Wonderful White Stuff

Sometimes, you can go literally years in between making something, and then you suddenly rediscover it. That’s what happened with this recipe – I was looking for an easy dip to make, to take to a cheese-&-wine-by-the-river evening, so that I wouldn’t be just taking a lump of cheese and a packet of crackers. I wanted to flesh it out a bit, to make my little cheese platter contribution amongst 25 people, a little less plain.

Rummaging around in my recipe e-files, I saw this dip and thought hmmmm why haven’t I made this in so long?! A trip to the supermarket post-dentist (I am funding my dentist’s retirement at the moment, with all of the work I’m having done!) to buy a can of cannellini beans, and 5 minutes later the dip was sitting in the fridge alongside a Wensleydale-with-cranberries block of cheese and a bottle of Yellow, all ready to go.

The texture and flavour of this dip is similar to a chickpea hummus, only minus the garlic. It’s great spread on toast too.

White Bean Dip

425 gm can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

1/4 cup low-fat Greek yoghurt

1/4 cup hulled tahini (sesame paste)

2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped

1 tbsp lemon juice

1/4 tsp paprika

cracked pepper, to taste

Mix all ingredients together in food processor until smooth. Refrigerate until ready to eat, then serve with crackers, squares of fresh bread, triangles of pita bread, or carrot/celery sticks. And wine and friends of course 🙂

My city at dusk

Happy Summer Fooding!

Crockpot Chicken

Well I moved house a week ago, but have had no proper Internet connection until now. I have my iPhone, with the WordPress app on it, but I don’t seem to be able to actually post anything that way. I also had no hot water for 4 days and still have a couple of minor problems waiting to be fixed, but the lack of wifi was my main concern!

As I mentioned, I did end up having Crust pizza on the evening of the move (see above – tandoori chicken with yoghurt drizzled on top, delicious), which actually did me for the next night as well. I love that pizza so much!

I am not completely unpacked yet, but the bulk of it is done. I am still manouevring my way around several large boxes in the middle of the floor though, as I don’t have room to put the things in them, so am just leaving some stuff packed up rather than have to repack it again in a year’s time when I will be moving again.

In the meantime it has been lovely finding old friends like my wok and bread machine, and of course my cookbooks. I was too tired to do much but collapse, for the first few days, especially as it was 38-40C for a few days in a row and there is no air conditioning (yet – it’s coming apparently) or pool where I am now. I have been working a lot and studying hard as well, but I finally felt back to normal a couple of days ago and decided to throw a few things in the crockpot for dinner when I came home from my day’s classes. I found an old “French chicken stew” recipe from years ago, and revamped it according to what I had in my (not yet restocked properly) pantry.

Coming home to the smell of something cooking is so divine!

Crockpot Chicken Stew

425 gm can cannellini beans, drained

2 cps chicken stock

6 chicken thigh fillets (skinless), cut into large chunks (you can use breast fillets, but they do dry out easily)

420 gm can tomato soup

3 small potatoes, roughly chopped

1 carrot, peeled & diced

1 brown onion, roughly chopped

4 cloves garlic, crushed

2 bay leaves

½ tsp dried basil

½ tsp dried oregano

½ tsp paprika

cracked pepper to taste

1 tsp cornflour (optional)

Place all ingredients in crockpot except cornflour; mix well, cover and cook on LOW for 8-10 hours.

A couple of hours before you are ready to eat, mix the cornflour to a paste with a little cold water; add to the crockpot and mix through, to thicken.

Serves 4

Happy Fooding!