Spicy Red Lentil & Carrot Koftas with Tahini Sauce & Pomegranate

Happy New Year to you all, my friends.  I don't know how things have played out for you, but it's been a hectic holiday season for me, filled with visits from family around the country and around the world.  The weather has been perfect;  we've enjoyed the outdoors;  we've talked and laughed a lot;  and we've eaten a lot.  Oh boy, did we eat a lot.  There's certainly been one bowl of ice cream, one glass of wine, and one slice of Christmas cake too many squeezed under my belt over the last couple of weeks.

So today the holidays are over, it's back to work, and time to get back to a bit of healthy eating.  To give my system a major cleanse, I'm embarking on a month of eliminating caffeine, alcohol, meat, wheat, refined sugar and dairy.  Fortunately, our theme this week at I Heart Cooking Clubs is Happy Healthy, which could not be a better way to start off the year.

These Spicy Red Lentil & Carrot Koftas with a tahini sauce and pomegranate, which I adapted ever so slightly from a recipe by Diana Henry from A Change of Appetite, are the perfect way to celebrate our Happy Healthy theme and to kick start my cleanse.  It's hard to believe that anything which packs so much flavour, texture, and good looks could possibly be good for you, but these make for a seriously healthy lunch and, with a little "belly-full" of pomegranate seeds in each kofta, they look almost celebratory.  Often as soon as we start to remove some of the not-so-healthy elements from our meals, dishes can sometimes end up feeling a little less than satisfying ... not so with these babies.  These are so amazingly flavourful and satisfying, I would make these again even if I wasn't on a health kick.  I hope you'll give them a try.

Spicy Red Lentil & Carrot Koftas with Tahini Sauce & Pomegranate Recipe
Adapted from recipe by Diana Henry
from A Change of Appetite

For the koftas:
90g (3-1/4 oz) red lentils
1 cup water
50g (1-3/4 oz) bulgur wheat
200g (7 oz) carrots, roughly chopped
pinch of sugar
flaky sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons olive oil
2x cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon smoky paprika
4 tablespoons harissa
juice of 1x lemon
large bunch of fresh coriander, roughly chopped
pomegranate seeds

For the tahini sauce:
2 tablespoons tahini
1/4 cup water
juice of 1/2 lemon
1x clove garlic, finely chopped
flaky sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil

To serve:
bunch of baby spinach leaves

To make the koftas, start by putting the lentils in a small pan with the water.  Set over medium heat, bring to the boil, cover pot, reduce heat and simmer until the lentils are soft - about 20 minutes.  Remove pan from the heat, stir the bulgur wheat into the lentils, cover the pot again, and set aside for 20 minutes for the wheat grains to plump up and soften.

Place carrots in another small pot.  Just cover carrots with water, add the pinch of sugar to the pan, and season generously with flaky sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.  Boil until the carrots are completely soft, remove from the heat, drain, and mash to a puree.  Add to the lentil mixture.

Heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil in a small saute pan.  Add garlic to the pan.  As soon as the garlic becomes fragrant, add the cumin and paprika to the pan, and stir for a minute.  Add the harissa to the pan, and cook for another minute, stirring constantly.  Remove from the heat.

Stir garlic and spice mixture into the lentil and carrot mixture.  Add lemon juice, half of the coriander, and the remaining olive oil.  Mix everything together well, taste and adjust seasoning if required.  Form the mixture into small balls, pressing a small indentation into the centre of each one, filling the indentation with a few pomegranate seeds.

To make the tahini sauce - mix all the ingredients together, adding more water if needed to achieve a pouring consistency.  Taste and adjust seasoning to your liking.

To serve, arrange baby spinach leaves and remaining coriander on a serving platter.  Arrange koftas amongst the salad leaves, and drizzle tahini sauce over the top.

If you would like to get to know Diana Henry a little better, and to see what everyone else has cooked up this week, then do go and visit my friends at I Heart Cooking Clubs and check out the links (who knows, you might even want to join the journey and cook along with us) ...

... or check out A Change of Appetite and Diana's many other great titles available from Amazon USA, Amazon UK, or Fishpond NZ.

Farewell Nigel, and a Round-up of My Favourites

If you've been following here for a while then you will most likely know that I am a regular participant and co-host at I Heart Cooking Clubs, where each six months our members elect a new chef with whom we will spend the ensuing six months cooking according to a variety of weekly themes.  You will also know that for the last six months we have been cooking with British cook, Nigel Slater, and this week is time to say our goodbyes.

This is always a bittersweet moment - a little hint of sadness as one journey comes to an end, tinged with the excitement and anticipation of welcoming in a new chef.  You'll find out more about that next week, but for now I wanted to share with you a round-up of my favourite Nigel Slater dishes of the last six months.

Warm Lentil, Leek & Lemon Salad with Prawns & Roasted Tomatoes

This dish was actually inspired by Nigel's "Lentil soup, with lemon, pancetta and mint".  It turned out to be one of those dishes which, in its entirety, was so much greater than the sum of its parts, and was not just every bit as good as I expected it to be, but in actual fact exceeded all my expectations.

Roasted Potato Salad with Black Olive & Roasted Garlic Gremolata

This was a dish which not only drew inspiration from Nigel, but also from my friend Toby at Plate Fodder.  Potatoes are par-boiled, then smashed and oven roasted with rosemary and garlic.  That in itself is a pretty good thing, but then the crispy roasted potatoes are drizzled straight from the oven with a mustardy vinaigrette, and then topped with a gremolata of black olives, rosemary, garlic and lemon zest.  A taste sensation, and the perfect accompaniment to the Sunday night roast chook.

Curried Carrot, Lentil & Roasted Tomato Soup

In many ways carrots are one of my least favourite vegetables, so I'd always been a bit dubious about carrot soup.  This stunning soup, loaded with red lentils, spicy curry powder, fragrant coconut milk and slow roasted tomatoes helped me overcome all my carrot soup fears!

Pumpkin, Date & Chocolate Scones

I turned Nigel's slightly savoury warm pumpkin scones into an ever so slightly sweeter treat with the addition of dates, date syrup and chocolate - just perfect for a leisurely Sunday brunch, or to accompany an afternoon cuppa.

Roasted Pumpkin Laksa

This laksa is perfect for a cold winter evening.  The sweet, soft, nutty pumpkin, silky rice noodles, crispy bok choy and bean sprouts, all bathed in a gorgeously fragrant, coconut-rich broth, makes for a symphony of flavours and textures.

Gnocchi with Chorizo, Gorgonzola & Spinach

This is the ultimate one-pan wonder.  A dish for those occasions when only a big helping of carbs, smothered in cream and cheese, and topped off with a bit of fried sausage, will satisfy, and just enough spinach to assuage the guilt - slightly!

Pumpkin Pangrattato with Merguez Sausage & Black Olives

This was easily my favourite Nigel Slater dish, and in fact one of my favourite dishes I've ever posted.  Chunks of steamed butternut pumpkin, spicy nuggets of merguez sausage, and black olives, are baked under a topping of cheesy, garlicky breadcrumbs.  Seriously, if you only ever try one dish from my blog, this would be a good place to start.

With that, it's time to say "Cheerio" to Nigel, and don't forget to come back next week to see who we'll be welcoming as our next IHCC chef.

If you would like to get to know Nigel Slater a little better, and to see what everyone else has cooked up this week, then do go and visit my friends at I Heart Cooking Clubs and check out the links ...

... or check out Tender, Vol. 1 and Nigel's many other great titles available from Amazon USA, Amazon UK, or Fishpond NZ.

Warm Lentil, Leek & Lemon Salad with Prawns & Roasted Tomatoes

One of the things I love about cooking is the creative process, finding inspiration in unexpected ways.

This week at I Heart Cooking Clubs, we're cooking with Nigel Slater, making dishes with lentils, legumes and pulses.  In Nigel's book Tender Vol. I, I came across his recipe for "Lentil soup with lemon, pancetta and mint".  Nigel describes it as being ... "One of those soups that doubles as a main course, earthy, filling and beefy.  The soup relies on the onion to add depth and body."

Sounded good enough, but enjoying warmer spring days and evenings now I was in the mood for something a little fresher than a hearty, wintery soup.  Which got me to thinking that I could put a lot of those same ingredients together in an entirely different way - some lightly sauteed leeks instead of onions, lentils, spinach and lemons - surely these same ingredients could make an interesting salad.  Replacing the pancetta in the soup with some lemony prawns would turn this salad into a substantial meal, and the rich fruitiness of some quick pan roasted tomatoes were the perfect foil to the earthy lentils and sweet prawns.

This turned out to be one of those dishes which, in its entirety, was so much greater than the sum of its parts, and was not just every bit as good as I expected it to be, but in actual fact exceeded all my expectations.  Thanks for the inspiration, Nigel.

Warm Lentil, Leek & Lemon Salad with Prawns & Roasted Tomatoes Recipe
Serves 2 as a main meal
Download the free recipe card here

2x lemons
extra virgin olive oil
1x cup Puy lentils
1x small leek, halved lengthwise & thinly sliced
red wine vinegar
flaky sea salt & freshly ground pepper
large handful flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped
2x generous handfuls of baby spinach leaves
200g prawns, peeled & deveined
12x cherry tomatoes

Using a peeler, remove a couple of strips of peel from one of the lemons, taking care to avoid any of the white pith.  Place in a small bowl, and add a couple of tablespoons of olive oil.  Set aside to infuse.  Grate the remaining zest from the same lemon and set aside, then juice the lemon and reserve.

Remove the peel and all the pith from the second lemon.  Place a sieve over a small bowl.  Hold the peeled lemon over the bowl and, using a sharp knife, cut down between the membrane and fruit on each side of the segment to separate it from the membrane.  Let the fruit segments fall into the sieve.  Squeeze the membrane over the bowl, extracting as much juice from it as you can.  Set aside.

Place lentils in a medium sized saucepan, cover with cold water.  Bring to the boil and cook until tender, but not mushy - about 15 minutes.  Remove from heat, drain well, and place lentils in a medium sized bowl.  Immediately add a generous splash of red wine vinegar, and a couple of good glugs of olive oil.  Season generously with flaky sea salt and freshly ground pepper.

Heat a splash of olive oil in a small saute pan set over medium heat.  Add the thinly slice leeks to the pan, and sprinkle with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.  Cook, stirring occasionally, until the leeks have softened, but not browned.  Add lemon juice to the pan and stir until juice is reduced and slightly syrupy.  Remove from heat and add to the bowl of lentils, along with the lemon segments and any of their reserved juice, and flat leaf parsley.  Mix well to combine all the ingredients and set aside for all the flavours to develop.

Set a small saute pan over medium-high heat.  Add a dash of olive oil and the cherry tomatoes to the hot pan.  As soon as they sizzle and the skins start to split, add a splash or two of red wine vinegar, along with generous seasoning of flaky sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.  Toss around in the pan for a moment or two, until the pan juices are syrupy.  Remove from heat and set aside.  Wipe out the pan.

Remove lemon peels from the olive oil that has been infusing, and put the lemon oil into the same pan.  Set over medium heat, and once warm, add the prawns to the pan.  Season generously, and saute until cooked through - 2 to 3 minutes on each side, depending on size.  Remove from heat, add to the lentils, and toss gently.

To serve, arrange baby spinach leaves over a serving platter.  Spoon lentil salad over the top, and finish with the roasted cherry tomatoes.

If you would like to get to know Nigel Slater a little better, and to see what everyone else has cooked up this week, then do go and visit my friends at I Heart Cooking Clubs and check out the links ...

I'll also be sharing this post this week at See Ya In the Gumbo hosted by the delightful Michelle at Ms. enPlace, at Weekend Cooking hosted by Beth Fish Reads, and at Foodie Fridays hosted by Designs by Gollum.

         

Spinach, Goat Cheese & Beetroot Stacks with Spicy, Caramelised Walnuts

Where did the last month go?  If your life is anything like mine, it's vanished in a heart beat.  During that month in my part of the world daffodils have burst into life, blossom is appearing on the trees, and spring lambs are bounding around countrywide.  My overcoat wearing has almost become a thing of the past, and I'm guessing that it will only be another couple of weeks before I can say goodbye to winter boots for another 8 months.  Yes, spring is definitely on the way.

In an entirely different part of the world, the owner and writer of the Enriching Your Kid blog has been completely oblivious to the fact that I've spent quite a bit of time poking around through her recipes in this last month.  You see, it's Secret Recipe Club time of the month and this was the blog assigned to me.  It was my mission to choose a recipe, make it in secret and post it along with everyone else in the Club on one glorious reveal day.

As its title might suggest, this blog is all about producing recipes which will fortify your kids with dishes that will strengthen their immune systems and stimulate growth.  As such, you will find plenty of recipes here for interesting baby foods and school lunches.

Of course, there's plenty of other good, nutritious stuff, but since I don't have children, I thought I might have a bit of trouble finding a dish here that I would want to make.  Wrong ... in fact I found almost immediately the dish I wanted to make - Beetroot Cutlets.

Now, if you live in my part of the world, when you hear the term beetroot cutlets, you might by thinking "what the heck"?  You see, down here, a cutlet is usually a piece of meat attached to a long bone - such as a lamb chop.

But I knew immediately what the nature of this was going to be.  When I was a kid, one of my favourite dinners was my grandmother's "potato cutlets".  These were spicy, minced meat (usually left over curried lamb), encased in mashed potato, and then crumbed and fried until crispy.  So I knew that here a cutlet was going to be some kind of rissole or croquette.

These beetroot cutlets are "spiced" up with a bit of ginger, garlic and curry powder (the original recipe called for garam masala, but I was all out of it), and I coated them with some panko breadcrumbs for a bit of crunch.

To finish things off, I served them on top of a spinach, lentil and goat cheese salad, with some spicy, caramelised walnuts, and topped them off with a dollop of raita (a combination of cucumber, yoghurt and mint).

This made a wonderful vegetarian meal.  The cutlets had a great combination of taste and texture;  and the salad was the perfect accompaniment, the earthiness of the spinach and lentils with the tangy, salty goat cheese providing a great contrast to the sweetness of the beetroot.  The crowning glory is easily the spicy, caramelised walnuts.

I know when you look at this recipe you might think there's a lot of ingredients and steps.  But, honestly, most of these ingredients are things you will likely have on hand already, and most of the steps involved here can be done well in advance - even the day before if you wanted.  This is a great dish for turning very simple, humble ingredients into a meal that looks and tastes really special.  Even the meat-eater around here declared that he'd pay good money for this dish in a restaurant.  I hope you'll give it a try.

Spinach, Goat Cheese & Beetroot Stacks with Spicy, Caramelised Walnuts Recipe
Inspired by recipe from Enriching Your Kid
Click here for a printable copy of this recipe

For beetroot cutlets:
2x medium sized beetroot, peeled and grated
1x small leek, halved lengthwise, then thinly sliced
1x clove garlic, minced
2.5 cm (1 inch) piece of ginger, peeled and grated
2x medium sized potatoes, peeled and cubed
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
freshly ground black pepper
flaky sea salt
juice of 1/2 lemon
generous handful of fresh coriander, finely chopped
panko breadcrumbs
sunflower oil for frying

For spinach, lentil & goat cheese salad:
1 cup brown lentils
4x generous handfuls of spinach, or mesclun salad leaves
150g goat cheese crumbled
juice of 1/2 lemon
flaky sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
extra virgin olive oil

For spicy, caramelised walnuts:
1x generous handful of walnuts
1 teaspoon curry powder
5 teaspoons sugar

For raita:
1/2 telegraph cucumber, peeled, de-seeded, and finely diced
flaky sea salt
3/4 cup Greek style natural yoghurt
dried mint to taste

Begin by making the cutlets.  Heat a small amount of sunflower oil in a shallow pan over medium heat.  Add the sliced leek to the pan, along with a generous sprinkling of sea salt.  Saute for a couple of minutes before adding the ginger and garlic.  As soon as the leek is softened (but not browned) and everything is fragrant, remove from heat.  Tip into a medium sized bowl.

Cook potatoes in boiling salted water until tender.  Drain and cool slightly before mashing.

Add the mashed potato to the leeks, along with the grated beetroot, curry powder, lemon juice and coriander.  Taste and add flaky sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to your liking.

Use your hands to shape the mixture into patties, approximately 2cm (3/4 inch) thick.  Coat them in panko breadcrumbs, and refrigerate for at least half an hour to firm up.  You could even do this the day before if desired.

To make the raita, place diced cucumber in a small bowl, and sprinkle generously with flaky sea salt.  Set aside for an hour or so, then drain off the liquid that has been drawn out of the cucumber.  Add yoghurt, mix well, and add dried mint (or fresh if you are lucky enough to have it in season) to taste.

To make the salad, cook the lentils, place them in a medium sized pot, with plenty of cold water.  Place over high heat and bring to the boil.  Reduce the heat and simmer until the lentils are tender.  Drain and place in a medium sized bowl.  While lentils are still hot, add lemon juice, a generous drizzle of olive oil and season to taste with flaky sea salt and black pepper.  Set aside to cool to room temperature.  This is another stage that can be completed well in advance.  Once cooled, toss with spinach or salad leaves and crumbled goat cheese.

For spicy, caramelised walnuts, drizzle a small amount of sunflower oil into a shallow pan over medium heat.  Add the walnuts to the pan, and add the curry powder.  Toss the nuts until they are well coated and allow them to toast for a moment or two.  Add the sugar to the pan, and stir constantly until the sugar is bubbling and the nuts are thoroughly coated in the spicy, sugary mixture.  Remove and allow to cool.  Again this could be done in advance.

Pour a generous amount of sunflower oil into a shallow pan over medium heat.  Add beetroot cutlets to the pan, and fry until crispy and golden all over.

To serve, place a generous amount of salad on a plate, and sprinkle a few of the spicy, caramelised walnuts around.  Stack the beetroot cutlets on top, and drizzle over a little of the raita.

Hope you enjoy this dish as much as I did, and visit the links below to check out all the other great dishes my Secret Recipe Club friends made.

An InLinkz Link-up

Curried Carrot, Lentil & Roasted Tomato Soup

I have a kind of love/hate relationship with carrots.  When I was a kid, the only way that carrots ever showed up in our house was boiled (most nights), or worse still mashed up with either parsnip or swede.  I hated it, and many a "you're not leaving this table until you've eaten those carrots" war was waged in our house.  Stews too were the cause of great angst for me, as I would pick all the bits of carrot out, and then the battle would begin again.

When the '80s came around and glazed carrots became highly fashionable, I found them slightly more palatable, but they were still not a "first choice" vegetable for me.  It wasn't until I discovered roasted carrots that I found a way in which I could not just "like" carrots but really love them.  I was a little ambivalent about raw carrots too until the fabulous Marcella Hazan introduced me to a wonderful salad of shredded carrot, lemon zest & juice, flaky sea salt, and extra virgin olive oil - incredibly simple but positively sublime.

For all that I've found a few ways to love carrots, I've never been brave enough to try carrot soup.  I've always been pretty sure that I wouldn't really like it - I couldn't believe that it was going to taste any different to just blitzed up boiled carrots, and I would hate that.  But for weeks now I've been finding myself constantly drawn to Nigel Slater's recipe in Tender, Vol. 1 for "A soup the colour of marigolds".  Yes, it's just carrot soup, but it looks stunning in the photo and the title sounds so magical I keep coming back to it.  Talk about being seduced by a good line!  After my friend and IHCC co-host Deb at Kahakai Kitchen made this soup a couple of weeks ago, I knew it was only a matter of time before I had to try it.

When our I Heart Cooking Club theme of Budget Friendly Dishes came up this week, I knew the moment had arrived to put this soup to the test.  Budget friendly cooking to me is all about using ingredients which are fresh and seasonal, and with a big bag of carrots I'd picked up for $2 sitting in my veggie crisper I didn't think things could get much lighter on the pocket than that.  The original recipe also calls for yellow tomatoes.  These are definitely not in season here right now, and even if you could find them they certainly wouldn't be budget friendly.  I did, however, happen to have some tomatoes in the freezer which I had slow-roasted when they were in season.  Even though I expected these to detract somewhat from the beautiful marigold colour of Nigel's soup, it seemed like they would make a very good and thrifty alternative to the yellow tomatoes.  I subbed in some celery in place of onions, and  I also decided to add some red lentils to make this a little more "wintery" and comforting, some curry powder for a little spiciness instead of the more mellow bay leaves suggested by Nigel, and some coconut milk for a touch of luxury in such a parsimonious meal.

The verdict:  This could not taste less like "just a bunch of boiled up carrots".  My carrot soup phobia is over.  This soup is heavenly ... plenty of sweetness from the carrots, balanced out by the roasted tomatoes, some earthiness and "comfort" from the lentils, sweetness and fragrance from the coconut milk, and a little heat from the curry powder.  I will definitely be making this soup again, and next time I'm going to try replacing the curry powder with a little harissa - I think the flavours would be great with the carrots and tomatoes, and the kick of heat won't go astray either.  Hey, and guess what ...  I also discovered that my roasted red tomatoes didn't detract from the gorgeous colour one little bit, it's still the colour of marigolds.  What do you think?

Curried Carrot, Lentil & Roasted Tomato Soup Recipe
Inspired by recipe by Nigel Slater
from Tender, Vol. I
Click here for a printable copy of this recipe

1 tablespoon olive oil
450g carrots
2x sticks celery
flaky sea salt
450g slow-roasted tomatoes
2 teaspoons curry powder
1 cup red lentils
1 tin coconut milk
4 cups water

Finely chop the carrots & celery - I blitzed them up in the food processor until very finely chopped.  

Heat olive oil in a heavy based pan over medium heat.  Add carrots and celery, sprinkle with a generous pinch of flaky sea salt, and cook (stirring from time to time) until the vegetables have softened and started to release some of their liquid.

Add the tomatoes and curry powder, and continue stirring for a couple of minutes.

Add the lentils, coconut milk, and water.  Stir to combine.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, and simmer gently for 30-40 minutes, until the vegetables and lentils are completely soft.   It thickens up a lot as it cooks, so feel free to add more water as necessary.

Use a stick blender to blitz to a puree (or pour into a conventional blender).  Taste and adjust seasoning as necessary.  Serve.

If you would like to get to know Nigel Slater a little better, and to see all the other budget friendly dishes that are on the menu this week, then do go and visit my friends at I Heart Cooking Clubs and check out the links ...

... or check out Tender, Vol. 1 and Nigel's many other great titles available from Amazon USA, Amazon UK, or Fishpond NZ.

I'll also be sharing this post this week at See Ya In the Gumbo hosted by the delightful Michelle at Ms. enPlace, at Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammies) Sundays hosted by my lovely friend Deb at Kahakai Kitchen, at Weekend Cooking hosted by Beth Fish Reads, at Foodie Fridays hosted by Designs by Gollum, and at Cook Your Books hosted by the lovely Joyce at Kitchen Flavours.

               

Celeriac, Lentil & Hazelnut Salad

Yes, it's that week again.  It's Potluck week at I Heart Cooking Clubs, and that means that we get to choose any recipe we like from any one of the eight IHCC chefs.  That's a pretty impressive line-up which includes our current chef of course, Yotam Ottolenghi, who enjoys the venerable company of Nigella Lawson, Mark Bittman, Giada de Laurentiis, Jamie Oliver, Tessa Kiros, Rick Bayless and Madhur Jaffrey.

With so much wonderful food to choose from, Potluck week is the time I usually like to try my hand at something a bit special, but at the fag end of a tiring week, and feeling a bit under the weather, something simple, comforting and tasty was called for.

This Celeriac, Lentil & Hazelnut Salad, from Yotam Ottolenghi's book Plenty, was perfect.  It was suitably light when I wasn't feeling like anything too heavy.  Lentils always speak to me of comfort and nourishment.  And celeriac ... well, celeriac is one of my favourite winter vegetables, and is pricey enough in these parts to make me feel like I'm having something quite luxurious.  However, for all that it seems expensive, celeriac does go a long way.  I paid $6 for one medium sized celeriac - I used half of it in this salad, which lasted me two days;  I used quarter of it in a pot of soup which is bubbling away as I write, and which will deliver at least 6-8 servings;  and I still have quarter of it left to use in a Celeriac Remoulade later in the week.

I did, as I always seem to do, tinker with the recipe a little.  I used the brown lentils that I had on hand, instead of the Puy lentils Ottolenghi uses in the original recipe.   For a bit of extra colour and flavour, I also added in some of the roasted red peppers I preserved during the summer, and some of those quick pickled lemons I shared with you a couple of weeks ago (which I now can't help adding to just about everything I make).  I also used flat leaf parsley instead of mint, which I think would have been wonderful, but which is seldom available in the middle of the New Zealand winter.

Since I was going to be eating on my own, I halved the original recipe.  That made two large, main meal servings, which I accompanied one night with grilled sausages and then on the second night with pan-roasted salmon.  Delicious with both, and I think it tasted even better the second day.  This dish can easily be made well in advance, but do make sure to dress the lentils as soon as you take them off the heat and drain them so that they really soak up the flavour.

Celeriac, Lentil & Hazelnut Salad Recipe

Adapted from a recipe by Yotam Ottolenghi

from Plenty

Vegetarian

Makes 2 generous servings

Click here for a printable copy of this recipe

1/2 cup green or brown lentils

1-1/2 cups water

generous bunch thyme sprigs

1/2 small celeriac, peeled and cut into 1cm (1/3 inch) batons

generous handful hazelnuts

2-3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

1x roasted red pepper cut into strips

quick pickled lemons, roughly chopped (to taste)

flaky sea salt & freshly ground black pepper

generous handful flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped

Put lentils, water and thyme into a smallish pot and bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat and simmer until the lentils are tender but not mushy - about 15 minutes.

Add the celeriac to another pot of boiling salted water, and cook until just tender - about 8 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a shallow pan over medium heat, toast the hazelnuts until golden.  As soon as they are toasted tip the hazelnuts out into a clean tea towel, and rub vigorously to remove the skins.

As soon as the lentils are cooked, drain, and put into a serving bowl.  Immediately, add the olive oil, red wine vinegar, and a liberal sprinkling of sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Drain the celeriac and add to the lentils, along with the roasted red peppers, quick pickled lemons, half the hazelnuts and half the parsley.  Toss well, taste and adjust seasonings to your liking.  Sprinkle the rest of the hazelnuts and parley over the top to serve, and finish with an extra drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

This is delicious served warm or at room temperature.

If you would like to get to know Yotam Ottolenghi a little better, then do go and visit my friends at I Heart Cooking Clubs and see what they've all cooked up ...

... or check out Plenty and Ottolenghi's other great titles available from Amazon USA, Amazon UK or Fishpond NZ.

         

I'm also sharing this post this week at See Ya In the Gumbo hosted by the lovely, and often hilarious, Michelle at Ms. enPlace, at Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammies) Sundays hosted by my good friend Deb at Kahakai Kitchen, and at Cook Your Books, hosted by the lovely Joyce at Kitchen Flavours.

                     

Lentils with Cherries, Sausage & Gorgonzola and Cookbook Sundays # 29

Apart from roast chicken, which would probably be my "death row" meal (should I ever find myself in such a hapless position), my next favourite meal would probably be some kind of "big bowl" salad.  A salad which is substantial enough to constitute a main meal, be it warm or cold, will find favour with me any time of year.

Right now, when temperatures are plummeting, a warm, substantial, hearty salad is much more likely to find its way to my table than any kind of braise or casserole.  I often find inspiration for such dishes in one of my Heidi Swanson cookbooks (Super Natural Cooking: Five Delicious Ways to Incorporate Whole and Natural Ingredients and Super Natural Every Day: Well Loved Recipes from My Natural Foods Kitchen), or one of my Ottolenghi cookbooks (Ottolenghi: The Cookbook and Plenty: Vibrant Recipes from London's Ottolenghi).

So it was that leafing through Ottolenghi: The Cookbook the other day, I came across a recipe for puy lentils with sour cherries, bacon and Gorgonzola, which seemed to tick all the right boxes for me.  The book describes this dish as a starter, but I knew that it would easily be hearty enough for me for a main meal.  I made a few minor changes to the recipe to suit both what I had on hand and what was readily available.  Firstly, I didn't have any puy lentils in the house (and not easy to come by at my local supermarket either, for that matter), but I did have some green lentils which I knew would make a good substitute.  The recipe also called for dried sour cherries which are not available here, so I subbed in some tinned black cherries and left out the sugar called for in the recipe.  I also had some beautiful pork, spinach and pine nut sausages from a great little French butchery we have here in Nelson (Phillipe Butchery & Deli), which I knew would make a great alternative to the bacon.

Now this may sound like a really odd combination of ingredients, and it's probably not going to win any prizes in the looks department either, but somehow it really works.  The musky, earthiness of the lentils makes a great "backdrop" to the little "hits" of the tangy cherries, the porcine deliciousness of the sausage or bacon, and the salty Gorgonzola - for a vegetarian option, I think mushrooms would make a great alternative to the sausage.  The recipe suggests this will make a starter for 2 to 4 people - I found that this made a huge meal for me two days in a row (and, yes, it was just as good on the second day).

Lentils with Cherries, Sausage & Gorgonzola

Adapted from recipe from

Ottolenghi: The Cookbook

Serves 2 as a meal or 4 as a starter

Click here for a printable copy of this recipe

125g (4.4 oz) green lentils

2 bay leaves

2 shallots, finely chopped

3 tablespoons olive oil

3 tablespoons water

1/2 of a 400g (14 oz) tin of black cherries, drained

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

3 pork sausages, casings removed and crumbled into small pieces

2 very generous handfuls baby spinach leaves

120g (4 oz) Gorgonzola

flaky sea salt & freshly ground black pepper

extra virgin olive oil for serving

Put lentils into a sieve and run under cold water until the water runs clear.  Transfer the lentils to a medium saucepan, and add enough cold water to cover them by three times their depth.  Add bay leaves to the pan, bring to the boil, reduce heat and simmer for approximately 20 minutes - until lentils are cooked through, but still have a little bit of bite to them.

While lentils are cooking, make the sauce.  Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a small pan over medium heat.  Add shallots to the pan and saute until golden.  Add the water, cherries and vinegar, and simmer over low heat for about 10 minutes until you have a thickish sauce.  Remove from heat, taste, and season with salt and pepper.

Drain the cooked lentils and immediately add to the sauce.  Stir together so that the lentils can soak up all the flavour.  Taste and adjust the seasoning.  You will need to add quite a lot of salt, but do keep in mind that the Gorgonzola you will be adding later is quite salty.  Set aside to cool.

Heat the remaining tablespoon of oil in a saute pan and fry the pieces of sausage until browned all over.  Remove to a paper towel to drain and cool.  Then add the sausage pieces and spinach leaves to the lentils and mix well.  Taste once more to see if you need to further adjust the seasoning.

Transfer to a serving platter, drizzle with a little extra virgin olive oil, and strew chunks of Gorgonzola over the top.

I'm sharing this salad this week at Cookbook Sundays, where my friends are delving into their cookbook collections and sharing some of their recipes.  Do keep reading to see what they're cooking - you might even feel inspired to link up a recipe from one of your own cookbooks.

I'm also sharing this post at Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammie) Sundays hosted by Deb at Kahakai Kitchen, See Ya In the Gumbo hosted by Michelle at Ms. enPlace, and at Gallery of Favourites hosted by April at 21st Century Housewife.

 

If you're anything like me you have dozens of cookbooks gathering dust on your bookshelves, some of which have never even been cooked from.  Sure I spent hours browsing through them when I first bought them, marking all the recipes I was going to make with little post-it notes, and yet still those books languish in the bookcase and never make it to the kitchen.  There are others from which I have made but one recipe which was such a resounding success that I've made it over and over again, and yet somehow I've never made anything else from that book.  Sound a bit familiar?!

Take comfort - you are not alone, and now Cookbook Sundays is your opportunity to change that.  Every Sunday I'm going to share with you a recipe that I haven't made before from one of my ever expanding collection of cookbooks.  And, because I know that if you have read this far then you are guilty of this too, I'm inviting you to join in with me.  Each week my Cookbook Sundays post will have a linky for you to share something you've cooked from one of your cookbooks.

The rules for joining in are simple:

1. Your post must state the author and the title of the book your recipe has come from.
2. Your post must mention Cookbook Sundays and link back to this post.  Including the Cookbook Sundays badge is optional, but always appreciated.
3. You may submit as many entries as you like, and you may use the same cookbook as many times as you like.  Old posts are also welcome.
4. Lastly,  remember that what goes around, comes around - one of the reasons you are participating in this is because you want people to read your posts, so do the right thing and go and visit a few of the other participants - you can even "Like" your favourites. 

Now, go and dust off those cookbooks and get cooking!  Use the linky tool at the end of this post to submit your entry/entries - simply scroll down to where it says "You are next ... Click here to enter", and then follow the instructions.  The linky will be open for one week.

Lastly, if you would like to use the Cookbook Sundays badge in your post, simply copy the code in the box beside the badge below and paste it into your post.  Feel free to also use it in your sidebar if you wish.

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Bacon, Booze and other Bits and Bobs

It's been a funny old week really.  I don't really seem to have done too much cooking this week, more a case of just assembling a few salads really, but I have had several "cooking projects" on the go.

First of all has been my first attempt at curing my own bacon, the first project in which I'm participating for the Charcutepalooza group, hosted by Mrs Wheelbarrow's Kitchen and The Yummy Mummy.  I would have liked to start last month, but last month's challenge was duck prosciutto - sounds amazing right, and I so want to try this.  Problem is you need a cool humid place to hang your breasts (yes I did just say that), and that's just not happening in a hot, dry Canterbury summer - so keep watching this space for duck prosciutto when winter comes around.  In the meantime here's a first glimpse of my bacon - today's lunch in fact - about which you will be hearing much more next week.

Project # 2 - my dear friend Clare, who has just started a lovely blog called Arnold River Ramblings (where she shares great recipes and tales from their home on the banks of the Arnold River on the South Island west coast), dropped me off a few pounds of damsons.  These are not something I had ever used before, so I turned to a book I've had for years called Jams and Preserves by Olive Odell for inspiration.  The moment my eyes rested on Damson Gin in the index, I knew this would have a place in my future. Looks beautiful, doesn't it ...

Now I'm supposed to let this mature for a minimum of 3 months.  Other recipes I found for Damson Gin suggest leaving it for 6, 12 or even 18 months.  I'm thinking that 9-10 months would be perfect, in which case it would be ready just in time for Christmas, and all those glorious summer cocktails to enjoy on long, warm summer evenings.  I question, however, my ability to wait that long, so I'm thinking I may need to make a back up bottle just in case!

Once my Damson Gin was made, I got so ridiculously excited about my ability to make liquor, that I decided to make what I imagine will turn into a kind of coffee/orange liqueur.  This is a recipe from Laura Calder called "44" that I had been wanting to make for many months.  You simply take an orange and poke 44 holes in it, then push a coffee bean into each one of those holes - got that so far? 44 coffee beans pushed into an orange.  Then put the coffee bean studded orange into a large glass jar, and add 44 sugar cubes.  Fill with one litre of vodka, seal jar, and store in a cool, dark place, giving it a shake every day for 44 days.  Not that I'm counting or anything, but only 43 days to go!

Now, to those "bits and bobs" I mentioned.  Quite a while back (about October actually - I know, I'm pretty slack) two of my favourite bloggers Veronica at The Enchanted Cook and Michele at The Fit Foodista tagged me.  To cut a long story short, I was supposed to answer a few questions that each of them asked and pass it on to a few more bloggers and ask them to do the same.  Well, I just didn't get around to it.  Not long after I was given the "One Lovely Blog" Award by two more lovely bloggers - Louanne's Kitchen and Kitchen Flavours - similar deal, answer some questions and pass it on - did I get around to it?  In short - no.  Then more recently I was given the "Stylish Blogger" Award again by Louanne's Kitchen (she must really like me), by Melynda at Mom's Sunday Cafe, by Daniel at The Haggis & The Herring, by Ms Enplace, and by Annie at Second Helpings.  So I thought it was high time I got my act together and did a bit of sharing.

Firstly, let me say that I am deeply humbled by the kind thoughts and high praise these bloggers have bestowed on me.  The open-heartedness with which fellow bloggers reach out to each other across continents, making connections with people they've never met, never ceases to amaze and inspire me and is what makes this whole thing worthwhile for me.  So, now to share a bit about me, I selected several of the questions from those that were asked from different sources - read on ...

 

If you had to narrow down your diet to just one cuisine, what would you choose and why?

I love so many different cuisines that narrowing it down to just one is tough - I think it would probably be Italian (but it would only be nudging out Spanish or Greek by a nose).  I love pretty much all of the ingredients that we associate with Mediterranean style food;  I love the often very simple and rustic way in which dishes come together, relying on nothing more than outstanding, seasonal ingredients rather than a lot of fancy or "chefy" techniques to pull off a great dish.

What has been your most memorable meal to this point in your life?

Don't even have to think about this one.  It was a rabbit dish that I had at a little restaurant in Barcelona called The Grill Room.  It was quite a simple little restaurant as I recall, but the rabbit was outstanding.  Half a rabbit was placed on a long skewer, carried through the restaurant and plunged into an open wood-fired oven at the back of of the restaurant.  I could see the rabbit cooking from our table, and half an hour later it was brought out of the oven and set before me.  It had been given only the simplest of treatment - a brushing of olive oil, some fresh rosemary, and plenty of salt and freshly ground black pepper - but it tasted sublime.  Proof once again that good food doesn't need to be messed with.

What’s your funniest kitchen/cooking disaster?

One time when we were kids (me about 7, my little brother about 5), my brother fell out of a tree and badly gashed his knee.  My mother rushed him off to the doctor to get it stitched up and, anticipating that Dad would be home from work soon, left me home alone.  While I was waiting for Dad to get home, I got to thinking that there had been a lot of blood "coming out of my brother" and he might die.  Well, even though I found a little brother enormously irritating at that stage of my life, I really didn't want him to die.  Just on the off chance that he might live, however, I decided to bake him a jam tart.  So, I duly got out my play dough, found a pretty plastic bowl in the cupboard, lined it with a play dough crust, filled it to the brim with jam, turned the oven onto high and popped my "pie" into the oven.  You don't have to be a rocket scientist to imagine the mess that made!!

What's your favourite kitchen/cooking success?

A week ago, I think I would have said the first time I made mayonnaise and discovered how easy it is.  However, as of today, I think it would have to be the first time I cured my own bacon (see above) - I'm loving myself sick I think I'm so clever right now.

What are your three “go to ingredients” that are always on hand in your kitchen?

Lemons, good extra virgin olive oil, and garlic.

What's your earliest food memory?

Spending a childhood Saturday afternoon in my grandparents kitchen while they made preparations for Sunday lunch.  Nana grinding spices, rolling little balls of lamb, while Grandad grated fresh coconut, for Kofta Curry;  Nana rolling balls of dough for parantha;  and Grandad rolling balls of "cottage cheese", deep frying them and bathing them in rose water, making galub jamun.

Why do you like to cook – what about it makes you head back into the kitchen again and again?

The opportunity to cook for others is an opportunity to show them how much I care for them - it is an expression of love.  Time in the kitchen is always a time of real peacefulness for me - a kind of meditation in a way, and a time in which I feel connected with my "food memories" and the cooks who came before me.

So, now we get to the hard part, and I guess this is why I've been avoiding this for so long.  I am supposed to pass this on to several other bloggers.  My difficulty with that is that I am reluctant to bestow an obligation on anyone who doesn't want to play along, and secondly there are so many of you out there that I love I just can't whittle my list down to a dozen or so "worthy recipients".  So I've decided on another way of playing it forward.  I frequently cook dishes that I come across on your blogs, and when I do I try to make a point of stopping by and leaving a comment on your post letting you know that I made it.  But it occurs to me that it would be even better to let my readers know that I made it, and make a regular feature of the things I make from your blogs - a real Forward Friday, if you like.

So kicking that off this week I want to tell you about this Lentil & Potato Curry ...

This is actually a Mark Bittman recipe from How to Cook Everything, but I first came across it over at girlichef, a blog that never fails to inspire me.  Heather has a way with words that literally pulls you into the kitchen alongside her, and takes photos that would pretty much make a bowl of dirt look appealing.  So the moment I saw this Lentils and Potatoes with Curry I knew I wanted to make it.  Heather did not let me down - the dish did not disappoint, and it has become a regular favourite in my kitchen.  Thanks so much for the inspiration Heather.

Lastly, thank you to all of you who take the time to read my blog, to leave your thoughtful comments and offer your encouragement and support - it means more to me than I could ever say.

I'm also submitting this post to the Hearth and Soul blog hop, a place where you'll find lots of wonderful people who are passionate about great food and cooking from the heart - do go and have a look at what they're all cooking this week.