spinach and cauliflower dhal

Serves 4

200g red lentils

1 onion, finely sliced

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 tsp tomato puree

1 green chilli, finely chopped

1 tsp yellow mustard seeds

2 tsp garam masala (see note below)

1 tsp tumeric

300g fresh spinach

1 small cauliflower, broken into small florets

800ml chicken stock

Squeeze of lemon juice

Fresh coriander

Heat a generous slug of olive oil over a moderate heat in a large casserole pan and add the onion. Cook for five minutes, then add the garlic and chilli and continue to sweat unti softened and translucent.

With the pan still on the heat, add the tomato puree, mustard seeds, garam masala and tumeric and fry for two minutes more, stirring to stop the onion and spices sticking to the bottom of the pan. If it seems very dry, add another slug of olive oil and then the lentils, stirring well while cooking for a further minute.

Add 400ml of the chicken stock, bring to a gentle simmer, stir, cover and leave to cook for five minutes. Add the cauliflower florets and another 300ml of stock along with plenty of salt and pepper. Stir again, cover with a lid and leave it to very gently simmer for 12–15 minutes.

Meanwhile, wash the spinach and place in a large pan over a moderate to high heat. Cover with a lid and allow to steam until the spinach has has completely wilted but is still bright green. This should take only two or three minutes. There should be enough moisture left on the leaves after washing to steam the spinach but if it looks dry then add a little more. Once wilted, place the spinach in a colander and squeeze out all of the moisture you can.

Keep stirring and cheking the lentils and caulifower, which after 12 minutes should be nearly cooked. Add more stock if needed to keep it to a thick but not dry consistency. When the cauiflower is tender and the lentils completely cooked, gently stir in the spinach and lemon juice and taste to check the seasoning. Allow to stand for a few minutes while you roughly chop the coriander.

Serve with naan bread, chapati or rice (or all three), a handful of coriander and some natural yoghurt.

Jocon

Last month we learned how to cook arroz a la chapin. Now it’s time to learn el plato principal. Jocon is not as complicated as you might think. It uses the traditional Mayan method of toasting sesame and pumpkin seeds, blending them to make a paste with bread or tortillas and using this as a base for many typical dishes. Once you’ve got the hang of this process, other recipes like el famoso Pepian will be bien faciles.

What you’ll notice is that the more traditional Mayan dishes like Jocon are in fact résaludables. High levels of malnutrition in the western highlands can be linked to the marginalization of the Mayan people over time to the least fertile lands. This made room for rich landowners to use the best land to grow produce for export. Add to this the influx of cheap processed foods like packet soups and you can see how malnutrition and diabetes are now major health issues affecting rural indigenous communities today.

It’s not all bad; there are projects working hard to establish food security while maintaining traditional methods of agriculture and cooking. One of which is Asociacion de Mujeres de Altiplano (AMA) who is setting up a sustainable agriculture school from its organic greenhouse.www.amaguate.org

Serves roughly 4 people

Ingredients:
2 ½ to 3 pounds of chicken, drumsticks and thighs work best

4 cups of Water 
¼ cup of Pumpkin seeds pepitas 
¼ cup of sesame seeds ajojoli
2 small pan frances 
1 cup of mil tomate (tomatillos) washed, hulled and chopped 
1 quetzal of cilantro, washed and chopped 
1 bunch of cebollitas, washed and chopped 
1 Jalapeño chili.

A portion of arroz a la chapin to serve.

Directions:
1. Place the chicken, water and a couple of large pinches of salt in a large pan over a medium-high flame. Cover and bring to a boil, reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for 30-40 minutes until the meat is cooked.

2.Heat a dry frying pan over medium flame. Add the pumpkin and sesame seeds and toast, stirring occasionally until lightly browned. This will take around 8-10 minutes. Make sure you don’t burn the seeds! Let the seeds cool a little and blend to a fine powder (this is easiest in an electric coffee grinder but you can use a blender, in which case I would add a little of the stock to make it easier to blend).

4. Add the ground seeds, pan frances, mil tomate, cilantro, cebollitas and chili peppers to a blender. Add 1 cup of the stock and blend until smooth. If using a small blender you may have to do this step in batches.

5. In another large pan add the chicken, pureed sauce and 1 to 1 1/2 cups of the chicken broth to give it a sauce-like consistency. You can add more stock if you like a lot of sauce or if you prefer a thick paste add a little less water.

6. Heat over medium-low flame and simmer for an additional 15-25 minutes. 

7. Adjust seasoning and serve on top of the arroz a la chapin.

Asian Broccoli Salad

This recipe is served cold so remember to start this 40 min in advance of wanting to serve! I served it as a side dish to a noodle stir fry, but it would go well as a side for fish or chicken with soy sauce too.

Sesame oil and seeds have a strong taste when toasted so if you don't like this flavour this isn't the recipe for you.

serves 4 as a side

Ingredients
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp honey
1 large head of broccoli, cut into florets, stems finely sliced
1 tbsp sesame seeds
salt + pepper

1.Whisk the soy sauce, vinegar, oil and honey in a large bowl until blended. Season to taste with salt and pepper. 

2.Steam the broccoli florets and stems for 5 mins or until tender. Set to one side to cool. 

3. In a heavy pan, add the sesame seeds and stir over a medium heat until golden (making sure not to burn)Transfer the seeds to a clean dish to cool. 

4.Stir in the broccoli and half the sesame seeds to the bowl containing the vinegar and oil mixture. 5.Leave to marinate at room temperature for a minimum of half an hour, stirring occasionally. 

6.Using a slotted spoon, transfer the broccoli to a serving dish and then pour over the dressing.
Sprinkle over the remaining sesame seeds.

Arroz Guatemalteco : Guatemalan Vegetable Rice

‘How hard can cooking rice be?’ you may ask. Well, that used to be my attitude until I moved to Guatemala. My lesson in cooking rice took place on one of the first times I invited friends over to have a curry for dinner, a specialty of mine. I had decided to wait to cook the rice knowing that my friends would rock up an hour later than agreed (coincidentally, they did). Just as I was about to pour the rice into a pan of boiling water, I hear my friend scream "No! Vos Simoné, que hacés?" The condemnation in his voice was so great it was as if I was about to drop a small child into the pan. That's how I received my first lesson in how to cook rice properly: o sea, arroz a la chapina. I have never served up stogy rice again.

Every family will have una versión propia of this recipe. There will be variations of the veduras cortadas, don’t worry about these minor differences too much; never ever question your host mom’s recipe. Nunca.

Learn the basic technique of frying the rice, onion and then adding stock to steam through and you can’t go that wrong, seguro.

INGREDIENTS:

One cup of long-grain white rice
One tablespoon of oil
Half a finely chopped onion
One clove of minced garlic
Half a finely diced red bell pepper
One finely diced carrot (importante: make sure the carrot is cut really finely otherwise it won’t cook in time)
Half a finely chopped tomato
A pinch of ground cloves, (clavos) - you can find these in the market but the rice will be fine if you decide not to add them
A large pinch of salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 cups of chicken or vegetable stock
1/4 cup peas. If you’ve bought them fresh from the market, blanch them first until nearly tender.

DIRECTIONS:

1. Heat the oil in a frying pan and sauté the uncooked rice in the oil for around a minute or two so all the rice is glistening

2. Add the onion and sauté for another couple of minutes

3. Add the garlic and sauté for a minute. Then the bell pepper, carrots, and tomatoes and sauté - yes, you’ve guessed it! - for another minute

4. Finally, add the clove powder - I ground a few cloves in the coffee grinder which gave it a nice powerful taste- salt, pepper, and the stock and stir well. Bring to a quick boil, lower the heat, and simmer covered until most of the liquid is absorbed and the rice is cooked (15 to 20 minutes).

A great trick my teacher taught me is if you don’t have a lid for the frying pan, rest a couple of pieces of Clingfilm on top of the rice which will create a steam effect. Don’t be tempted to stir the rice. It will cook through and it shouldn’t burn on the bottom if it’s over a low heat
4. Add the peas (if using), turn off the heat, cover, and steam the peas with the residual heat until cooked. Fluff the rice and vegetables with a fork right before serving.

This recipe is perfect as an accompliment for Jocon (recipe to come in future editions), pepian or even a stir-fry. Buen provecho!

Simple Pear Tart

I divided the mixture up into two and made one pear tart and the other plum using 8" round tins instead of the larger one.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) softened, unsalted butter, plus more for greasing pan
• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ½ teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg 
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 pound pears 
• Juice of ½ lemon, divided
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon

Instructions

1. Butter and line an 8-inch springform pan. 
2. With an electric mixer, cream ½ cup butter and 1 cup sugar on medium until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in eggs one at a time, then baking powder, salt, vanilla, and nutmeg (if using).
3. Beat in flour on low until batter just comes together. Spread in pan. Place in refrigerator and chill for at least 20 minutes.
4. Heat oven to 375°F/ 190c
5. While crust is chilling, core and slice pears into 1/2-inch slices.  Toss them with half the lemon juice, so they don’t turn brown. Set aside to wait for crust to finish chilling.
6. Remove crust from refrigerator, and arrange pears in tight concentric circles on top of dough. Squeeze remaining lemon juice evenly over pears.
7. In a bowl, mix 2 tablespoons sugar with cinnamon. Sprinkle over pears. Bake for 45-55 minutes (mine took 40 minutes)or until edges are golden and center is set. It will puff up quite a bit in the oven, but settle back down as it cools.
8. Cool tart in pan for 10 minutes. Run a sharp knife around edge. Remove sides of pan.
9. Serves 8.

Coriander Lamb and Yellow Split Peas

I've only made the yellow split peas so far but it was delicious and I can only imagine the lamb is even better. It was really simple, tasty and fast to make.

Coriander lamb

Serves 3

A mild and creamy lamb casserole given a heady green freshness with a coriander spice paste. Aromatic rather than hot.

onion 1, large
garlic 3 or 4 cloves
olive or groundnut oil
lamb 500g, cubed
coconut milk 500g

For the spice paste:
cashews 80g
coriander 50g
basil 50g
lime juice 5 tbsp (2 limes)

Peel and roughly chop the onion and garlic. Pour two tablespoons of oil into a deep, heavy-based pan, add the onions and garlic then let them cook over a moderate to high heat for 15 minutes or so, until soft and a pale honey tone.

While the onions are cooking, make the spice paste. Put the cashews in a dry, shallow pan and toast until golden. Tip them into the bowl of a food processor, add the coriander leaves and stalks, the basil and the lime juice and process to a rough paste, then set aside.

Remove the onions and garlic from the pan and set aside, return the pan to the heat, add a further tablespoon of oil, then add some of the meat, without crowding the pan, and brown lightly and evenly on all sides. Remove the pieces of lamb as they brown and add them to the onions. Continue with the remaining lamb.

When the last of the meat is browned, add the coconut milk and let it heat through, scraping at any tasty, crusty bits on the surface of the pan and stirring them in to the coconut milk. Return all the meat and onions to the pan, then leave to simmer for a good 10 minutes, seasoning with salt and pepper.

Stir in 3 heaped tablespoons of the spice mix and continue to simmer, gently, for a further 10 minutes. Serve with warm flatbread or rice as you wish.

Split peas with coriander

 Mellow yellow: split peas with coriander. Photograph: Jonathan LovekiThe warmth of dal, but with the freshness of green herbs. A good one with rice, or as an accompaniment.

Serves 4, generously
yellow split peas 250g
onion 1, medium sized
garlic 4 cloves
groundnut or vegetable oil 2 tbsp
turmeric 1 tsp
paprika 1 tsp
tomatoes 500g
spice paste (see above)5 heaped tbsp
coriander leaves a handful

Rinse the split peas then cook them in deep, unsalted boiling water for about 30 minutes until they are soft and tender.

While the split peas cook, peel and roughly chop the onion and peel and finely slice the garlic. Warm a couple of tablespoons of oil in a medium-sized saucepan then add the onion and garlic and cook over a moderate heat until deep gold and translucent.

Stir the ground turmeric and paprika into the onions, then roughly chop the tomatoes and stir them in. Let the mixture cook over a low to moderate heat for about 15 minutes then stir in the cooked split peas and 5 heaped tablespoons of the coriander spice paste (above).

Irene's Coffee Icecream

Ingredients

2 eggs, separated

2 ox of icing sugar sieved

2 tbs of coffee essence

¼ double cream

whisk egg whites until very stiff, then gradually whisk in icing sugar. Whisk egg yolks and coffee essence together and whisk gradually into egg whites. Lightly whip cream and fold into coffee mixture.

.

To vary, fold in with the cream 2oz of finely chopped walnuts.

Pour into a shallow tin and freeze