Vindaloo (original style)

Amazingly brilliant. I've not changed anything from this recipe:

75ml cider vinegar
700g pork shoulder, cut into 3cm chunks
4 tbsp ghee, neutral or coconut oil
500g onions, finely sliced (about 4 medium onions)
60g tamarind pulp
10 garlic cloves, finely sliced
5cm thick length of ginger, cut into slim matchsticks
4 ripe tomatoes, diced
2-4 small green chillies
10 curry leaves (optional)
1 tbsp jaggery or soft brown sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black mustard seeds

For the masala
2 tbsp Kashmiri chilli powder or paprika
Seeds of 8 cardamom pods
1 tsp black peppercorns
8 cloves
1 tsp cumin seeds
½ tsp coriander seeds
½ tsp turmeric
5cm cinnamon stick

Grind masala ingredients, then add in the vinegar. Rub into the pork and leave to marinade for 3 to 4 hours. 

Heat the ghee in a large pot, then fry the onions over a medium-low heat until soft and golden. Meanwhile, soak tamarind pulp in 120ml of hot water for 15 minutes, then gently rub off pulp from seeds, then strain off the liquid and set aside, and discard the solids. 

Add garlic and ginger to the onions and stir in, cook for another 5 minutes, then add tomatoes, chillies and curry leaves and cook until tomatoes start to break down.

Add the pork and marinade, turn up heat to medium-high, mix in jaggery (sugar), salt and mustard seeds, and then add tamarind liquid. Bring to simmer, turn heat down, cover and cook for an hour. 

After an hour, remove the lid and thicken on a low heat for another 30 minutes. Serve with rice, naan or whatever.

Vegetarian lasagne

We needed to use up some stuff in the fridge, so I made this. It was nice.

150-200g lasagne sheets (I needed 6 large-ish fresh sheets)
2 400g tins whole tomatoes (you could also use diced)
2 onions
2 cloves garlic
2 courgettes
250g mushrooms
1/2 cup red wine (can also use red wine vinegar)
200-300g grated cheese (I guess you should use mozzarella or Parmesan, but we had some regular grated Edam which worked quite well too)
250ml bechamel sauce
Mixed herbs
Salt and pepper to taste

Start with the tomato sauce. Fry the onions and garlic for a few minutes, then add the tomatoes, wine, herbs and seasoning and cook for around 30-45 minutes. If you want more sauce in your lasagne, double the quantities here.

While the sauce is cooking, thinly slice the courgettes lengthwise if possible (you can use a mandolin for this!) or otherwise just use discs. Slice up the mushrooms into thin slices too. Also preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

When the tomato sauce is ready, start assembling your dish. Grease the bottom of your oven dish, then layer as so (not too important, this is how I did it): pasta sheets, courgettes, mushrooms, tomato sauce, bechamel sauce, cheese, pasta, courgettes, mushrooms, tomato sauce, bechamel, cheese, pasta, bechamel, cheese. Season as you go.

Pop it in the oven and cook for 45 minutes to an hour, depending on your oven. It'll come out lovely. 

Watermelon gazpacho

Another excellent find from this summer. The original is courtesy of Saveur, and a very nice place it is too.

1 kg watermelon, rind removed and roughly chopped
big bunch coriander
a third as much mint (or to taste)
3 tbsp lime juice
2 tbsp olive oil
1 Noa or English cucumber, peeled and roughly chopped
1 chilli, deseeded and roughly chopped
1 big tomato (I used coeur de boeuf, but it's up to you), roughly chopped
1 onion, peeled and roughly chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Throw everything into a blender or food processor. Chill for a few hours and serve.

Excellent on a hot summer's evening. 

Thai gazpacho

It was a very hot summer here, so we ate a lot of cold soups. This one turned out very nicely, although if you want it to have a reasonably attractive colour, make sure you use yellow tomatoes, not red ones. Otherwise, though, it's all very tasty. Based on this recipe.

Ingredients:
3-4 large yellow tomatoes, cut into chunks
1 full Noa cucumber, or 1/2 English cucumber, peeled and cut into chunks
1/2 yellow pepper, deseeded and cut into chunks
1 onion
1-2 cloves garlic
1 tbsp lemongrass (paste, fresh, or frozen)
1 thumb-size piece of ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
juice and zest of 1 lime
2 tbsp fish sauce
1 tsp chilli paste OR 1 chilli (or to taste)
mint, (Thai) basil and coriander to taste (should be about 1/2 cup or so)
1/2 a 400ml tin of coconut milk (you can use more too, but keep some for serving)
seasoning

Throw the tomatoes, cucumber, pepper, and onion into a blender and blend. Add the garlic, lemongrass, ginger, lime juice and zest, fish sauce, chilli, herbs and seasoning, and then as much coconut milk as you want (less is more, add little by little until you have as much as you want). Blend the mixture until smooth.

Put in the fridge to cool for a few hours. Serve with some bread on the side. 

Maghmour (Lebanese aubergine stew)

Just, like, the greatest dish ever. Honestly, this is one of the best things I have tasted. It's very simple, very quick, and tastes amazing. I cannot recommend this enough.

It's basically this recipe with a few small changes.

1 kg brinjal/aubergine, cut into cubes of ca. 5x5x5 cm
1/2 cup olive oil
2 x 400g tins chickpeas, well rinsed
1-2 onions, diced
Garlic to taste (original recipe calls for 5 cloves)
thumb-sized piece of ginger, minced
2 x 400g tins tomatoes (or equivalent fresh diced tomatoes. I've used both, and both work well)
1 tbsp tomato paste
1-2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp dried mint or mixed herbs (I also used fresh mint the first time, which worked quite well)
1 - 2 cups water (depending on preferences)

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Arrange the aubergine on a baking sheet, cover with 1/4 cup of olive oil and bake for 20-30 minutes until brown. While you're doing that, add the rest of the olive to a pot and brown the onions, then add the garlic and ginger and cook for a few more minutes on a medium heat. Finally, add the chickpeas, tomatoes, tomato paste, herbs, and aubergine, mix together, and cook for about 20 minutes. If it gets too dry, add some water to maintain a stewish consistency (to be fair, I've never needed to add any).

Serve with couscous and enjoy. It is lovely. 

Sweet potato and chickpea burgers with homemade braai relish

This is a blend of this recipe for the patty and this one for the relish with some small changes. It worked quite nicely eventually.

Should make around 4 patties

1-2 sweet potatoes (should be around 500g or so)
400 ml tin chickpeas
1 lemon, zest and juice
cumin, cinnamon, salt and pepper to taste
burger rolls, tomatoes, salad leaves, gherkins to serve

These quantities make quite a lot of relish. You could cut them in half if desired:
1 onion
6 tomatoes, or 2x 400 ml tins of diced tomatoes
garlic to taste
1-2 tbsp peri peri sauce (or to taste)
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp tomato sauce/purée
salt, pepper, cayenne pepper to taste

Chop up the sweet potatoes into chunks and steam until soft. Drain and rinse the chickpeas, then chop them up in a food processor. Once the sweet potatoes are ready, add them to the chickpeas, add the seasoning, and mix in (don't use the food processor). Form into four patties (or as many as you want) and put them in the freezer for about 30 minutes or so. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

After 30 minutes, put the patties on a baking tray and put in the oven. Cook for about 25 minutes or so. Once they are "cooked," fry them in a pan to firm them up well.

While the patties are in the freezer or the oven, dice the onion and garlic and gently cook in a pot until soft. Add the tomatoes, peri peri, soy sauce, tomato sauce, and seasonings and cook on a low temperature for around 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally to stop it catching on the bottom of the pot.

Serve in a roll with your preferred toppings (the gherkins, tomatoes, salad leaves and braai relish really worked well with this). You could also make some chips if you are feeling energetic.

Braised lamb shank

We wanted to try some wild boar this weekend, as it is the season, but our regular butcher at the market, M. Stoltz, was not there. Fortunately, we have a very good butcher just around the corner from us, and we walked in there to get our marcassin. Unfortunately, they did not have any, but they did have souris d'agneau, which seems to translate as lamb shank or knuckle. I called a shank, found a recipe, and made what I think is a very good meal of braised lamb shank. You can serve it with mash. The quantities here are for 2 shanks or people, depending on how hungry you are, but it's all scalable:

2 lamb shanks (about 700g), room temperature
2 onions, diced
3–4 medium carrots or 2 big ones, chopped up into chunks
4 cloves of garlic or to taste, minced
250 ml dry red wine
200 ml chicken stock
200 ml beef stock (I made mine using Bovril, but you do you)
400 g tin diced tomatoes
Rosemary, sage, bay leaf to taste (I used a bouquet of herbs that my wife had bought earlier. You can mix and match to your taste, though)
Lemon peel/zest to taste (about half a lemon's worth should do the trick)

Season the shanks on all sides. In a big Dutch oven or large pot, heat some oil and brown the shanks on all sides, which should take about 6-10 minutes. Once that's done, put the shanks to one side and add the onion, carrots, and garlic, and cook until soft, about 5 minutes. When ready, add in the rest of the ingredients (be careful with the liquid ingredients: don't pour it in all at once. Keep some to one side just in case. You don't want to overdo it) and then return the shanks to the liquid. Make sure the liquid covers the shanks, bring to the boil, cover, then simmer over a low heat for 1.5–2 hours. When the meat is tender, uncover and leave to simmer for another 15–30 minutes. Once done, remove the shanks, wrap them in foil and put them in the oven. Turn the heat up and boil the sauce for another 15 minutes or so to reduce.

Serve the meat and sauce over mash, and don't ditch the bones until someone's gnawed on them.

South African monkey gland sauce

Don't mind the name—this stuff rocks. It's one of South Africa's unknown masterpieces, and it's quite sad, as we've got plenty of monkeys that could donate their glands for this... It's dead easy too, and a good way to use up errant bits of veg and monkey parts in your fridge. Smother meat in it, either as a sauce or as a marinade. Remember to pick out the pituitary gland before you eat—the texture goes to pot when you boil it.

1 onion
3-4 garlic cloves
Thumb-sized piece of ginger
1 pepper (optional)
3-4 tomatoes, diced
1 small tin double concentrated tomato purée
1 tbsp Worcester sauce
1/2 cup chutney
big dollop of red wine (optional)
AND/OR
dash of balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp mustard
150 ml vegetable (or chicken) stock
tabasco, to taste
1 tsp sugar
salt and pepper to season

Fry the onion, garlic, and ginger (and pepper, if you're using it) until the onion is translucent. Add the other ingredients, bring to the boil and cook on a high flame for about 8 minutes, then simmer for another 30–40 minutes. Taste and season if necessary.

Use for marinade and sauce. It should keep for about 2 weeks.

Bacon, cheese, and monkey gland burger

Baked sausage, harissa and tomato casserole

This is a pretty simple dish that has an amazing flavour combination. It's adapted from Nigel Slater's recipe, with a few changes.

Should serve 3 or so, depending on how hungry you are

3 big sausages (boerewors, saucisse de Toulouse or something similar, should be around 600 g or so)
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp Provencal herbs
2 tbsp harissa paste
250 g mushrooms (button mushrooms work well, but you could probably use porcini too)
1 x 400 g tin of red kidney beans, rinsed
1 x 400 g tin of chickpeas, rinsed
(or, use 2 tins of kidney beans, rinsed)
4 tomatoes, roughly chopped
200 ml chicken stock
Crusty bread, to serve

Heat the oven to 180 degrees. Brown the sausages in a grill pan. Remove, then fry the onion and garlic for a bit. When it starts to go translucent, add the herbs and the harissa, stir well, then cook for a minute or so. Transfer everything to an oven-proof dish. Add the beans and, if you're using them, the chickpeas, as well as the tomatoes and the stock. Chop the sausages up into bite-sized pieces and add them to the mix. Add in the beans (and chickpeas) and the mushrooms, mix well, and shove in the oven.

If you have only beans, cook for 25-30 minutes. If you've added chickpeas (and I do recommend adding chickpeas to your casserole), cook for around 35-40 minutes. In any event, make sure your sausages are not undercooked.

Serve with bread, lots of it. If you fancy, you could serve this over pasta.

Baked eggs with tomato sauce and spinach

I've been using a lovely tomato sauce recipe I discovered recently for a bunch of different stuff. It is very nice. This time, I've used it for baked eggs. Although I made it in one casserole dish this morning, it works better if you have small single-portion pots that you can cook the eggs in.

Serves about 4

2 onions, thinly diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 red peppers, diced
1 chilli (or to taste), finely diced
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp Provencal spice
2 x 400 g tins diced tomatoes
200 g spinach, stalks removed and roughly chopped
Salt and pepper
6 eggs (in small pots) or 4 eggs (in a casserole dish)
crusty bread to serve

Heat the oven to 180 degrees. Fry the onions, garlic, peppers, and chilli until the onion is translucent. Add the wine vinegar, mix in, and then add the sugar, Provencal spice, and tomatoes. Simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. While you wait, put the spinach in a colander and pour boiling water over it to wilt it. When it has cooled down, squeeze out excess water and, when the tomato sauce is done, add to the tomato sauce and then spoon into the pots or casserole dish. Make a small hole, or put a spoon in the tomato mix in a pot so that the is a bit of a depression in the sauce. Crack an egg on top of the spoon, then push down so that the egg sinks in to the mixture a bit, and then remove. Do this for all the eggs. Shove the pots in the oven, and cook for about 15-20 minutes. Be careful if you're cooking in a casserole dish, as you'll need to cook for longer. It might be a good idea to heat the oven to 140 or so and cook for about 20-25 minutes. In any event, it'll be nice.

Serve with bread, and enjoy. The tomato sauce rocks.

Aubergine/melanzana parmagiana

A vegetarian sort-of-lasagne Italian dish which worked out quite nicely. Very happy with the results. It did not take as long as I thought it would, either, so there's that, although it does take a bit of time. Make sure you have plenty of crusty bread, like a baguette or something similar, with you, so that you can mop up the sauce.

I adapted this from the Guardian's version of this recipe, with some changes. NB: I used quite a large baking tray which explains the quantities. I also layered the aubergine quite thinly, so if you increase the density of the aubergine, you can cut down on the tomato sauce. Still, tomato is nice, so it's up to you.

1.5 kg aubergine/brinjal/"egg"plant, cut lengthwise into 1 cm-thick slices
8 cloves garlic, minced
2 red onions, thinly diced
4 x 400 g tins tomatoes
1-2 glasses of red wine, or 4 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp oregano or Provencal spice
250 g grated parmesan cheese (or grana padano - meaning that the name is somewhat badly chosen. Oh well...)
250-500 g mozzarella (depending on your cheesy preferences)
50 g breadcrumbs
handful of basil leaves

Cut up the aubergine, salt it (I laid it in layers in a colander, sprinkled some salt over it, and then repeated until I'd done the whole batch), and leave for about half an hour. While you're waiting, fry the onions and garlic for a couple of minutes, add in the wine/wine vinegar, and then tip in the tomatoes and simmer for about 45 minutes, stirring frequently. Crush any big bits that might cause trouble later on.

Rinse the aubergines very well and then fry at least half, but preferably all, of the aubergine slices on a griddle pan for a couple of minutes on either side. I cooked half the slices and left the other half raw when assembling the dish, which seemed to work quite well, but I'd recommend cooking all the aubergine before assembling the dish.

When you've cooked everything, heat your oven to 180 degrees, and then start putting together the dish. Spread a thin layer of tomato sauce in your oven dish, then a layer of aubergine (packed tightly), then mozzarella, parmesan, and seasoning. Repeat in this order until you have used up all the aubergine. Top with a final layer of tomato sauce, then sprinkle breadcrumbs and a little bit of parmesan on the top.

Shove in the oven and cook for about 30 minutes or so, then take out when ready and leave for a couple of minutes before serving. Top with some of the basil, and serve bread on the side. 

Butternut and beef chilli con carne

There was a bit of butternut left at home (when isn't there?) and I decided to try this. As a wise man once told me, "Use 2 different kinds of meat when making chilli." I decided I'd add some seasonal veg instead of extra meat. It was lovely. This is an adaptation of a couple of recipes which I have sadly misplaced. My apologies. Trust me, though: this is good.

1-2 onions
1-2 chillies (to taste)
Garlic to taste (around 4 or so)
2 red peppers
400-500 g beef mince

400-500 g butternut, in 1cm cubes

1 tbsp. chilli powder
2 tsp. cumin
¼ tsp. cinnamon
1 bay leaf
2 x 400ml tins diced tomatoes
2 x 400 ml tins beans (black or kidney), drained and rinsed
2 or 3 ripe avocados, diced (to serve)
white rice, cooked
grated cheese (cheddar or comté if possible)
sour cream
coriander

Fry the onions, chillies, garlic and red peppers for a couple of minutes until the onions start going translucent. Add the meat and brown it, add in the butternut and cook for about 30 seconds (to brown it too, I guess), then add in the spices, mix up well, and then add the tomatoes and season well before mixing it all up. Bring to the boil, then simmer for about 20-30 minutes or so. Add the beans after about 10 minutes and check to see if you need to add more spice (another chilli or chilli powder, or cumin or cinnamon). When ready, serve with white rice, top with avo, coriander, cheese and sour cream, to taste. 

Enjoy.

Chakalaka a la francais

Here is a South African recipe that should be included in everyone's oeuvre. It's sometimes called a Soweto curry or chilli, but whatever you call it, it is very good and can be as spicy or warm as you wish. Also, it's cheap and easy to make. Ideally, it should be served with pap, but since this is not really feasible in France, it's going to have to work as a side. Still, rice could make this a decent vegetarian meal on its own.

Serves 2-4:

Vegetable oil

1 onion, diced

1 carrot, grated

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 cm ginger, minced

1-2 chillies (to taste), diced

2 tbsp garam masala

3 tomatoes, diced

1 tin baked beans

1 tin red kidney beans

Salt and pepper to taste

Fry the onion, carrot, garlic, ginger, chilli and garam masala with the oil in a medium-sized pot until the onion is soft, about 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes and bring to the boil, then cook for about 5 minutes. Add the baked beans, kidney beans and seasoning and cook for a few more minutes. Can be served warm, with pap or rice, or cold, or as a side.

Spinach and ricotta cannelloni

This one was introduced to us by a friend of mine who has given me several fantastic recipes over the years (including this one). He used lasagne instead of cannelloni originally, but we were told, in no uncertain terms, that this should be made using tubes.

Cannelloni, for those who are as ignorant as I was, is a long tubular type of pasta that you can stuff. Whatever you put into it gives it a lovely taste. This one was particularly good, and surprisingly easy once you've got the stuffing sorted. It also keeps very well in the freezer, although I've never left it for long enough to need to freeze it. Very recommend.

Ingredients:

olive oil
salt and pepper for seasoning
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 red onion, diced
chilli, to taste (optional)
1.5 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
2 tins (400g) chopped/diced tomatoes
1 or 2 red peppers, diced (optional)
handful of basil leaves
500 g mascarpone
3 tbsp milk
500 g spinach, hard stalks removed (baby spinach is better, but regular spinach works well too)
500 g ricotta
about 200 g parmesan cheese or equivalent
pinch of ground nutmeg
200-250 g cannelloni tubes (uncooked)
250 g (2 balls) mozzarella

Heat some olive oil in a frying pan and cook the garlic and onion (and chilli) for a minute or 2. Add the sugar, wine vinegar, tomatoes and peppers, season, and simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally until thickened. When ready, add the basil leaves, mix in, and pour the mixture into a shallow, medium-sized oven dish, which should be big enough to fit your cannelloni in one layer, maybe two if you have to.

Take the mascarpone, season with salt and pepper, and beat it together with the milk until smooth. This will be your sauce.

Place the spinach in a large colander and pour boiling water over to wilt (you may have to do this in batches). When it is cool enough to handle, squeeze the excess water out of the spinach, and roughly chop it quite small. Mix together with the ricotta and about half of the parmesan, and season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

Now comes the stuffing part. In order to do this, take a fairly strong plastic sandwich bag or a piping bag and put a couple of tablespoons' worth of the spinach mixture in. If you're using a sandwich bag, cut a corner off the bag, leaving a hole about 1-1.5 cm wide. Don't make it too big, otherwise you won't be able to do the next stage. With your bag and spinach mixture, take an uncooked cannellono (one cannelloni? Grammatically incorrect, I know, but so be it), fit the bag in one end and cover the other with a finger or two. I have found this (kind of) stops the mixture spurting out either end. Gently squeeze the bag to force the mixture into the cannelloni. If your spinach is too big, it'll get caught in the whole and it'll make the whole exercise quite difficult, so be careful with this. Lay the stuffed pasta side by side on the tomato sauce in the oven dish, trying to keep it all in one layer.

Once you have stuffed your pasta and laid them in the dish, spoon over the mascarpone layer and then sprinkle over the remaining parmesan and layer the mozzarella over the top. Put in the oven and cook at 180 degrees for 30-35 minutes. When ready, take out of the oven and leave for about 5 minutes. Serve with crusty bread and wine.

Very nice. Very recommend.

Chicken cacciatore

A simple Italian chicken stew. Can also be made with game meat. Lovely. Cobbled together from the BBC recipe and food.com's own version, with a couple of edits.

Ingredients:

Butter for frying
4 chicken drumsticks
4 chicken thighs
Plain flour mixed with salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper (to taste) to coat chicken
Olive oil
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
2-3 stalks celery, diced
1 onion, diced
2 carrots, diced
1 or 2 chillies, diced
1 or 2 large red peppers
Rosemary or Provencal herb mix
3/4 cup white wine
2 400g tins of diced tomato
250-300ml chicken stock
Salt and pepper to taste

Melt the butter in a large pot. Dust the chicken in the flour mixture, and then brown in the pot over a medium-high temperature. Remove from the pot using a slotted spoon. Add the oil and heat, then add the garlic, celery, onion, carrot, red peppers and chilli, as well as the rosemary/Provencal mix. Fry for a few minutes and then add the wine, scrape the bottom to remove chunky bits, and then add the tomatoes and stock. Return the chicken to the pot. Bring to a simmer, put the lid on, turn the temperature down low, then cook for around 45 minutes. At this stage, the chicken should be quite tender, as should the carrots.

Serve with rice and/or salad.

Fish in a foil box/bag/thingy

Another one courtesy of Jamie Oliver. Some minor tweaks, but the original recipe can be found here.

Ingredients:

tinfoil (wider is better. You're obviously not going to eat this, but if you're like me, you'll need reminding to get some from the shops next time you're there)
1 onion
1 120-200 g fillet white fish (don't use salmon or anything similar - I tried this, and it doesn't keep the flavour as well)
100 g potatoes, peeled and diced into 1 cm pieces. If you're using new potatoes, keep the skin
1/2 bulb fennel, cut in segments, keep the frond (leaves? frilly bits that look like dill)
1/2 lemon, finely sliced
handful of cherry tomatoes, halved
olive oil
handful of pitted olives
salt and pepper to taste
white wine

Boil the potatoes until almost done. While they're boiling, preheat the oven to 200 degrees and make a sort of box out of the tin foil. Tear off a big piece and make it into a box with a lid. Put the onion, fish, fennel, lemon, tomatoes, olives, oil and salt and pepper into a biggish bowl and mix together. Once well mixed, put these into the foil box/bag, and sprinkle over the frilly bits of the fennel. Once the potatoes are done, add these to the mix, pour over some wine, then shove in the oven (carefully, of course) for about 25 min or so, until the fish is done and flaky. Add veg on the side if you so wish. 

Vegetarianish stew

"Vegetarianish" because I added some chorizo at the last minute. It's quick and lovely.

Ingredients:

2 onions, diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
5-cm piece ginger, minced
1 chilli
1 carrot, finely diced
1 red pepper, sliced
1 400g tin chickpeas
1 400g tin kidney beans
250 g mushrooms, whole or diced
2 400g tins diced tomatoes
100 g chorizo
Spice of sorts (I used Cajun spice, but you could use anything)

Rinse lentils. Fry onions, garlic, ginger and chilli for a few minutes until soft. Add carrots and red pepper, mix in, add spice, and cook for a couple of minutes. Add chickpeas and kidney beans, stir in, and cook for a couple of minutes. Add mushrooms, stir in, and then add tomatoes and chorizo. Leave to cook for about 20 minutes or so. Enjoy.

Vegan(ish) lentil curry

A slight adaptation of something I found at the Hungry Hutch. Definitely worth a look:

Ingredients:

2 cups lentils, washed
2 red peppers, cut up into chunks
1 medium-sized sweet potato, peeled and diced
Onion, peeled and diced
Garlic to taste, minced
Chilli to taste, chopped finely
About a tablespoon of chilli powder/garam masala
About a tablespoon of turmeric
900 ml chicken or vegetable stock
2 tomatoes
400 ml coconut milk
Salt and pepper to season
Basmati rice, coriander, and plain yoghurt to serve

Fry the sweet potato for about 3-5 min in a fair-sized pot (3-5 litres minimum), then add spices, onions, peppers, garlic, and chillies and cook for another 5 min or so. Add the tomatoes, mix well and cook for another 2 min, then add stock and coconut milk. Add lentils, bring to the boil, season with salt and pepper, and then let simmer for 40-45 minutes. Serve over rice, with coriander and yoghurt if desired.

Homemade tomato pasta sauce

An adaptation of a couple of recipes I found online. A work in progress, but the initial result is promising:

Ingredients:

about 1.5 kg ripe tomatoes (the riper the better)
1 onion, diced
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
1 pepper, diced
2 carrots, peeled and diced
About 200-300ml tomato juice (optional)
Fresh basil to taste, shredded/torn up
1 tbsp or so Provencal herb mix
Pepper
Some salt to taste
1/3 cup red wine
2-3 bay leaves
1-2 full stalks celery - don't cut them up!
2 small cans tomato paste (or maybe only 1, depending on taste. Should be around 2 tbsp or so of tomato paste)

For the tomatoes, score them at the stalk end and then drop them into boiling water for 2 to 3 minutes to loosen the skin. Peel and core them, then dice them roughly. If you want, leave one or two intact.

Add onion, garlic, peppers and carrots to a biggish pot and cook for around 5 minutes until the onion is soft. Then add your tomatoes, as well as the tomato juice, basil, herbs and spices and red wine, mix in, then add the celery and bay leaves.

Cook for 1-2 hours on a very low heat, add the small tins of tomato paste and cook for another 1-2 hours (I cooked mine for 1 and 1, but varying recipes say 30 mins all the way up to 2 hours. Take your choice).

When it's all ready, remove the bay leaves and celery and leave to cool, then freeze or serve with pasta. Your choice.

Mulligatawny soup

I guess this is an Anglo-Indian recipe that came about under the British Raj. It raises some interesting cultural questions, but it also works well as a relatively quick and simple dish. This one is adapted somewhat from the Wanderlust Kitchen's recipe. Good stuff all told.

Ingredients:

1 biggish onion, diced
1 carrot, peeled and diced
1 chilli or to taste, diced
3-4 garlic cloves, minced
2 cm or so ginger, diced
1 biggish or 2 small apples, peeled, cored, diced
1 or 2 400g tins tomatoes, depending on taste
1 tbsp curry powder
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp Provencal herbs (or thyme)
1/4 tsp cardamon
Pepper to taste
2/3 cup red lentils (uncooked)
1 litre chicken stock
1 can coconut milk
Spring onions and coriander to serve

Cook onion, carrot and chilli for 5 min or until onion is soft. Add garlic, ginger, apples, and tomato and cook for a few minutes, then add spices and mix in. Add lentils and stock, bring to boil and then cook for 30 minutes on low heat. Once done, add coconut milk, heat once more, then serve with spring onions and/or coriander. Add bread of your choice too.