Cavolo Nero

When I sat down to start writing this blog, I'd just finished cooking this really simple dish.  As it was exam time, I didn't give it the attention it deserves, but it was truly delicious.  It definitely needs some work, but with a few more attempts it really could be something perfect.

Ingredients

3 cloves of garlic, chopped

Olive oil

3 Tomatoes, de-seeded and chopped

2 small red peppers

4 or 5 spring onions

Prawns (I used two packets from Sainsbury's, which comes to about 500g)

Cavolo Nero (Black Cabbage) with the stalks removed and cut into strips.

Italian White Wine

Paprika

Salt & Black Pepper

Pasta

1. Coat the prawns in Paprika (to taste) and leave to marinade.
2. In a frying pan, on a medium-low heat, throw in a generous glug of olive oil, and 2 finely chopped cloves of garlic
3. Once that's done, add the cavolo nero.  Coat all the leaves in the garlic oil, and add more olive oil if necessary.  Cover it with a lid and leave it quietly cook for 30 minutes or so, stirring occasionally.  Once it's done, pull it from the heat, but keep the lid on to keep it warm.
4. Meanwhile, for the sauce, put into a medium-hot pan; the spring onions, roughly chopped; the tomatoes; and the red peppers, chopped nice and finely.
5. Once this starts to break down, add in the white wine - about the amount of a large glass of wine. Turn up the heat and stir together.
6. Once it's reduced by half add the prawns, and season with salt and pepper.  The prawns don't need much time at all, just until they turn a nice pink colour.  If you're prawns are already cooked - pink in the packet, rather than grey, bare in mind that you're just warming them through.  The last thing you want is tough prawns.
7. To serve, place a bed of cavolo nero at the bottom, of a dish, then the pasta, before finally topping it with a generous amount of prawns and sauce.  

I loved this dish, and it didn't take long to prepare at all.  It's hardly festive, I admit, but it's worth a go. Maybe worth considering as a starter, minus the pasta?  Let me know what you think.

Curry Night

I love experimenting, buying new foods, or at least when I can afford to, and cooking for my flatmates to see what they think.  I'm no vegetarian, but tonight was curry night, and whilst having a load of lentils in the cupboard, and an ongoing healthy-eating initiative, I thought I'd make a red lentil and sweet potato curry.

Having never done this before I had a look around for different recipes, and there are a few out there, but none of them really took my fancy, so, in combining a couple of them, and adding my own experience, I came up with a pretty decent curry, and was dead pleased with it.  Seeing as it stood up to my fussy housemates also, I thought I'd share it with others.  As with all recipes, please read through this one carefully, there's likely to be something that you may want to rethink.

Red Lentil and Sweet Potato Curry

Ingredients


450ml of Tamarind Water - 
6 garlic cloves
Ginger - about the size of your thumb
Spices for the paste - Cinnamon stick, Cumin Seeds, Coriander Seeds, Chilli flakes, Paprika.
2 dessert spoons of Tomato Purée
Chillies - mine were grown by a friend of mine, I have no idea what they were, but they did have a kick.  Play around with the chillies depending on your own preferences.
2 onions
Turmeric
Cayenne Chilli Powder
200g of Red Lentils
600ml of hot water
2 or 3 Sweet Potatoes, diced
Dwarf beans
1 Carrot, diced
6 Tomatoes
Salt
Fresh corriander
Olive oil




For the paste

1. Chop the onions, and put most of them aside, keep half an onion or so for the paste. 
2. Chop the garlic and ginger, and blend in a food processor with a splash oil and tomato purée. 
3. Chop the chilli, I added two to my paste, but I recommend using three if they are a medium strength chilli, commonly found in the super market.  Add this to the food processor also, and blend.
4. Roast all the spices together in a medium-hot, dry, frying pan.  After a few minutes, transfer the spices to a pestle and mortar, and break them right down before blending them with garlic and ginger.  
5. Add the tamarind water - there are a few ways of doing this, but mixing paste and water seems to do the job just fine.  (If I get a hold of tamarind pulp, I'll let you know how it goes).  Add the water in stages, so as not to flood the paste.
6. Finally, add the onion set aside for this part of the recipe, and blend until reasonably smooth.

Down to business

1. Using the same pan that was used to roast the spices, fry the onions on a medium-high heat with a little oil.  Any spices that were left in the pan (paprika is likely) will flavour the onions wonderfully.
2. Chop 3 tomatoes in half  and add these to the pan.  Occasionally toss the contents of the pan, until the onions have browned.
3. Add the paste to pan, and mix well, allowing to cook for a couple of minutes.
4. Now add the lentils, and, mixing the hot water with turmeric and chilli powder, pour this over the the lentils, and stir once more.  Don't worry if it looks watery at the stage.  If you want more or less lentils, I find that keeping to the 1:3 ratio works well.  The lentils should take about 20-25 mins to cook through nicely.
5. Following this, add the sweet potato; carrot; dwarf beans; and the rest of the tomatoes, chopped.  Add a couple of whole chillies too if you like it a bit hotter.  Prick each one a few times to share the flavour about the food.
6. Add a good pinch of salt and stir together, leaving to simmer until the veg is cooked through.  If it looks too dry, add water sparingly to get the right consistency. 
7. Add fresh, chopped, coriander to serve.

I really enjoyed this meal, and it goes really well a simple pilau rice and naan bread.  If you have any, I recommend stirring a spoonful of ghee in for the last couple of minutes, it rounds it off pretty nicely.  I'd love to know if anybody found this at all helpful, and any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!