Red Lentil Dahl

 About 2 years ago, as i was aimlessly scrolling through Facebook, i stumbled across a post about Kimi Magazine. Intrigued by this magazine i'd never heard of, i kept reading. All i could really gauge was that it was based in Melbourne, it had a little food section and all the profits from the magazine were given to Eating Disorders Victoria. In my daily endeavours at the time to expand my blog audience, i immediately contacted whoever i could about Kimi Magazine and said something along the lines of "Hi, love what your magazine is about, love where the profits are going. I write a food blog, are you interested in some recipes?"  and voila! I must have been in the right place at the right time because as it turns out, Kimi had only just released their first issue and WERE interested in some recipes.

I went along to the signing of the first issue and discovered that the driving force behind Kimi, was just one girl, my age, doing something really special for a very sick best friend. After a few chats with Ciara (creator of Kimi) we agreed on a recipe for the next issue- "The World Issue".

Sticking with what i knew i decided to make a warming dahl recipe that i learned when i first went vegetarian. It's super simple and yummy!

Red Lentil Dahl
2 -3 tbs peanut or sunflower oil for cooking
1 onion, diced,
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 cm ginger, grated
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 1/2 cups red lentils, rinsed and drained
4 cups boiling water
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp chili powder
salt to taste

Fry the onion, garlic and ginger in cooking oil until transparent. Add the turmeric, and then the lentils. Stir to coat the lentils. Cover with 4 cups boiling water, bring to the boil and lower the temperature to a simmer. Partially cover and stir occasionally for about 40 minutes. You may need to add more water depending on the cosistency you like. When the lentils are soft, add in the salt, garam masala and chili powder.

Serve on basmati rice with yoghurt and fresh coriander.

Perfect Rice
I generally measure rice by 1/2 cup per person you are feeding.
Rinse and drain rice.
In a saucepan, add the rice and double the quantity of water - e.g 1 cup rice = 2 cups water.
Bring to the boil. Once the rice is boiling, stir and then reduce the heat to the lowest setting.
Cover and leave to cook for 12 minutes. DO NOT LIFT THE LID!
Your rice should be soft and fluffy when the 12 minutes is up!

These photos are taken  by the wonderful Daniele Martinie who spent hours with us, trying to make something as sloppy and yellow as Dahl look as wonderful as it does above!

Thanks so much to Ciara and Dani for the opportunity.

I'll be seeing Ciara again tomorrow for the photo shoot for the next issue of Kimi which is coming out towards the end of the year! 

Dark Chocolate Coated Cinnamon Oat Biscuits

Last weekend, i stumbled across an ANZAC biscuit recipe from Wholehearted Eats and got inspired to bake again... I'm a bit obsessed with my mate oven at the moment.
The recipe seemed really straightforward, just like an ANZAC recipe should be and although alternative ingredients have been used to substitute white flour, butter and refined sugar, the traditional wonderful-ness of the good ol' ANZAC hasn't been altered. I must give credit to Wholehearted Eats' blog and her beautiful recipes and photos.

I've decided to step away from the whole ANZAC theme though and call these Oat Biscuits. I don't want to offend anyone with the non-traditional-ness of my recipe, plus i added cinnamon and chocolate for winter warmth... don't think that was readily available during war times...

I prepared these biscuits in my room. I wish i got a photo of me on the floor of my bedroom, stirring and measuring and rolling out biscuits. There's oats all over my carpet! I got home from doing some groceries and was in a bit of a rush to get out again for an afternoon tea I'd planned with my aunties, but when i got home, the cleaner was there. I was trying to tiptoe around her, but cooking in the kitchen wasn't going to work out so i gathered everything and proceeded to put the ingredients together in my bedroom. Not baking the biscuits wasn't an option either- I'd be thinking about them all day! The cleaner was probably wondering where in the world i pulled a tray of biscuits from when I came back in the kitchen to put them in the oven.... I gave her a taste of the finished product though so any qualms she might've had with me must now surely be settled.

 Ingredients
Cinnamon Oat Biscuits
Makes 10
1 Cup Rolled Oats
1/2 Cup Spelt Flour
1/2 Cup Unsweetened Dessicated Coconut
1 tsp. Cinnamon 
1/4 tsp salt
3 Tbsp. Raw Sugar
1 Tbsp. Rice Malt Syrup or Maple Syrup
4 Tbsp. Coconut Oil (or butter, both room temperature)
1/2 tsp. Bicarb soda
 2 Tbsp. Boiling Water

30g 75-85% chocolate, chopped and melted

In a bowl combine oats, spelt flour, coconut, cinnamon, salt and sugar.
In a separate bowl combine the syrup, bicarb soda and boiling water. 
With your hands mix the syrup mixture and coconut oil into the dry ingredients until combined. Roll into small balls and flatten gently, but not too much!
Bake in the oven on 180 degrees for around 10 minutes or until golden brown on top.
Leave to cool. The biscuits will be quite soft when you take them out of the oven. Don't be deceived- they firm up once they start to cool. Beware you don't over cook them!
In the microwave or over a double boiler, melt the chocolate.
When the biscuits are cool enough drop a spoon of the melted chocolate on to the top of each biscuit.

Roasted Beetroot Dip with Chickpea Flour Flat Bread (Socca)

Such a beautiful sunny day today. I'm doing an assignment on weather at the moment where i have to compare the forecast with what actually happens with the weather. Don't think the forecast had this sunshine on the cards. It's lovely!
I've been getting a few things done this week while i've got some time off work. I got the worm farm up and running today finally.
During an afternoon walk in the park today in the sun i was pondering my next recipe-One that was not soup, salad or baked goods and one that could use up the back up of market veggies we have in the fridge.

Beetroot dip and Chickpea flour flat bread came in to mind. I started to potter away in the kitchen, but decided to check quantities for the flat bread when i came across this word 'Socca'. It turns out that chickpea flour flatbread or 'Socca' is actually a thing! I'd never heard of it before. I promptly did some research and from what i've read  the origin of Socca is disputed, but it seems it's a traditional dish from  Nice in France. ALSO it seems that this flat bread is traditionally baked in the oven, then grilled and chopped roughly. So instead of pan frying my flat bread as i usually would. I've tried this whole oven Socca thing!

Ingredients

Roasted Beetroot Dip 

4 beetroots

1 clove garlic

1/2 cup natural yoghurt

Juice of 1 lemon

1/4 cup chopped dill

olive oil

salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 200 degrees.
Remove the stems from the beetroot and cut in to quarters. In a baking tray drizzle the beetroots and garlic with olive oil and sea salt and roast for about 40 minutes. Or until soft. You may have to remove the garlic before the beetroots are done as it cooks faster and might burn.
Once the beetroots are cooked, blitz them  in a food processor with the garlic and lemon juice. Once combined, stir through the yoghurt and chopped dill and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Chickpea Flour Flat Bread (Socca)
1 cup chickpea flour
1 cup water
1 1/2 tbs olive oil plus more for the pan
1/2 tsp salt

*i've kept the recipe fairly plain because i'm serving it with the beetroot dip which has quite an intense flavour, but in other circumstances i would add things like cumin seeds or powder, paprika, fresh herbs or garlic.*

Whisk all ingredients together and let the mixture stand for at least half an hour. The longer the better.
Coat a heavy based frying pan with olive oil and place in the oven to warm.
Once the oil and pan are warm, pour in the mixture and place under the grill until the top starts to brown. Depending on the size of your pan, you may want to cook the mixture in 2 batches so you get a thinner, crispier crepe. Mine was quite thick.  Cut in to pieces and serve with whatever you want!

Parsnip, Fennel & Leek Soup

It's soup season and i can't get this song out of my head.

Soup, soup
A tasty soup, soup
A spicy carrot and coriander
(Chilli chowder)
Crouton, crouton
Crunchy friends in a liquid broth
I am gazpacho
Oh
I am a summer soup
Mmm
Miso, miso
Fighting in the dojo
Miso, miso
Oriental prince in the land of soup

If you don't know what i'm talking about you should watch more Mighty Boosh:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xDKt82kgzY

This is souper easy to make (haha get it?...) and doesn't really take much looking after. Chop, cook, boil, blitz, eat!

Ingredients
Butter or olive oil for frying
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
1 parsnip
1 fennel bulb
3 potatoes
half bunch celery
1 leek
1/3 bottle dry white wine
1 veggie stock cube or just salt and pepper to taste
natural yoghurt or cream for garnish
chives, dill and parsley for garnish

Chop all of your veggies up roughly. Fry onion and garlic until transparent and add in veggies in no particular order.
Pour in white wine, add stock cube and cover the rest with boiling water.
Allow to boil and then cover and simmer until the veggies are soft. About 20-30 minutes.
Blitz with a stick mixer or blend in food processor until smooth consistency.
Add salt and pepper to taste. (You can add yoghurt or cream while you're blitzing for a rounder flavour.)
Garnish with yoghurt/cream and chopped dill, chives and parsley and cracked pepper.

I ate mine with some caraway rye sourdough and loottts of butter!

Enjoy and stay warm!

Apple and Berry Quinoa Crumble

This morning I arrived home from Darwin. Sunny, warm, dry, blue-skied Darwin. Our convenient 2am flight landed us in chilly old Melbourne at 6.45am. After 2 weeks camping our way around Kakadu, Katherine and Litchfield, going to bed when the sun did and waking up when it rose- we were struggling to drag ourselves to the airport at such an ungodly hour.

Feeling tired and sorry for myself today in my cold hometown of Melbourne, I'm posting this crumble recipe that Luisa and I made when we were feeling just as sorry for ourselves when our original flight to Darwin got cancelled and we had to stay in Melbourne for the first 2 days of winter before we could get on another flight. We needed something warm and wintery to brighten those blues.

Crumble
1 cup cooked quinoa
1 cup oats
1 handful pumpkin seeds
1 handful sunflower seeds
1 handful shredded coconut
1 tsp ginger powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 small pinch of salt
2 tablespoons coconut oil

Fruit
1 apple sliced
1-2 cups frozen berries
1 vanilla pod
3-5 cloves 
1 tsp cinnamon
water
 
Preheat oven to 180-200 degrees. 

Stew the apple in some water with the cloves and cinnamon. When it starts to soften, scrape the vanilla pod into the mix and let the pod stew too. Add the berries. Stew until you reach the consistency you prefer. Remember to remove the cloves and vanilla pod before cooking.

To make the crumble topping, combine cooked quinoa, oats, seeds, coconut, spices and salt. Rub in the coconut oil to the rest of the mixture with fingertips.

Grease a baking dish and pour in stewed fruit mixture (don't forget the cloves and vanilla!)  Sprinkle crumble mixture on top and bake in oven for 20-30 minutes or until golden brown on top.

Serve with yoghurt, cream or coyo!

*The only sugar in the recipe comes from the stewed fruit. We found that the apple gave the crumble plenty of sweetness and we didn't feel as though we had to add any other sugars. If you're a bit more of a sweet tooth, try some chopped dates in the crumble mixture. It will sweeten it and give it a stickier texture when cooked.* 

Happy winter everyone.

Choc Beetroot Cake

Friday was my mum's birthday. She's a bit of a fan of the colour red. She buys red shoes, red scarves, her chausseur pots and pans are red, the coffee machine is red and the splash back in the kitchen is even red.

For her birthday she received a red design fountain pen and a burgundy leather document folio. A beetroot cake seemed to be a fitting addition to the RED theme.

These are my pictures, but please see the recipe HERE from Green Kitchen Stories, a beautiful blog that i perve at all the time!