Curried lentil and coconut soup

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Curried lentil and coconut soup

Another lentil soup! Similar ingredients to my previous post, but a quite different result. This one does work really well with red split lentils. I stumbled across it on the Food & Wine site, but amended it to suit my taste, since I found their version too bland and lacking spinach. The recipe makes a vast quantity, enough for at least six generous servings, so you can halve it if you want. As I was on my own, once it was cooked I ladled out enough for me into a smaller pan, and added spinach to that part. The rest will go in the freezer. It will certainly improve by being kept in the fridge until the next day.
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Moroccan spiced lentil soup

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Moroccan spiced lentil soup

A rather eccentric, messy image complete with splatters, taken immediately before we dived in to eat it! Known as “still life on the run” in our household.

I believe this soup originated in Delicious magazine. Since I discovered it via sister-in-law R, I’ve cooked it multiple times, improving it every time. It has become one of my favourite soups. Delicious, healthy, low-carb diet friendly, vegetarian — what more could you ask?

The first thing to note is that the original recipe specified red split lentils. R didn’t happen to have any when she made it, so she used Puy lentils. Good move — having tried both ways, the Puy lentil version is vastly superior. Other than that, don’t miss out any of the ingredients — they are all essential. That said, you can get away with tinned tomatoes, but fresh are better. I particularly like it with cherry tomatoes, cut in half.

The serving suggestions top the soup off to perfection, with the lemon juice adding extra zing. This amount will make about four servings, unless you are greedy like us.
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Orange and cranberry cake

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Cranberry and orange tray bakeThis is another popular cake that I’ve added to my choir rehearsal repertoire. It’s based on a sultana and orange cake I originally found on the Traditional Home Baking blog, but I gave it my own twist by changing it from a round cake to a tray bake, as well as improving the ingredients — cranberries always trump sultanas for me! I double the recipe to make a larger quantity; that given here will suit either a round 23 cm cake tin, or a square one of around 22 cm. If you have a stand mixer it’s very quick to make, and it keeps well for several days in a tin.

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Flan libanais

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Flan libanais
Before I start, a humble apology to all the people who left comments over the last, er, five months … I’ve only just found them! Now all approved. And now, my first post for six months …

We had this dessert in our local pizza restaurant a month ago. It was so light and delicious that when I got home I googled it, and immediately found a recipe that looked like a very close match, at La Cuisine de Lya. It took me a while to get round to making it, as I first had to source rose water (I ended up ordering it online) and unsalted pistachios. Lya says you can omit the rose water, but I think it’s really worth making the effort as it adds a distinct exotic flavour which is what makes the dish special; with just the orange flower flavour it would be more run of the mill. I also replaced the sugar syrup topping with honey, because that’s what the restaurant did. Choose a light, well-flavoured runny honey (mine was from the Pyrenees), and avoid the bog-standard supermarket kind.

It’s ridiculously easy to make, and diet-friendly. It’s vegan too if you use plant milk, and sugar syrup instead of honey.This quantity will make four very generous helpings, or six small ones. Serve in pretty glass bowls or glasses.
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Apricot tatin

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Apricot tatin

I saw this recipe in Let’s Eat the World‘s newsletter. Many moons ago, when we were still working, we helped to develop Cook’n with Class‘s website and I even attended a bread course taught by Eric. They’ve now branched out to culinary tours in more far-flung places, while still running their cookery school in Paris.

This recipe though is very French. I was hooked as soon as I saw the combination of apricots and rosemary — I already know it’s a match made in heaven. Plus I love a tatin, and it’s apricot season. I’ve adjusted it slightly, and while their recipe calls for it to be served with whipped cream with pistachio paste folded in, I just served it with crème fraîche. Absolutely delicious and so easy to make.
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No-knead focaccia

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No-knead focaccia
I wanted to make some focaccia for an apéritif dinatoire the same day, and my sourdough starter was dozing in the fridge. What to do? A spot of research, and I found a no-knead recipe on the blog Un déjeuner de soleil — in French, but written by an Italian. It looked just the ticket — quick and easy, with little hands-on time. I was very impressed by the result too — crisp on the outside, with a chewy, open crumb. It went down very well.

So here’s my English version. Note, it makes a very large focaccia. You could easily halve the recipe if there are only a couple of you. I have about a third of it left over, so I’ve frozen it and we’ll see how well it survives reheating.
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Kedgeree

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Kedgeree
This dish was one of my very regular standbys when I was a student: cheap, filling, nourishing. I always followed Delia Smith’s recipe, published in the Evening Standard in the mid-70s. I haven’t made it for years, mainly due to the impossibility of finding Finnan haddock in France. I got it once in Grand Frais a few years ago, but now they only seem to have French-produced bright yellow smoked haddock (a Brexit effect?). Still I decided to try it, and it’s a lot better than it looks. It doesn’t stain everything else bright yellow, and the actual flesh is white, albeit a tad over-salted.

So here’s the recipe. You can use other hot-smoked fish: kippers for example, or Arbroath smokies.
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Sourdough blini

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Sourdough bliniI came across this recipe via Google, and it’s such a quick and easy method of making blini, with good results, that I decided to record it. It doesn’t rely on the starter for rising, so you can use surplus starter straight from the fridge, or refreshed starter —- it doesn’t matter. The recipe makes a large quantity, but they keep well covered in the fridge for a couple of days, or you can freeze them. Reheat for 20 seconds or so in the microwave. As well as the obvious topping of smoked salmon and soft cheese, I like them with butter and honey, or maple syrup and cream.

Officially, blini are made using buckwheat flour (which is gluten-free), but if you don’t have any then wholemeal wheat flour is a fine substitute. And while they are quick and easy, try to plan ahead so you can keep the batter in the fridge overnight, or at least a few hours.
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“Asian” salad

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I think I could live on Spanish salads, at least in the summer months. They’re always so colourful, and usually include protein and a bunch of vitamins, with different textures and a balance of sweet and sharp. Fruit often features, especially on the Costa Tropical, where avocados and mangos are a major crop.

I’ve already featured ensalada tropical; this salad is one we had in our favourite restaurant, which describes it as “ensalada asiatica”. It doesn’t seem that Asian to me; I guess it’s because it features Thai sweet chilli sauce. This is Steve’s first attempt at replicating it, and it was a little on the sweet side; next time about half of the mango will be replaced with slices of orange, so that’s how I’ve written the recipe. It was absolutely delicious though. I’m normally ambivalent about prawns but these were amazing; I am a convert now.

The basic recipe is below; adjust quantities and proportions according to taste, and you don’t need to include all the elements as long as there’s a good balance of crisp, soft, sweet and sharp. Needless to say everything should be perfectly ripe. If you can’t get miel de caña (a very local product), pomegranate molasses or maybe reduced balsamic vinegar would be good substitutes.

We eat this as a starter, but you could make it a light main course.
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Cheeseboard tart

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After inviting friends for dinner we often find ourselves with a large amount of surplus cheese. On this occasion I was home alone with not much in stock for dinner other than a couple of eggs and the deteriorating remains of a week-old cheeseboard. So it was a pleasure to stumble across Rosie Birkett’s recipe in the Guardian a couple of days ago for precisely this situation — I had all the ingredients on hand except for pickled onions. It was so good I’m recording my slightly adapted version here in case the online version disappears. Gorgeous bubbling, gooey cheese, with a crunch and a bit of acidity added by celery and cornichons. A salad would be good with it.

You can use any cheese you have, hard or soft. I had no soft cheeses, but I had a couple of stubs of Pyrenean tomme, some Morbier, and an unidentified but fairly mild blue cheese.
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