I've only recently got into lentils. My suspicion was that they would be tasteless and dull. I could not be more wrong.

My first foray was with puy lentils, both with sausages and duck. Delicious. Now, with my love of Indian food, surely the obvious next step was daal? On my various travels around India, I honestly don't remember eating daal, which seems impossible.

I've made several version, with different types of pulses, but this is the first and still my favourite.

The addition of the butternut squash gives a lovely sweetness and much of it tends to melt into the sauce. The lentils should be deliciously creamy and the coconut milk gives a lovely gloss.

If you want to make it more non-veg, you could add some chicken about 20mins before it's ready, but it really doesn't need it - in fact I found it distracts from the beautiful richness of the daal.

Ingredients:

75g green lentils, rinsed
75g red lentils, rinsed
1 large onion, finely chopped
1tsp garlic purée
1 tsp ginger purée
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp black mustard seeds
1 tsp ground turmeric
½ tsp cayenne
½ tsp asafoetida 
½ tsp cinnamon
375 ml chicken (or vegetable) stock
200g canned chopped tomatoes
200g butternut squash, cubed
200 ml coconut milk
1 tbsp muscavado sugar
½ tsp garam masala

How to make it: 

1. Rinse the lentils at least 3 times with cold water.

2. Heat some oil in a large frying pan and cook the onion, stirring, for at least 15mins until they start to brown.

3. Add the spices [except the garam masala], garlic and ginger and stir through until the spices release their fragrance. Don't let them burn - add a few spalshes of water if need be.

4. Add the lentils and stir for a few minutes until they're coated in the spices.

5. Add the stock and bring to the boil. 

6. Stir in the tomato and butternut squash, then cover and cook over a very low heat on the hob for two hours, stirring every now and again. 

7. Mash a few of the lentils against the side of the pan with a spoon to thicken the sauce.

 8. Stir in the sugar and garam masala. Add the coconut milk a few spoonfuls at a time, allowing it to absorb into the lentils before you add more. This will take about another 10-15mins.

9. Taste and check the flavour, adding salt, sugar or some extra coconut milk as needed.

 
This is my all time favourite curry to make. This was one of the first I made but I constantly come back to it because it never goes wrong and never disappoints. The tang of tamarind should be strong, but balanced by the sweetness of the potato and peas.

If you think you haven't tried tamarind before, you probably have, as it's an ingredient in both Worcestershire Sauce and HP Sauce. The pod-like fruit of a tree, you can buy it in supermarkets either as a solid block or a runnier paste. You can use either, though it will take more for the more solid version to break down in the sauce.

Here the sweet potato is soft but sweet from roasting. I've also cooked it in exactly the same way but without the oil, which gives the same flavour but a much firmer texture. You need to keep more of an eye on it though, in case it catches.

Ingredients:


Spice mix
2 tsp corriander seeds
1½ tsp cumin seeds
½ tsp mustard seeds
½ tsp peppercorns
½ tsp chilli powder
½ tsp ground tumeric

500g sweet potato, peeled and cubed
1 sweet white onion sliced
1 tsp ginger puree
½ tsp garlic puree
½ tsp dried chilli flakes
8-10 curry leaves
400g chopped tomato
2 tsp brown sugar
1 tbsp tamarind paste
400ml reduced fat coconut milk
150g frozen peas
A handful of unsalted cashew nuts

How to make it:


1. Pre-heat the oven to 160C/gas 3.

2. Put the cubed sweet potato into a bowl and add 1 tbsp of oil. Mix thoroughly so that all the potato is lightly coated with the oil. Spread the potato out on a baking sheet covered with greaseproof paper and bake for around 20mins, depending on how big you've cut the cubes.

3. For the spice mix, grind the whole spices with a pestle and mortar to a fine powder, then add the chilli powder and tumeric.

4. Fry the onion on a medium heat for about 20mins, stiring frequently until it starts to brown. If you want to save time you can just fry it until soft but you'll get a deeper flavour with more time.

5. Add the spice mix, curry leaves, chilli flakes, ginger and garlic with the onion and cook for a couple of minutes, stiring to make sure the spices don't burn. If you think they're getting too hot, add a few splashes of water.

6. Add the tomato and turn the heat up a bit, then cook for a couple of minutes. Add the coconut milk, sugar and tamarind paste. Bring up just to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer gently for 15mins.

7. Taste to test the balance of tangy and sweet, adjusting the sugar and tamarind as needed. Season with a few pinches of salt.

8. Add the peas straight from frozen - you want them to defrost and warm through but not cook so long that they lose their flavour.

9. Toast the cashew nuts in a dry pan, moving them constantly to make sure that they brown but don't burn. Add them to the other pan.

10. Add the roasted sweet potato to the pan and stir through, making sure all the elements are hot before serving.
 
In 6 weeks we're off to Barcelona for a long weekend. It's over 10 years since I was there and my husband has never been. I can't think of anywhere more perfect for the two of us though and I suspect a large percentage of our time there will involve sherry, chorizo, jamon Iberico and churros.

To get us in the mood I thought I'd try making a paella. Neither of us are big fans of seafood, so the challenge was to find a recipe that would avoid that, but still have lots of flavour.

Not a problem, as I already had my eye on a vegetable paella recipe from Yotem Ottlenghi's Plenty which I could adapt. Along with a few other tweaks, I left out some of the veg and added chorizo. Obviously it's no longer a vegetarian dish but the vegetables are still the main flavour, with the chorizo accenting them. You can easily use the recipe as a base and add veg, meat or seafood of your choice.

It did initially take longer to cook than I expected but I then realised that having the hob on a very low heat meant that the stock wasn't hot enough to make the rice absorb it. Live and learn.

Yes, skinning the broad beans is a faff but it really is worth it. The more I did, the quicker I got and the better my technique. I won't lie though, a few did shoot across the room, for which the dog was very grateful!

Ingredients:

3 tbsp olive oil
100g chorizo diced small
1 small white onion, finely chopped
1 red and 1 yellow pepper cut into strips
1 small fennel bulb, cut into strips
2 bay leaves
¼ tsp smoked paprika
½ tsp turmeric
A pinch of cayenne
150g paella rice
100ml sherry
½ tsp saffron strands
400ml warm vegetable stock
½ sea salt
200ml chopped tomatoes
200g frozen broad beans
15 pitted Kalamata olives, halved

How to make it:

1. Heat the oil in a pan and fry the chorizo until it starts to crisp, then remove from the pan.

2. Add the onion to the same pan and fry for about 5 mins until it turns translucent.

3. Add the peppers and fennel and fry for about 6 mins more, making sure that the fennel has softened and started to turn brown.

4. Add the bay leaves, paprika, turmeric and cayenne to the vegetables and mix thoroughly for a minute.

5. Add the rice and stir for two minutes, making sure that all the rice has taken on the oil and flavours in the pan.

6. Add the saffron to the sherry, then add both to the pan. Let it boil for a minute then add the tomato.

7. Add the stock, salt and chorizo and turn down to a medium to low heat.

8. Let it cook for 20mins without stiring or covering.

9. While it's cooking, put the broad beans in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Leave for one minute then drain the water and re-cover with more boiling water. Leave for 2-3 minutes, then squeeze the beans out of their skins.

10. Once most of the liquid has been absorbed, sprinkle the beans and olives on the top and allow to cook for a few more minutes.

11. Check that the rice is soft but not soggy - it's ready to serve.

Adapted from Plenty by Yotem Ottolenghi
 
I love vegetables.

When my mum reads that statement it will make her laugh out loud, as I've spent most of my life hating vegetables and avoiding them as much as possible.

And actually I still don't love all vegetables - stalky nobbly broccoli is clearly the devil's work. Nothing would convince me to eat smelly watery cucumber. However, if you roast me some sweet parsnips or nutty Jerusalem artichokes I'm a happy girl.

We now probably eat vegetarian meals at least three times a week, and what has made the difference has been finding amazing recipes which put vegetables at the centre of the dish and are packed with great flavours and textures.

I have a little bit of an obsession with Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi's books Plenty and Jerusalem. Though not vegetarians they create fabulous vegetables dishes that can easily be made at home.

This recipe is adapted from a recipe in Jerusalem. I've added the peashoots/ walnuts and roasted the figs rather than served them fresh, but otherwise it's a great representation of the beautiful dishes in their books.

Ingredients:

2 sweet potatoes
2 tbsp olive oil
¼ chilli flakes
20g caster sugar
40ml balsamic vinegar
4 fresh and ripe figs
125g soft goat’s cheese
Sea salt and black pepper
A few handfuls of peashoots
A handful of roughly chopped walnuts


How to make it:

1. Preheat the oven to 240C/gas 9.

2. Wash the sweet potatoes, halve them lengthways and then cut each again similarly into three long wedges. Mix with the olive oil, the chilli flakes, a teaspoon of salt and some black pepper.

3. Cut a cross into the top of each fig, take a chunk of cheese and put it inside.

4. Spread the wedges out on a baking sheet, skin-side down, nestle the figs inbetween them and cook for about 25 minutes until soft but not mushy.

5. To make a balsamic reduction, place the balsamic vinegar and sugar in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil then reduce the heat and simmer for 2–4 minutes, or until it thickens. Be sure to remove the pan from the heat when the vinegar is still runnier than honey; it will continue to thicken as it cools.

6. Stir in a drop of water before serving if it does become too thick to drizzle.

7. Put the peashoots in the bottom of each dish and sprinkle with the walnuts.

8. Arrange the sweet potatoes and figs on top.

9. Drizzle over the balsamic reduction and crumble over some extra cheese if you'd like it.

Recipe adapted from Jerusalem by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi
 
I don't remember why I call this French Chicken. There doesn't seem much French about it - it might be because it reminds me a bit of Petit Pois a la Francais. Anyway, that's what I always think of it as, so that's what I'm calling it.

I never really cooked until I moved in with my husband. When we started living together we'd cook from scratch only occasionally, but over time we found that anything we bought pre-made didn't live up to making it ourselves, and now we divide the week's cooking between us. The downside is that we normally spend up to an hour and a half in the kitchen after a day at work. So it's great when a recipe is really quick to put together but still has bags of flavour.

Husband isn't currently eating lactose, so I have tried substituting the creme fraiche for lactose free cream, which tasted the same but did give a thinner sauce.

If you can, use pancetta lardons rather than bacon as they tend to make it a bit salty.

Ingredients:

100g pancetta lardons
400g sliced chicken breast
1 tsp garlic purée
4-5 shallots finely diced
200ml chicken stock
100ml white wine
2 tsp thyme
250g frozen peas
1 little gem lettuce shredded
4 dessert spoons half fat creme fraiche


How to make it:

1. Fry the pancetta until it starts to crisp, then add the shallot.

2. Turn the heat down and allow the shallot to soften but not brown.

3. Turn the heat back up, add the stock, wine, garlic and thyme and stir.

4. Allow to bubble for a few minutes, then turn the heat right down and add the chicken.

5. Cover and allow the chicken to gently poach in the liquor for about 5 mins.

6. Add the peas and lettuce and leave on the heat for another 5 mins.

7. Stir through the creme fraiche and check the taste - season only if needed.

8. Serve with crusty bread to soak up all the lovely juices.

 
One of my favourite things to make for Friday Night Curry is pork vindaloo.

I spent a relaxing holiday in Goa a few years ago - it was very different to lots of the other parts of India I'd visited, a much more easy going than the big cities. The food was also delicious. There's a big cashew industry, so you find a lot of them in dishes. I also got to visit a spice farm and it was really interesting to see things like pepper and nutmeg growing - and made me realise just how little I actually know about where spices come from.

The Portuguese influence is very obvious in Goa and it's said that vindaloo has its roots in a Portuguese dish: Carne de Vinha d' Alhos, pork cooked with wine and garlic. Vindaloo subsitutes wine vinegar for wine, which gives a lovely tang against the sweet pork.

Although pork is more common, it's also traditional to make it with duck, with gives a similar sweetness. If I'm making this with pork shoulder, I would normally marinate the pork in the spice paste for a couple of hours first but there's really no need to do that with duck.

Ingredients:

2 duck legs
1 tsp cumin seeds
5 black peppercorns
Seeds from 2 cardamom pods
2 cloves
1 tsp corriander seeds
Half tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ginger puree
1 tsp garlic paste
Half tsp chilli flakes
3 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 finely chopped onion
1 tin chopped tomato
1 tsp muscovado sugar
1 tsp black mustard seeds
A handful of unsalted cashews

How to make it:

1.  Pre-heat the oven to 180c/gas 4

2.  Season the duck legs with salt and pepper, place skin up on a baking tray and roast for 1 hour 30 mins.

3.  Grind the cumin, peppercorns, cardamom, cloves and corriander with a pestle and mortar until fine.

4.  Put half the onion, ground spices, cinnamon, ginger, garlic, chilli and vinegar in a blender and blend to produce a smooth paste.

5.  Fry the other half of the onion until golden brown.

6.  Add the spice paste and fry until the oil starts to come out but don't let it burn.

7.  Add the tomato and sugar, cover and simmer on mimimum heat for 40mins.

8.  Remove the duck from the oven and allow to rest for at least 30mins.

9.  Taste the sauce and adjust the sugar/vinegar/chilli balance as needed.

10.  Remove the duck meat from the bones - try and keep it quite chunky if you can.

11.  Stir the duck into the sauce and let it warm through.

12.  Meanwhile, in a separate pan add a little oil and fry the mustard seeds until they pop.

13.  Add the cashews and fry until they turn golden brown - keep them moving or they will burn.

14.  Add the cashew/mustard seed/oil mix straight into the sauce and stir.

15. Serve immediately with rice or bread.
 
I love a new ingredient. I like to see something, think 'I have no idea what to do with that' and buy it anyway.

That's exactly what happened with Pomegrante Molasses. Having bought it, I needed to find a recipe to use it in. As luck would have it, there in the Sainsburys magazine was a Bill Granger recipe for duck legs with Pomegrante Molasses and walnuts. I adapted it a little as I preferred to roast the duck to crisp up the skin, rather than cook it in the sauce. The tangy pomegranate molasses is nicely balanced by the sugar and the nuts - adjust the quantities to suit your own taste.

I first tried this after a walk in the park on a cold sunny November Sunday. Well, I say a walk in the park, I walked for a bit then husband and small dog left me on a bench with my Kindle while they did a few more circuits (I think I was holding them back). This was the perfect dish to come back to with rosy cheeks and big appetites.

Ingredients:

2 duck legs

For the sauce:
Half an onion finely sliced
Squeeze of garlic purée
Half a cinnamon stick
Zest of half an orange
100ml of pomegranate juice
100ml chicken stock
1 tbsp pomegranate molasses
1 tbsp light muscavado sugar
50g walnuts, toasted and chopped

For the lentils:
Half an onion finely sliced
100g chorizo diced small
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp parsley
1 tin chopped tomato
1 tin puy lentils
Salt and pepper

How to make it:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180c/gas 4.

2. Season the duck legs and place skin up in a roasting tray. Roast for 1 hour 30mins.

3. In a frying pan fry half a sliced onion for about 8 mins until it's golden.

4. Stir in the cinnamon stick, orange zest, pomegranate juice, stock and garlic. Bring to a simmer.

5. Reduce to a low heat, cover with a lid and cook for about 1 hour.

6. In the meantime, fry the second half of the onion with the chorizo in a separate pan until the onion is soft.

7. Add the thyme, parsley, tomato and lentils. Season to taste and cook on a gentle heat for about 30 mins.

8. Remove the cinnamon stick from the sauce and add the sugar and pomegranate molasses.

9. Turn up the heat and bubble for about 10 mins until it's thick and syrupy. Add the walnuts and stir lightly to coat in the sauce.

10. Serve the duck leg on a bed of the lentils and drizzle liberally with the sauce. You could also serve a jug of extra sauce on the side for those who want it (me).

Recipe adapted from Bill Granger for Sainsburys Magazine.
 
Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas food as much as the next girl - mince pies, turkey, Xmas pud, the lot. But if you're looking for a new recipe to try at this time of year it's all a bit samey - there's only so many things you can do with mincemeat.

Husband was off to his Christmas party, so I wanted to find something interesting to make that would taste great but not take too much effort, as there was likely to be some naughty puppy behaviour to contend with.

This certainly hit the spot. I've recently been mesmerised by Yotam Ottolenghi's Mediterranean series. It's impossible not to be engaged by his passion for flavours and the dishes don't rely on time consuming techniques - the ingredients speak for themselves.

I've tweaked it a bit, mainly as I didn't have fresh herbs but I also used roast peppers from a jar to cut down the cooking time. It's quite a simple recipe but the flavours are beautifully intense.

This dish is traditionally for breakfast but I'd be more than happy to have it any time of day. Maybe twice.

Ingredients:

1 tsp cumin seeds
Oil
1 large onion sliced
100g chorizo cut into small pieces
4 large roast peppers cut into 2cm strips
1 tsp muscovado sugar
2 bay leaves
2 tsp thyme
1 tbsp chopped parsley
1 tin chopped tomatoes
½ tsp saffron threads

A pinch cayenne pepper
Up to 250ml water
6 free-range eggs
salt and black pepper

How to make it:

1. In a very large pan dry-roast the cumin seeds on a high heat for 2 minutes.

2. Add the oil, chorizo and onions and sauté for 5 minutes.

3. Add the peppers, sugar and herbs and continue cooking on a high heat for a few minutes.

4. Add the tomatoes, garlic, saffron, cayenne and some salt and pepper. Reduce the heat to low and cook for 15 minutes. During the cooking, keep adding water so that the mix has a passata consistency.

5. Taste and adjust the seasoning. It should be potent and flavoursome.

6. Remove the bay leaves, then divide the pepper mix between 2 deep frying pans, each large enough to take a generous individual portion.

7. Place them on a medium heat to warm up, then make three gaps in the pepper mix in each pan and carefully break an egg into each gap.

8. Sprinkle with salt and cover the pans with lids. Cook on a very(!) gentle heat for 10-12 minutes, or until the eggs are just set. Sprinkle with extra parsley and serve.

Recipe from Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi

 
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It's National Curry week which is a good enough reason to have a curry. But at our house every Friday is curry night. My husband and I take it in turns to whip up a spicy feast and it always says 'hurrah the weekend has started!'

I wasn't really a fan of Indian food until I spent quite a bit of time there. I haven't by any means seen all of India but have been to Delhi, Mumbai, Agra, Shimla, Amritsar, Goa and Dharamshala amongst others, so I have tried different styles of food. I also spent 5 weeks teaching English in a slum school in Jaipur, staying in a £10 a night hotel with an amazing vegetarian  restaurant.

Making a curry every week means we spend a lot of time looking for different recipes and this is one of our favourites. Xacutti is a curry from Goa and makes the most of toasted spices and the tang of tamarind.

Last week I spent the weekend in Portugal with girlfriends and, tiring of endless menus of steak and fish, we went for an excellent Indian (check out Masala if you're ever in Cascais).

I was surprised to see Xacutti on the menu, as it's not a dish that you'd usually find on a menu in the UK, but it makes sense as Goa was formerly a Portuguese colony. The dish incorporates coconut flesh, as so many Goan dishes do, and toasting the spices before grinding gives it a really deep earthy flavour.

Ingredients:

Marinade
Squeeze of garlic purée
Squeeze of ginger purée
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tbsp tamarind paste
1/2 tsp ground tumeric
1/2 tsp chilli powder
450g diced chicken breast

Masala mix
1 tbsp sesame seeds
1/2 tbsp poppy seeds
1/4 tsp chilli flakes
1tsp cloves
1 tsp black peppercorns
1 tbsp fennel seeds
1 tbsp coriander seeds
2 tbsp grated coconut
1tbsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp peanuts

Sauce
1 onion very finely chopped
1 tbsp grated coconut
400g tin chopped tomato
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Method:


1. Mix all the marinade ingredients together and smother the diced chicken thoroughly with the mixture. Leave while you prepare the masala.

2. Heat a frying pan (no oil) and add all the masala ingredients. If you don't want it so warm, leave out the chilli flakes. Immediately remove the pan from the heat and swirl the spices around in the hot pan until they are toasted and fragrant. Make sure they don't burn, especially the smaller sesame and poppy seeds.

3. Remove the spices and wipe the pan clean with kitchen towel.

4. Grind the spices using either a coffee grinder or a pestle and mortar. If you're doing it manually, make sure you spend enough time so that the spices are all finely ground - biting into a whole clove or peppercorn will be a nasty surprise later.

5. Fry the onion in a tbsp of oil until it softens, then add the ground spice mix and fry for a few minutes.

6. Add the tomato a little at a time to stop the temperature dropping and then add the cinnamon.

7. Add the marinated chicken and the extra coconut.

8. Cook for 20 minutes or until the chicken is cooked. If it starts to dry out too much, add splashes of warm water.

9. Check the seasoning and add some salt to bring out the flavours if needed.

9. Served sprinkled with some extra peanuts and some rice or chappatti.

 
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Generally I’m much happier with a recipe when I cook. 
 
I’d love to be able to take a bag of wildly random ingredients and turn it into something amazing but I think that’s pretty unlikely. Guess I’d never cut it on Masterchef. It’s fair to say though that most things I cook start with a recipe, then over time go through several incarnations until I’m happy with it.

This however, is an invention. I think the inspiration came when we were watching someone cook prawns in foil. Dave doesn’t like prawns, so I suggested we could use chicken instead, then we built in the things we like most – fennel for me and chorizo for Dave. 

Use it as your own starting point. Don’t like fennel? Use sliced red onions. Don’t like green beans? Try asparagus. Don’t like chorizo? There’s clearly something wrong with you.

The part of this recipe I’m most pleased with is the mash. I’d tried it before by simply roasting the sweet potatoes and adding butter, which resulted in a horrible sloppy mess. The nigella in this version gives it a lovely earthiness to balance the sweetness of the cinnamon and the fragrance of the thyme. And it’s not sloppy.

Ingredients

2 chicken breasts
2 bulbs of fennel, sliced thinly
A handful of trimmed green beans, cut in half
150g chorizo
¼ tsp hot smoked paprika
2 tsp rapeseed oil
1 tsp lemon juice
1kg sweet potato
1tsp nigella seeds
1 tsp thyme
2 pinches of cinnamon
1 pinch of salt
A few grinds of pepper 


How to make it
 
1.  Preheat the oven to 200C/gas 6

2.  Prick the skins of the sweet potatoes and bake for 1hr

3.  In a mixing bowl put the fennel and the beans 

4.  Use scissors to cut the chorizo into fingernail sized pieces and add to the bowl

5.  Drizzle the oil and lemon juice, then sprinkle over the paprika
 
6.  Mix thoroughly so that everything is coated in the paprika and oil

7.  Take two large pieces of foil. Add a chicken breast to each one and top with the  chorizo/fennel mixture

8.  Wrap up the sides of the foil, making sure that nothing can leak out and place the parcels on a baking tray

9.  Turn the oven down to 180C/gas 4, move the potatoes to the bottom shelf and put the  chicken on the middle shelf.

10.  After 20mins remove the potatoes from the oven and cut open, leaving the steam to  escape for a few minutes so they’re not too wet

11.  Scoop the flesh into a bowl and break up with a fork

12.  Add the nigella, cinnamon, thyme, salt and pepper, and mix thoroughly until the mash is smooth

13. Open the foil parcels carefully and serve with the mash, making sure you pour all the lovely juices over the chicken.