Pumpkin Pandamonium

For Thanksgiving, my fiancée and I made a delicious pumpkin pie. I'm not going to go through how it was made, because it's baking and we just went through this recipe. It turned out beautiful though (and now we have a lifetime supply of cloves):

One result of the pie, however, was that I now had a surplus of pumpkin and wasn't quite sure what to do about it. After a bit of brainstorming, I realized I should go back to my roots - lentils and rice - but jazz it up with some pumpkin.


Lentils with Pumpkin Coulis

Oil
1 1/3 cups pumpkin
2/3 cups tomato sauce
1 tablespoon Sriracha sauce
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon cumin
salt

1/2 cups lentils
1/2 cups rice

Cover the lentils in boiling water and cook on high. Meanwhile, put the rice on.

Combine the other ingredients and cook on medium low, stirring occasionally. When the lentils are cooked, but still have some crunch, add them into the mix along with the rice.

Serves 2

The precision of the ingredients above is chimerical; as I just eyeballed everything. Still, I was very happy with how it turned out (and we had the leftover pumpkin pie for dessert).

The Empty Month

Due to medical reasons too boring to get into on this blog (don't worry, I'm not dying or anything) I have been put on a very... interesting diet for the month of January. I have become a walking caricature: no dairy, no soy, no gluten, no corn (might as well start crossfit while I'm at it). Also, a whole host of other non-trendy things to avoid - of particular interest to regular blog readers, no red kidney beans or lentils.

Needless to say, this is a bit of a shock. Any one of the above would be a big change, but all combined just seem a bit ridiculous. Basically all my conventional protein sources are gone, along with essentially all fake meats (But what about Daiya you say. It has pea powder in it. Peas are also on the verboten list because why not). Beer and scotch, my alcohol favourites, are offline.

Most restaurants are no-go, as there's corn syrup, butter or soy sauce (depending on the restaurant) in so many things. Even at home, there are going to be big changes in what I eat. Of the six meals on this blog's front page, all are vegan yet all would run afoul of the new regulations.

However, things aren't that bad (and not just because this is a very trivial problem in the grand scheme of things). I'm not completely vegan because I can eat eggs, so that's a protein source right there. Same with nuts. Chickpeas are still in the green list and there are all sorts of other high-protein beans I can try. Like Mung Beans! That's a thing.

And even though all the recipes on the front page were offside, they can be reigned in. In some cases, it's as simple as not adding soy sauce.

Moreover, it's a good opportunity to try new things and really think about what I'm eating. Like this noodle soup that I whipped up.

I'm not going to blog the recipe because it was very spur of the moment, but the broth was veggie stock with mushrooms, red wine and cayenne pepper. It tasted good and fit all the new criteria.

I was going to blog about recipes under the label "The Empty Month". But after thinking about it, "The Experimental Month" is much more apt (and optimistic).

Peaceful Lentils

Okay, this recipe is not actually called "Peaceful Lentils"; it has the more proasic name of "Lentil Barley Stew". I had made this recipe while I was a cook at Sci '44 Co-op and then there, on the board, the vegetarian option was listed as "Peaceful Lentils". It confused me for a second until I realized the cookbook it was from was called "The Peaceful Palate". I am, I think, the only one in the world who finds that story interesting. Yet I still tell it. Good times. Whatever you call it, Lentil Barley Stew is an old favourite from my childhood – its a simple hearty stew that is just as good leftover.

Lentil Barley Stew

2 cups lentils (about 1 pound)

3/4 cup pearl barley

8 cups stock

1 large onion, chopped

2 carrots, diced

2 stalks celery, diced

1/2 tsp oregano

1/2 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

1/4 tsp black pepper

salt to taste

Place all ingredients except salt in a large pot and bring to a simmer. Cover and simmer for one hour, stirring occasionally, until lentils and barley are tender. Add salt to taste.

serves 12 6.

The original recipe says it serves 12, but really half that. I guess they're talking about serves 12 as a course as a meal, but my number comes from it being the whole dinner. This is also a good exam-period meal, as once you've done the chopping it's very low maintenance and you can do other things (e.g. study). Plus, it produces lots of leftovers (and, as indicated above, it makes good leftovers).

Restaurant: Savera

Food critic Joanne Kates once glowingly reviewed an Indian restaurant in Toronto. During the course of the glowing review she said how it was so nice that there was finally an Indian restaurant that catered to the upper class. All the others, you see, were centered on serving the plebeians and thus could not devote the proper resources to preparing sauces and such (I'm paraphrasing, but not by much). Savera is not the kind of chic-chic Indian place that Kates was lauding. It's a cute, small family-owned place that has good food.



Like many Indian places, I find the waiters are very attentive and are always refilling my water glass. I like having water, though the problem is I inevitably drink it whereupon it is filled up again and the cycle continues. The end result is that I leave the restaurant having had far too many glasses of water. We maybe ordered a little too much food – though its never a bad thing to have leftovers. We started off with samosa, which were solid – not great. Next we had some naan and rice (we had too much naan and not enough rice) with the Aloo Gobi, Channa Masala and Dal Makhani.



I really liked the Aloo Gobi, though then again I always like the Aloo Gobi. As always, I secretly prefer the potato element. The Dal was a little soupy, but that wasn't a problem for me when spooned over rice. The chickpeas weren't my favourite but they did a pretty good job with them. For those who like that sort of thing, the ambience was very nice: there was a lot of light and the interior was pretty. All in all, an enjoyable meal.

Savera Indian Cusine
815 St Clair Avenue West, Toronto, ON

Let us have lentils

So I've had this blog for – what – a month? And I'm already doing another dahl recipe. But I guess there are sufficient enough differences. The usual caveats about inauthenticity apply. Though, of course, the concept of inauthenticity itself is quite problematic. I once read a review of a Toronto Indian restaurant praising it as "authentic" while slamming other Toronto Indian restaurants as "inauthentic". The highlighted item had chili peppers, potatoes and tomatoes in it: all foods from the Americas and thus recent arrivals in India.

Dahl With Lettuce

1/4 cup red lentils

1 cup water or stock

1/4 cup rice

oil or butter

1 onion, diced

1 chili pepper, minced

2-3 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup lettuce, chopped

1/2 tbsp curry powder

1/2 tbsp cumin
Combine the lentils and the stock in a pot on medium-high. Wait till it boils and then turn to medium-low cook for about 15-20. Prepare the rice, maybe using this blog's rice recipe.

Sautee the onions on medium-high in the oil or butter for ten minutes. Add the garlic and chilli and cook for 5 minutes. With a few minutes left add the lettuce

Combine the lentils and the vegetables. Serve either on top of the rice.

Serves 1.

Red Lentil Soup

One of my favourite recipes is also one of the simplest and most proasically named. Naturally it involves lentils. The original was from the Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home: Fast and Easy Recipes for Any Day and over the years I have honed the recipe done into simpler and simpler versions. Simple does not mean simplistic, after all. Like chess. Or this recipe.

Red Lentil Soup

1 1/2 cups red lentils

6 cups vegetable stock

5 garlic cloves

2 medium carrots (1 cup)

1 cup canned tomatoes or 1 chopped medium fresh tomato

1 small red or green bell pepper (1/2 cup)

1 1/2 cups choped onions

2 teaspoons cumin

2 teaspoons curry powder

couple of shakes of cinnamon

pinch of cayenne

2 tablespoons soy sauce or lemon juice

Put lentils, stock and garlic in a soup pot, cover and bring to high heat. Chop the vegetables and add to the pot. Bring to a boil, stir and reduce heat. Add the spices. Simmer for 15 minutes, or longer if lentils are not tender. Add the lemon juice or soy sauce. Let sit and blend. Puree, reheat and serve.

Serves 4-6.

You don't actually have to puree this, but I don't like the texture of the lentils if you don't. I guess you could cook the lentils seperately in, say, 3 cups of the stock and then transfer them back into the soup. I had an interesting experience pureeing this particular soup as it hiccoughed some soup out of the top. That's funny, I thought, I guess I didn't attach the lid right. So I tightened the lip and turned it on again. More soup sputtered out. Would that happen again? I wondered. This time the blender vomited up soup all over my kitchen as I tried to turn it off without getting a facefull of hot soup. I guess there's a moral there.

Mjudraa

A friend once asked me what I was eating and I replied "Mainly lentils and rice." "Oh," said she, "In Pakistan that's considered poor people's food." Needless to say, my frugal heart grew three sizes that day. Here is an excellent savoury recipe combining those two great tastes that taste great together: A Lebanese dish called Mjudraa. One of my professors very kindly gave me this old family recipe. It's fairly easy to make, the only downside is cutting up all those onions. I'd imagine that a food processor would be very handy here, I'll have to try that out when I am in a place where such a device resides. Usually when I'm cooking for myself I only use half this recipe, which still provides for plenty of leftovers.

Mjudraa

2 cups of brown lentils (washed and drained)

8 cups of water

1 teaspoon of sea salt

1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper.

1 cup white rice (basmati recommended)

1/6 - 1/3 cup of oil (olive recommended)

6 large onions, chopped

Place the lentils in a heavy-based saucepan and add the water. Season with salt and cayenne pepper and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer gently for 25-30 minutes. Stir in the rice and simmer for 20 more minutes, adding extra water if necessary. Stir to make sure that it doesn't burn.

After adding the rice to the lentils, saute the onions in the olive oil in a heavy skillet until they are a golden brown and are slightly gooey. I usually use less oil, 1/6 of a cup is 2 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons. Add to the lentils and rice, stir and then remove from the heat.

My professor suggests garnishing with the green onions, and serve with pita bread, black lives, plain yoghurt, a squeeze of lemon over each serving, and a fresh lettuce, feta and tomato salad.

Serves 5

Restaurant: Nazareth

Nazareth is a small restaurant, yet there are those who love it. I am one of them. Quite simply, Nazareth is everything I love in a restaurant: non-fancy decor, inexpensive prices and excellent food. From the outside Nazareth looks like a small, sketchy bar, instead of Toronto's best Ethiopian restaurant.

Instead it is small and cramped, there is a line (as always). The menu is short, the chef(s?) clearly specialize in a few things done well. My friend Faisal and I order the vegetarian option. It costs $8 tax included. That is to say, $8 for two people! It arrives soon after we order:

The meal arrives on a giant plate– a salad and five different selections on a bed of injera, a form of bread that is seemingly the offspring of a pita and a sponge. We eat by dipping torn pieces of the sponge-bread them into one or more of the concoctions. The main items, many probably lentil-based, are savoury and delicious. The minimalist salad complaints them perfectly with its tangy lemon dressing. Conversation is sparse as the meal is quickly demolished. The bill is $4 each, before tip.

Any adjectives I could summon to describe the food would be inadequate. A friend of mine, who has lived in East Africa, says it is the best Ethiopian food she has ever had. Certainly, it probably has the highest taste/price ratio in Toronto.

Nazareth Restaurant
969 Bloor Street West, Toronto, Ontario

"Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage"

The connection between Jacobs and lentils goes all the way back to the first Jacob (Gen. 25:27-34). Though I've never used lentils to buy the birthright of anyone, I do really love them. Some people think I eat only lentils, which is sometimes not entirely an exaggeration. Naturally, there will be oodles (probably not the right plural noun) of lentil recipes on here. Tonight's dinner was a fairly informal version of dahl. Normally, when I'm making these I do it with a curry theme but I found this varient to be quite good as well:

Dahl With Vegetarian Oyster Sauce

1/4 cup red lentils

1 cup water or stock

1/4 cup rice

oil

1 carrot, chopped

1 onion, diced

1 chili pepper, minced

2-3 cloves garlic, minced

[1 teaspoon?] soy sauce

[1 tablespoon?] vegetarian oyster sauce

Combine the lentils and the stock in a pot on medium-high. Wait till it boils and then turn to medium-low cook for about 15-20. Prepare the rice however you prepare rice (I suppose you could cook it with the lentils, but I usually like to make surplus rice for leftovers).

Sautee the onions on medium-high in the oil for five minutes. Add the carrots, garlic, chilli and carrots. Stir throughout. With a few minutes to go add the soy sauce and the oyster sauce. I've never actually calculated how much I put in, just eyeball it.

Combine the lentils and the vegetables. Serve either on top of the rice or mix the rice in.

Serves 1.