Frijolemole - A Butter Bean Dip Recipe for Whomoose Fans

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

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.