Chipolata sausages and lentils

December 29, 2014January 28, 2015 ~ annie ~ Leave a comment

The inspiration for this dish came to me yesterday, while staring blankly at the meat section in Sainsbury’s, wondering – as usual – what the f*ck to cook for dinner. Having just finished my “long run” outside Sainsbury’s doors (good timing or what?!) I could barely think straight, let alone face into hours of laborious food prep.

This is my take on what has become a well-known dish in recent years. It’s great winter food and quite impressive, particularly given its simplicity. If you have a good stock of herbs and spices you can get quite creative but for my version I’ve stuck closely to the seasoning used in the sausages, amplifying or complementing flavours already present in the dish. It’s super tasty, nutritious and quick – you should be able to get it on the table in 30 minutes. For real.

Ingredients

375g chipolata sausages (12)

250g spinach

200g split red lentils

150g cherry tomatoes

1 onion, minced

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 chili pepper, minced (optional)

1 tsp black pepper

1 tsp white pepper

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp nutmeg

3 bay leaves

salt to taste

juice 1/2 lemon

1/2 glass wine

Serves 4

Method

Step 1: in a large pan, warm the dry spices in a little olive oil on a medium-low heat for about 1 minute. Add the minced garlic, onion and (optional) chilli. Fry for a further 3 minutes.

(As an aside, I cook with chilli a lot – but sometimes I’ll use peppers, or even chili flakes, that go straight for the back of my throat, and have me coughing up a lung for 20 minutes. I tend to just struggle through (good for the sinuses and all that), but I’m told that a damp bandana tied over your mouth and nose should help. Just don’t suffocate yourself, please.)

Step 2: add split red lentils, cherry tomatoes, bay leaves, lemon juice, a pinch of salt and about 400-500mls of water. Cover and leave to simmer on a low heat for 12-15 minutes.

Step 3: meanwhile, place chipolatas under a hot grill, turning occasionally to make sure they are good and browned all the way round. This should take about 10 minutes. Once cooked, turn on oven at about 160c to keep them warm while waiting for the rest of the dish to be ready.

Step 4: add wine to lentils and stir through.

Step 5: turn up heat to medium-high and add spinach. Toss the spinach to make sure that some of the lentils are on top as this will help it wilt faster. You want to remove from heat as soon as the spinach has wilted as it’s much nicer with a bit of bite left in it. This should take about 2-3 minutes. Check seasoning to make sure it’s to your taste – but otherwise, you’re done. Serve with red wine, obviously.

Home made pita with yellow lentil, pink bean, red pepper and green parsley dip

November 9, 2014January 14, 2015 ~ annie ~ 1 Comment

I was at work on a Friday afternoon daydreaming about…not being at work. And I got to thinking about how brightly coloured I could make food without resorting to food coloring. I present to you: yellow orange lentils, pink butter beans, sweet and spicy red peppers, and green parsley dip. Served with straight-from-the-oven-homemade pitas, these were an excellent weekend treat.

Yellow lentil dip

Ingredients

60g split orange lentils

40g sheeps cheese

1 tbsp peanut butter

2 tbsp olive oil

1/2 clove garlic

1/2 orange zest

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground turmeric

salt to taste

Method

Step 1: boil the lentils with about equal amounts of water. Simmer for 10 mins. Turn off and allow to cool.

Step 2: add all the other ingredients and mix through with a metal spoon.

Step 3: using a handheld liquidiser, blend the mixture together, adding a tbsp of water as necessary to loosen it up. Add salt to taste.

The orange zest and peanut butter make this a very more-ish tasting dip. Is it dhal? Is it hummus? Who can tell, all you know is you want morrrrre.

Pink bean dip

Ingredients

1 can butter beans, drained

1/2 beetroot

1/2 clove garlic

1 tbsp peanut butter

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp cumin

juice 1 lemon

salt to taste

Method

Step 1: boil 1/2 a beetroot for about 20 mins. Run under cold water, peel and chop.

Step 2: add beetroot to all other all other ingredients, except salt and lemon juice, and stir.

Step 3: blend with a handheld liquidiser. Lemon juice and salt to taste.

You will be shocked at how bright even half a beetroot will make this dip. Beetroot is also a lot sweeter than you might imagine, which is why I used quite a lot of lemon juice to balance out the flavour. Think of it as pink hummus, except without the chickpeas. Or the tahini. What the hell, just think of it as pink bean dip. Perfect for a party.

Red Pepper Dip

Ingredients

4 sweet long red peppers

1 tbsp chilli flakes

juice 1/2 lemon

salt to taste

Method

Step 1: roast peppers at about 180c for 45 mins. Set aside and allow to cool.

Step 2: once cooled, peel the peppers and dump the flesh into a bowl, along with seeds. Add chilli flakes.

Step 3: blend with handheld liquidiser. Lemon juice and salt to taste.

This is a sort of Turkish/Mediterranean-inspired dip. Great as a starter with just some bread and olive oil.

Green parsley dip

Ingredients

80g sheep’s cheese

2 big handfuls of parsley

2 tbsp olive oil

1 clove garlic

juice 1/2 lemon

Method

Step 1: wash parsley and chop it roughly.

Step 2: crumble cheese onto parsley and add olive oil and garlic. Stir with metal spoon.

Step 3: blend with handheld liquidiser. Lemon juice to taste.

So goood. This one is my favourite – it’s a take on a dip served in my favourite restaurant in Kosovo, Restaurant Tiffany. I could make myself sick on this stuff.

Pita Bread

Ingredients

250g strong white flour

150ml water

1 sachet yeast

pinch of salt

dash of olive oil

Method

Step 1: preheat your oven to 220c.

Step 2: throw all your ingredients into a bowl together. Mix it up by hand. It should be a dry-ish mix that doesn’t stick to your hands or the bowl. Throw in a dash more flour if it’s too wet.

Step 3: knead the dough for 5 minutes on a floured surface. Stick it back in the bowl and place it somewhere warm and a bit humid for about an hour, until it’s doubled in size.

Step 3: knock it back and knead again. Leave it for a further 15 minutes.

Step 4: separate out into 6 balls and roll out pitas on a floured surface. Arrange on a floured baking tray and place into pre-heated oven for 10-15 minutes, turning once toward the end. 2 trays should do the whole lot.

And there you have it: no frills, no fuss – just pitas. Serve warm with a variety of dips. Though not quite naans, these are great for mopping up a curry.

Bobotie

November 3, 2014January 14, 2015 ~ annie ~ 1 Comment

Referred to as South Africa’s unofficial national dish, Bobotie is a shockingly tasty pie-like concoction of mince, fruit, nuts, and a custard topping. Nigella even puts bloody jam in it!

Now, if Nigella and Joey Tribbiani both think that custard, jam and meat is a winning combination, I guess I shouldn’t knock it ’til I’ve tried it. But my version – courtesy of Lannice Snyman (with a tweak or two) – features mere dried apricots and apples.

And it goes a little something like this:

Ingredients

vegetable oil

2 onions, finely chopped

600g minced lamb

2 garlic cloves, crushed or finely chopped

10g hot curry powder

2 slices bread, crumbed

1 lemon, juiced and zested

3 eggs

300ml milk

40g flaked almonds

1 granny smith, peeled, cored and finely chopped

60g dried apricots, chopped

5 bay leaves

Serves 4

Method

Before we get started, it might be helpful to note that there are 3 stages here. There’s the onion, garlic, meat and curry powder stage; there’s the milk, egg, breadcrumbs, fruit and nut stage, and then there is the custard stage. So, don’t worry about getting everything ready beforehand as you can do it in between stages.

Step 1: Turn on your oven to 160 c. Grease your tray with butter or oil. Butter is probably better but whatever you have to hand works.

Step 2: Fry your chopped onions on a low heat until they are golden brown but not burnt. Add your meat, and prod with wooden spoon until it’s all sealed. Lannice says you can use beef or lamb. I used lamb and after tasting how well it worked with the other ingredients, I can’t imagine that beef would work as well. So, use lamb.

Step 3: Add your garlic and curry powder to the meat. Cook all this up on a low heat for about 30 minutes. Remember, mince tends to be pretty low grade fare, so the longer the better.

A note on the spices used here: I used Rajah hot curry powder, which contains coriander, turmeric, mustard, bengal gram, cumin, chilli, fenugreek, pepper, garlic, salt, fennel, poppy seeds and curry leaf, apparently. Lannice provides a recipe for a roasted masala to go with this recipe which contains coriander seeds, turmeric, cumin, chilli, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, pepper, and ginger. Not much overlap. So, I think it’s probably up to you to experiment a bit to get it to your taste – just make sure you get some salt and cumin in there for flavour, and pepper and chilli for a bit of warmth.

Step 4: Combine your breadcrumbs, fruit, nuts, lemon juice and zest, 50mls of your milk and 1 of your eggs (the rest of your milk and eggs are for the custard). Fold this into your mince and make sure it’s all mixed up well. This mixture goes into your tray and gets patted down flat with a big spoon.

Step 5: Roll up your bay leaves and bury them in the bobotie mixture. I can’t figure out why Lannice wants them rolled up but it made them a bit easier to pick out afterwards so I’m keeping this step in.

Afterwards, cover your tray with foil and pop it in the oven for 30 mins.

Step 6: Take out your tray, remove your foil and turn up the oven to 200 c in preparation for the next step.

Step 7: Mix together your 2 remaining eggs with your remaining milk and add a good pinch of salt to make a sort of savoury custard, and pour this over the top of your bobotie. Put it back in the oven at 200 c and cook for another 15-25 minutes until it’s getting omlete-like and a bit burnt on top.

Remove from oven and voila! You (should) have yourself a ridiculously tasty bobotie. I served mine with lightly spiced rice but it’s hefty enough to eat on its own. Enjoy!