Food Adventures
This week has been a bit of an epic. Even by my belt-straining standards, it's been epic. Last weekend, I was in Spain as part of a group of journalists discussing the last 20 years of gastronomy with Ferran Adria. Well, that was the intention, it was more being part of the group of journalists in the same room as Ferran Adria as Ferran Adria went off at tangents, wrote lists and left us mostly happily baffled. More on that another time. Possibly.
From there, I had 12 hours at home before heading up to Glasgow and Edinburgh for five days of grazing for a couple of features. And tomorrow I head back to Spain with The Macallan for two-and-a-bit more days of eating.
And right now, I'm back at home with a fun obligation to fulfill and, as it happens, one that's going to restore a little balance. A few weeks ago, Lurpak approached me to ask if I'd be interested in a little bit of advertorial and take part in something called "Food Adventures" (or #FoodAdventures for those on Twitter) and a chance to try something from their new Cook's Range.
The range includes Clarified Butter, Cooking Liquid, Baking Butter (blended so it's soft straight from the fridge - though quite why you wouldn't just keep regular butter OUT of the fridge like normal people remains to be answered) and Cooking Mist. Yes. Indeed. That was the mystery one and It was the one that came in my box of goodies, together with some cinnamon sticks and four glossy red chillies. The challenge? Make something with the ingredients.
The Cooking Mist is, apparently, designed for glazing or basting (or for greasing pans and baking tins), which I'll test at some point I'm sure. However, I was looking at it as a way of lightly frying stuff: it's a blend of rape seed oil and Lurpak butter in an aerosol, so it seemed a good way of coating a pan evenly and maybe cutting down on a little bit of fat intake. Yes, it's a small gesture but they all count, right? Plus, frankly, I've written enough about roasting chickens in the past... and wasn't really sure how to get cinnamon into that one and make it edible. No, whenever I see chillies and cinnamon sticks together, my thoughts go straight to Simon Majumdar and his brilliant "Life Saving Dahl" recipe. And, while I've tried to be sensible over the last few days - yomping uphill around Edinburgh is always a good calorie burner - plates of jamon, dishes like haggis and Cumberland sausage hash with whisky sauce and an Aberdeen butterie with home made marmalade do leave you feeling a little... The precise word escapes me but an "oof" like noise should give the idea. Accordingly, a week or so of a healthy, hearty vegetarian dish finished with lots of lemon juice sounded like a perfect solution all round. And yes, while Simon's recipe calls for green chillies, I'm sure even he'd agree with the concept that if life gives you, er, red chillies, you make red chilli paste.
Having made this a few times, I tend to get a little free and easy with the ingredients and quantities in general. But here's Simon's original.
One unwaxed lemon chopped in quarters
One onion sliced
Two cardamom pods
Two cloves
One cinnamon stick
Three cloves garlic
Three fresh green chillies (or red, if someone's sent you some. Obviously.)
Two inches of fresh ginger
One teaspoon each of ground turmeric / ginger / cumin / coriander seed / hot chilli powder
Half a teaspoon of salt
One teaspoon sugar
One-and-a-half pints of water, chicken or vegetable stock
One bag of spinach ( washed )
Method
Make a paste by blending the ginger, garlic and fresh chilli with a little salt and water.
Put two tablespoons of oil into a hot pan and when it comes to heat, add the cardamom, cloves and cinnamon stick. Cook for one minute on a low heat until they release their flavour. In the circumstances, I switched out the vegetable oil for the Cooking Mist and it seemed to work well. I love the smells of this stage...
Add the onion and cook on a low heat until it begins to soften and turn golden. Don't rush this, you want the natural sweetness of the onions to be released.
Add the ginger/chilli/garlic paste and cook for two to four minutes until it loses its rawness.
Add the ground spices, sugar and salt and mix well with the onions and cook out for four minutes until the spices lose their rawness. If the mixture begins to stick add a little water.
Add the lentils and mix well so all the pulses are covered with the mixture.
The next step is where, typically, Simon and I part ways. He says "add water / stock and the quartered lemons and simmer for 30 minutes until the lentils have broken down. Add more water if it sticks. Some lentils may take a little longer." I'd agree with the quantities and that some of the lentils take a little longer but I leave out the lemons at this stage and put everything into the slow cooker for, well, hours or days. Adding the lemons and then slow cooking makes the dish incredibly bitter - a mistake you only make once as there's no way to pull it back from that particular disaster.
If you're adding spinach, add it right at the end, cover and allow to wilt into the lentils. It's only missing because I forgot about it in my rush to take a photo.
Serve over a halved hard boiled egg, with a big squeeze of lemon juice. It's also good with a handful of fresh coriander, sliced green chillies, a spoon of yoghurt, your favourite chutney, all of the above...
Actually, whatever you do to it, it's just good. Damned good. There's some heat - and the red chilli switch out didn't appear to make any difference to my tastebuds - but the spicing is the proper kind, a back note of warmth and depth of flavour and that burst of lemon juice is bloody genius. After a few days of self-inflicted (well, professional) excess, this is as glorious a restorative dish as I know.
From there, I had 12 hours at home before heading up to Glasgow and Edinburgh for five days of grazing for a couple of features. And tomorrow I head back to Spain with The Macallan for two-and-a-bit more days of eating.
And right now, I'm back at home with a fun obligation to fulfill and, as it happens, one that's going to restore a little balance. A few weeks ago, Lurpak approached me to ask if I'd be interested in a little bit of advertorial and take part in something called "Food Adventures" (or #FoodAdventures for those on Twitter) and a chance to try something from their new Cook's Range.
The range includes Clarified Butter, Cooking Liquid, Baking Butter (blended so it's soft straight from the fridge - though quite why you wouldn't just keep regular butter OUT of the fridge like normal people remains to be answered) and Cooking Mist. Yes. Indeed. That was the mystery one and It was the one that came in my box of goodies, together with some cinnamon sticks and four glossy red chillies. The challenge? Make something with the ingredients.
The Cooking Mist is, apparently, designed for glazing or basting (or for greasing pans and baking tins), which I'll test at some point I'm sure. However, I was looking at it as a way of lightly frying stuff: it's a blend of rape seed oil and Lurpak butter in an aerosol, so it seemed a good way of coating a pan evenly and maybe cutting down on a little bit of fat intake. Yes, it's a small gesture but they all count, right? Plus, frankly, I've written enough about roasting chickens in the past... and wasn't really sure how to get cinnamon into that one and make it edible. No, whenever I see chillies and cinnamon sticks together, my thoughts go straight to Simon Majumdar and his brilliant "Life Saving Dahl" recipe. And, while I've tried to be sensible over the last few days - yomping uphill around Edinburgh is always a good calorie burner - plates of jamon, dishes like haggis and Cumberland sausage hash with whisky sauce and an Aberdeen butterie with home made marmalade do leave you feeling a little... The precise word escapes me but an "oof" like noise should give the idea. Accordingly, a week or so of a healthy, hearty vegetarian dish finished with lots of lemon juice sounded like a perfect solution all round. And yes, while Simon's recipe calls for green chillies, I'm sure even he'd agree with the concept that if life gives you, er, red chillies, you make red chilli paste.
Having made this a few times, I tend to get a little free and easy with the ingredients and quantities in general. But here's Simon's original.
Ingredients
One cup of red lentils (toasted first in a dry pan. I use my fingers to stir and when it is too hot to touch, it is done)
One unwaxed lemon chopped in quartersOne onion sliced
Two cardamom pods
Two cloves
One cinnamon stick
Three cloves garlic
Three fresh green chillies (or red, if someone's sent you some. Obviously.)
Two inches of fresh ginger
One teaspoon each of ground turmeric / ginger / cumin / coriander seed / hot chilli powder
Half a teaspoon of salt
One teaspoon sugar
One-and-a-half pints of water, chicken or vegetable stock
One bag of spinach ( washed )
Method
Make a paste by blending the ginger, garlic and fresh chilli with a little salt and water.
Put two tablespoons of oil into a hot pan and when it comes to heat, add the cardamom, cloves and cinnamon stick. Cook for one minute on a low heat until they release their flavour. In the circumstances, I switched out the vegetable oil for the Cooking Mist and it seemed to work well. I love the smells of this stage...
Add the onion and cook on a low heat until it begins to soften and turn golden. Don't rush this, you want the natural sweetness of the onions to be released.
Add the ginger/chilli/garlic paste and cook for two to four minutes until it loses its rawness.
Add the ground spices, sugar and salt and mix well with the onions and cook out for four minutes until the spices lose their rawness. If the mixture begins to stick add a little water.
Add the lentils and mix well so all the pulses are covered with the mixture.
The next step is where, typically, Simon and I part ways. He says "add water / stock and the quartered lemons and simmer for 30 minutes until the lentils have broken down. Add more water if it sticks. Some lentils may take a little longer." I'd agree with the quantities and that some of the lentils take a little longer but I leave out the lemons at this stage and put everything into the slow cooker for, well, hours or days. Adding the lemons and then slow cooking makes the dish incredibly bitter - a mistake you only make once as there's no way to pull it back from that particular disaster.
If you're adding spinach, add it right at the end, cover and allow to wilt into the lentils. It's only missing because I forgot about it in my rush to take a photo.
Serve over a halved hard boiled egg, with a big squeeze of lemon juice. It's also good with a handful of fresh coriander, sliced green chillies, a spoon of yoghurt, your favourite chutney, all of the above...
Actually, whatever you do to it, it's just good. Damned good. There's some heat - and the red chilli switch out didn't appear to make any difference to my tastebuds - but the spicing is the proper kind, a back note of warmth and depth of flavour and that burst of lemon juice is bloody genius. After a few days of self-inflicted (well, professional) excess, this is as glorious a restorative dish as I know.
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