Zucchini are coming into season in California now, and I received a medium-sized one in my community-supported agriculture package last week.
I could have again made 호박전 hobak jeon (zucchini pancake), which is always tasty. Another option was 궁중 떡볶이gungjung tteokbokki, the royal ancestor of the spicy, warm 떡볶이tteokbokki (rice cake stew).
Yet hobak bokkeum is a simple dish and once you make it, you can either serve it on the spot in banchan form, or you can set it aside and put it into your bibimbap.
The zucchini I used here was a little fat for bibimbap but it work well as a typical American side dish.
Hobak bokkeum 호박볶음
1 medium zucchini (about 10–12 ounces) 1 tablespoon grapeseed, rice bran or high-heat oil (recommend: non-GMO) 2 teaspoons fish sauce 2 garlic cloves, minced 1 scallion, finely chopped 2 tablespoons water 1 teaspoon sesame oil 1 teaspoon sesame seeds (optional)
Directions
1. Slice zucchini thin.
2. Heat a pan with the grapeseed oil over medium high heat.
3. Mix the remaining ingredients in a small bowl, creating a sauce.
4. Add the zucchini to the skillet, and cook for one to two minutes.
5. Add the sauce and cook for one to two more minutes, stirring well until the zucchini is softened and turns translucent.
The base to any soup or stew, Korean or otherwise, is a good broth or stock. This article will discuss three methods for adding beef flavor, from the easiest to the most complex.
Debra Boutin, M.S., R.D., chairwoman of Bastyr University’s Department of Nutrition and Exercise Science, described the healthful aspects of bone broth in a natural medicine column:
Properly made bone broth contains measurable amounts of calcium, phosphorous, magnesium, potassium and other minerals, as well as collagen, gelatin and amino acids. These nutrients are beneficial for bone and joint health, for muscle strength and action, and for maintaining connective tissues and the gastrointestinal tract.
The gelatin in bone broth has been shown in some studies to stimulate digestion and protect the lining of the gastrointestinal tract. It also is thought to improve digestion of milk, beans, meat and gluten-containing grains.
The Weston A. Price Foundation also has an article detailing the health benefits of bone broth.
Bone broth will give needed calcium to those on a dairy-restricted diet for health reasons or less availability of dairy products, such as in Korea compared with the U.S.
Easiest: Dashida Dashida (다시다) is a Korean instant beef stock. It comes in large bags and is found in many grocery stores in Korea or Asian markets in the U.S. You don’t need to use more than a teaspoon or so in most soups. A caveat: It is high in salt and monosodium glutamate (MSG).
More difficult: Korean beef broth Korean beef broth takes a little more time to make — about two and a half hours — but the little extra time will produce a much better beef broth. It won’t have MSG, unless you want it.
Ingredients 2 pounds beef brisket 8 quarts (roughly 8 liters) of cold water (enough to fill a large soup pot)
Instructions 1 Rinse the brisket in cold water.
2 Place the brisket into into a pot, covered with cold water, and bring to a boil.
3 Once it’s boiling, turn down the heat to a simmer.
4 Allow it to simmer, uncovered for a couple of hours.
Add some aromatics of your choosing (such as ginger, onion, celery, carrots, thyme, black peppercorns, etc.) and boil until the brisket is completely cooked.
Skim the foam off the top periodically to remove fat and impurities.
5 Once the two hours are expired, retrieve the beef and slice it for the soup or stew or reserve it for future use.
The same can be done with the broth: Use immediately in your soup or stew recipe or store in the freezer for future use.
Most challenging: Beef bone stock Beef bone stock is the most time-consuming option but will reward you with a robust and healthful base for any soup, stew, gravy or sauce your want to make.
Summarizing the steps for sizzling and simmering
Roast beef bones in the oven until they turn brown.
Place the bones in a pot, cover them with cold water and boil until scum appears on the surface.
Clear the scum off the broth and add aromatic ingredients, such as ginger, onion and black peppercorns.
Continue to boil for at least three to four more hours. Some stock connoisseurs recommend simmering the bones for 12 to 72 hours all together.
Ingredients 2-4 pounds meaty beef stock bones (include some knuckle bones and a hoof) 1 pound meaty rib or neck bones (perhaps, oxtail with meat still on it) olive oil 1 onion, peeled and quartered 2 celery ribs (a bunch/stalk contains several ribs), cut into 1-2 inch pieces 2-3 garlic cloves, unpeeled 10 black, red or white peppercorns
Instructions
This is where the fun starts: in your broiler, not on the stovetop. (Photo by Tammy Quackenbush)
1 Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Rub the onions with oil, and place them into a large roasting pan with the bones. Roast the bones and onions for about 45 minutes, turning the bones over about 20 minutes into the roasting time. If the bones start to char, turn the heat down. The bones should be deep brown, not black.
Pre-roasting the bones is a crucial step in this recipe. If you simply put raw bones into the pot and start boiling, the smell will be horrendous and traumatic.
The meat and the bones are golden brown and the onions are a little caramelized but not overly so. (Photo by Tammy Quackenbush)
2 Place the bones and onion into a stockpot.
3 Place the roasting pan on the oven on low heat, covering two burners. Pour a half-cup of water into the pan and let the water come to a boil. Use a metal spatula to scrape off all the cooked bits at the bottom of the pan and add them to the stockpot.
4 Fill up with cold water until there’s enough water to cover the bones by one to two inches.
This is when it's good to skim off the top. It's also the most time-consuming task in creating consomme starter. (Photo by Jeff Quackenbush)
5 Bring to a boil briefly, then turn down the heat for a simmer.
Do not take your eyes off the stock pot for the first hour. Carefully remove the scum on top with a spoon.
After removing the scum, add the rest of the vegetables and aromatics to the pot and continue to simmer.
Skim off the white scum rising to the top.
When the water level sinks below the bones, add more water and return to a good simmer. Continue periodic skimming.
Do not dump hot oil or fat down the kitchen drain. It will solidify and block your pipes. Save the grease in a small jar for future use, or discard it in the trash after it has cooled.
6 After simmering the bones for three to 12 hours, remove them from the pot with tongs or a slotted spoon. I simmered my stock for eight hours.
7 Line another large pot with a fine mesh sieve lined with cheesecloth. Ladle the broth through the screening material into the other pot. Allow the broth to cool before storing it in the refrigerator.
This is what it looks like after it's been refrigerated for a few hours and skimmed. Notice how thick the broth appears. (Photo by Tammy Quackenbush)
8 Skim the fat off the cooled stock. Discard the fat in the trash, or save it for another recipe.
At this point, you can put the pot back onto the stove and continue to simmer until you have reduced it by half to make a more concentrated stock.
This step might come in handy if your freezer space is very limited.
After more than eight hours of keeping an eye on this concoction one Sunday, I ended up with eight cups of broth, which I put into small sandwich bags and stored in the freezer for future use.
Delilah Snell quickly chops some garlic and ginger for her kimchi demonstration.
At a stage in the “urban homesteading zone,” Snell spent 19 minutes going through the ingredients and steps in making the commonly recognized spicy Nappa cabbage kimchi (배추 김치 baechu kimchi). She also took questions from an audience of more than 100, several of which vied for a chance to help her with the demonstration.
Snell kindly answered a few questions via email about herself and her passion for traditional cooking methods.
What is the name of your store? What do you sell there? My store is The Road Less Traveled, an eco-friendly store selling green, natural, organic and fair-trade products in Orange County [Santa Ana] for almost five years. We also teach a number of classes there.
What kind of culinary training led you to teaching food preservation? I have always been into food and gardening. [I] started a non-pro several years ago, starting [at] farmers markets, food gardens, etc. in my area. I just always wanted to know how to preserve for the store, but I ended up falling in love with all sorts of preservation after becoming going through the MFP program.
How long have you been teaching classes on food preservation? Over a year.
You noticed there were more than 100 people there at Eat Real Festival to hear your presentation on making kimchi. What did you think of that? I loved and was so excited and happy to see people interested. It give me faith in the future of food. I was a little shocked though — didn’t expect so many!
Why are Americans “scared” of traditional fermented foods? This goes into what what you brought up during the lecture: people — here at least — are so removed [from] how to do things again — plus bombarded by marketing telling you that you don’t need to so you can by their “crap.” You mentioned the kimchi turning sour — and, yes, I agree [it’s] totally fine and normal to eat. But from my perspective, I am teaching safety, and I just want to make sure that people don’t just leave it to rot thinking, “It’s OK if it is sour.” This [food safety], in my mind, is the baby-step for them to start exploring.
During the questions after the demonstration, someone in the audience asked her, “If you let it go sour, is it dangerous, or is it a flavor issue.”
“It went bad, so you don’t want to eat it,” Snell answered
I piped in at that point that Koreans often use sour kimchi to make a common stew called 김치찌개 kimchi jjigae.
She responded, “If it’s gone bad, you may have created an environment where other bacteria can come in.”
The interchange came in the last couple of minutes of her allotted time, so we had to pick up the discussion privately.
Why are people more interested in these traditional foods? [The] local/DIY [do-it-yourself]/anti-big-ag[riculture] movement is and has been growing. People are taking food and food manipulation into their own hands as a form of self-empowerment.
Do you see a difference between Northern California and Southern California in regard to the interest in traditional cooking methods? North California was so responsive. Here in South California[, it] might be a little less. But L.A. is growing. The size of the region is a problem, though, as far as people going to a lecture in this area.
What is your favorite meal to eat with kimchi? The Kogi Truck success has been a real motivation. They use kimchi in their tacos and burritos. Being half-Mexican, this appeals to me — the crossing of cultures!
I’ve been in search of a breakfast item lately, something healthy and light yet filling – in the stomach and in the brain. A bowl of cereal and some fruit are nice, but my brain recognizes them more as desserts than proper breakfasts.
Danhobak (단호박; known by its Japanese name kabocha in the U.S.) has always been one of my favorite ingredients, and it was one of the first topics I wrote about when I started my own blog. Although it’s categorized as a winter squash, I can easily find it year-round, and that’s how often I have it at home – year-round. Its bright orange-yellow color, which is also an indication of high level of beta-carotene, and natural sweetness make it a great main or supporting ingredient for any dish. Even the hard skin that comes with high dietary fiber content becomes soft and edible after cooking. Add more of other good stuff – brown rice flour, sweet rice flour and walnuts and bring everything together with some of the usual baking ingredients.
The texture of this rice muffin – right in between dense, chewy tteok (떡; rice cake) and soft muffin – is quite interesting. I mulled over to decide if it’s tteok or muffin with each bite (which led me to eat 3 in a row), but it’s so right in the middle I first named it Tteok Muffin. That’s not so creative but it speaks the reality of it. I’m still getting used to the texture, but one thing I like about it is that it is pretty filling in my mouth and in my stomach.
The recipe below makes about 12 small rice muffins.
Kabocha Rice Muffin
INGREDIENTS 1 Danhobak 2/3 cup Brown rice flour 2/3 cup Mochiko (찹쌀가루; chap ssal ga ru or sweet rice flour) 1 tsp. Baking powder 1/4 tsp. Salt 2 Eggs 2 Tbsp. Sugar 1/3 cup Oil (preferably light, like grape seed oil) 1/2 cup Milk 1/2 cup Walnuts, toasted and chopped
Microwave a rinsed danhobak for 5-7 minutes, or until a knife goes through with no resistance. Cut in half, then scoop out the seeds. Scoop out the flesh and reserve. I saved the flesh and the skin separately.
Sift together 2/3 C brown rice flour (I used the one from Wholefoods), 2/3 cup mochiko, 1 tsp. baking powder, 1/4 tsp. salt and reserve.
Whisk 2 eggs and 2 Tbsp. sugar (this is about the minimum amount of sugar you can add. Feel free to add 1-2 Tbsp. more) until slightly foamy. Then add 1/3 cup oil (I used grape seed oil), 1/2 cup milk, and 1/2 cup danhobak flesh from #1 and mix well. Add #2 and mix well. Fold in 1/2 cup of toasted, chopped walnuts. Optional: Top the muffins with small diced danhobak skin pieces for garnish.
Spoon the batter into cupcake molds (silicon molds or paper cups), and place them in a steamer. Put the lid on and steam for 30 minutes. When a toothpick inserted through the middle of a muffin comes out clean, it’s done.
You can freeze the leftover danhobak flesh and skin in a plastic bag for another time. You can also freeze the leftover muffins in a plastic bag and microwave it for 30 seconds to a minute right before eating. For those adventurous souls out there, I also baked the same batter in a mini cake mold at 350°F, and it feels just too wet even after passing the toothpick test.
Enjoy this delicious rice muffin with another breakfast favorite of mine, black bean smoothie!
As spring melts away winter, yujacha (Korean citron marmalade tea, 유자차) and other hot drinks have less of what it takes to slake your thirst. But remnants in that jar of yujacha mix lingering from winter in the pantry can produce more than tea. This recipe enlivens a Chinese American food favorite — orange chicken — with tangier citron and zippier Korean hot red pepper.
My husband enjoyed the recipe’s sourness. If you prefer your “sweet and sour” on the sweet side, feel free to throw out the ginger or add a little bit more sugar to the mix.
Flower pancakes (화전; hwa jeon) in the spring time have been a tradition with long history, which seem to find their roots dating back to the Goryeo Dynasty (918-1392) or even before that. Hwajeon made with azalea in the spring time is the most well known kind, although other edible flowers are used, such as chrysanthemum in autumn. Hwajeon is the only sweet jeon (pancake) I know, but the sweet flavor itself comes from sugar syrup or honey drizzled over the crispy, sticky-soft pancakes.
It is a traditional food for March 3rd by lunar calendar (April 16th this year) as well, called 삼짇날 (samjitnal), which is the day of celebrating the return of spring. Samjitnal is also often referred as the day that swallows return from the south.
Here I tried to keep the spirit of this Korean tradition with the ingredients I can easily get – which means finding a small container labeled ‘edible flowers’ at a grocery store rather than picking flowers from a nearby park and taking my chances at ‘edible’ vs. ‘not-so-edible.’ This time it also means another bottle of baekseju (백세주, an herbed rice liqueur) poured into a pot, which provides a light herbal infusion in sweet syrup.
Rice wine syrup (baekseju syrup) – Reduce 1 cup of baekseju (about 1/2 bottle) by half over low heat. Add 2 tablespoons (TBSP) of honey and 1 TBSP of sugar and stir to dissolve completely. Keep over low heat until the liquid starts to thicken. Remove from heat. As the syrup cools, it will thicken more. Set aside.
You can also make simple syrup by gently heating up water and sugar (1:1 ratio by volume) just to dissolve sugar or drizzle honey over the pancakes.
Making flower pancakes requires only sweet rice flour (찹쌀가루; chapssal garu), salt and hot water. The recipe below makes about 20 pancakes of 1″-2″ in diameter.
1) Mix 1 cup of sweet rice flour with 1/2 teaspoon of salt.
2) Pour hot water little by little as you start kneading. I used about 2/3 cup of hot water to get to a consistency close to playdough.
3) Divide the dough into small pieces and shape like balls with your hands. Flatten out the balls to thin pancakes and smooth out the edges. Keep them covered with a piece of wet paper towel.
4) Trim the stems of the edible flowers as necessary.
5) With your fingers, moisten one side of a pancake with water, which acts as a glue between the pancakes and flowers. Gently press down an edible flower on the pancake. Repeat the process with all pancakes. I used chervil, a delicate, licrose-lemony herb, for leaves.
6) On a pan well-coated with neutral tasting oil (such as canola oil or grape seed oil) over low heat, place the pancakes carefully with the flower side up. The pancakes will puff slightly as they start cooking. They are done when the edges of the bottom become crispy and start turning golden and the flower side of the pancakes turns opaque. Remove from heat.
If the pancakes take too long to cook, some flowers and leaves will shrivel. You can spoon over some oil from the pan on the pancakes to gently speed up the cooking. Low heat, enough oil, no flipping, and patience will help minimize damage to the shape and color of the flowers.
Serve the pancakes hot with the rice wine syrup drizzled over. You can make this a few hours ahead until the edges of the pancake bottom become crispy but with no color. Then reheat the pancakes on a pan over low heat until the edges of the bottom turn golden before serving.
Mochiko brand sweet rice flour is available at Asian markets. A small box of mixed edible flowers ($2.99) and a small bunch of chervil ($1.50) come from Chelsea Market. baekseju ($5.99) is available at Astor Wines.
Taro (토란; to ran) is a starchy, high-fiber root vegetable, which has a creamy texture that can be incorporated into a sauce. An added bonus is that the creaminess from taro roots is not accompanied by high fat content. The small variety is used to make earthy, comforting taro soup (토란탕; to ran tang) in Korea, often with perilla seed puree, popular in the fall/winter time. It’s also shown up in doenjang jjigae (된장찌개; bean paste stew with tofu and vegetables) on my family dinner table, looking very similar to potato pieces. It always tricked my unsuspecting eyes, but then, its familiar creaminess was easily recognizable when I took a bite.
The cleaning of taro root in the beginning takes some effort, which requires peeling with gloves on as the peel can irritate skin, then washing off the slimy outer layer in cold water (some say salt and flour in cold water work better). I also just learned that raw taro root is toxic due to calcium oxalate, which is destroyed by cooking. As far as I remember, I’ve never ventured to eat it raw. As far as I remember.
Creamy Taro Tomato Sauce) To make about 2 cups of the sauce, start by sautéing 1/2 sliced onion, 3 cloves of sliced garlic, a pinch of salt, in 2 tablespoons (TBSP) of olive oil over low heat. Once the onion and garlic slices become translucent, add 1 cup of peeled, sliced taro (about 3 small taro roots). Cook for another 3 minutes and stir often as starch from sliced taros is released. Add 1/2 cup of white wine and reduce until very little liquid is left. Add 2 cups of sliced tomatoes and 1 teaspoon of dry oregano or Italian seasoning. Simmer over low heat until everything is completely soft.
Optional) Here comes my weakness and affection for gochujang (고추장; Korean hot pepper paste) – stir in 1 TBSP of gochujang for some heat.
Puree the sauce in a blender for a smooth creamy consistency. Taste and adjust seasoning.
I usually freeze some of the sauce for another time when I want some creamy sauce to go with a quick pasta dinner.
If you just want simple, fresh tomato sauce, you can ignore the taro part. Without taro, it’s still a lively tomato sauce great for pasta. Taro adds savory sweetness with a creamy texture.
As the taro season is ending (as defined in Korea), I am finally writing about the sauce I’ve made a few times in the last couple of months – although in my defense, I just got the latest batch from Chinatown last week. So I’d like to think this post is like a fashion catalog shoot, being 6 months ahead of the next season.
Aeri’s Kitchen has a video on how to make heart-shaped Gyeran Mari 계란마리. This was so cute and clever I had to post it. Now, if only I could find a heart-shaped box for it.
My father is coming. After moving back to Korea last year, my father’s visiting for a few days. My mind is going in all directions and the first thing I think of is – I gotta clean out my fridge.
Sometimes I end up with random stuff, other times I buy things to poke around and figure out what to do with them on top of my usual grocery items and leftovers after various cooking trials. With a bit of exaggeration, my small kitchen is stocked to feed everyone in my apartment building for a week at any given point.
Just to minimize the moment of sheer shock when he opens my refrigerator, I started the process of cleaning it out. The first one was pickling pearl onions, then baking potatoes and eggs that didn’t work out (but still made a good lunch). This time is turkey tacos, an idea I got from the Beer-Braised Turkey Tacos Recipe from the magazine Food & Wine. The innocent looking turkey tacos above have hodgepodge of ingredients from my refrigerator, including bekseju (백세주), gochujang (고추장) and doenjang (된장) – which, combined together, help bring out an earthy, warm flavor of the familiar winter meat dish, yet something that makes you wonder what else is in this…?
To make turkey tacos for 2)After sauteing 1 chopped onion and 3 cloves of sliced garlic, add a defrosted turkey leg and a thigh along with 1/2 bottle of bekseju (백세주), a Korean rice wine.* Reduce until the liquid is just covering the bottom of the pot. Take out the turkey meat and pull off the meat from the bones. Reserve the meat and discard the bones. Add about 3 cups of stock or water and a tablespoon of doenjang (된장; fermented bean paste or miso) and 2 tablespoons of gochujang (고추장; Korean hot pepper paste). Bring up to a boil. Add back the turkey meat, a tablespoon of grated ginger and a seeded, sliced jalapeno. Simmer over low heat for about an hour until the meat is tender and the liquid is reduced and thickened to your desired consistency. Mix in enoki mushrooms (팽이버섯; paeng e beo seot) and chopped scallions right before removing from heat. Salt is not necessary because there is enough in gochujang and doenjang.
Warm up wonton wrappers over low heat just until soft and turning translucent on a pan coated lightly with oil. Make sure to shape them like shells as the wrappers tend to get crispy soon after taking off from heat.
The recipe is purely based on the available items in my refrigerator. As with recipes in general, it is up for revision based on what you have in your own refrigerator.
* I wanted to test it for myself what I heard about leftover soju and bekseju. Usually, these can’t be saved for later because they go flat once opened. One way to resolve this is to freeze the leftover then defrost it in the refrigerator before drinking it again. And now I know that at least for bekseju, it works.
The first full moon day (정월대보름; jeong wol dae bo reum or dae bo reum) of the year by lunar calendar, which is February 28th this year, is recognized as one of the five traditional Korean holidays. Yet maybe because it comes so soon after the double celebrations of the new year, or the daeboreum activities such as jwi bul nori (쥐불놀이) happen in big open fields (plus playing with fire was never part of my family tradition), it became a healthy eating day for my family – which wasn’t too different from other days. As a kid, daeboreum food was not exactly the most exciting part. My sister had fun cracking shelled walnuts with her nutcracker that she got as a Christmas gift for about 5 walnuts, then it was time to move on to more exciting things in life. Some of the traditional daeboreum food include:
5 grains and beans rice (오곡밥; oh gok bap) – usually made with glutinous rice, red beans, black beans, millet, and sorghum, +/- your favorite/not-so-favorite grains and beans.
Assortment of vegetables (나물; na mul) – traditionally this is the day to clean out the dried vegetables stored for the winter.
Glutinous rice flavored with chestnuts, dates, pine nuts and brown sugar (약식; yak shik or yak sik)
Nuts with hard shells – wishing for no skin problems and a healthy set of teeth in the new year by cracking the nuts with teeth, a tradition called bu reum (부럼)
Chilled rice wine in the early morning – wishing for hearing well, or hearing only good news in the new year, a tradition called gui bal gi sul (귀밝이술)
I’ve become more appreciative of the seemingly simple daeboreum food because each element in one bowl and one plate requires careful preparation of its own. With 5 or more grains and beans, they cannot be just mixed together and left alone to be cooked in a rice cooker, which will result in undercooked beans and porridge-like rice and a whole range of textures in-between. A pressure cooker simplifies a few steps, but beans still need to be pre-soaked. Dried vegetables require soaking in water and cooking separately to bring out the flavors of their own. All the effort results in deceivingly simple, clean-tasting dishes.
In recent years, my own celebration of daeboreum has been limited to looking for the full moon at night. Something that seems to capture more of the spirit of daeboreum is an oven baked rice cake commonly known as LA chap ssal tteok (LA 찹쌀떡). For a while, every time I made this, I added more and more beans, nuts, and dried fruits, using the base batter to hold everything together. Right out of the oven, the edges are crispy and the inside is sticky-soft. Once it’s cooled to room temperature, I cut it into smaller pieces, wrap them in plastic, and keep them in the freezer. Then I take one with me when I know I’ll have a long day out – it thaws nicely and tastes just like sticky tteok as it should (without the crispiness) in a couple of hours. It’s filling and loaded with energy boosting ingredients – ohgokbap and bureum in one, a tteok version of trail mix and energy bars. For these reasons, I have re-named my version as energy tteok.
The receipe below makes one block of about 11″x7″x1″ (about 28x18x2.5cm). If you make this for the crispiness of oven-baked tteok and plan to finish it all right after baking, you can spread it on a cookie sheet pan to maximize the crust part.
Here is how you can start making your own energy tteok.
Dry Base ingredients) 2 Cups (C) glutinous rice flour (찹쌀가루; chap ssal ga ru, mochiko or sweet rice flour), 1 teaspoon (ts) baking powder, 1/2 ts salt, 2 Tablespoon (TBSP) sugar –> mix well.
Additions) 1/4 C dried plums, 1/2 C dried cranberries, 1/2 C toasted pecans, 1/4 C toasted sunflower seeds, 2 C boiled, drained chickpeas
1. Pre-heat the oven to 350F/180C. * Grease a baking pan. * Line the pan with greased parchment paper. *This is the most important step. Without the greased lining, you will get tteok stuck to the pan. You lose most of tteok and the pan is a pain to clean up. Believe me, I know this part too well.
2. Mix dry ingredients and wet ingredients together. The consistency should be pretty thick, yet still runny enough to pour into the pan.
3. Fold in dried fruits, nuts, then beans separately, in the order of sturdy to soft ingredients.
4. Bake for 60-70 minutes or until the top becomes golden and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
5. Cool to room temperature before cutting. Wrap individual pieces in plastic and freeze for longer storage.
Additions above – variety and ratio – are a suggestion and my favorite combination these days. I’ve also used kidney beans, black beans, toasted walnuts, almonds, dried dates, dried apricots… Just make sure beans are cooked before folding into the base batter. Also, fold in from the sturdiest ingredients (usually dried fruits) to the softest (cooked beans).
