Kumara and Lentil Soup

Hi there folks, I promised I would post every day in September (except my birthday), but already that attempt has been foiled!  I wrote the review of Journey to the Centre of the Earth on Thursday afternoon, and scheduled it for Friday morning, but when I decided to change something in the post and clicked 'update', blogger decided to publish it then and there.  This is what I get for trying out this new interface, I suck at figuring out new things.  So please count Thursday's second post as Friday's post, and we'll all get along just fine.

I absolutely love this recipe, it's flavourful and really good for you.  For anyone not from New Zealand, kumara is a variety of sweet potato brought to New Zealand with the Maori a few hundred years ago.  It has a different flavour to the sweet potato I had while in Australia, quite a bit sweeter.  It also has a texture that's softer than a regular potato when cooked, and is a little stringy.  In New Zealand, you can buy purple (see below), golden, and orange (depending on season) in every supermarket in the country.  I'm sure sweet potato will work just as well in this recipe, though it will taste a little different.  Please do include the apple, though, as it adds another type of sweetness and a subtle flavour that really makes the soup.

Picture from Wikipedia

Kumara and Lentil Soup

A drizzle of oil
2 tsp curry powder
2 onions, grated or chopped finely
3 cloves of garlic
1 apple, grated or chopped finely
20 g coriander
Thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger
Salt to taste
800 g kumera (sweet potato), grated or chopped finely
1.2 L stock
100 g red lentils
300 ml milk
Juice of 1 lime (optional)

Drizzle a large saucepan with oil and add the curry powder and heat, stirring, until fragrant.  Add the onions, garlic, apple, coriander, and ginger.  Season to taste, and cook slowly for 5 minutes.  Add the kumera, lentils, stock, and milk, and simmer covered for 20 minutes or until everything is cooked.  Blend until smooth and stir in lime juice if using.

Variations:  Try pumpkin in the place of sweet potato.  Instead of using curry powder, try using your own favourite mix of spices.  Instead of using milk and stock, try coconut milk/cream (and add water as needed), add minced/finely chopped lemongrass, and limit the spices to tumeric and chilli, and make a Thai-inspired sweet potato/pumpkin soup.

Links of the Week - August 6

Craft:  A Boy's Best Friend...  at Feeling Stitchy

The moment I read the title of this post I thought of the song "A Boy's Best Friend" By the White Stripes, for which the last line is "A boy's best friend is his mother or whatever has become his pet".  That's not what this embroidery is about, but I'll have that song playing in my head whenever I think of Hitchcock for a while now, I'm sure.

Steampunk:  Mad Hatter's Tea Party at Geek Crafts

Usually steampunk is very...  punky.  But this is beautiful whether you're into steampunk or not.  And I am.  So it's extra beautiful.

Science:  Facial Recognition at Io9

Yes, I have sneakily popped two links into this one entry.  The first is all about how facial recognition software could allow facebook to invade your privacy even more (or allow people to use facebook to invade your privacy themselves) and the second is about a neat phenomena that means that we don't process oddities about faces when they're upside down.  Both are interesting to me, despite my having studied this stuff for my masters.

Recipe:  Sugar Plum Crepes with Ricotta and Honey at Smitten Kitchen

Does anyone need any convincing to go and check this out?  No?  Good, I will tell you a little* story instead then.  We had an amazing plum tree at our old house.  Every year about Christmastime we would have a glut of plums, they would be tart when not quite ripe, then sweet when ripe, then rich when a little overripe, but edible at all three stages.  When we moved, we thought it would be okay not to take a cutting or any plum stones because my uncle (the one with the puppies) had lots of little baby plum trees on his farm that we'd given him, and he'd just dig one up for us.  No luck - he lost them (it's a farm, it's big!).  But I bumped into our old neighbours recently and they say the plum tree is still there, and the new owner is lovely - she'd be happy to have me call to collect a few plums to grow a new tree from.  So there is hope!

Art/Webcomics:  The Final Episode of FREAKANGELS at FREAKANGELS.com

I can't read it.  I just can't.  It can't be over.  I hate Warren Ellis.  I love Warren Ellis.  Waaaaahh.

 Art:  Keep Calm and Carry On...

(Wait, what?  That's not right...)

*Since when have I ever told a little story?

Basic Dahl

While reading the feeds this morning, I came across this recipe for 'basic dahl' on SBS:

Heat the oil in a slow cooker over high heat.
Add the lentils, cumin, turmeric, garam masala, chilli powder, red chilli, onion, garlic and ginger, and cook, stirring, until the onion softens.
Add the coriander, stock and chopped vegetables, and cook over low heat for at least 1 hour (the longer the better).
Stir in the parsley just before serving.

 Yikes!  That's a lot more than a basic dahl, in my opinion.  Look at all of those spices!  This would be a delicious dahl, but I know an even simpler recipe (more a method) that was taught to me by a resident at my old hall of residence in Australia.  He is from Pakistan, so I deem this recipe to be authentic!

Soak lentils (red are good) for a few hours (this makes them cook faster) before rinsing and checking for chaff.

Heat a little oil in a saucepan, add a chopped onion and cook over a low heat until softened.  Add a cut tomato, seeds, skin and all.

Add the soaked rinsed lentils, enough water to cover it all, and some hot paprika (not smoked, not sweet).

Stir, and cook until lentils are tender.  Add more water if needed.

And that's it.  Five ingredients, including the cooking oil.  Now that's basic, and it's a really yummy introduction to the loveliness that is dahl.  Recently, I have moved on from this recipe to something a lot more like the SBS one, and tried different types of lentils, but that's only because I have started using paprika for Spanish and Moroccan food and like its flavour better in that context.  Let me know if you try it!

PS:  I know I promised a book review, but I'm still working on my gnome canvas (see here for the link).  We'll be back to regularly scheduled posting when he's done.  He's turned out to be high maintenance, all my own fault, and has acquired a stumpwork beard.  Yeah, who knew you could so that?

Links of the Week: III

Sorry this is late, I'm trying to post these every Saturday, but Mum's been home on leave and so we've been having fun doing... housework :-( but also :-)

Recipe:  Kaiserschmarrn at SBS

My good friend Jonathan cooked kaiserschmarrn a few times while I was living at Toad Hall in Canberra (yes that is its real name, no there are no badgers or rats...  okay, there might be rats, but only if someone were to leave their uneaten lunch in their room...) and if he had cooked it every night I would have eaten it every night without any self control.  Luckily, he didn't, and I didn't explode.  Now I have this recipe...  I can't look at it *the light, it burns us*.

Fashion:  Vintage Sewing Books at Colette Patterns

This is such a great site.  At first I thought I was simply signing up to a feed that would let me know when they post a new free pattern (like this one and this one), but I have been learning all about the different techniques used in dressmaking, properties of different fabrics, and famous and/or fabulous designers, both modern and retro.  Do sign up if you think you might be even a little interested (money back refund upon request if you don't like it, promise!).  PS:  Damn I just found a whole bunch of craft blog links at the bottom of the page.  There goes my afternoon/week.

Environment/Craft:  Plarn at My Recycled Bags

What a great idea I had on the way home from the supermarket the other day - take plastic supermarket bags and crochet them to make strong reusable shopping bags and minimise the guilt of forgetting to bring my own bags now and then.  Then I found out it had already been done and this technique is so much better than I had thought up.  Still a great idea, just not original, and done better by someone else!

Science Fiction and Science:  Science Future at Escape Pod

If you're not convinced about signing up for this podcast, this very short article should do it.  If not the article, then the two very apropriate quotations bookending it.  If you're still not convinced... then...  I don't know, just do as I tell you, minions.

Food and Culture:  Matariki at Foodlovers

As I write this there is still time to rock on up to this event if they're still taking registrations (and if you're not like me living across the other side of Auckland like a chump).  Maori and Pacific Island food has always interested me, but I've never tried cooking any...  Now, where do I buy puha?