Recipes by MANCHESTER & BIRMINGHAM

Tom’s Banana Pancakes

1 cup rice flour*
2 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp sugar
½ tsp salt
a pinch of nutmeg, cinnamon, etc

1 cup soya milk*
1 tbsp oil
1 ripe banana

Mix the dry ingredients; mix the wet ingredients; combine the two mixtures, stir and leave to stand for five minutes. Fry as thick American pancakes and eat in a stack with a topping of your choice.

*The recipe hasn’t been tried with wheat flour or cow’s milk, but in theory they should make quite good substitutions.

——————————————————-

Sarah’s Sour Chickpeas

350g dried chickpeas: picked over, washed and drained
1 ¾ l water
275-300g onion: peeled and very finely chopped
2 ½ tsp salt
1 fresh green chilli: finely chopped
1 tbsp very finely grated (peeled) ginger
4 tbsp lemon juice
6 tbsp vegetable oil
225g finely chopped tomatoes (tinned tomatoes are fine)
1 tbsp ground coriander seed
1 tbsp ground cumin seed
½ tsp ground turmeric
2 tsp garam masala
¼ tsp cayenne pepper

Soak the chickpeas in 3 pints of water for 20 hours. Put the chickpeas and their soaking liquid into a large pot and bring to the boil. Cover, lower the heat and simmer gently for 1 ½ hours until the chickpeas are tender. Strain the chickpeas and save the cooking liquid.

Put 2 tablespoons of chopped onions, ½ tsp salt, green chilli, ginger and lemon juice in a teacup. Mix well and set aside.

Heat the oil in a heavy, wide casserole-type pot over a medium-high flame. When hot, fry for 8-10 minutes or until the onion bits develop reddish brown spots. Add the tomatoes. Continue to stir and fry for another 5-6 minutes, mashing the tomato pieces with the back of a slotted spoon. Put in the coriander, cumin and turmeric. Stir and cook for about 30 seconds. Now add the drained chickpeas, 400 ml of the cooking liquid, 2 tsp salt, the garam masala and cayenne pepper. Stir to mix and bring to a simmer. Cover the pan, turn the heat to low and cook very gently for 20 minutes. Stir a few times during this period.

Add the mixture in the teacup, stir to mix and serve hot or lukewarm.

Traditionally this dish is a snack, but it makes a delicious meal (serves 4) when served with rice or chippatis, pitta bread, etc.

——————————————————-

Birmingham Biscuits

(Adapted from that culinary classic, The Usborne First Cookbook)

Ingredients:
250g rice flour
125g margarine
125g brown sugar
1 beaten egg
2 teaspoons mixed spice
pinch of salt

1. Pre-heat the oven to 190oC (375oF; Gas mark 5). Grease two baking trays.

2. Beat the butter and sugar together until they are fluffy. Then beat in the egg, a little at a time.

3. Add the rice flour, salt and mixed spice. Mix everything well to make a ball of firm dough which should hopefully stick together.

4. Sprinkle some flour on the table and a rolling pin. Roll the dough out to about ½cm think.

5. Cut shapes out of the dough with biscuit cutters or a knife. Decorate them with raisins or bits of peel if you like. To use them as fortune cookies, we made a hole in the middle of each one.

6. Put the biscuits onto the greased trays. Bake them near the top of the oven for about 15 minutes, until they are light brown.

7. If you’re feeling very primary-school, the recipe suggests icing them and then decorating them with smarties, silver balls, or anything else you like.