cut into small pieces
  • 50g/2oz/½ cup all-purpose flour
  • 4 oz grated Welsh Red Dragon Cheese (TFD innovation) or for traditionalists, Caerphilly cheese – if that is unavailable, use strong, well-aged cheddar
  • 1 tsp whole grain mustard (omit if using Red Dragon cheese)
  • ½ tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
  • 6 eggs
  • salt and ground black pepper to taste

Instructions

  1. To make the perfect hard-boiled eggs: put six eggs (ideally ones that have been in the fridge for at least a week – older eggs are easier to peel) in water just enough to cover in a pot with 1 tablespoon of salt.
  2. Bring to the boil, then immediately lower the heat to a very light simmer for 7 minutes. At the 7 minute mark, raise the heat to high and count down 4 minutes – it should come back to a full boil.
  3. At the 4 minute mark, drain the eggs and immediately run under cold water until cool enough to handle.
  4. If you are lucky enough to own a sous-vide machine, heat the water to 85 degrees Celsius, add the eggs, cook 20 minutes then remove them and add to an ice water bath for 5 minutes.
  5. Boil the potatoes then mash them, or better still, pass them through a ricer. Chop the leeks finely, using only the white and light green portions of the stem. Give them a quick wash, then cook them very slowly with 1oz of the butter. Take off the heat when the crunch has gone. Mix in the leeks and remaining butter and reserve.
  6. While the leeks are cooking, make the white sauce. Pour the milk into a pan and add the butter and flour plus the mustard (if using). Stirring continuously with a whisk, bring slowly to the boil and bubble gently for 2 minutes, until thickened and smooth. Remove from the heat, stir in half the cheese and the nutmeg and season to taste.
  7. If you think the potatoes could use it, add in some of the cheese sauce and mix.
  8. Arrange the eggs in a large, oven-safe baking dish. Spoon the potato and leek mixture around the edge. Pour the remaining cheese sauce over and top with the remaining cheese.
  9. Put into a 400 degree oven for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown – serve at once.
https://www.thefooddictator.com/hirshon-welsh-anglesey-eggs-wyau-ynys-mon/

The Hirshon Sweet and Sour Mandarin Fish in Squirrel Shape – 松鼠桂鱼

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The Hirshon Sweet and Sour Mandarin Fish in Squirrel Shape - 松鼠桂鱼

Mandarin Fish Recipe Used Under Creative Commons License From xiaoeats.com

Citizens, your indefatigable and beloved leader – the shining star of supernova brilliance who is TFD – has been sadly laid up the last week due to the white-hot agony of a kidney stone. That said, I battle forth from my literal sickbed to bring you yet another recipe of savory merit and historic significance! :)

Crispy on the outside, moist and tender inside, the Squirrel-shaped Mandarin Fish is indeed a legendary dish in Jiangsu cuisine (江苏菜), which is one of the Eight Culinary Traditions of China! You can learn a lot more about the 58 regional styles of Chinese cooking here.

In making this dish, a whole fish is deboned with the fillet still attached to the tail, the fillet is then cut in a cross-hatch pattern and when deep fried, will look like a squirrel in flight. The sauce served with it is sweet, slightly tangy and pleasantly red. Red is the auspicious color for the Chinese, so this sauce is extremely appropriate for the Chinese New Year. It is the signature dish of the premier restaurant of Jiangsu cuisine, known as Su Xiaoxiao.

Like many Chinese dishes, there are several legends and stories behind the recipe!

Apparently, a long time ago, an Emperor wanted to eat carp, but carp was forbidden by his own laws. Of course, being the Emperor, he wanted to get his way and told his chef that his head would be on the ground if he was not served carp. His chef then had to devise a way to make the carp un-carplike and using his unmatched kitchen techniques, made the fish to look like a flying squirrel instead.

Another legend has it that that during Emperor Qianlong’s extensive tour of the south, he caught sight of a particularly frisky carp and, delighted by its apparent zest for life, ordered it to be cooked immediately. In an attempt to capture the fish’s former joie de vivre, the chef focused on giving it a reanimated-look when he fried it. Others say that the origin of the dish’s name lies in the squirrel-like squeaks and squeals that erupt from the flesh when hot sauce is poured over it.

As noted on theworldofchinese.com:

In China, fish and fortune are finely intertwined, as illustrated by the hengpi (横批, horizontal scrolls) bearing the couplet 年年有余 (nián nián yǒu yú, have surplus year after year) that are pasted over doors during Spring Festival.

The door itself or adjoining wall may also be emblazoned with paper-cuts carrying the same inscription, as well as pictures of a golden carp carried by a chunky little chap of unknown origin. The association with good fortune is extended further by the fact that 余 (yú, surplus food and money) and 鱼 (yú, fish) are homonyms, helping elevate the fish to a kind of Spring Festival good luck mascot .

Back in the mists of time, 鱼 was also a synonym for “letter.” In ancient China, people often wrote letters on silk and concealed them in carp stomachs as a means of delivering information in secret. This was known as 鱼传尺素 yu chuan chi su (鱼传尺素, using a fish to deliver messages).

This now long defunct practice was the primary influence on the later habit of folding letters wishing health and good wishes to friends and loved ones into a double-carp shape before mailing them.

Moreover, in the Tang and Song dynasties, noble lords wore fish-shaped talismans 鱼符 (yú fú, fish-shaped talismans) as a means of showcasing their wealth and nobility, while Buddhist monks and laity still use a wooden fish (木鱼 mùyú) drum to keep tempo while chanting sutras. Fish are also traditionally one of the sacrifices necessary to properly perform the rituals associated with worshiping one’s ancestors.

While most of these traditions have fallen by the wayside, their resonance can still be felt through the hallowed status accorded to the fish dish every New Year’s Eve.

In North China, one of the most popular dishes during Spring Festival is Squirrel Fish (松鼠鱼, sōngshǔyú). A commonplace at boozy Jiangsu banquets, this quirky dish is essentially a tribute to sweet and sour.

In the grand Chinese tradition of naming food after strange things they look like, Squirrel Fish is so named because of the crosshatch technique used to cut into the fish flesh, which after being deep-fried opens up the body and positions the head and tail like a jaunty squirrel. The whole fish is deboned before frying to give it further lift.

Freshwater fish such as yellow croaker, carp and Mandarin fish, also known as the Osmanthus fish (桂鱼 guìyú), are the most commonly used bases for the dish.

Citizens, this is a delicious recipe and one that will totally shift your perspective on what “sweet and sour Chinese” is supposed to be – I urge you to try it forthwith! :) As I prefer a tangier sauce, I specify chili sauce instead of the classic ketchup, and have jazzed up the garnishes a bit as well with scallions, bamboo shoots, ginger, and slivered red bell pepper.

Battle on – The Generalissimo

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The Hirshon Sweet and Sour Mandarin Fish in Squirrel Shape – 松鼠桂鱼

Ingredients

  • 1 fish (carp, yellow croaker or Mandarin fish, around 1 kg) 鲤鱼 lǐ yú / 黄花鱼 huánghuā yú / 桂鱼 guì yú
  • 1 quarter of onion 洋葱 yángcōng
  • 50g bamboo shoot (diced in cubes) 竹笋 zhúsǔn
  • 50g carrots (diced in cubes) 胡萝卜 húluóbo
  • 50g sweet corn kernels 甜玉米 tián yùmǐ
  • 50g peas 豌豆 wāndòu
  • 50g pine nuts kernels 松籽仁 sōngzǐrén
  • 2 tablespoons cooking wine 料酒 liàojiǔ
  • 1 tablespoon minced ginger 姜 jiāng
  • 3 tablespoons tomato paste 西红柿酱 xīhóngshìjiàng
  • 1 tablespoon chili sauce with garlic
  • 1 tablespoon sugar 糖 táng
  • 2 tablespoons white vinegar 白醋 báicù
  • 1 tablespoon soy sauce 生抽 shēngchōu
  • 8 tablespoon water 水 Shuǐ
  • 1 teaspoon salt 盐 yán
  • 1 teaspoon ground black pepper 黑胡椒粉 hēihújiāofěn
  • 2 chopped heads of dried Chinese tree fungi (soaked and properly cleaned)
  • 4 thinly-shredded bamboo shoots
  • 2 tablespoons of thinly shredded fresh ginger
  • 1 slivered sweet red pepper
  • ***
  • sesame oil 香油 xiāngyóu
  • 80g cornstarch (to dust the fish) 玉米粉 yùmǐ fěn
  • Vegetable oil to fry the fish 植物油 zhíwùyóu
  • ½ bunch scallions, washed and trimmed, and sliced on the diagonal

Instructions

  1. Remove the head of the fish and split the underside of its “chin” to flatten it. Set aside for later use. Your fishmonger can do this for you.
  2. Remove the spine by filleting the fish from head to tail, being careful not to cut the tail. Slide the knife lengthwise beneath the backbone to detach it from the flesh, and remove. The tail will stay attached with both sides of the fish’s body. Remove the glossy underside of the stomach, which is a bit bitter. Again, your fishmonger can do this.
  3. Score the flesh with your knife, cross-hatching the meat side without cutting through the skin. The meat should now be portioned into small square blocks. Season with one teaspoon of salt, ½ teaspoon pepper and 2 tbsp. cooking wine.
  4. Pour the cornstarch onto a plate and dust the fish and head, removing any excess.
  5. Heat some oil in a pan or wok and fry the head until golden brown. Remove the head and dry it on kitchen paper.
  6. Now add the fish, holding it by the tail for the first few seconds to set the shape. Fry for 10 minutes or until golden brown. Drain it on kitchen paper. Place the fish and the head on a serving plate.
  7. Heat two tablespoons of oil in a medium wok. Add the tree fungi, bamboo shoots, fresh ginger, and sweet red pepper. Quick fry over moderate heat for two minutes.
  8. Add the tomato paste to the wok and heat for a few seconds (this will remove the tinny flavor and a bit of the acidity). Add chili sauce, soy sauce, vinegar, sugar and water. Mix well and then add the vegetables and ginger. Stir again and bring to a boil. Add salt to taste.
  9. Dissolve 3 tsp of cornstarch into 6 tsp of cold water and mix this into the sauce to thicken. Turn down the heat, drizzle on some sesame oil and pour the sauce over the fried fish. Finish off the dish with some pine nuts, and it’s ready to serve!
https://www.thefooddictator.com/hirshon-sweet-sour-mandarin-fish-squirrel-shape-%e6%9d%be%e9%bc%a0%e6%a1%82%e9%b1%bc/