There’s been something in the air this week that seems to have everyone’s energy all out of kilter. One of the numerous reasons that we three witches decided to assemble this coven, was partly to let us expound some of the excess energy that is normally taken up with chanting the entirety of the Strokes first album at each other over remnant -strewn dinner tables*. Another is that sometimes everything seems to get a bit moody blues and all you want to do is hug your best mates, and talk about how the reason that you are in a funk is definitely because of the moon and it’s positioning on your personal cosmic plane.
This week, has been one of those aforementioned weeks, a week where we’ve all needed something slow and comforting. Emily has been stomping out the cobwebs, Bex has had her hands in the dirt ala Dimmock and I’ve been watching a large amount of videos on Bon Appetit about how to make the perfect pot of beans.
The below newsletter is our personal version of the kind of soothe you only get post legume – be that borlotti, kidney or old faithful Heinz. Ibrahim Mukhayer shares his recipe for Fuul, a comforting dish of nourishing fava beans; which we hope that, if your week has also been pulled awry by the New Moon in Gemini, serves as your very own hug on a plate.
Bisous,
Josie, Emily, Rebecca
*Hit me up for a video of Bex and Emily getting very into Weezer on my couch pre lockdown life.
Recommended Pairing -
Not a drink this week, but a song.
I’ll be honest guys, I’m experiencing extreme burnout this week. Just as beans contain truly amazing amounts of stored energy; as do I. While we all know beans are a great source of energy, we also know the post-bean-consumption-slump is REAL. Don’t lie and tell me you’ve never eaten a huge bowl of daal and ended up lying prostrate with your trousers unbuttoned on the couch. That’s me, mentally, all this week. The only thing that’s gotten me out of the slump is listening to some high energy faves from my teen years. I recommend this song (or any Pixies song tbh) be played right after you’ve eaten the beans, passed through the blissed-out collapse phase, and are ready to get back up and on it.
Instructions: Put it on, get some shoes on (even if you’re inside) and dance around, scream* and proper stomp on the floor. Has to be done.
*screaming non-negotiable
Fuul of Beans
Words: Ibrahim Mukhayer
Photos: Sophie Davidson
There is no more simple and homely food than fuul. Made using sun-dried fava beans, this protein rich vegetarian dish is an Arabic-speaking, regional obsession. In the Northern Sudanese tradition, fuul is evocative of the cosiest moments of domesticity and communality. The earthy warm flavours of the fava and sesame, form a good base to bring out the zingy flavours of the garnishes; the soft texture can enhance any kind of crunch you want to combine with it. Try out this recipe and you might just find a new satisfying comfort food, which summons that warm fuzzy feeling, normally found in a combination of blankets, sofas and hot-chocolate.
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Serves 3-4 people
2 tins of plain fava beans in water
300ml water
1 diced red onion
2 diced tomato
3 tablespoons Cold Pressed Sesame oil
(Available from most Mediterranean stores. Be careful not to get toasted sesame oil)
2 tsp ground cumin
(greener the better)
30g feta cheese
½ lime (squeezed)
• Empty the beans with the water into a small saucepan, along with the extra water and bring to the boil vigorously.
• As the water gets going, put in half the diced onion, two teaspoons of the cumin and one tablespoon of the sesame oil. Keep at a boil for 8-10 minutes.
• As the water starts to sputter and the beans get softer, crush a few beans with the back of a wooden spoon to thicken the dish up. Add more water if it is looking dry.
• When the beans have softened you can drop the tomato in and turn the heat down to a simmer, for another 5 minutes. You want to make sure the tomato maintains body and does not melt into the sauce.
• Kill the heat, season to taste and add a splash of lime. The rest is garnish.
• Pour the beans in a large flat-bottomed bowl and garnish with the remainder of the onion, crumbled feta cheese and the remaining cumin, sesame oil and lime.
• Serve with warmed bread. Preferably flat- As long as you can tear it up and use it as a shovel to get the beans into your mouth you’re laughing.
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In Sudan, fuul is a twenty-four hour a day industry. Fuul is eaten for any meal and the supply needs to be endless. Outside every corner shops large pressure cookers smoke and steam like factories. These large aluminium cookers, called gidra, are filled with the dried fava beans, water and a few dried dates. The gidra are sealed and lowered into slow-burning oven pits and left to boil until ready. When the time comes the call goes out and it is the responsibility of the youngest boy in every household to head out and collect the family’s portion. For a home cook I would always suggest buying the beans canned, merely for convenience and probable lack of a Gidra/obedient child.
My favourite time to eat fuul is in the evening as a communal meal. Fuul time in Sudan is that most relaxed point of the day, when everyone is washed and in their comfortable house-clothes. The fuul is served in a large bowl at the centre of an aluminium tray with salad, bread and other small dishes. The eaters position themselves around the tray and the bread is broken. As a matter of etiquette, one must take their share of the communal plate, from the point immediately in front of one’s self; your supply will not dwindle too far though - Sudanese hospitality would not allow it.
In each household, variations of fuul are made according to personal taste. Apart from the beans themselves, every other ingredient is up for discussion in its construction. One popular Sudanese variation includes crumbling freshly fried taamia (falafel) as a garnish which can easily substitute the fresh onion crunch from my recipe. To the north of Sudan, Egyptian variations use tahini as an alternative to just sesame oil in the dish, as well as adding chickpeas to the general constitution. Varied forms of the dish are popular throughout the Arab-speaking world, from Morocco to Northern Syria. The biggest differences in flavour comes from the use of olive oil, especially in the levantine. To me, olive oil radically diverts the flavour away from my Sudanese version. I would stress trying to source cold pressed sesame oil when trying this.
Due to a nice side effect of eating it, fuul has earned the nickname ‘Sudanese Valium’. The high protein content is generally responsible for the name and leaves you blissed out for a while after eating. Fuul is my go-to medication at the end of a stressful day. The universal playground maxim that links beans to healthy hearts and well-warmed toilet seats also applies here.
Other things we’ve enjoyed this week:
Jessie Wainwright - A real lesson in not giving a fuck, she spent her golden years spreading ‘weed’* seeds around Northamptonshire. This interview with her is just fantastic; I can’t wait to be this lady.
GROW kid - Kids ‘diggin’ germination. Lovely clip of the youth appreciating sprout life. Follow GROW’s instagram for inspiring updates on their quest to educate in all things green.
Oprah with massive fucking cabbage - Look under your seat! YOU get a cabbage! Imagining Oprah elbow deep in a bowl of shredded cabbage almost brings a tear to my eye.
How To Be An Anticapitalist In The 21st Century - essential reading. ½ price from Verso until the end of May. We’ve just joined an anti-capitalist reading group, message us if you want to join and we can pass on the details.
*Marigold do not endorse the notion of ‘weed’ vs ‘not weed’.
Want some seeds?
Lockdown has been full of ideas for how to spend your free time; some of this seems to forget the limitations of individuals’ circumstances and income. Who Sophie Ellis Bextor thinks she’s helping with her Friday night ‘disco,’ in which she dolls up complete with a novelty headband and an array of her disinterested children; is out for the jury. It only seems to serve as an advertisement for how ‘quirky’ her sense of style in her kitchen is.
Sunday supplements bolster an idea of what the middle classes are up to; Nigel Slater simpering over his Roses or Raymond Blanc photographed in his bijoux Marylebone courtyard, tending to 16 rare types of herb. Perhaps months in a bizarre new routine of sporadically leaving the house, has entrenched a feeling of bitterness towards lifestyle content and social media, platforms which predominantly propel serene beauty and exclude the mundane. This said let the aforementioned be swiftly rebutted by an offer to push upon you my own mechanism for staying sane in this new reality- seeds.
Hands up I’m equipped with a garden, a verdant luxury I’m blessed to potter in, but every window sill with available sunlight, is now also crammed with seed trays. Cress, sorrel, rocket and chilli’s inside. Carrots, sunflowers and beets outside.
If you’d like some seeds email us with your available space and we will post you some appropriate pods. If that seems like too much, sprout some dried beans in a sunny kitchen spot. Waiting for a small green sprout to appear and flourish, helps mark the passing of the current elastic time; and not to get too carried away, nourishes the soul when so much at the moment is fraught and uncertain.