Seasonal local food recipe No. 303 – Red dragon pie
This is a favourite, well-loved recipe from Sarah Brown’s Vegetarian Kitchen which I have been making for the past 30 years, I will be serving it with the curly kale from this week’s veg box. It gets its name from the Chinese name for aduki beans – red dragon beans.
Serves 4
Preparation time: 1 hour 10 minutes
Cooking time: 35-40 minutes
Ingredients
110 g aduki beans
50 g brown rice
1 Tbsp oil
1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
225 g carrots, scrubbed and diced
1-2 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp tomato puree
1 tsp mixed herbs
275 ml aduki bean stock
salt and freshly ground black pepper
450 g potatoes, peeled
25 g butter
Method
Soak the aduki beans overnight or steep them in boiling water for an hour. Drain and rinse, then bring them to the boil in fresh water along with the rice and cook for 50 minutes, until the beans are tender and the rice is fairly soft. Drain, reserving the stock.
Meanwhile, heat the oil in a saucepan and fry the onion for 5 minutes. Add the carrots and cook for 2-3 minutes before adding the cooked beans and rice. Mix the soy sauce, tomato puree and herbs with the stock and pour over the bean and vegetable mixture. Bring to the boil and simmer for 20 minutes, so that the flavours are well blended. Season to taste. Add a little more liquid if necessary so that the final mixture is moist.
Transfer into a greased 1.5 litre casserole. Whilst the bean and vegetable mixture is cooking , boil the potatoes until soft and mash them with the butter. Season well and spread the mashed potato over the beans and vegetables. Place in a preheated oven 180°C/Gas mark 4 and bake for 35-40 minutes until the potato is crisp and brown.