Food Revival

I know I've been scarce the last few months. Work has been crazy and I've been very busy! I've got mountains of food photos and weekly menus that I can put up on the blog so I'm really excited to be posting some today.
On a side note, Damon and I found a deli (Norfolk Deli) in Cambridge, UK that sells South African food - very excited to find Mrs Balls Chutney, Rusks, Droewors and pap!

South African deli in Cambridge

Yesterday I cooked up a storm and I decided to share some of the recipes with you!

Red Lentil Soup with Lemon served with rye bread toast, goat's cheese and Roasted Lemon Chutney.

Roasted Lemon Chutney - make this one first because it has to rest for 2 hours. From Heidi Swanson's 101 cookbooks. 

Roasted Lemon Chutney - nom nom!

Ingredients
1/4 cup finely sliced shallots
3 small unwaxed lemons (+1 lemon for the juice)
1/4 cup olive oil, and more for brushing
1 Tbsp honey (and more to taste)
Salt and Pepper
Optional: 2Tbsp chopped basil or mint

How to?
Preheat the oven to 200C with space for an oven rack in the middle. Line an oven rack with a baking sheet.
Soak the sliced shallots in some cold water to reduce the strong flavour.
Slice the 3 lemons (getting rid of the end pith slice - not tasty!) into 5mm thick slices, remove the seeds with the tip of the knife. Spread flat on the baking sheet. Brush olive oil on each slice of lemon, turn over and brush the other side.
Roast the lemons for 10 minutes, then turn them around and roast for another 10-15 minutes until the lemons are soft but not brown. Take out the oven and allow to cool until you can handle them.
Put all the lemon slices into a blender/food processor. Drain the shallots and add to the blender with the honey. Pulse several times until the lemon slices are roughly chopped.
Add half the lemon juice and the olive oil. Pulse until it becomes creamy. Season with salt and pepper. Adjust by adding more lemon juice and/or honey to your taste - keep tweaking until it's perfect for you!


Red Lentil with Lemon - from Heidi Swanson's 101 cookbooks.
Ingredients
2 cups red lentils
2 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 large onion, diced
2 tsp ground cumin
1 1/2 tsp yellow mustard seeds
1 Tbsp turmeric
1 cup chopped coriander
3 lemons, juiced, or to taste
Salt

1 large bunch of spinach or chard - chopped and wilted in some butter with a pinch of salt

cooked (brown) rice, to serve
Greek yoghurt, to serve

How to?
Cook the lentil in 7 cups of water, adding 1 tablespoon butter and 2 teaspoons salt. Bring to a boil, then turn the heat down and simmer, covered for 20 minutes. Add the turmeric in the last 5 minutes so not to cook it too much or it will go bitter. Puree the mix and add more water and/or salt as needed.
While the lentils cook, heat up the remaining butter and cook the onion with the cumin powder and mustard seeds until translucent and softened. Add the chopped coriander and cook for a few seconds only.
Add the onion mixture to the soup, then add the lemon juice - little by little, to your taste.
Adjust the seasoning if needed.

Serve by putting a spoonful of cooked rice in a bowl, pour soup, add the spinach and a spoonful of yoghurt (you can also add a little bit of the roasted lemon chutney!).

Lentil Dumpling Curry and Cabbage and Fennel Stirfry - Indian Food Week

I know I should have posted a recipe last night but we got side-tracked and ended up ordering pizza with Damon's colleagues instead... For those in the UK, check out the nutritional information for Domino's pizzas, I almost had a heart attack when I did!

Today's Indian food recipes are quite different from the ones most people are used to. The stir-fry is different from usual Asian stir-fries - it doesn't use any sauce, only fried spices. The curry is from South Indian cuisine - the flavours are more subtle and the texture less creamy.

Today was uncharacteristically (long word!) sunny and warm in Cambridge - 10C warmer than on the same day last year! We decided to take our Indian stir fry along for a cycle to Grantchester Meadows and frolick along the river Cam. For those audiophiles out there, Grantchester Meadows is indeed a Pink Floyd song from Ummagumma.

Cycling at Grantchester Meadow

Cabbage and Fennel Stir-fry
Ingredients:
1 Tbsp Coconut Oil/Olive oil
1 tsp Fennel Seeds
1 tsp Sesame Seeds
1 Onion, sliced thinly
1 Fennel, sliced thinly
1 Star Anise seed
1 small Green Cabbage, cut thinly
1 tsp Chilli Powder or Cayenne Powder
1/2 tsp Salt (or more if you're a salt fan)
Juice of a Lemon
1 tsp Garam Masala

Stir-fry with Quorn burgers and home-made cranberry green ice-tea

How to:
Heat the oil in a large pan on medium heat and toast the seeds until they start to crackle.
Add the onion, fennel and star anise, cook for 5 minutes until the onion becomes translucent and golden.
Add the cabbage and cook until it is wilted, about 5 minutes.
Add the chilli powder and salt and mix well.
Cook for another few minutes, then add the lemon juice and garam masala. Mix well and serve with some (veggie) burgers or use as a side for other dishes.


Lentil Dumplings Curry (Paruppu Urundai Kuzhambu)
This recipe was inspired from this food blog. 
I know it seems rather intimidating but this recipe is actually pretty straight forward, uses a lot of the same ingredients in different ways. We had it ready in no time and it was delicious! 

Lentil Dumpling Curry - ready to be eaten!

Ingredients:
Curry Paste:
1 tbsp Coriander Seeds or Powder
2 Red Chillies - you can replace some of the chillies with tomato paste if you don't want it to be too spicy but want to keep the paste consistency
1 tsp Cumin Seeds or Powder
1/2 tsp Fennel Seeds
1 1/2 tsp Poppy Seeds
1/4 cup Grated Coconut

For the dumplings:
1 cup Toor Dal (or lentils if you cannot get hold of it), soaked in water for a couple of hours
1/2 Red Onion, roughly
1 Clove Garlic
1/2 tsp Fennel Seeds
1/2 tsp Cumin Seeds
1 Red Chilli
 2 Tbsp Tomato Paste
Handful fresh Coriander
Salt to taste

For the Curry Sauce:
1 Tbsp Olive oil
1/2 tsp Mustard
1 tsp Fennel Seeds
1 tsp Fenugreek Seeds
1 tsp Curry Leaves - I used dried curry leaves but you could use fresh ones or even Curry Powder
1 Red Onion, chopped
1 small piece Ginger, crushed into a paste
3 Garlic Cloves, crushed
1 tin chopped Tomatoes
Salt to taste
1 tsp Tamarind Extract (you can also soak a small ball of Tamarind paste in some hot water and use the juice squeezed from the paste) - this really gave the dish an interesting taste. If you cannot get hold of any, you could potentially add a teaspoon of brown sugar but it will not add any subtle flavour to the dish.

How to:
First, blend the curry paste ingredients and keep aside.
Blend the dal until it becomes a chunky paste - if it's not blended enough, the dumplings won't hold nicely. Put the dal into a large bowl and set aside. Blend the rest of the dumpling ingredients and mix them well in the dal.
Shape into squash ball-sized dumplings. Steam the dumplings for about 10 minutes. You could potentially skip the steaming step and cook them in the sauce instead, but the dumplings might not hold.

Dumplings - straight after steaming

While the dumplings are steaming, make the curry sauce.
Heat up a tablespoon of oil in a large pan and add the mustard, fennel seeds and fenugreek seeds. Cook until they start to splatter. Then add the onion, garlic and ginger until the onion becomes translucent.
Add the tomatoes and salt, cook for another 5 minutes.
Add the spice mix and a cup of water. Cook until slightly reduced but still saucy. 
If, like me, you prefer a smooth curry sauce, you can blend it slightly at this point - watch out though because the sauce will be hot!
Add the tamarind, mix well. Add the dumplings in the sauce and cook on low heat for another 5 minutes. Serve with brown basmati rice. Enjoy!