Moroccan couscous salad

We had this with chicken and it made a great accompaniment.

Moroccan chickpea and couscous salad
serves 4

1 cup quick-cooking couscous
¼ cup raisins
1¼ cups boiling chicken or vegetable stock
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 garlic clove — minced
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
½ teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon salt
1 carrot — peeled and grated
½ red pepper — diced
¼ red onion — finely diced
1 cup canned chickpeas — rinsed and drained
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

MIX the couscous with the raisins in a bowl and pour over the boiling stock. COVER with a dish towel, plate or plastic wrap to seal in the steam and let sit for 5 minutes. PLACE the oil, lemon juice, garlic, spices, and salt in a jar with a screw-top lid and shake to mix. FLUFF the couscous with a fork to separate the grains and stir through the carrot, red pepper, onion, chickpeas and parsley. POUR over the dressing and toss together until well combined.

It’s from MediterrAsian Way cookbook, the authors posted it here.

I omitted the ground ginger, not having it to hand, and instead of raisins, I used chopped soft prunes. For lack of my own, which I’d usually have in the freezer, I used a commercial chicken stock, which was supposedly good quality. As a side, it served a lot more than four, but it kept well for a few days.

Chicken and Fennel soup

This is from the book Petits Plats de Marrakech. Pictures follow since I have no intention of translating it. I’m giving away my French copy of this and wanted to keep the one recipe I consistently made from the collection.

 

Chicken and Fennel soup is one of those recipes that takes a chicken a long way, it’s a great budget dish.

Red Lentil Hummus (Heidi Swanson)

This is supposed to make 3 cups, but that quantity is predicated upon the recipe being successfully followed.

My Sous Chef enters the kitchen.

MSC, cheerfully: What’s that I smell?

Me, scowling: So far just burnt lentils

MSC, who is nothing if not chivalrous, and permanently set to his enthusiastic button when food is at stake: My favourite

I followed the instructions for cooking the red lentils and they called for 1.5 cups of lentils cooked in 1.75 cups water. I seriously had my doubts as to why that would be sufficient liquid, but what the hell. I popped it on, turned it to low when it came to the boil, and went out to knit and watch Vera. Some time later I noticed smoke in the air. I scraped out about half the lentils, the rest being a blackened glue to the pan. This process had left the lentils somewhat uncooked by the way. Al dente at a pinch.

But, as sometimes happens to kitchen disasters, this turned out to be something one could serve up at a dinner party, modestly admitting to having improved some famous cook’s recipe. (I’m sorry, Ms Swanson, but I haven’t heard of you, even though your book Near and Far is on my shelves.) The fact is that those lentils which were salvagable, had a smokiness about them which meant that I had created a hummus along the lines of baba ganoush when it’s done properly and the eggplant is prepared by thoroughly burning it. Not only that, but as it happened, I have been draining that way too runny Farmer’s Union yoghurt which means I had heaps of whey. Normally I just throw it out, I’m thrilled to have a use for it. I suspect that too added to the baba ganoush character of the hummus.

Anyway, we gave it a big thumbs up. It was served with olive oil and black sesame seeds on top.

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups cooked red lentils
• 2 medium cloves garlic
• 3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 2/3 cup tahini
• 3/4 teaspoon fine-grain seasalt
• 2 to 3 tablespoons whey, kefir, or warm water
• 2 teaspoons black sesame seeds
• Extra-virgin olive oil, toasted sesame oil, minced chives, and/or chive blossoms, to serve

Instructions

1. Start by adding the cooked lentils and garlic to a food processor and pulsing for at least a minute, scraping the paste from the corners once or twice along the way.
2. Add the lemon juice, tahini, and sea salt. Blend again, another minute or so. Don’t skimp on the blending time, but stop if the beans form a doughy ball inside the processor.
3. At this point start adding the whey a splash at a time. Blend, blend, blend, until the hummus is smooth and light, aer- ated and creamy.
4. Taste, and adjust to your liking—adding more lemon juice or salt, if needed.
5. Serve topped with the black sesame seeds, and preferably, a good amount olive oil, a few drops of toasted sesame oil, lots of chives, and chive blossoms.

red red lentil soup

Nothing you can’t get a gadzillion versions of on the web, but this is what I did for lunch today. It’s a very cheap dish – as discussed under budget – but that’s just a bonus. Should you happen to be providing lunch for the RBA Governor, who told us all we either had to work more, or spend less, don’t serve this. It’ll only convince him that he should take away even more of our money and you surely don’t want to be the one that causes another interest rate rise.

Ingredients

• ghee
• 2 onions chopped between fine and coarse
• couple of cloves of garlic, chopped
• an inch of ginger, peeled and chopped
• dry harissa (which I buy from the spice shop in the central market)
• a cup of red lentils, washed and picked over
• 2 medium carrots, peeled and chopped
• tin of chopped tomatoes
• water
• coconut milk

Method

• Gently fry the onions in the ghee, to soften, not to brown
• Add the garlic, ginger and maybe 1 tablespoon of harissa; stir thoroughly, for a minute or so
• Next the lentils, carrots, tomatoes and water, maybe one cup to begin with and add more when/if necessary
• Close the the end of cooking time, which will be at least 30 minutes, add between half and a whole tin of coconut milk

We served it like this with toast. The lentils were soft, the onion, garlic and ginger had a bit of bite to them and it was a very chunky soup. It was given the thumbs up, but I did have in mind the idea of transforming it in some way tomorrow when we have more of it.

Instead of the dry harissa mix I used, you could use wet harissa paste, or a combo of Indian spices such as cumin, tumeric, coriander and garam masala. We had a bad accident making our own harissa, and have found this dry one to be better than the jars we’ve come across, which always have an intolerable amount of cheap vinegar and who knows what else mysteriously playing a role.

Budget

Although I love to use ghee, which is the most expensive ingredient, you can use oil instead. This is a super cheap meal, I’d say we have about 6 serves and it couldn’t have cost more than $10. If you keep it thick, you can also serve it with rice instead of toast. If you are a posh type you can get ghee at ‘farmer’s markets’ and such like for a whole lot of dosh. I go to Indian grocery stores for all my Indian cooking needs and you can generally get an Australian brand, in fact more likely than at the big supermarkets. A lot of recipes for this sort of soup suggest adding stock, but there is more than enough flavour in this combination of ingredients to make that unnecessary – maybe even undesirable. You could also skip the coconut milk.

These particularly caught my attention this morning: Indian Lentil Soup from Green Kitchen Stories  and Four Corners Lentil Soup from My New Roots.

chickpea, chicken and spinach soup

Once the stock is made, this takes no time. Keep some in the freezer.

Step one: boil chicken feet in water for a couple of hours. Discard feet, put stock in fridge for later use. It will be a very firm, gelatinous mass once cold. I’ve experimented a bit with (supposedly) good quality commercial stocks and they just aren’t remotely of the same quality. Also, they have a lot of added ingredients, whereas I want pure stock to which I will add taste ingredients as I please.

Ingredients

• chicken stock as per above
• ghee (or other butter/oil for frying)
• 1 tin chickpeas, rinsed
• two onions, peeled and chopped
• 2 chicken thigh fillets – free range really do taste much better
• half a bunch of chard/spinach/silverbeet, chopped into size okay for soup
• lemon for serving
• mint tea for serving

Method

• In a generously sized saucepan gently fry the onion until softened, and towards the end spices (see below for variations)
• add the stock and some water, the chickpeas and the chicken. Bring to boil and reduce to simmer
• When the chicken is cooked, take it out and chop; then return to pan along with the chard, leave for five minutes
• Serve with lemon
• Mint tea: I put a good quality t-bag in a pot with a generous quantity of mint leaves from the garden, crushed/torn first. Sugar on the table for those who want to add it….ME!!!

Variation

You can take this in various directions. I decided to add some harissa towards the end of frying the onions. Paprika, cumin, all sorts of spices would work well. Alternatively, add a tin of diced tomato, grate some parmesan, and you are on the way to something Italian-ish. You can leave out the spinach and add things like celery and carrot. I added small soup pasta at the end – cooked separately and then strained into bowls, adding the soup on top. Equally one might add rice, also cooked separately first. Toast, normal or flatbread. Make it easy, what’s in the cupboard. A tin of beans, white or borlotti, instead of chickpeas.

If you don’t have chicken to hand to add, it will be a very good chickpea and vegetable soup, simply because of the excellent chicken stock. A bag of chicken feet cost less than high end commercial stocks and produces a much better quality ingredient.

Chana dal and ras el hanout

I’ve been trying to stop being lazy about dal and try different bases from my over-used red split lentils. All the books say that you must soak these first, preferably overnight. I just cooked them straight from the packet, I think long cooking times of these sorts of dishes have the best outcomes, so I don’t want to skim on that anyway.

Ingredients

• 1 cup/half a packet of chana dal, washed and picked over for foreign bits
• perhaps 2 dessertspoons of ras el hanout, which I discuss here.
• a couple of onions, fairly finely chopped
• garlic, chopped
• ginger, chopped finely
• some chopped vegetables: I used two zucchinis, two med-large potatoes and two carrots

Method

• Fry the onion in the ghee until softened, add the garlic and ginger and a minute or so later, the spice mix for another minute. Keep stirring throughout.
• Add the washed dal and four cups of water. Bring to the boil.
• Cover and simmer vigorously for an hour or two. Check to make sure you don’t need to add more water, and to see how the softening process is going.
• Once the dal is fairly soft, add the chopped vegetables, bring to the boil again and then lower to a simmer, covered, until vegetables are cooked to your liking.

You may wish to do as I did, which was to partially mash the dal with a potato masher before adding the vegetables. I don’t really know if that was a good idea.

Best served day two, but we enjoyed it tonight with a hot mango chutney, plain yoghurt and a simple basmati rice dish.

Eggs and yoghurt in Peter Gordon’s style

We used to regularly eat at the Providores and Tapa Room when in London, but at some point we realised that the only dish we really REALLY wanted was the ‘Turkish Eggs‘. And that being the case, why couldn’t we make such a simple dish ourselves?

Fast forward some years and finally we’ve done it, more or less as per the link above.

Ingredients for two

• four pieces of toast
• 4 eggs
• about half a cup of strained yoghurt, room temperature
• finely chopped or crushed garlic
• a teensy amount of chilli
• butter
• olive oil
• parsley or chives

Method

• mix the yoghurt with a little olive oil and the garlic in a serving bowl
• bring water to a gentle simmer in a wide pan and gently slide in eggs from a saucer
• make the toast
• on a low heat melt the butter and swish in the chilli when melted. Turn off the heat, but you can leave the butter there to stay warm

Assemble

On the toast place the eggs, which you removed with a slotted spoon. Drizzle with the butter. The yoghurt can be placed on top or on the side. A little finely chopped parsley or chives can be strewn across the eggs and butter if desired. We didn’t today.

This is somewhat different to how it is done in Providores where the eggs and yoghurt concoction is served in a bowl with toast on the side. As you please.

Thoughts on poaching eggs

This was my first time trying the wide pan and gentle poaching. Usually I do the ferociously boiling deep pan with the vortex and all that. But I find it really stressful, timing has to be perfect, it’s hard to see what’s going on, and after removal the egg still cooks fairly quickly, not surprising given what it’s been subjected to.

I thought I hadn’t put enough water in the wide pan today – the tips of the yolks were slightly exposed. But in the end I simply ladled water gently over the yolks and that worked a treat. At the end it was easy to see that the eggs were ready and they didn’t firm up as they were being eaten, which I attribute to the more gentle cooking.

Word of the day: GENTLE. This is a recipe that needs things to be done gently! But also quickly, if not frantically. You want everything to be hot when you are serving.

I didn’t add any of those things that are supposed to help the eggs during the poaching and mine behaved well.

Don’t forget

You have to make the tea whilst all this is going on…what would such a meal be like without tea?

 

 

 

Baharat spice mix

I realised the other day that I hadn’t made baharat for the longest time – never in Geneva and I’ve been here eight years. In Melbourne long ago I often used to put it on pork chops which were then put on a wood BBQ. The BBQ is not an option now, but pork abounds. Mix the baharat with olive oil and vinegar to make a paste. Rub all over the meat before baking in the oven until done. I cooked it fairly high, about 210C.

We had it hot on day one, but this is much better left and eaten cold, which is how we had it last night on a platter with stuffed eggs, falafels, cheese and so on. It is a good alternative to chicken in these summer rolls.

Like all these spice mixes, it is not written in stone. Like all good Australians, I’ve always used Tess Mallos’ version:

In a spice grinder:

70g black peppercorns
25g coriander seeds
10g cassia bark
20g cloves
35g cumin seeds
2 teaspoons cardamom seeds
4 whole nutmegs, smashed with a mallet
50g paprika

I make half this at a time, though if you use it a lot it is definitely worth doing the full quantity.

Salad with falafel and eggs

Ingredients

• mixed salad leafs, or baby spinach washed and dried
• eggs boiled until soft-hard, one per person
• cooked falafels, a few, broken into small pieces
• yogurt
• tahini
• lemon juice
• finely chopped/crushed garlic
• salt and pepper
• roasted ground cumin

Method

Put the salad leaves in a serving bowl, mix in the falafels – I took them from the fridge, left over from yesterday, and broke them up by gently crushing them.

For the dressing: mix the rest of the ingredients, I used several tablespoons of yoghurt and 2 teasps of tahini. It’s all to taste.

Mix the dressing into the salad.

Cut the tops of the eggs and scoop the egg into the salad, gently mix again.

That’s it. The toast addict had it on top of toast. I had it on its own.

Roden’s spinach and chickpea soup revisited

When I went to make this much loved recipe, I discovered that I had a couple of issues. Firstly, the only vinegar I had was so woosy that one could scarcely tell it was vinegar at all. It was a Coriole sweet aged red wine vinegar, to be precise. Secondly, I had no stock, either chicken or vegetable, so water had to do.

I thought I had free rein at this point to vary it as I pleased, and instead of cumin and paprika, I added ras el hahout.

Worked a treat!