Peanut Chutney

 Blender alert

This isn’t what most Westerners would think of as a chutney. To us it is more of a pâté or a spread. However, it tastes surprisingly good and goes very well with lentil flatbreads. However, it’s also very acceptable as part of a ‛charcutérie’ board with bread or crackers. The tempering adds an exotic touch, but isn’t essential, especially if there are other dips and pâtés on the board.

Ingredients

1½ tsp oil

1 to 2 green chillies or dried red chillies, to taste

1½ tbsp urad dal or chana dal

1/2 cup raw peanuts, OR roasted peanuts

1/2 tsp cumin seeds

1/4 tsp of garlic OR ginger paste

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 to 3/4 cup water

1/2 tsp tamarind paste

Tempering (optional)

1 tsp oil

1/4 tsp black mustard seeds

1/4 tsp chilli flakes

1/4 tsp crushed garlic

1 pinch asafoetida/hing (omit for GF)

Method:

• Heat 1 tsp oil in a pan. Fry chillies and dal until the dal turns golden.
• Remove and set aside.
• Add peanuts and fry over a medium flame until golden and aromatic.
• Add cumin to the hot peanuts. Keep aside to cool.
• Transfer all these to a blender along with garlic/ginger, salt and 1/2 to 3/4 cup water.
• If your are using it, add the tamarind paste.
• Blend until it’s smooth.
• Taste and add more salt and chilli if required.

Tempering (optional)

• Add 1 teaspoon oil to the hot pan.
• Next add mustard, red chilli and garlic. Fry until fragrant.
• Lastly add hing.
• Turn off the heat and pour the tempering over the chutney.

Serve peanut chutney with bread, crackers or lentil flatbreads.

Notes:

• If you are using roasted and salted peanuts, don’t add any more salt until you’ve mixed and tasted the chutney.
• You can dry roast the peanuts without oil.
• Traditionally, the peanuts are dry roasted first and then the skin removed. In this case, brown the skin as well as the nut to bring out the full flavour. A compromise is to use blanched peanuts and roast them yourself. They will add a better flavour to the chutney.

Carrot chutney

Blender Alert

This is another Indian chutney, that most of us would not recognise as such, and while it may sound unpromising, it’s very good. Like the peanut chutney, it also makes a very useful spread or dip, particularly with lentil flatbreads. The tempering adds a bit more spice and an interesting appearance. If you’re serving it with bread, or crackers, along with other ‛charcuterie’, you might prefer it without. It will still be both an unusual and pleasant addition.

Makes a good cupful

1 tbsp (coconut) oil (divided) 

2 tsp chana dal OR roasted peanuts

1 tsp urad dal OR sesame seeds

2 dried red chillies (adjust to taste)

1/2 garlic paste

1/2 tsp ginger paste

1 green chilli (adjust to taste)

1/2 tsp cumin seeds

1 cup carrots (chopped, 200 grams)

1/2 tsp salt

1/8 tsp turmeric

1 to 2 tsp lemon juice OR tamarind paste

Optional Tempering

1 tsp (coconut) oil

1/4 tsp mustard seeds

1/2 tsp cumin seeds

1/4 tsp chilli flakes

1/4 tsp garlic paste

1 pinch hing (asafoetida)

Method

• Pour 1 teaspoon oil to a hot pan. Add chana dal, urad dal and red chillies to the hot oil and fry until the dal turns light golden.
• Add garlic, ginger and green chillies. Fry until the dal turns deep golden to light brown. Add cumin seeds, stir and remove all of the fried ingredients to a plate.
• To the same pan, pour 2 teaspoons oil. Add carrots, salt and turmeric. Stir fry on a medium high heat for 3 to 4 minutes until fragrant. Covered and cook for 2 to 3 minutes or until tender. Turn off the heat and cool.
• Add the cooled dal, ginger, garlic, chillies and cumin to a blender and make a slightly coarse powder.
• Add the cooked carrots and tamarind paste/lemon juice. Pour in 1/4 cup water. Blend to a smooth or coarse chutney to suit your liking, scraping the sides as you go.
• Taste and add more salt if you think it needs it.
• Adjust the consistency to suit with more water, if you want to.

To temper (optional)

• Heat oil in a pan. Add the mustard seeds, cumin seeds, chilli flakes and garlic paste. Fry until the cumin seeds have changed colour and the spices smell fragrant. Add hing and turn off.
• Pour the tempering over the carrot chutney.

Notes:

• Leave out the hing for GF.
• Chana dal and urad dal are added for flavour and taste. However, for a change, you can use roasted, skinned peanuts and white sesame seeds. Both work well but the chutney tastes different. Most of us have salted peanuts on board and these can be used, but in that case, add the salt after you’ve blended the chutney so as not to over-salt it.
• You could make this without a blender, if you used peanuts and sesame seeds and either chopped the peanuts, or ground both in a Mouli. The other ingredients would need to be cooked until they were very soft and you might want to use a little cayenne pepper and ground cumin instead of the whole spices. This would end up a little more chunky, but none the worse for that.
• Use young juicy carrots and not old, tough ones. If they need peeling, rather than scrubbing, they won’t go well in this chutney. 
• Ginger and garlic: I love both, but you can skip one of them if you prefer. The chutney is quite delicately flavoured, so follow the recipe and don’t use too much.
• Chillies: Dried chillies add pungent flavours and heat while the fresh green chillies add heat. You can use one or the other, if you prefer. I use green chillies in brine due to the insane expense of fresh ones (in New Zealand).

Lentil flatbread

Blender Alert

These are a lazy way of making dosas, which require a particular type of split lentil (urad dal) and fermenting overnight, in a warm place, which often isn’t practical when voyaging. Unfortunately, they do need a blender. In due course, I’ll have a recipe for chickpea flour flatbreads that don’t need one. I have tried making these by grinding the lentils to make flour, but they weren't as successful as using the soaked lentils in this recipe.

These ‛flatbreads’ are halfway between a roti and a thick pancake, but are great hot or cold and excellent to serve with any sort of spread, pâté or dip, including some of the chutneys you will find on this blog. This recipe has minimal seasoning, so as not to compete with whatever you are serving them with, but fenugreek seeds are often used in traditional recipes, so I have included them.

I find the 150 mm/6 inch frying pan I use for tempering spices is perfect for cooking these flatbreads. Any pan that you trust for pancakes will be correct for these.

Makes 8 flatbreads

Ingredients

 

1/2 cup moong dal OR split red lentil

1 cup water

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds

 1/2 tsp baking powder

oil

 

Method:

• Put the dal into the blender jug and add the water, fenugreek and salt.
• Add baking powder if you want a fluffier flatbread.
• Leave to soak for at least an hour. (Use hot water to speed things up, if necessary).
• Once the dal is well-soaked, blend everything into a smooth, thick batter. If it’s still a bit gritty, leave for another quarter of an hour and then blend again.
• Heat the pan and when you think it’s hot enough, dribble a drop of batter into it. It should instantly start to set.
• If you think it may need it, add a tiny amount of oil to your pan and swirl it around. Now add 2 tbsp batter, tipping the pan so that it covers the base, or spreads itself into a 150 mm/6 inch disc.
• Cook until the surface looks dry and then flip the flatbread or turn it using a spatula. Cook for another half minute or so and move to a plate.
• Add a little more oil if necessary and then continue cooking all the batter until it’s used up.

Notes:

• The flatbreads can be kept warm in a low oven, if you have one, or between two warmed plates.
• These flatbreads are equally good warm or cold. To reheat them, stack them in your frying pan and cover with a lid. Put them over a low heat. After a few minutes, turn the stack over. The heat should spread through all of them.

Variations:

• Add coriander, cumin, nigella, chilli, or any other spice that takes your fancy to add more flavour.
• Omit the fenugreek and use herbs such as oregano or rosemary, and use instead of bread or rolls.
• Add a generous amount of garlic to the batter, and drizzle the warm flatbread with a well-flavoured olive oil before serving.

Mushroom and cauliflower soup

 

I created this soup one winters’ night, when I had a few mushrooms left in the locker, and was growing tired of an everlasting cauliflower that I'd bought. It was, I admit, a huge one, but as it was the same price as the other ones, which were two-thirds the size, and super-expensive to boot, I went for the best value for money. I love cauliflower, but after 6 consecutive nights of eating it, I was ready for a change.

When I'm looking at recipes on line, I often see people suggesting puréeing cauliflower to make a thick and creamy sauce. I thought I’d try this idea, to save mixing up a nut cream – and also out of curiosity. The resulting soup was delicious – better than I’d hoped for – and I had the added satisfaction of cooking it on my little fire. It is therefore very much a cream of mushroom soup. With a slice or two of home-made longevity bread, it made a filling and warming meal.

 

Serves 4 as a starter, 2 as a main course

Ingredients

 

4 or 5 large mushrooms or the equivalent if smaller

1 bay leaf

4 cups water

1 onion, chopped

1 large clove garlic

olive oil

approx 2 cups cauliflower florets

1/2 tsp ground coriander

1/4 tsp za’atar or dried thyme

1/2 tsp mushroom stock powder

grated nutmeg

salt and pepper

Method:

• Cut the mushrooms into chunks – about the size of a small, button mushroom.
• Put a cup of water into a large saucepan, together with a bay leaf and the mushrooms and bring to the boil.
• Simmer gently for a few minutes while you chop the onion and garlic.
• Pour the mushrooms and water into a bowl and set aside.
• Using the same pan, heat the olive oil and then add the onion and garlic. Fry gently for about 5 minutes until translucent. Turn down the flame if they’re starting to colour.
• In the meantime, divide the cauliflower into florets and dice any stem that you’ve cut off in the process. Add to the pan when the onions are softened.
  Add in the ground coriander and stir everything around until the cauliflower is evenly coated.
  
• Pour in the remaining three cups of water together with the water that the mushrooms have been sitting in. Leave the mushrooms to one side.
• Now add the za’atar or thyme and mushroom stock powder, if you have any. Bring to the boil and then simmer over a moderate heat until the cauliflower is completely softened.
• When it's cooked, mash the soup into a thick purée, or use a stick blender.
• Return to the heat and add the mushrooms. Grate over nutmeg and add salt and pepper to taste. Be generous with the black pepper – the soup can take it.

Note:

• Add some dried mushrooms to the water, with the fresh mushrooms for increased depth of flavour.
   
  
  
  

Cream of asparagus soup

This luxurious soup can be made from whole asparagus. However, the following recipe allows you to have your asparagus and eat it, so to speak, because it’s made from the trimmings.

The best way to trim asparagus is to bend each stalk as close to its base as you can. It will snap off just above the tough section.

Use 1/3 seawater to 2/3 fresh, if the sea is clean, and leave out the salt.

Serves 4 as a first course

Ingredients

 

The trimmings from a bundle of asparagus

2 cups water

1 onion

1 garlic clove

1/4 cup tbsp butter/olive oil

1 tbsp flour*

salt and pepper

1 tbsp lemon juice

 fresh parsley, if available

6 tbsp thick (vegan) cream

Method:

• Cook the trimmed asparagus: put it on a raised trivet in your pressure cooker, so that it isn’t immersed, and pour in 2 cups water. (You could stand it on end to do this, but might need to cut it to size.) Bring to pressure and cook for 1 minute. Reduce pressure rapidly if you like crisp asparagus, naturally if you like it soft. Put the asparagus to one side for another dish. Pour the water into a jug or bowl and set aside.
• Cut the trimmings into 2 cm/1 in lengths.
• Finely dice the onion and garlic. Melt the butter/oil in the pressure cooker, add the onion and garlic and stir it until it’s all covered in melted butter. Lower the heat, cover the pan and cook gently for about 5 minutes until the vegetables are softened.
• Stir in the flour and mix.
• Add the reserved water that you used to cook the asparagus, together with the trimmings. Bring to pressure and cook for 10 minutes.
• Reduce pressure naturally and then mash with a potato masher. Then pass the resulting purée through a sieve to remove any stringy bits. Alternatively blend with a stick blender or food processor
• Return to the pan and season with salt and pepper. Taste and add the lemon juice and more water if you think it can take it.
• Add the parsley and bring back to the boil.
• Remove from the heat and stir in the cream.

Serve with croutons

 

Note:

*Use 1 tbsp gram flour for gluten free.

 

Variations:

• If you like to have bits of asparagus floating around in your soup, trim pieces from the ends of the cooked stalks and add these with the lemon juice.
• For a really thick and luxurious version, use all the asparagus.
  
• This soup can also be made successfully with canned asparagus. Purée the bottom ends of the stalks and keep the tips to chop up and add to the soup with the lemon juice.
  

Croutons

Home-made croutons are about as different from the packaged version sold to decorate your Cæsar Salad, as home-made bread is from white sliced. They only take a few minutes to make and their crunchy texture ideally complements creamy soups. If you are having soup for lunch or as a substantial starter, they add bulk without being overly filling and make a pleasant change from bread and crackers. They're also an excellent way to use up stale bread.

Serves 2 for a meal, 4 for a starter

Ingredients

 

2 slices bread, about 1 cm (1/2 in) thick

2 tbsp olive oil OR 1 tbsp olive oil and 1 tsp butter

Method:

• Cut the bread into cubes.
• Heat some oil in a frying pan over a high heat. Test by dropping in one of the croutons: it should sizzle straight away. Don’t be impatient. If the oil is too cool, you will end up with oily, soggy bread cubes. Put the bread cubes into the pan and spread them out in an even layer. Cook them in batches, if needs be – they want to be one layer thick to make it easy to move them around.
• Turn them regularly until they are golden on at least two sides: lower the heat if they are threatening to burn.
• Remove with a perforated spoon – they cook far too quickly to fool around with tongs – and place in a bowl, lined with a kitchen towel, if you wish.

Notes:

• Croutons are best cooked when the soup is ready to serve, so that they retain their crispness.
• If you are happy doing so, you can deep fry them.

Variations:

• Add 1 tsp curry paste or powder to the cooking oil.
• Fry a diced garlic clove with the bread.