Hopping John

Small girl loves beans. This is good, instead of just relying on meat for protein, we do different sorts of beans often. This one is a favourite. From the Dean and DeLuca Cookbook it makes enough for one meal for three for now, and one to freeze (freeze the beans and ham before adding the rice, then heat and add rice as per usual). Sometimes we can't find a ham hock, substituting good quality ham and a cup of stock as part of the 1 litre of water works ok.

225g black-eyed beans, soaked overnight
1 tbs olive oil
1 large onion, diced
1 stalk celery, chopped
2 large garlic cloves, chopped
l litre water
1 smoked ham hock or some chopped up thickly sliced ham
1 bay leaf
1 tsp salt
225g basmati rice
pinch of ground clove
2 sprigs chopped fresh thyme

For garnishing:
1 chopped tomato
2 chopped sping onions
handful chopped fresh parsley
a few sprigs chopped fresh mint
ground red pepper

Fry the onion, celery and garlic in the oil until soft. Add the water, ham hock (if using ham this can be added later), bayleaf and beans. Either cook in a pressure cooker for 9 minutes or gently simmer for 2 hours until beans are tender.

Remove the ham hock and dice the meat and return to pot, throwing out the bone. If using plain ham, add it at this point. Also add cloves, thyme and salt. If you intend to freeze half of this do it now (rice does not freeze very well).

Add rice (remembering to only add 112g if you have frozen half of the beans and ham) and bring back to the boil. Cover and cook gently (using heat mat) for 20 minutes, then turn off heat and allow to sit for 5 minutes undisturbed.

Serve in bowls with garnishes.