I have not written much about GMOs [genetically modified organisms] because… because I did not want to come across as some conspiracy theorist who has an axe to grind against ‘Frankenfoods’.
The truth is, I do not believe genetic engineering is inherently ‘wrong’ or ‘evil’. Like any branch of science, genetic research has the potential to save lives. But…
But the sneaky introduction of genetically modified organisms into our food chain was not the solution to some dire ‘need’. There is nothing wrong with the food we currently have. So why ‘fix’ it? The answer is to make money.
Again, making money is not inherently ‘wrong’ or ‘evil’. But… when the imperative to make money results in :
1. Buying legislators to ensure GM food does NOT have to go through the same rigorous, and expensive testing as drugs, and
2. Denies consumers both knowledge and choice
then that is morally wrong, and an abuse of the technology.
But don’t take my word for it. Please follow the link below to a post with truly shocking facts and figures.
This video clip explains the importance of seeds, and seed diversity far better than I can.
This is huge, and truly HORRIBLE.
I’ve just learned the EU is trying to pass a new law that would outlaw the selling or trading of heirloom varieties of seeds. If passed, this law would benefit only the multinational seed companies – like Monsanto – while endangering biodiversity and the safety of future food production.
If this is a sign of things to come, we are all at risk, not just the countries of Europe.
Why does any of this matter? The answer is complicated but I’ll try and boil it down to a few key issues.
1. Farmers are currently growing crops based on a few hybrid seed varieties.
2. These hybrid seeds are owned by a few, ginormous, multinational seed companies who own the patents, and have a virtual monopoly on food production.
3. But the multinationals CANNOT own or patent heirloom seeds.
4. There are hundreds, if not thousands of heirloom seeds for each grain or vegetable variety. This means biodiversity. It also means that if anything terrible happens to the commercially grown seeds, we would have these heirloom varieties to fall back on.
5. At the moment, heirloom seeds are kept alive by small farmers around the world, AND BY GARDENERS. We are like a huge, distributed seed bank. We, and the heirloom seeds we keep alive are the backup if anything goes wrong in the mono-culture world of big agriculture.
6. If the EU passes this new law, small farmers, seed-saver organizations and backyard gardeners will no longer be able to buy, or even give away heirloom seeds to friends or neighbours. It will be illegal. And so in a short time these precious seeds would die out.
7. If the multinationals get their way in the EU, they will target some other country next. Perhaps Australia. In time they will make this a global reality. No more heirloom seeds anywhere. No more backup in case of disaster. No more biodiversity. We will literally have all our eggs in one basket and that basket will be owned by the multinationals.
I know some of you will think ‘So what? I don’t buy or eat those old vegies anyway. Why should I care?’
My answer is to look at the potato famine that hit Ireland 200 hundred years ago. At the time, most of the poorest people lived on next to nothing but potatoes. When a potato blight ruined the crops, the poorest people starved.
Now imagine if something similar hit our wheat crops. They are mono-cultures too. Millions and millions of acres of the same crop grown the world over. What would a pandemic amongst our most important food crops do to the Western World? Would McDonalds start serving hamburgers without the bun?
We all believe that things like the potato famine could never happen again because our technology would fix the problem quick smart. Unfortunately this is a comforting fairytale. There are pests and crop diseases still in existence that have been around since agriculture was first invented. Our technology keeps these things in check, but that is all.
Think about it. If technology could fix everything then why are we still using so many pesticides and herbicides?
The truth is that sometimes the only way to ‘fix’ a problem is to start from scratch, using old, primitive seeds that have a natural resistance to the pest or disease. If all those old, unpatentable seeds die out, where are we going to turn in a crisis?
This new law being put forward by the EU may not affect you, or me, or our kids, but sooner or later it will affect humanity as a whole. Something will come along, and it will smash all those big, shiny eggs in our basket. And then an awful lot of people will starve.
This is not science fiction. I wish it were. This is the real world, and we have to stop it from happening. Please do what you can to safeguard our future.
It’s been a while since I wrote a foodie post, despite having promised one, so here is a delicious recipe the Daughter and I discovered just recently. For a change this recipe doesn’t come from my mother, but from a little old Italian cookbook I picked up years ago [* I'll post details of the book at the end]. Some of the details, like how to squeeze sloppy filling into cannelloni shells is all ours.
Shopping list :
1 packet of cannelloni shells. [Or one packet of lasagna sheets].
1 cup of grated parmesan cheese
1 cup of cottage cheese
4 tablespoons Heavy White Sauce [don't worry the recipe is provided and makes a white sauce with no lumps!]
1 egg, beaten
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
salt and pepper
Also plain flour, butter and milk for the white sauce, and
Onions, garlic, tomato paste and fresh tomatoes for the red sauce.
Method
Pre-heat oven to 375F or 180C.
Okay, let’s start with the red sauce as it requires the most cooking. For about 1/2 a kg of tomatoes, peel and chop one medium brown onion and gently saute until translucent and golden brown. Add 2 crushed cloves of garlic and saute for another minute. Add the tomato paste and stir in before adding the chopped, fresh tomatoes. When the tomatoes mush down, add a little extra water and allow to simmer while you make the white sauce.
White Sauce. Place 2 tablespoons of butter in a small saucepan over low heat. When the butter is melted, add flour and mix into a smooth paste. Take the pan away from the heat and immediately stir in 1 cup of milk [cold]. Then add a pinch of salt and white pepper. Place the pan back on the heat and stir until the sauce comes to a gentle boil. Simmer for 1 minute further until the sauce has the consistency of thick cream. Remove from heat.
Keep the red sauce simmering but make sure it doesn’t boil dry!
Cannelloni stuffing. In a large bowl mix together the parmesan, cottage cheese, 4 tablespoons of the white sauce, the egg, nutmeg, and the salt and pepper.
And now for the fun part! Getting the stuffing into the pre-made cannelloni shells was not working with a spoon so we tried an icing bag. That might have worked if we had had a big enough funnel thing but they were all too small. In desperation we took a square of aluminium foil, folded it in half once, and then a second time. With scissors we cut off the tip of the folded point of the foil. Then we opened one ‘leaf’ of the foil and had a disposable piping bag. Cooking origami.
We went through 3 foil piping bags and stuffed about 12 cannelloni shells.
[If you can't find the cannelloni shells you can make your own using lasagna sheets. You will have to dip each sheet into boiling water for a few seconds to soften. Drain and lay flat, placing the filling on the sheet lengthwise. Roll up and seal.]
With the shells stuffed, we lightly buttered a baking dish, spread the rest of the white sauce over the bottom and laid the cannelloni on top. The red sauce we poured over the cannelloni. Then into the oven.
The recipe called for 1/2 an hour in the oven but we left it a bit longer [maybe 45 minutes] so the cannelloni were a little mushy, but the flavour! As a meat-lover, I can honestly say I would eat this meatless cannelloni for breakfast, lunch and dinner!
I know making everything from scratch seems like a lot of work, but if you make things in sequence, the whole thing only takes an hour and the result is well worth the effort.
Bon appetit mes amis!
Meeks
* The Italian Cookbook by Maria Luisa Taglienti, copyright 1955
In my family we always keep to the Hungarian tradition of celebrating Christmas on Christmas Eve rather than on Christmas Day, so we’ve just finished our Christmas Eve dinner, capped by a partial giving of presents, and I’m beat.
This is what I made :
They are called Silvas Gomboc [Plum Dumplings] and are a traditional Hungarian dish. Gomboc are not usually served for Christmas dinner, but I wanted to make something different, and it is The Daughter’s favourite dish, so we were both happy.
Each dumpling has a pitted plum in the middle and the dumpling itself is made from a potato dough. Toasted bread crumbs and cinnamon sugar go on top.
These dumplings were delicious when my Mum used to make them, but this is literally the first time I’ve managed to make a batch as light and yummy as hers! I’m one, happy camper at the moment.
If you’re interested, you can find the recipe here :
I just had a teeny, weeny triumph! That’s why you’re getting another food post instead of my usual deep and meaningful… stuff.
The recipe I didn’t follow calls these sweets, hazelnut crescents and claims they are easy and quick to make. The recipe lies! Every time I’ve made them in the past they’ve turned into small, hard lumps that looked nothing like crescents. They were also a nightmare to shape, leaving my hands feeling sticky and horrible.
So, this time I decided to do things my way and what I ended up with was a batch of light, puffy, chewy, hazelnut meringues. In fact they were so good I’m having to distract myself so I don’t sneak out and have another two or three. Ok, enough with the self congratulations! To work mes amis.
Ingredients
2 egg whites
3/4 cup of caster sugar
150 gms of ground hazelnut.
Method
Pre-heat the oven to 180 C [375F].
Lightly oil two large, flat, baking trays and set aside.
Wash any grease off your hands because if ANY grease gets into the egg whites they will not beat up properly.
Separate the eggs and reserve the yolks for mayonnaise or something. Put the egg whites into a mixing bowl and beat until frothy. Then start adding the caster sugar a bit at a time while you continue beating. I was in a hurry so I only beat the whites until they formed firm peaks.
Remove from the beaters and fold in the ground hazelnut GENTLY.
Next, get two desert spoons. Scoop up about 1/2 a spoonful of the mix with one spoon then ease the mix onto the baking tray with the other spoon. No mess, no fuss! Allow about an inch between each mound as they will puff up and spread out.
Pop into the oven and bake until they rise and go a pale gold. If you press gently with your finger they will feel hard on the outside and still soft on the inside. This is how they should be. I didn’t time it – sorry – but preparation and baking took only 1/2 an hour so that shows how quick it was.
Take the trays out of the oven and allow the puffs to cool on the trays. If you try and get the puffs off while they’re hot they’ll just crumble and fall apart.
Store in an airtight container until they disappear.
The sun is shining and I’m not feeling very cerebral so I’m going to show you some pictures of vegies. I know this will be an instant turn-off to some of you but I’m really excited about my odd kitchen garden even if you aren’t.
First off, let me show you my backyard. And yes, it is huge. I live on 1.6 acres and that amazing view is one reason I love living in this fire-prone fringe suburb. Unfortunately, because this area is fire-prone, one of my top priorities is keeping all that grass nice and short [so that there won't be much to burn should a fire come through]. To do that I’ve opted for some big, four-legged lawn mowers called alpacas.
Now I know I’ve talked about the alpacas before but I may not have mentioned that alpacas adore lush, green, tasty things… like vegies and roses. In fact they like my precious plants far more than they like all that nice grass so I’ve had to fence off the areas where I’ve planted garden beds. I can get into these fenced off areas but I have to open a small section of fencing to do so and that can be a pain if I have to nip out at night to pick a handful of parsley for dinner.
Being an inventive little person I finally realised that my deck would be the perfect place on which to grow some herbs in pots. That was last year.
As you can see from these photos I’ve been much more ambitious this year.
Lettuce, glorious lettuce! There’s all sorts of gourmet lettuce in there as well as some ordinary iceberg lettuces right in the middle. They are all still just babies but the beauty of growing lettuce in a big bowl like this is that you can just snip off a few leaves from each individual plant and still have enough for a fresh salad! And of course the plants just keep on growing.
The next photo shows some more iceberg lettuce in a small pot next to spring onions and radishes in the green pot. Radishes are so quick and easy to grow you could probably get a crop by growing them on a windowsill! They are ready to harvest once you can see those lovely red globes start to break the surface. I love small, tender radishes so once these little plants are eaten I’ll plant some fresh seeds.
And finally some of that parsley I was talking about. From left to right we have celery, parsley [and a few extra radishes], green peas and leek.
Once the frosts go away and spring finally decides to stay for more than just a day, I’ll be planting cherry tomatoes, basil and some hot chillies on the deck as well.
I doubt that I’ll harvest enough produce to save me from having to buy any vegies at all but with the artichokes, parsnip, garlic, dill and rosemary I have planted in one of the fenced off areas I’ll have something fresh for most of the year. -dance-
I watched an episode of Jamie Oliver’s 30 Minute Meals just recently and I was not impressed. The food looked sensational and I’m sure it tasted wonderful too but 30 minutes? Right. For a master chef with everything prepared and ready to go, yes 30 minutes is doable but for you and me? I think not. And dare I say it? I’d hate to have to face all the cleaning up as well.
So for this first, quick meal recipe I’m going to give you a two pot meal with minimum preparation, fuss or mess. I know because I just cooked it for dinner.
Now, being a writer and an imaginative kind of person I pictured myself rushing home from work. Are you with me so far? Good. I think we both know that preparing dinner is not what I’m thinking about. I’m tired, my feet hurt, I want a cup of something, or perhaps a glass of something but I know that duty calls. I open the front door, dump my stuff and on the way to the bedroom I spend 2 seconds turning the oven onto about 180 celsius fan-forced [365 F]. Then I get changed, have a drink, talk to the dog and wind down for a bit.
Once I’m ready to cook the oven should be ready as well. I put about 2 tablespoons of peanut or olive oil in a roasting pan and then I add 6 – 8 free-range chicken thick fillets to the pan. Skin on or off doesn’t matter but I really wouldn’t use breast meat as it dries out very quickly. Next I sprinkle the chicken with some ordinary table salt and a little white pepper. To complete my preparations I slice one small onion and a nice red capsicum [bell pepper] and toss them on top of the chicken. The pan goes into the oven and I’m 1/3 of the way done.
Potatoes are next. I like those little potatoes [called chats here] but you can use whatever you’ve got just cut them into quarters or smaller so they cook quickly. The potatoes go into a pot with just enough water to cover. In goes a bit of salt and on goes the lid.
While the potatoes are cooking I wash some lettuce or water cress [I love the flavour of water cress plus it's full of vitamins and anti-oxidants] and tomatoes [or whatever you have in the fridge and like to eat raw]. While the vegetables drain I make the salad dressing. I pour about 3 tablespoons of olive oil in the salad bowl – it helps if the bowl is still empty - add about the same quantity of vinegar or lemon juice, a pinch of salt and stir. Voila salad dressing is done. Everything except the lettuce can go in the salad dressing right now. Leave the lettuce until you’re ready to serve.
By now the potatoes should be just cooked. Drain. If you used large potatoes cut into smaller pieces the skin may have come off. Discard the bits of loose skin and throw the potatoes in with the chicken. These potatoes won’t go crunchy. Instead they will soak up the pan juices and be delicious!
At this point I [and you] can relax for a bit with that glass of something I promised. In between watching the news on tv and having that drink I’m going to toss the potatoes in the baking dish to make sure they are well covered in the pan juices.
45 minutes after starting to cook dinner is done. AND… I have just one pot and one pan to clean. Not bad if I do say so myself.
Once a week we get takeaway home delivered. It’s my break from cooking and it keeps me sane but the takeaway costs more than the meal I’ve just cooked, isn’t as fresh and healthy and takes about the same length of time to arrive, sometimes longer if they’re busy. I rest my case.
My post today is inspired by a funny little book called Evertaster. I think Evertaster is a children’s book because it reads like a modern day fairytale but behind the light hearted fun there is a subtle message about the food we eat that started me thinking along gastronomic lines. Is margarine as good as butter? Are all sugars the same? Is organic really that different to conventional? And the big one – is genetically modified food really that bad?
I was born in Hungary – a very small country in eastern Europe – and like all Hungarians my mother was passionate about good food. Everything she cooked was made from scratch and she spent a huge part of her life thinking about, buying, preparing, cooking and serving delicious meals. And she was not alone. Most women of her generation did exactly the same thing because there was very little in the way of convenience food and they had the time to prepare food the old fashioned way [they could stay at home while the Husband went out to bring home the bacon].
The western world has changed a great deal since the 1950′s but one of the biggest changes is not the prevalence of computers but the role of women. Nowadays very few men earn enough to support their families on a single wage so the majority of women have to go out to work. When they come home at night dinner is not waiting for them so takeaways, frozen meals and every other brand of convenience food has taken over from the fresh food their parents used to eat. Home cooked meals are generally something they may do on weekends as a ‘treat’.
Please note the words ‘generally’, ‘mostly’ etc. I was extraordinarily lucky in that I could stay home with The Daughter and cook the same kind of meals my mother used to make. Because we ran our own small business I had the option of working from home, a luxury not many women cannot afford. The flip side of this luxury of time was that we lived rather frugal lives – no wide-screen TVs, new cars or expensive holidays [I did say it was a small business]. Nonetheless we were happy and could afford to be foodies because, irony of ironies, fresh food is actually a lot cheaper than processed food… if you have the time to cook it.
The payoff for me is that at 59 I’m not as fashionably thin as I’d like to be but I’m not overweight, I don’t have type II diabetes, my cholesterol levels are near perfect, my blood pressure is dead on normal, my vitamin and mineral levels are great… and I eat pretty much whatever I like. I cook with cream and sour cream, I put real sugar in my coffee and we put real butter on our bread.
According to the pundits my way of cooking should be terribly unhealthy but the truth is that it’s the exact opposite because it’s all fresh and unprocessed.
So what’s wrong with processed foods? Well, for starters most processed foods now contain a great deal of pure, refined fructose. In its natural form, i.e. in fruits and vegetables, fructose [or fruit sugar] is bound to glucose and all the sugars are balanced by vitamins and fibre which means that the body processes the fructose in a healthy way. When fructose is extracted and used in isolation it can only be processed by the liver and this is bad with a capital B because it is linked to obesity, diabetes [type II], high blood pressure etc. This article from Harvard Health gives a good explanation for those interested.
Now a little bit of fructose is probably not that bad but when you realise just how much of it is in all the processed foods we eat then the picture starts to get very scary. You will find fructose in soft drinks, biscuits, cakes, breakfast cereals, bread, ketchup, fruit juices, sauces and even savoury foods. This link will take you to a list of most common sources of fructose. You can see how ubiquitous it has become.
Yet if we accept that fructose makes processed foods dangerous to our health then what exactly can we do about it?
Clearly no-one can turn back the clock. We can’t go back to living the way we did in the 1950s but we can make healthier choices in the food we feed our families. At the very top of the list should be a ban on soft drinks and fruit juices. These two items are very easy to consume in huge quantities. If we stop drinking them, or at least only consume them as ‘treats’ then a big chunk of fructose will be eliminated from our diets.
But what of food? We can’t just stop eating!
Given the pace of the lives we lead convenience foods are here to stay but I’ve noticed that the supermarkets now stock a lot of convenience foods that are not processed to death. I can pick up salads ready to go, organic soups ready to reheat, and even pre-cooked meals that don’t contain too much of the bad stuff. So there are choices now that are ‘better’ than that frozen pizza. All you need to do is become a label reader. Check what goes into your food before you buy it and choose foods that contain less of the things that are bad for you – such as fructose. But wait, there’s more!
Every time I go to the supermarket and end up waiting in a queue at the checkout I browse the magazines and what I’ve noticed is that quite a few of them contain recipes you can cook in minutes. Some magazines are even devoted to ‘fast food’ cooked at home. Why not give one of these ‘fast’ recipes a try?
I haven’t bought any of these magazines myself but starting next week I’m going to begin posting recipes for the meals I make when I’d rather not cook at all. [Yes, I'm a foodie but after 30 years of cooking the glam has worn off and I'd rather write than cook, so trust me, I know quick recipes as well!]
For now though I’ll leave you with a question – do you know what’s in the food you eat? If the answer is no then please, please have a look at the labels on the foods you buy. Just a few, small changes in what you choose to put in your mouth could make a huge difference to how you feel and long term those changes may also stop you from developing one of those horrible lifestyle diseases that are plaguing our affluent world.
As a final word I ask you to consider ADHD. It is a ‘disease’ that seems to be in epidemic proportions amongst young children. Yet what if the answer to ADHD lies not in medication but in restricting the amount of fructose in their diets? This article is scary and so was the horrible video I saw recently of a six year old beauty ‘queen’ who was nothing if not hyper. In the video this tot boasted about the special juice her mother made for her. This ‘juice’ was made from Mountain Dew and… Red Bull. Why? Why would you do that to your own child????
It’s Friday morning in lovely, changeable Melbourne so I thought I’d pile up a few goodies for you to try over the weekend.
First and foremost, a feast for the eyes and ears. Thank you Bluebird Blvd for introducing me to this utterly, completely, totally glorious few minutes of BEAUTY!
Never doubt that there is wonder in the world.
Next, something for the taste buds – spinach sauce and french toast. This is a very Hungarian meal and may not be to everyone’s liking but Mum made it for me all through my childhood and I still make it for The Daughter [and myself].
Spinach sauce
1 large bunch of English spinach
2 cloves of garlic
3 tablespoons of plain [all purpose?] flour
2 tablespoon of Peanut or olive oil
milk
Method
Begin by stripping the spinach leaves off the stalks and washing them AT LEAST 3 times. This is the part I dislike because it takes time and patience but if you don’t get all the minute bits of grit or sand or whatever it is off the spinach leaves your sauce will crunch between your teeth – most unpleasant!
Once the spinach is clean put a small amount of water to boil in the bottom of a pot large enough to hold all the spinach. When the water is boiling throw the spinach into the pot, cover and let the spinach wilt for no more than 1 minute. As soon as the spinach collapses into a green ball remove from heat, strain through a colander and refresh with a quick rinse under cold water. Let it drain.
While the spinach is draining peel the garlic and mash it with a heavy knife. I find the easiest way to do this is to use the back of the knife to scrape away at the cloves until they break down into a paste. Garlic presses are no good because you end up with small bits of garlic that can be rather overpowering when you bite on them.
Once the garlic is mashed make a white roux with the oil and flour in a pot large enough to hold the finished spinach sauce. To make the roux stir the flour and oil together over a gentle heat and keep stirring for about 2 minutes until the flour cooks. Do NOT let it go brown!
Remove the pot from the heat and stir in the mashed garlic. The roux can now sit for a little while.
Put the strained spinach onto a wooden chopping board and chop until very fine.
Add the chopped spinach to the roux and combine well until there are no lumps of white showing.
The next bit is a little hard to quantify but pour in at least 1 cup of cold milk and immediately stir into the spinach mixture. At this stage the sauce should be quite ‘wet’. If it looks too thick add a little more milk then return the pot to the heat and allow the sauce to come to a simmer. You must keep stirring [with a wooden spoon] until the sauce is completely cooked. Depending on quantities this could take ten minutes.
As the sauce simmers it will start to thicken and the spinach will ‘bleed’ that lovely green colour into the milk. The sauce is done when it has a nice overall green colour and has thickened to the point where you could almost eat it with a fork – so not runny but not like porridge either. Set aside while you make the french toast.
French Toast
The Hungarian version of french toast is called ‘Bundás kenyér’ and translates as ‘fur coated bread’ [bunda means fur coat. Don't ask]. Each slice should be golden brown, slightly crunchy and sprinkled with salt, not sugar!
4 whole eggs
6 slices of bread – stale or fresh. [I allow roughly 1 egg to 1.5 slices of bread, depending on the size of the slices]
peanut oil for frying – should cover the bottom of the frying pan with a bit to spare but remember, you are not deep frying here.
Method
I use a heavy cast iron frying pan so it needs to be heated ahead of time while I prepare the rest of the ingredients. Adjust to suit your own pan.
While the oil and pan are heating, crack the eggs into a bowl and beat lightly with a fork – just enough to mix the white and the yolk.
Cut each slice of bread in half and arrange bread and egg mix near the frying pan. Place a serving plate within reach of the pan.
Once the oil is hot [it should be radiating heat but not quite smoking] dip a piece of bread into the egg, flip it with a fork and immediately lift out of the egg. Let the excess egg drip back into the bowl and then gently place the bread into the hot oil.
[Note : you have to be quick getting the bread into and out of the egg because you don't want it to get soggy. If it gets soggy it will not fry to a crisp finish.]
Fry the bread in batches until the bottoms go a nice golden colour. Turn, fry the other side and then place onto the serving plate. You can drain the bread on kitchen towel if you want but I rarely bother.
Once the bread is all done, sprinkle with a little salt and it is ready to serve. Reheat the spinach just a little bit and stir the slight ‘crust’ on top until it reintegrates with the sauce.
To serve
Arrange slices of golden bread in a fan shape on a plate and pour half a ladle of spinach sauce next to the bread. It should look rather pretty. Then spoon some of the sauce onto the bread and eat the two together to get the combination of smooth, garlicky sauce and crisp, eggy bread. Enjoy!
And last but not least a little something for the mind. I’ve spoken before about Candy Korman’s book called ‘Bram Stoker’s Summer Sublet’. Well today I just want to let you know that you can read about it on Indies Unlimited. You can also get it from Amazon for a bit of compelling, weekend reading!
Ok, that’s it. Enjoy the weekend and I’ll see you all on Monday.
When I began this blog seven odd months ago I had no intention of posting recipes, partly because there are so many truly amazing, dedicated blogs out there about food. Nonetheless the recipes began creeping in because, well because I love good, home-cooked food. It’s a part of who I am and this blog is me, in all my eccentricities.
So today dear friends I’m posting a recipe for da Bluebird!
My version of Dahl and Rice was inspired by an Anglo-Indian dish that my late mother-in-law used to make. I’ve fiddled with the original recipe so it’s not quite authentic but the family love it and so do family friends who cannot eat wheat products. But what is dahl?
The tiny red lentils pictured on the left are the heroes of this lentil stew with a mild, Indian flavour. Here in Australia you can find them in the dry bean section of most supermarkets.
One of the things I love about red lentils [as distinct from their bigger, green and brown cousins] is that they do not need to be soaked before cooking. That makes dahl a fairly quick and easy meal to prepare when you don’t feel like eating a heavy meat meal. Or on those days when guests arrive out of the blue and the fridge is bare! [I keep red lentils in the pantry at all times!]
Ingredients [serves 4]
1 cup of dried red lentils
1 large brown onion chopped fine.
3 cloves of fresh garlic, mashed or chopped
2 tablespoons of tomato paste
1 generous teaspoon of ground cummin*
1/2 a teaspoon of ground tumeric*
pinch of salt
3 cups of water [or a mix of water and any left over chicken soup you may have in the freezer]
2-3 tablespoons of peanut oil [it goes better with asian style dishes than olive oil but use whatever you have].
Method
1. Sometimes the quality of the red lentils varies so I always give them a quick check and remove any dark bits of grit that may have snuck in.
2. Gently sweat the onions and the garlic in the peanut oil until they are translucent and golden brown.
3. Add the cummin and tumeric and allow to cook gently for a minute so the onion mix becomes aromatic.
4. Mix the red lentils into the onion mix and allow them to braise for about 5 minutes to soak in the flavours. Stir frequently so they don’t burn!
5. Add the tomato paste, stir and allow to braise for another minute or two. Again don’t let it all burn!
6. Add the salt and the water/soup stock. Stir, bring to the boil and then lower heat and cook covered for about 10 minutes.
7. After 10 minutes check the lentils. They should have begun to swell and absorb the liquid. Add more water if the stew is starting to look thick. Keep cooking for another 10 minutes.
8. Total cooking time will vary but allow for about 1/2 an hour. You will know the stew is done when the lentils have almost disintegrated and the stew has a rich, orange colour and is about as thick as a bolognese sauce. Remove from the heat.
Rice and accompaniments.
Cook about 1 1/2 cups of long grain rice. [I use the absorption method because I have a heavy, cast iron pot with a good lid but you should use whatever method you are comfortable with].
While the rice is cooking heat a frypan with some more peanut oil and crack 2 eggs – freerange of course – into a bowl. Beat the eggs lightly and then pour a small quantity into the hot pan, turning the pan quickly to spread the egg into a thin pancake. [Like making crepes].
When the first side is golden brown, flip and fry the other side for a few seconds. Remove from the pan and place on a chopping board. Repeat with the rest of the beaten egg until you have a number of flat, golden brown egg pancakes piled on the chopping board.
Cut the egg pancakes into thin strips and place in a small serving bowl.
To Serve
Place a serving of rice in a bowl, top with a generous ladle full of the dahl and then sprinkle the strips of egg pancake on top. Add more salt to taste.
Bon appetit!
* If you are new to Indian spices add less to begin and then increase the quantities once your taste buds have adjusted.
- add about the same quantity of vinegar or lemon juice, a pinch of salt and stir. Voila salad dressing is done. Everything except the lettuce can go in the salad dressing right now. Leave the lettuce until you’re ready to serve.
Authors' favourite books
NANO 2012
