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Frijolemole - A Butter Bean Dip Recipe for Whomoose Fans

Butter Bean Dip aka Frijolemole


Last year I somehow managed to wangle an invitation to the Waitrose Summer Party. All the greats in the food world were meant to be in attendance, but the main attraction for me were the hosts (and Waitrose ambassadors) - Delia Smith and Heston Blumenthal.

I was hoping to meet Heston so I could give him a good poke, but I wanted to meet Delia purely to engineer a situation where I could get her to say the word "hummus".

Because in case you didn't know already, the First Lady of Norwich has a tendency to pronounce it "Who-Moose".

To be fair, apparently that is the correct way to say hummus or houmous, but it still makes me snigger when I hear her say it - in the same childish way that it makes me smile when a non-French person calls Paris "Paree".

Anyway, Heston and Delia didn't actually turn up, so I spent my time standing next to a very tall man who'd also been looking forward to meeting them. Wie schade.



Anyway, hummus or who-moose is one of my husband's all-time favourite things to eat - in fact the other day when a group of us ended up in Tas, Waterloo stalking two fake celebs and one real one, he spent the whole meal chanting "hummus" at me (this is mostly true).

So feeling like having a light dinner for once, I fully intended to make him some home-made hummus (though with crisps rather than crudites for dipping - come on), but then found that my jar of tahini paste had gone a bit rancid.

Necessity being the mother of etc, I decided instead to take the elements of a beloved Burmese stir-fry and pretty much mash them together into a frijolemole, which basically means "bean purée".

Be thankful that I just about managed not to call this post Holy Frijole Mole, unlike countless other people. A little tip though - don't Google it the other way round ie "mole frijole". You will regret this.

Incidentally, Delia does a Frijole Mole recipe.

Butter Bean Dip aka Frijolemole




Butter Bean Dip aka Frijolemole
Serves 4 as a snack

  • 1 can of butter beans
  • 1 tbsp crispy fried onion bits
  • 1 tbsp groundnut oil or other flavourless oil
  • 1 tsp sesame oil
  • 1 tsp fish sauce
  • 1/2 lemon or 1 tbsp lemon juice
  • Dash of light soy sauce
  • 1 tsp chilli flakes (optional)
  • Salt and white pepper to taste

Mash all the ingredients together in a pestle and mortar or with a potato masher (should be soft enough) until the beans are broken down. Then mix with a fork to ensure the flavours are blended. Add a little more groundnut oil if it's difficult to work.

Scoop the dip into a bowl, sprinkle with more crispy onions if you like and devour immediately with carrot sticks, celery, cucumber, nachos or crisps.

This would work equally well with cannellini beans, and Celia Brooks-Brown does a lovely sounding version with frozen broad beans.

Comments

Roisin Muldoon said…
Thanks for the recipe! I bought some frijolemole from Tesco recently, entirely because the name made me laugh. I'll be making this, because I enjoyed the supermarket one - this will have the added delicious taste of smugness that I made it myself!
Obviously the first thing I did on reading this is google mole frijole. I am shocked, stunned and appalled. You should never have given me the idea - if I end up with post-traumatic stress disorder, you will be getting the psychiatrist bills.

And is that a matroyshka doll dip holder? If it is, please tell me you have a set of them, so you can line them up in descending size order with different dips in. That would be brilliant.
Suz said…
That sounds wonderful. :) Now I know what to do with all those butter beans I have in the cupboard. Thank you!
Suz said…
Okay, so now I've googled mole frijole too. Why did I do that?!
Guess what I just googled too. Bad Mimi for putting the idea out there.

Delia saying bechamel makes me giggle, although I cannot find a video of it.

Love dips, and this one counts towards your 5 a day. Positively good for you to boot.
chumbles said…
I am normally very good at resisting the obvious, but "tossing the salad" - wow, let someone anywhere near there with salad servers? But, joking apart. I have a suspicion that the cannellini bean version will be brilliant. And dammit I do say Paree to a frenchman/woman; that seems a bit harsh... we don't pronounce the s on the end of Calais, so it seems slightly picky... oh dammit again, it's not worth falling out with my favourite blogger...
Michelle said…
Ah b*****!!! MiMi... I will never get over that now, you terrible terrible person :-))

Just for revenge though - don't ever google dragon butter :-)
Ah, excellent stuff- despite being a big hummous fan I've only really discovered other bean dips/purees in the past few years. I would like more info about your russian doll dip dish too please!
meemalee said…
@Roisin Muldoon - I just found out that food writer Fiona Beckett posted about that very same Tesco dip TODAY! Weird.

@Gin and Crumpets - Actually it's from a set of Matryoshka dry food measuring cups by Fred - coolest thing I got from my trip to the US. But you can get them here too.

@Suzler - Butter beans are godly.

@Fuss Free Flavour - I love the pumpkin dip you did! Oh, and listening to the video again, Delia says sesame like "sesamay". Amazing.

@chumbles - I'm your "favourite blogger"? Awww, thanks! Wanna email taste@quadrille.co.uk and say the same thing? :^D

@Michelle Peter-Jones - Must ... not ... google... Must ... resist... EWWWWW - that's much worse than mine.

@The Fastest Indian - Dip me up baby! Re matryoshka - see my reply to Gin and Crumpets.
Food Urchin said…
You know I like to go completely off kilter sometimes MiMi and so I was just thinking wouldn't it be great if SFA re-recorded this but with FRIJOLEMOLE in the chorus instead - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGdpBZOv5gU

Love frijolemole btw
The Grubworm said…
Gah, damn you all, I am having to resist googling all matter of "mole frijole" type terms now. I am assuming they are NSFW judging by the responses... But the curiosity is killing me.

Love the recipe MiMi, I've done something similar with cannelini beans, but not with the fish/soy sauce etc. Instead I used peanut butter (I'm not as inventive as you) in a bid to get something vaguely resembling my fave dip for dinner. It wasn't bad, but it definitely wasn't who-mousse. Heh.

BTW, do you have a phonetic spelling for Frijolemole?
The Grubworm said…
Nope. Couldn't resist. I googled "mole frijole". It was, ummm, interesting. Although I did notice that this post comes in at number two in the ranking. I wonder what key words people will be using to find it - could be funny.
Unknown said…
nice little dip... Delia is god as far as i'm concerned so she can pronounce it how-mouse and i'd believe her!... off to purchase some butterbeans !
meemalee said…
@Food Urchin - Ha, yes :)

@The Grubworm - Not so inventive - like I said, I just did a spin on a Burmese dish. I think it's pronounced "Free Holay Molay".

@Dom at Belleau Kitchen - Don't forget the sesam-ay :)
It might have been Matt Damon? He could have been trying to recreate the scene from Bourne Supremacy/Ultimatum in Waterloo station? Definitely NOT Harry Hill though.

Now you come to mention it Delia does say Who-Moose. Possibly a list of famously mispronounced ingredients and dishes might make an amusing future post?! I can contribute my grandmother's "brockle-eye" and "Ferrari-Row-Cher" to the pile.

Wouldn't have known that the hell frijimole was, I thought it was flavoured milk for kids until now.
Lisa Cookwitch said…
Delia saying many things can be amusing. Balsamic was baSALLmic for a long while. Bechamel was, I think, BAYSHamel. Love her to bits but at times...

And yes, I did google that. Oh dear.
meemalee said…
@Sarah, Maison Cupcake - Brockle-eye is brilliant!

Never mind Matt Damon though, there was another guy at his table that looked exactly like Matt Smith (the new Doctor Who) but with a massive beard. I thought I was being fanciful but then in the Doctor Who Confidential there he was with a massive beard ...

@Lisa - BasALLmic? Hehehe :)
chumbles said…
The one mispronunciation that I hate is Tumeric, the spice discovered by archeologists digging up ancient monuments! ter-cha!
Michelle said…
LOL, sorry for that Mimi! I got that one from a den of iniquity called Mumsnet :-))
This sound easy enough even for me to manage (and in addition I can imagine it being delicious). Yum!
I have never even looked at Delia's recipe, I think she is annoying somehow.
meemalee said…
@chumbles I think "tumeric" is how the US says it - like "erbs", "carmel" and "aluminum".

@Michelle Peters-Jones - I have heard of this Mumsnet. I fear it.

@Ute of Hungry in London - Very easy, Sarah from Bray's Cottage whipped it up in no time last night :)
Thanks for a great looking recipe! My husband looked at it with me and, apparently, I'm fixing this this week. Can't wait to try it!
Must....Not....Google....well, phooey! It HAD to be done!