Baked tomatoes with chillies and coconut

This is from a recipe by Nigel Slater-we have a massive surplus of tomatoes at the moment and keep having to be very creative with them!  This dish smells and tastes delicious-heady and aromatic.  It does curdle a bit-but dont let that worry you.  I serve this with lentils and rice.

garlic-2 cloves
2 hot red chillies
ginger-a piece about the size of your thumb
olive oil-about 3 tbsps
chili flakes-half a teaspoon
ground coriander-1 tsp
gound turmeric-1 tspcumin seeds-half a tsp
green cardamons-6
moderately large ripe tomatoes-12
creamed coconut-50-70grms
corainder leaves-a handful

Peel and thinly slice the garlic.  Halve the chillies-deseed and then finely slice.  Peel and very finely slice it. Warm the oil in a deep frying pan, then add the garlic, chilli and ginger, letting them soften, but not colour over a moderate heat.
Stir in the chilli flakes, ground coriander, turmeric, and cumin seeds, then pop the cardamons out of their husks, crush the seeds lighty and stir them.  Once the spices have warmed through, chop 4 of the tomatoes, stir them into the spices and pour in 300ml water. Bring to the boil, then slice each of the remaining tomatoes horizontally in half and lay them cut side down in the sauce.  Leave to cook for 7-8 minutes, until they are starting to soften.  Turn each tomato over, and continue to cook for a few minutes, till they are thoroughly tender.
Add the creamed coconut in small pieces, stir with a teaspoon.  From this point on the sauce should not boil, just simmer very gently until it is thick and the tomatoes are soft.
Once the tomatoes are tender to the point of collapse, they are ready. scatter with the coriander leaves and eat with a little rice or bread to mop them up!

Lentil Soup with cumin

This is simple, exoctically spiced and very satisfying-it also passed the JP test!

4 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, thinly sliced
4 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
1 1/2 teaspoons cumin seeds, roughly ground
250g red split peas-or anoy other lentils will work
1.75 litres cold water
250 grms spinach or chard -finely chopped and braised quickly with olive oil
1 lemon quatered
sea salt and black pepper

In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil over a medium heat.  Add the onion with a pinch of salt and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally until sweet and soft.  Now add the garlic and cumin and fry for another minute, followed by the lentils and water.  Bring to the boil, turn down the heat to a gentle simmer, and cook for about 20 minutes or until the lentils are soft.  Remove from the heat and blend until almost smooth.  return to the pan with the cooked spinach, and seasonw ith salt and pepper.  If the soup is too thick, simply add more water and adjust the seasoning.
Serve this soup with lemon or with 150g yoghurt-spiced with 3/4 teaspoon ground cumin and salt, and olives, Harissa (or another chili paste) and bread.

Griddled sweet potato with ginger, chilli and lime

You might have noticed that ginger, chilli and limes feature frequently in my recipies.  I love the combination of them!
4 medium sized sweet potatoes
200 ml extra virgin olive oil

For the dressing:
5 tbsp lime juice
3 tbsp chopped fresh coriander
2 tbsp runny honey
4 tsp grated fresh ginger
1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
2 garlic cloves-crushed
salt and black pepper

Peel the sweet potatoes, and cut into thin slices, about 3 mm thick.  Blanch the slices in boiling water for a couple of minutes.  Drain them and allow to dry.  Put the slices in a bowl and smother with the olive oil.
Heat the griddle pan and cook the potato slices for 3-4 minutes on each side-it is quicker to put the whole lot in a baking tray under the grill-but you dont get the pretty stripes!
Make the dressing by mixing all the ingredients together and drizzle over the sweet potatoes while still warm.  This is yummy hot or cold!

Savoy cabbage and coriander soup

This is inspired by a recipe by Denis Cotter.  We recently had a couple to stay who were driving their uni-mog down africa and they were my guinea pigs needless to say this was a firm favourite of theirs!
4 large onions
1/2 a savoy cabbage
olive oil
2 red chillies, finely chopped
4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 large piece of fresh root ginger-peeled and chopped
2 tabespoons coriander seeds-crushed
about 800ml of good veg stock
400 ml tin of coconut milk
A large bunch of fresh coriander-chopped
juice of one lemon-or 3 limes
salt and black pepper

Finely chop onions and shred cabbage-we do ours by hand but you can use a slicing disc on a food processor.
Heat a good splash of olive oil in the pan, add the onion and cabbage, cook over a moderate heat for a couple of minutes before adding the chillies, garlic, ginger and coriander seeds.  Continue cooking for about five minutes, stirring regularly, until the cabbage is tender.  Add the stock-simmer for about five minutes then add the coconut milk, half of the fresh coriander, the lemon/lime juice and salt and pepper.  Simmer for a few more minutes.

Serve the soup with the rest of the fresh coriander.

Flageolet beans with garlic and thyme (and polenta!)

This is seriously delicious dish, wierdly creamy and garlicky-it is inspired by a recipe from Sarah Raven who serves this with roast lamb, a good spoonful of redcurrant jelly and oven roasted winter roots.  I eat mine with polenta!  I have a number of variations of this recipe that feature regularly on our table-like greek white beans with mint and olive oil.
For this I use dried flageolet beans soaked over night-flor a less slushy texture than canned beans but either work, and if one is in a hurry canned is fine.

500 g green flageolet beans (or white cannellini beans), soaked over night-or two tins
4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
6 red onions, thinly sliced
3 tomatoes, halved
500 ml veg stock
a handful of fresh thyme
salt and black pepper

Preheat a medium oven (180/gas mark 4).  Put the beans, garlic, onions tomatoes, stock and thyme in an over proof pan.  Bring to the boil then cover and transfer to the oven and cook for about an hour (if used tinned beans cook for only 30mins).  Add salt and pepper and cook for another 20 mins (or 10 mins for tinned beans).

Fast Polenta:
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
250g instant polenta
Fill a pot with about 6 cups of water, then add the oil and salt.  Bring the water to the boil.  Drizzle the polenta into the water, whisking constantly for a few minutes until it is thick and smooth.  It should be a thick pouring consistency.  Serve at once.

Any left over polenta can be poured into a baking tray and spead evenly, leave to cool completely.  Cut it into wedges. Heat a chargrill pan -when hot grill the polenta until solid ridges form on the underside-and then can be used as a crostini for a savoury topping!

My morning bounty

No doubt more chard recipes will be coming your way today!

My morning bounty

 

A yummy tomato salad

I have a huge variety of tomatoes in my garden, little round yellow ones, big fat red juicy ones, long ones, so our tomato salads are never boring.  I try to mix up colours and shapes, I cut some into halves, some into thick slices, some I cut up irregularly.

4 big handfuls of tomatoes
salt and black pepper
extra virgin olive oil
1 fresh red chilli, halved and deseeded and finely sliced
1 handful of fresh chopped oregano
Half a clove of garlic finely sliced-I am not a fan of too much garlic!
A big handful of fresh basil, leave divided into small and large ones.

Cut up the tomatoes however you wish, put them into a colander and season with salt-using more than less.  It helps draw the water out and intensifies their flavour.  Leave the colander over a bowl for 20 minutes and let any excess water and salt drip out.  Pour the liquid away, wash the bowl and put the tomatoes in it. Dress them with a big glug of olive oil, and some balsamic vinegar.  Add the pepper, chilli oregano and large basil leaves torn up.  Toss tgether, season to taste.
Drizzle with some extra olive oil and sprinkle over the baby basil leaves.