Last Night's Dinner 19

Chickpea and Chard Polpette with two sauces

This weekend was the second anniversary of Catherine is Under Pressure, so I’d just like to say thank you to everyone who has subscribed. Whether you have been here since the beginning or are a recent joiner, whether or not you are a paid subscriber - I really appreciate you being here and I hope you are getting plenty out of these posts. I have a lot coming up for you in the next month. I am now able to spend longer in the kitchen - this is a headspace thing as much as physical! - and I am ready to tackle some of the experiments I have had to put on hold. Some of these posts will be based on your questions, so watch this space! Finally, these Last Night’s Dinner posts are usually for paid subscribers - I have left this one open access just this once with a reminder to anyone thinking about upgrading that there is currently an anniversary offer on and that every 10th annual subscriber receives a copy of one of my books.

Today’s recipe is really 2 recipes using a pressure cooker - the tomato sauce is a useful one and you can swap out the harissa for any chilli sauce you like. This was one to please Lilly who prefers vegetarian food, much to the horror of my carnivorous son who feels every meal without meat is a wasted opportunity. So he is reluctant to praise anything meatless, but he did like these!

These polpette are vegetarian but can be vegan. I was tempted to put cheese in them, but decided against and instead offered cheese as a topping. If you want to make them vegan, you can do so by using a little concentrated and whipped aquafaba in place of the egg. To do this, take a ladleful of chickpea cooking liquor, reduce it by half and then whisk until starting to thicken. You will need around 50ml. It will help bind and improve the texture. Both egg/aquafaba and breadcrumbs stop the polpette from being too dense. You can also add 1/2 tsp baking powder to lighten.

You don’t have to us the bulgar wheat in this recipe - I added some because I thought it would add texture and because I was cooking the chard for a similar time anyway. But you can use any other grain or just miss it out completely.

I use chard, because it is such a good all year round crop. It is a rare year I don’t have any growing in the garden as it is incredibly low maintenance and one single plant will give and give, until it eventually bolts - and even then you can cut it back and the leaves will regrow. But you could use kale or spinach or just plenty of herbs instead.

If you need a reminder on how to cook chickpeas in the pressure cooker, you can take a look at this post:

Although I have now reduced the post soaking pressure cooking time to just 1 minute + 45 minutes off the heat (souped up hay box!). OR soaked and cooked for 8 minutes, natural release.

Chickpea and Chard Polpette

The quantities here are double what I would normally do, but these recipes are excellent ones for batch cooking and making vegetarian polpette are a bit of a faff. So it makes sense to make twice as much without much extra outlay of time and freeze half. I talk about open freezing below, but another option is to cook them all and keep in the fridge for snacking on. Snacks are essential in my house - teenage boys seem to need a full meal when they get home, 3-4 hours before we eat dinner.

1 tbsp olive oil, plus more for frying

1 small onion or shallot, very finely chopped

100g coarse/medium bulgar wheat (optional)

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground allspice

1/4 tsp ground cardamom

150g chard, leaves only (use the stems for something else, see above), or similar greens

500g cooked chickpeas

2 garlic cloves, crushed or grated

zest and juice of 1 smallish lemon

A small bunch of parsley, roughly chopped

1 tsp dried mint

2 tsp tamarind paste (I used the Natco concentrated one)

1 egg

100g breadcrumbs

1/2 tsp baking powder (optional)

First cook the bulgar wheat and chard. Heat your pressure cooker and add the oil. Add the onion or shallot for a couple of minutes, then stir in the bulgar wheat and spices. Season with salt and pepper, then add 200ml water. Place the chard leaves on top. Close the lid and bring up to high pressure. Cook for 2 minutes, then remove from the heat and leave to drop naturally.

Remove the chard from the cooker. When it is cool enough to handle, roughly chop and squeeze out any excess liquid. If there is any remaining liquid with the bulgar wheat, leave on a low heat, covered with a teatowel and the pressure cooker lid to evaporate it off. Leave to cool.

Put the chickpeas into a food processor and pulse until well broken down. Add the garlic, lemon juice and zest along with the chard and parsley and blitz until the mixture has combined into a pleasingly fresh green.

Transfer to a bowl and stir in the tamarind, egg, bulgar wheat, breadcrumbs and baking powder. Season well. Mix thoroughly - it should be fairly stiff. Shape into balls. I use a small ice cream scoop - it gets me balls of around 30-35g each and this amount of mixture will make roughly 40.

Put them on baking trays and chill well - either in the fridge until you are ready to cook them, or in the freezer for a quicker result, or conversely to store for a later date. When they have frozen solid, transfer to a bag or container.

To cook the polpette, see below.

uncooked and open frozen

Tomato Harissa Sauce:

2 tbsp olive oil

2 red onions, finely chopped

1 large/2 small romano peppers, finely chopped

1 stick celery, finely chopped

3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1/2 tsp cinnamon

2 tbsp finely chopped coriander stems (I keep these in the freezer)

2 tbsp finely chopped parsley stems

2 tbsp harissa paste (I like the smoked Belazu one)

2 x tins chopped tomatoes

1 tsp honey (optional)

Heat your pressure cooker and add the olive oil. When it is hot, add the red onions, peppers and celery. Saute for a few minutes until they have started to give out some steam, then stir in the garlic, cinnamon, herbs and harissa paste. Stir for a minute or two, then pour in the chopped tomatoes. Rinse out the tins with around 100ml water and add this to the cooker too. Season with salt and pepper.

Make sure the base of your cooker is deglazed, then close the lid. Bring up to high pressure, then adjust the heat so it is just high enough to maintain the pressure and cook for 10 minutes. Fast release. Taste and add if the tomatoes are a bit on the acidic side (pressure cooking does help reduce this), stir in some honey.

Yogurt and Tahini Sauce

250ml thick yogurt

1 tbsp tahini

1 tsp dried mint

2 tbsp coriander and parsley stems, finely chopped

1/2 tsp honey

A squeeze of lemon juice

Mix everything together and season with salt and pepper. Taste and adjust as you like.

To Cook the Polpette

So many options!

The easiest way to do this is to fry/braise. I sear them on one side in plenty of olive oil - I usually use a frying pan for this, a well seasoned spun iron one, I don’t use non stick. Then I drop them into the tomato sauce, seared side up, bring back up to high pressure and leave to drop pressure naturally.

You can fry/braise without the sauce in the pressure cooker. Make sure you heat your pressure cooker well before adding oil. The oil should glide pleasingly across the base. Add the polpette - as many as you can without crowding the pan. Sear on one side and don’t flip over until they are happy to come away with just the tiniest bit of encouragement. Add a splash of water, bring up to high pressure and remove from the heat. Leave to drop pressure naturally. You will find that the underside will have browned and they will be piping hot.

You can arrange them over baking trays, brush with olive oil and bake in a hot oven for 10 minutes. I only do this when I am switching the oven on for something else too.

To serve

I usually serve in the tomato sauce with the yogurt sauce on the side and flatbreads or rice or more bulgar wheat. Sometimes when I have cooked them in the sauce, I will sprinkle with cheese and either melt the cheese over a low heat, or put under the grill. Remember if you do put your pressure cooker under the grill, make sure you wrap the handles with foil.

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