About this recipe
Batar da'an is one of Timor-Leste's most everyday and beloved dishes, and its name says what it is: batar is corn (maize) in Tetum, and the dish is essentially cooked corn simmered with beans and pumpkin into a hearty, plant-based stew. It is honest, filling home food, built from the staples of the Timorese garden — corn, several kinds of bean, pumpkin or squash, and often a handful of leafy greens or cassava leaf — in a light broth. It is eaten across the country with rice or on its own, and it stands as a good emblem of a corn-centred cuisine. This book presents a common form and logs the regional variations and the Tetum name for verification; it is naturally vegan and gluten-free.
Recipe facts
- Yield
- 4 to 6 servings
- Prep
- 20 minutes
- Cook
- 40 minutes (plus bean soaking)
- Total
- 60 minutes
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Spice
- Mild
Allergens Plant-based: corn, beans, pumpkin and greens. Naturally vegan, dairy-free and gluten-free. Contains legumes. If cassava or cassava leaf is added, see the food-safety guidance. Suitable for most diets.
Development draft. This is an untested development recipe from the cookbook project. It has not been kitchen-tested, and the quantities and timings are the author’s working draft rather than a verified result.
Ingredients
The stew
- 1 cup (185 g) dried red kidney beans, soaked overnight (or 2 1/2 cups cooked/canned)
- 2 cups fresh or frozen corn kernels (from about 3 ears)
- 3 cups pumpkin or kabocha squash, peeled and cut into chunks
- 1 cup green (long) beans or mung beans, cut into 2 in (5 cm) lengths
- 1 onion, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 6 cups (1.4 L) water or light vegetable stock
- 2 cups leafy greens (pumpkin tips, water spinach or, if used, cassava leaf; see food-safety)
- 1 tbsp (15 ml) neutral oil
- Salt and pepper, to taste
To serve (optional)
- Steamed rice
- Fresh chilli-lime-tomato relish (budu)
Equipment
- Large pot or Dutch oven
- Bowl for soaking beans
Method
- If using dried kidney beans: drain the soaked beans, cover with fresh water, bring to a boil and boil hard for at least 10 minutes, then simmer until nearly tender, 45 to 60 minutes; drain. (Skip if using cooked or canned beans.)
- Heat the oil in the pot and soften the onion and garlic over medium heat, 5 minutes.
- Add the water or stock, the corn, pumpkin, green beans and the cooked kidney beans. Bring to a simmer and cook until the pumpkin and beans are tender, 20 to 30 minutes.
- Lightly mash a little of the pumpkin against the side of the pot to thicken the broth if you like a heartier stew.
- Stir in the leafy greens and cook just until wilted, a few minutes.
- Season well with salt and pepper. The stew should be brothy but hearty, sweet from the corn and pumpkin and savoury from the beans.
- Serve hot on its own or with rice, and a spoon of fresh chilli-lime-tomato relish for those who want heat.
From the foundations
The book pairs this recipe with the following, from the sauces, sambals and pastes that open the collection.
The Complete Edition
Batar Da'an (Corn & Pumpkin Stew) sits in the Timor-Leste chapter
The book carries this recipe in full alongside the rest of the Timor-Leste chapter, the pastes and dips it is built on, and the twenty-seven pantry studies that open the collection.
In review with Amazon KDP
Both editions have been submitted to Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing and are currently in review. Submitted prices are $9.99 for the kindle edition and $49.99 for the paperback. Neither is on sale yet, and prices are as submitted rather than final.