Curried bean stew with coconut milk

The best moments in the kitchen happen when I have all the time in the world and no one is waiting for dinner. I let a film or a TV show run in the player while chopping vegetables for, let's say, a bean stew that I allow to simmer even longer than needed. On Sunday I had such a moment when preparing my curried bean stew with coconut milk, a favourite in this house. While preparing it I listened to conversations with the author Zadie Smith on YouTube (from 2010, part of the series Live from the New York Public Library). I forgot myself completely and cooked it for an hour, which was fine. Now that autumn has arrived there will be plenty of these moments. The list of ingredients seems long but the stew is easy to make. All you need is time.

CURRIED BEAN STEW WITH COCONUT MILK

1 tablespoon coconut oil
1 onion
3 cloves garlic
2 peppers, red and green
2 celery sticks
75 g trimmed green beans
150 g frozen, diced sweet potatoes (about 1½ cup)
100 g frozen, diced butternut squash (about ¾ cup)
1 can (400 g) kidney beans (14 oz)
1 can (400 g) cannellini beans (14 oz)
4 teaspoons (vegan) vegetable bouillon powder
1 teaspoon tandoori curry powder

(or 1 teaspoon mild curry powder and ¼ teaspoon chilli powder)

½ teaspoon ground turmeric
½ teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon red chilli flakes
¼ teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon Italian herb mix
1 can (400 g) tomatoes (14 oz)
1 can (400 ml) coconut milk (14 oz)
optional: a handful of spinach
Maldon sea salt flakes to taste

Start with preparing the vegetables and beans: Peel the onion and garlic, chop and finely chop. Remove seeds and dice the peppers. Finely slice the celery sticks. Slice the trimmed beans coarsely. In the stew I use frozen, diced sweet potatoes and butternut squash. If you cannot buy them frozen use fresh ingredients. Rinse and drain the kidney and cannellini beans in a colander.

Heat the coconut oil in a large saucepan on low-medium heat. Cook the onion and garlic for a few minutes until the onion has softened. Add the other vegetables and cook for a few more minutes, gently stirring with a spoon. Add the beans, bouillon powder (or 2 stock cubes), spices and herbs, and combine before adding the tomatoes and coconut milk. Increase the heat and bring to the boil while stirring gently. Cover with a lid and let it simmer on low heat for 20 minutes. Stir in the spinach, if using, then tilt the lid to allow the steam to escape and allow to simmer for another 15-20 minutes. Taste with Maldon sea salt flakes if needed.

Serve the bean stew with perhaps sourdough bread or stone baked baguette.

Uppskrift á íslensku.

№ 4 reading list: early autumn 2016

Saturday morning, coffee and books. In the background on repeat, Cat Power performing her cover of Troubled Waters; I never tire of this song. It's time to share my early autumn reading list - yes, there will be a late-autumn one, I already have some works lined up. I wanted to include Michael Chabon's Wonder Boys on the list but it wasn't available at the library and my ordered copy hasn't arrived, yet. I loved Michael Douglas in the film (2000), directed by Curtis Hanson, who passed away last Tuesday. I have already finished two books on the list and one of them is The Little Book of Hygge, which I recently reviewed on the blog. At the moment I'm reading five books at once. Some are short story collections so I pick up the one I'm in the mood for. Here is the list:

1   Siddhartha  by Hermann Hesse
2   The Outsider  by Albert Camus
3   The Summer Book  by Tove Jansson
4   A Winter Book: Selected Stories  by Tove Jansson
5   Anecdotes of Destiny  by Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen)
6   In Other Rooms, Other Wonders  by Daniyal Mueenuddin
7   Kitchen  by Banana Yoshimoto
8   The American  by Henry James
9   Casino Royale  by Ian Fleming
10  The Little Book of Hygge: The Danish Way to Live Well  by Meik Wiking

At the library I spotted Yoshimoto's Kitchen, her first book, and had to borrow it to read again. Japanese authors are so wonderfully different. Many years ago I worked in a bookshop with school and took the risk of recommending it to a customer, who struck me as a reader ready for something different. Sometimes it was tricky recommending books to customers, not everyone has the same taste (luckily) and I didn't want anyone to waste money on something they didn't enjoy. Well, this one came back to tell me that she had loved it, that it was 'different', and she went home with a stack of my favourite books.

Stéphane Audran as Babette in Babette's Feast (1987)

Two Nordic authors are on my list. You know already about my love for Karen Blixen. Many years ago I read her story Babette's Feast and have since treasured it. It's featured in the story collection on the list and I'm looking forward to reading it again. Have you seen the film (1987, original Danish title Babettes gæstebud)? It's one of my favourites. It won the Oscar in the category Best Foreign Language Film. The other Nordic author on my list is Tove Jansson, who became famous for her books about the Moomintrolls (see my recent post about The Moomin Shop in London). She also wrote fiction for adults and I don't understand why I hadn't read any of them before. I'm so enjoying the two on my list. The Summer Book, first published in 1972, is a beautifully written story about a six-year-old and her grandmother, who spend a summer on a tiny island in the Gulf of Finland (Jansson herself had a cabin on a tiny, remote island in the same Gulf). The story has no plot, it's about life and nature. Such a quiet and calm read.

Tove Jansson at her cabin on the Finnish island Klovharun

The other book on the list that I have also finished is Casino Royale, Ian Fleming's first book about James Bond. I was not impressed, which is the reason I didn't include it in my photo! Perhaps my expectations were too high because I enjoyed the film. The plot is interesting but I was simply bored during the reading. There were also sentences that I had to read twice to believe my own eyes ('the sweet tang of rape' (p. 201); it was published in different times, in 1953, but hello, misogynistic much?). One day I will probably give Fleming another chance and read From Russia with Love, which many consider his best. Just not yet.

1: image by me | 2: still via BFI · credit: Panorama Film A/S, Det Danske Filminstitut, Nordisk Film + Rungstedlundfonden · director + screenplay Gabriel Axel | 3: via Tove Jansson

Arrival of autumn

Early morning yesterday I quickly went into the garden and for a moment sensed the arrival of autumn when I noticed the fading colours of the hydrangeas. Without wishing to sound dramatic, I almost felt a pang in my heart because the weather has been so wonderful lately - the proper Indian summer I wished for - and I'm not quite ready for colder days. It's a luxury to still being able to enjoy a cup of coffee on the sunny patio, but it seems to me that from this day forward I will be drinking it inside and looking out the window.

The arrival of autumn was very different when we lived in Iceland, where it arrives earlier and more rapidly. Going berry picking was essential and driving to the Thingvellir National Park to see nature dressed in its finest autumn apparel. Over here big and juicy blueberries from Poland arrive in stores, apple and plum trees bear fruit, and hydrangea shrubs start to fade well before the leaves change their colours.

For me another sign of autumn is Virginia Woolf. In August last year I started reading her diaries and this summer having just read a few pages of her diaries, and letters, I feel the need again to read a few entries before going to sleep. It feels as if she is always writing by the fireplace, which is particularly comforting. Speaking of Woolf! This weekend I saw new Woolf paperback editions from Vintage Classics. The Finnish artist Aino-Maija Metsola illustrated the covers (for a few years she has designed for Marimekko) and I think it was love at first sight when I saw the cover of Mrs Dalloway. The other books in the Woolf series are The Waves, The Years, Orlando, To the Lighthouse and A Room of One's Own that also contains the sequel Three Guineas.