Dear LPG, 

This month found me doing things I thought I would never do with a red kidney bean.  My West Indian roots leave me being fairly familiar with the little red things but when I first took a look at this recipe, I have to be honest and tell you that a quick glance at the picture left me thinking that I was looking at something a bit chocolaty.   

The good news is that I had no problem acquiring the ingredients for once, and pressure cooking red kidney beans is something I have had a lot of practice with.  The sieving of them was a new experience. It was as if the beans went into the sieve and the moose fell out the other end, and even though I knew what I put in at the top, what emerged from the bottom of the sieve, really could have been mistaken for Chocolate.  

There were more than a few subtle differences in the taste, but my taste testers thought that the resulting dessert was a bowl of somewhat odd tasting chocolate until I told them that it was ‘full of beans’.  That resulted in a few raised eyebrows but it went down very well, so I see this as one of my more successful attempts at doing a country proud but although we all enjoyed it, none of us really knew just how authentic my version really was.     

When looking forward to February, I think I can safely predict that it will still be cold, and with that in mind, I thought it might be good to not stray too far from the sunny backdrop of   the Caribbean.  So I hope to recreate one of St Lucia’s national dishes…   

CB, Lewisham 

 

 

CB shares a few insights into what is coming up…

 

 

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