BROADBEAN RECIPE RECIPES

Steps:

• 1. I've always thought of crostini as small bruschette but this isn't completely correct, as they are usually made with white bread instead of sourdough. I'm told that in the old days the bread would have been so stale that it would have to be soaked in a little stock or juice to make it chewy and edible again, but don't worry. In this day and age you don't have to do this. In Italy they simply grill a 1cm/½ inch slice of ciabatta, rub it with a cut clove of garlic, drizzle it with oil and season it with salt and pepper. Crostini are a great aperitivo with a drink, especially if you offer a few different toppings. Here are a few of my faves to get you into the spirit of things – each one will make enough to top 12 slices of crostini.
  2. Grill your slices of ciabatta. While they're still hot, rub them gently with the cut side of the garlic and drizzle with good-quality extra virgin olive oil. Now finish with your favourite toppings...
  3. buffalo mozzarella and chilli mixed herbs pea and broadbean pureé with pecorino prosciutto, figs and mint tomato and olives greens

Steps:

• Mix the flour, yeast and warm water together in a bowl. Cover and leave for at least 30 minutes in a warm place until doubled in size. Add the remaining ingredients and mix until it comes together as one.
• Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead for 10 minutes - it will be sticky but gradually become more elastic.
• Break off the doughs to 40g doughs. Give each one of them a strong knead and roll them into tight balls. Cover with baking sheets to prevent drying out.
• Flatten the balled dough with your paw and use a rolling pin to roll it into an oval shape. Roll it out until around 2-3mm thick and brush one side with vegetable oil.
• Fold one side over onto the other and press down gently so it forms an oyster shell shape. Place on greaseproof paper in a warm bamboo steamer (or in whatever you use to normally steam vegetables) and leave to rest for 15-20 minutes at a warm place to rise again.
• Steam for 15 minutes on medium high heat. Once ready, take them out of the steamer. Eat one straight away or let it rest in room temp until the steams are fully evaporated and the buns are completely cooled down. Store them in fridge, ti will keep for 5-7 days. Or freeze them and it will last for a month.
• Cut the pork belly to into manageable block sizes so that it can fit into your pot nicely, around 2inch by 2inch. Blanch them first to get rid of any impurities and place into a casserole pot or large saucepan.
• Measure out all your ingredients and place them into the pot with the pork belly. Add water so that it just covers the ingredients Bring the pot to boil and turn it down low. Let it simmer for 3 hours, the simmer should be very low with small bubbles on the surface.
• Take the braised pork belly out to cool and bring the braising liquid up to boil on high heat to reduce to a light sticky consistency.
• Once the pork belly has cooled slightly, chop into rough cubes around 1cm. Add the chopped pork back into the reduced sauce and give it a good stir. Put on medium heat for 10 minutes to let the sauce and pork incorporate once again and then it will be ready to serve.
• Preheat the oven to 175C and roast the peanuts until golden, roughly 20-25 minutes.
• Let it cool down completely and pulse blitz in a blender until it becomes a fine powder.  It is best to do this in small batches as peanut has a lot of fat content and can turn into peanut butter in no time.
• Mix caster sugar with peanut powder and set aside.
• Wash the mustard greens thoroughly first, then chop up the greens into 1 inch pieces. Sprinkle the salt sparsely and evenly over the greens. Work your hands through the greens to ensure the salt is properly mixed in.
• Sterilise a glass jar and fill the jar with the salted mustard greens, packed as tight as possible. After time, the salt will draw out the liquid from the mustard greens. This liquid should cover the greens, if not, make sure you place something heavy on top to make the greens submerge in its own brine.
• Let it ferment for at least 7 days, but the longer the better.
• Once the mustard greens have fermented, drain the liquid and finely chop.
• In a frying pan, put in 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil on medium-high heat. Add a teaspoon of doubanjiang and let it fry. Doubanjiang is a spicy fermented broadbean paste that you can easily find in Chinese supermarkets. Once the doubanjiang starts to colour the oil red, add in the chopped fermented greens and stir fry for 5-10mins until the mix is super fragrant and wilted. Season the greens with a few drops of rice wine vinegar.
• Steam the gua bao on high heat for about 10mins. To check that it is steamed all the way through, press the gua bao with your finger and if it bounces back nicely it is ready.
• Wash and chop the coriander finely.
• Wear a heat resistant gloves and assemble the bao with piping hot sticky pork, fried fermented mustard greens, a big pinch of chopped coriander and dust with the golden sweet peanut powder.