Your Prog Chef: CLIVE MITTEN (C:LIVE COLLECTIVE, TWELFTH NIGHT)

On the menu: Kings And (Green) Beans

“I’ve been cooking for as long as I can remember; I got my Scouts cookery badge aged 12 for a boringly benign pilaf. About 30 years ago, I stopped following recipes and went ‘freestyle’ in my cooking, using cookery books for inspiration, rather than instruction. Now I grow my own organic vegetables and chillies, and use a lot of spices in my food at any time of day. I like to cook dishes from around the world, using lots of different international ingredients, mixing up ideas from other countries and cultures in the same meal.

“These gujarati-style green beans are based on a classic south Indian recipe I found in the late 1980s that’s stayed with me. My adaptation will feature in my new cookery book, which will include my favourite recipes, my version of the story of Twelfth Night, and the music I’ve written and re-written over the years. Cooking and making music, my two big things, follow more or less the same process: they both involve blending flavours or sounds and reworking the results into new forms. That’s the real fun part.”

Ingredients

(serves 4, as a side dish)

450g fresh green beans, 2 tbsp vegetable oil, 1 tbsp whole black mustard seeds, 6 garlic cloves, 1-2 fresh red chillies, 1 tsp kalonji (aka Nigella seeds), ½ tsp salt, 1 tsp sugar, freshly ground black pepper, fresh coriander leaves.

Preparation

“Peel and slice the garlic cloves and finely chop the chillies, then trim and cut the green beans into 3-4 cm lengths. Heat the oil in a frying pan over a medium-high flame. Once the oil is hot, chuck in the mustard seeds. when the seeds begin to pop, add the garlic. Stir for a few seconds. Lob the chillies in, stir and reduce the heat to medium-low. Add the green beans, kalonji, salt, and sugar. Stir and cook the beans and spices for 6-8 minutes until the beans have brown flecks. Mix in the black pepper and add the coriander.

“This makes a great side for a curry or as an unexpected accompaniment to your Sunday roast. Other green vegetables work too — you can even try this with sliced sprouts to liven up Christmas dinner!”