Lentil Salad

Brown lentils, also known as continental or Egyptian lentils, are generally the least expensive and the easiest to get of all the gazillion types of lentil. They are milde in flavour and hold their shape well after cooking, although they easily turn mushy if overcooked. They can be cooked in about 35 minutes although if you want to ensure they remain firm, you can add oil to the cooking water and cook them for a shorter period, about 20 minutes. Cheap, nutritious and versatile, they are far and away my favourite lentil.

I wanted a salad at the weekend to go with grilled sausages and decided lentil was the way to go. Because it was so hot I wanted it to be both delicate and substantial - a little in the way turkish dishes can be. I had found a recipe online through chowhound.com but when I looked a little more closely it involved using raw coriander powder in the dressing as well as dried oregano and I wasn't convinced it wouldn't end up a bit gritty in texture, a touch nasty in the mouth. So I made it like this instead.

Lentil Salad

2 tablespoons lemon juice
7 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 cup brown lentils
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1 bay leaf
1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
4 spring onions, white and green parts, chopped
1/2 cucumber, peeled and coarsely chopped
1/2 cup thinly sliced radishes
1/2 cup thinly sliced celery
1/2 cup flat-leaf parsley, coarsely chopped
3 tablespoons fresh mint, chopped

Whisk 4 tablespoons of olive oil with the lemon juice and seasonings to make the dressing.

Pick over and wash lentils in several changes of water until water runs clear. Heat the remaining olive oil in a heavy based pan. Sauté the garlic in the oil with the ground coriander and paprika for a minute then add the washed lentils and stir to coat the lentils with the spiced oil. Add the bay leaf and water to cover by about a centimetre. Bring to the boil then reduce the heat to simmer, stirring occasionally, 15 minutes or until the lentils are nearly cooked. Add additional water if necessary to keep the lentils from sticking. Add salt and taste for seasoning and cook for another five minutes or so till the lentils are tender.

Drain any remaining liquid from the lentils, remove the bay leaf, and allow the lentils to come to room temperature.

While the lentils cook chop all the vegetables and fresh herbs.

In a large bowl combine the lentils, vegetables and herbs with the dressing and toss lightly. Check the seasoning and serve.

I really was amazed at how well this worked - the salad vegetables added lightness and a variety of textures and the herbs made it positively sing while the lentils added body and were fabulously garlicky. Also, as an added bonus, really good next day in lunchboxes.

And this week...I bought

After a few changes last week to what I thought about and what we had, I shall try again to make a plan for dining. Saturday I fancy fish - possibly salmon with dill sauce and new potatoes to use the last of the bunch of dill and to dig up some more potatoes from the garden bought a fillet of Whitby cod and crumbed it and made a superlative dill sauce with yoghurt, sour cream, cucumber and lemon juice blended with the dill - it would make a fabulous summer soup. Sunday I think cold collation in the day went to the cinema and had dim sum after in Chinatown and risotto in the evening as we have lots of flowers on the squash plants and I'm not confident about battering or stuffing them! The flowers survived and I made grilled sausages instead with a brilliant lentil salad instead with leftovers for lunch Monday pasta with fresh herbs from the garden. Tuesday the lovely Marie is coming to dinner so I think chinese - anise chicken, sesame noodles and a cabbage and a cucumber salad - all cold, mostly made the night before did that and had coriander salad as well with chilled melon for dessert. Possibly something hot to nibble on at the start. or not. Wednesday salad, possibly with omelette, maybe nicoise went with omelette. Thursday grilled pork chops and salad more pasta, this time with tomato and basil, Friday veg curry perhaps. Though that seems very far away. And the steak from the freezer beckons with the last of the salad for a Friday night treat.

Saturday was hot hot hot at the market, and no breeze to offer respite. The traders all seemed very cheerful though and that was nice. Fairly quiet too which was a bonus for us. Started at Ginger Pig - no surprise there - where Charlie was being berated by John for forgetting to bring him some runner beans from his allotment. Butchers like vegetables too. I bought a couple of chicken breasts star anise chicken Tuesday night with leftovers for lunches, a couple of thick pork chops freezer where they remain and some old spot sausages Sunday supper for a very reasonable £19. They had a big sign out the front promising free bones and I asked John for some pork bones, thinking I might make a noodle soup. But he came back from the fridge saying they weren't good enough so he gave me a couple of chicken carcasses instead.

Then to Booths for salads - cucumber, tomatoes, garlic, and oranges, lemons, spring onions, cabbage half remains but will get used on the weekend and broccoli intended for pasta Thursday night but when I chopped it there was a strong smell of the sea, like fresh prawns which struck me as very odd so I threw it away - £5.90

Finally decided on cod crumbed Saturday night as the fish of choice, bought a lovely fillet of Whitby cod from Furness - £7.90

Then across the other side but not wanting much - still had some cheese and eggs, too hot for chocolate, so after a wander we came back to the main market to buy coffee from Monmouth - £8.50

Bought a pork pie for lunch - so long since we've had one - £4.90

Then to Tony's for bunch of beetroot, peppers and aubergine still in the fridge, but okay for the weekend - £2.70

Neals Yard - and I was sorry to hear that it was Naomi's last day - she's off on holidays before starting University - I shall miss her cheerful self. Bought some Hoxton rye - again a long time since we had some, as well as milk and yoghurt - £9.80

Then a cottage loaf from Flour Power - £1

Thought that was all but the melons at Elsey and Bent smelt divine so bought one for £1

A total of £60.70 - not bad!

Bought onions and radishes from my local fruit shop, mint, parsley and coriander as well as lentils and sesame seeds at Brixton market, and sour cream, because I forgot when I was in Neals Yard, as well as cornflour in Sainsburys.

Two years ago we were mostly eating rosemary scallops with gremolata - and what a treat that is!

Spiced Orange Crusted Roast Pork

At the end of last week I had some courgettes and tomatoes left over from the previous week that were possibly a tad tired but otherwise perfectly edible. Not wanting to throw them away I decided I would buy some peppers and aubergine and roast the lot together with onions, garlic and herbs and make me a lovely robust chick pea salad for lunchboxes. By cooking them Sunday night with a roast the oven only needed to be on for one session.

Idly surfing the culinate website I came across a recipe for a spice rub for pork - and that was me sold on what this week's roast was going to be. It would go so well with the salad - and be a good dinner Sunday. Their version calls for pork leg but I decided to use boned pork shoulder instead. The meat is relatively fatty, which makes for juicy, tender, and flavorful roasts as well as clogged arteries. Might as well enjoy getting there! Pork shoulder is not a strong-tasting meat, but it stands up to many other ingredients anyway - the fat marbling means it trades flavors with whatever is in the same vessel and happily takes on pungent flavours.

I made the rub Saturday and left it in the fridge till late Sunday. The result was sublime - hot and cold.

Spiced Orange Crusted Pork

2 tsp. fennel seeds

3 star anise

1 tsp. dill seeds

Sea salt and black peppercorns

2 crushed fresh bay leaves

Handful of fresh dill, chopped

Zest of 2 oranges, grated

Olive oil

1 Tbsp. Pernod

2kg. boned shoulder of pork, untied

1 onion, sliced

In a mortar, crush the fennel seeds coarsely with the star anise, dill seeds, sea salt, black peppercorns, and bay leaves. Add the fresh dill and orange zest and stir in 2 or 3 tablespoons of olive oil. Rub the paste well into the opened-out pork where the bone has been removed and all over the outside of the meat and into the crevices where the fat has been slashed. Concentrate on the inside of the roast, the fat, and the ends. Splosh on a bit of Pernod and put the roast skin side down onto a rack and cover loosely with greasproof paper. Leave in the refrigerator, overnight if you can.

Bring the meat to room temperature before you roll it up and tie it with kitchen string at 1-inch intervals. Rub generous amounts of salt into the skin. Place the joint on top of the sliced onion in a roasting pan. Sprinkle some sea salt over the roast and put it in the oven. Roast for 30 minutes hot as you can, then baste the roast and turn the oven down to Gas 4/375 degrees.

Keep basting the meat till it is cooked through - it will take about 2 hours. Remove the pork from the oven and let rest for 20 minutes. Scrape the blackened onions from the base of the pan and drain on some kitchen paper before serving with the meat.

I just made some mashed sweet potatoes and steamed courgettes to accompany the roast - the lightness of the veg offset the flavour of the pork very well indeed.

Dill Rice

I've been making this on and off for a while and was sure I had included it on feast with bron. Then last week I bought a big bunch of dill, some of which I used to flavour the pork roast and some of which I planned to use making dill rice. Only, when I looked, the recipe wasn't on here. Disaster! I use this blog as my recipe store - or one of them, I have gazillions at home and another gazillion saved on the hard drive - and often and refer back to them. In fact, if I lost this site not sure what we'd be eating.

Anyway, I googled and came up with lots of persian dill rice recipes - some of which sounded very nice - but it wasn't this one. And I really wanted this one. Finally, after trying a few different variations on the request I found it again on rice gourmet. Any time you need a little inspiration for a rice dish, this is the place to go. They love the stuff.

Dill Rice

1 cup (7oz/200) rice

3 tbspn oil

4 cloves

½-1 green chilli, finely chopped (optional)

1/3 cup fresh dill, finely chopped

1 cup of frozen green peas

salt

Soak the rice for 15 minutes. Wash well and drain.

Heat the oil in a pot and fry the cloves and chilli. Add the peas, dill and rice and saute for 1 minute

Add salt to taste (about 1 teaspoon) and 13/4 cups boiling water, and cook for 9-10 minutes until the rice is perfectly cooked.

It is very quick and easy to prepare. The finished dish has interesting flavours, the cool dill balances the little prickle of heat from the chilli and the cloves adds an interesting background note. We had it with a spiced mutton stew, which it complemented perfectly, but it would also make a simple central dish on a hot day (like we see any of those !) with just some cucumber raita and warm naan.

And this week...I bought

We have a quiet week next week - so far no plans to go out at all. We also have some potatoes to harvest this weekend so I'm planning simple but fabulous for Saturday night - omelette, buttered new potatoes and fresh herb salad had steak instead of omelette. Possibly strawberries and cream for dessert sadly not, the man didn't fancy it unless it was eton mess. Sunday I want to make a spiced roast pork as I have some veg left over from last week and want to use them to make chick pea and roast veg salad for lunchboxes. Monday I think duck salad in the french style - have some duck bits in the fridge that will go nicelyit was indeed but not till Thursday night, we had fresh pasta and salad instead. Tuesday I'm wondering about pasta e fagioli - eat some, freeze some no again (so much for planning!) we had a spiced mutton stew with dill rice - I wanted to use the dill with plenty left for the freezer and Friday night. Wednesday chinese perhaps - red cooked beef from the freezer and some stir fry veg and rice went out to Wright Bros for beef and oyster pie, Thursday pasta perhaps salad, Friday another salad spiced mutton with cous cous - it is summer after all!

Though it is summer according to the calendar it is a very long way from warm. Saturday, in fact, was blowy and cold and the market, at about 9am was pretty empty. We went to Ginger Pig where they had a big sign out the front saying 45 day aged rump £14.95 per kilo. That was the end of the plan to have omelette for supper! Halved it, one lot in the freezer, the other grilled and served with little potatoes and rocket from the garden. Bought a very very big slice, also some pork shoulder spiced and roasted Sunday night and then into lunches for the week and a little diced mutton for an African stew Tuesday night, again on Friday and one serving into the freezer and in no time at all I had spent £39.90. So much for frugality.

Then to Booths for sweet potatoes mash with spiced pork and into african stew where they collapsed and thickened it nicely, fresh courgettes steamed Sunday night, bananas intended for lunches but they had turned black by Monday so I made a banana and walnut loaf because I can't throw away a whole bunch of bananas, garlic, lettuce, cucumber salads, dill spiced pork Sunday, dill rice Tuesday and some still left, oranges zest with the pork and juiced by the man for breakfast Sunday and carrots mutton stew and grated with salad Thursday night - £8.90

Then to Gianni for cheese - we sampled three very different ones and chose the one in the middle - a hard, crumbly toma style cheese snacking and still plenty left, then had to have a burrata Sunday with bread and salami for lunch which is a variation of mozzarella cheese with slightly elastic skin that breaks open with a spoon to reveal soft curds and cream. The flavor is creamy soft with a gentle tang that lingers on the palate and the texture is both meltingly liquid and lightly chewy. There's no other cheese like it. It is easily one of the man's favourite things - £10.50

Olives snacking from taste of Turkey - rich, crinkly dried black ones - £2.60

Fresh pasta Monday night and as good as it was last week from Gastronomica because it was sensational last week and I wanted to revisit the experience - even if you can never go back - and some fennel salami Saturday sandwich and Sunday with burrata to go with the mozzarella - £7.20

Then to my delight I discovered Marie was working the Good Olive Company stall - haven't seen her for weeks - so had a lovely chat to her for half an hour or so - and suddenly the market was very busy, don't know where they all came from!

Went to Tony's for peppers and aubergine - roasted with tomatoes and courgettes and onions left from last week for chick pea salad for lunches £2.70

Then to Neals Yard for milk and yoghurt had some cooked rhubarb in the freezer so breakfast this week with the yoghurt, very summery -£7.80

Then to Flour Power for a cottage loaf toast! - but no brownie - so only £1

And lastly bought a ciabatta fresh weekend bread, and not too many holes from the Italian cheese stall that has inhabited Maria's café site since she moved into the market proper - £3

So not a cheap week - £83.60

Didn't buy a lot extra - butter and flour to make my banana cake, and some bread to go with salad Thursday, and a packet of borlotti beans for soup that's yet to materialise. Ended up being out Wednesday night for a splendid dinner at Wright Bros.

This time last year we were mostly eating spiced rice rather than dill rice and herbed crumb aubergine

Eating Chicken

Over on A Merrier World Kate has organised a campaign to highlight the importance of knowing the way in which your chickens are raised. She has written a fascinating piece about the last 50 years or so of commercial poultry production, which is frightening in its detail about intensively reared birds. It is well worth reading and pondering before you buy another chicken from the supermarket - or indeed from anywhere.

In an earlier piece she challenged food bloggers in general to join together to raise the awareness of the ramifications of factory production of these birds. I think it is hugely important and so this post is simply devoted to adding my voice to this campaign.

I wrote a piece a little while ago paying £17 for a chicken and how that made me panic slightly at spending so much. Then I cooked that lovely chicken and we ate various meals for a week and by the end it turned into an economical purchase. The last thing I made from it was a very fine Chicken and Tarragon Soup.

I firmly believe that it is worth paying more for better quality and using it all, thereby being frugal at the same time as being extremely well fed. Well worth aspiring to.

Chocolate Brownies

The whole world loves chocolate brownies. That might seem like a sweeping statement but it is, in its very essence, true. Myself, I'm not a great fan of sweets and desserts preferring the savoury end of the spectrum but even I cannot resist. Years ago I met up with a friend of mine to go to the cinema one afternoon. Andrea makes great sweet things - desserts, cakes, everything. But I was a bit surprised when she arrived and handed me a cake tin - turned out it was full of brownies she'd made that morning. Amazing things. We ate half of them on the tube home.

A big fan in general of the Moosewood cookbooks, she had made the brownies using their famous recipe. She wrote it out for me - I still have her elegantly written page, albeit a bit chocolate smudged now. These days there is google - put moosewood chocolate brownies into the search engine and you get 20,000 results in less than a second. About the same amount of time it takes to eat one.

Moosewood Chocolate Brownies

250g/ 1/2 lb. butter (don't melt it)

125g/5 oz. 70% or above dark chocolate

1 3/4 cups (packed) light brown sugar

5 eggs

1 1/2 tsp vanilla essence

1 cup plain flour

Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. Let cool.

Cream the butter with the3 light brown sugar then add the eggs one at a time. Add the vanilla extract. Beat in the melted, cooled chocolate and the flour.

Spread into a buttered 9x13" baking pan. Bake 20-30 minutes at gas 5/350 degrees.

Optional: chopped nuts, or 1 tablespoon instant coffee, or 1 teaspoon grated fresh orange or lemon rind, or 1/2 teaspoon allspice or cinnamon, or a mashed over-ripe banana, or none of the above.

Yet another option: instead of uniformly blending in the chocolate, you can marble it. Add chocolate last, after the flour is completely blended in

I had been thinking of attempting a comparison test with Nigella's brownies - made a batch Sunday. Though fabulous I took them out of the oven too soon (following the warning that they would continue cooking while they cooled down) and had a lovely outside ring of fudgy brownies and an essentially liquid central lake, which firmed up in the fridge to be a sort of chocolate surprise which then liquified to chocolate ooze again at room temperature. The niece is in seventh heaven.