Red Lentils Tarka with Raisin Chutney
A warming and soothing vegetarian dish of red lentils seasoned with cumin, asafoetida, garlic and curry leaves, served with lacto-fermented raisin chutney and toasted flatbread..
Red Lentils Tarka with Raisin Chutney
For the Chutney (adapted from a recipe by Sally Fallon)
1 1/2 cups organic raisins, soaked in warm filtered water for 1 hour
2 cloves of garlic, peeled
1/2 bunch fresh cilantro leaves
10 black peppercorns
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
1/2 tablespoon cumin seeds
1/2 tablespoon anise seeds
1/2 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
1 teaspoon sea salt
2 tablespoons whey
1/2 cup filtered water
Place garlic and cilantro in food processor and pulse a few times. Drain raisins and add to food processor along with peppercorns, red pepper flakes, seeds and ginger. Pulse a few times until the mixture becomes a coarse paste. Transfer to a pint-sized, wide-mouth mason jar and press down lightly with a wooden pounder or a meat hammer. Mix salt and whey with water and pour into jar. You may need to poke a few holes in the chutney to allow liquid to percolate through. Add more water if necessary to cover the chutney. The top of the chutney should be at least 1 inch below the top of the jar. Cover tightly and keep at room temperature for about 2 days before transferring to refrigerator. The chutney should be eaten with 2 months.
For the Lentils
1 cup split red lentils, picked over, rinsed and drained
3 cups vegetable stock or filtered water
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon freshly-ground black Tellicherry peppercorns
1 bay leaf
Combine lentils and stock in a heavy saucepan and bring to a boil. Skim off any scum, then reduce heat to a simmer. Add turmeric, pepper and bay. Cover and simmer until thick and tender, about 40 minutes.
For the Tarka (adapted from a recipe by Madhur Jaffrey)
2 tablespoons ghee
1/3 teaspoon asafoetida
1/2 teaspoon whole cumin seeds
1 teaspoon curry leaves, chopped
1-2 small fresh red chillies, chopped
1 clove garlic, coarsely minced
1/2 small onion, diced
1 plum tomato, chopped
Heat ghee in a heavy skillet over medium heat until it shimmers. Add the asafoetida and let it sizzle for 30 seconds. Add the cumin and chilies and cook until the chillies begin to get crisp, about 1 minute. Add onions and cook until browned. Add tomato and garlic and cook until garlic is browned. Stir the tarka (including all of the liquid) into the lentils, cover and let stand 5 minutes to combine the flavors.
Serve hot with raisin chutney and toasted flatbread.
This post is in support of Meatless Monday, whose goal it is to goal is to help reduce
meat consumption by 15% in order to improve personal health and the health of our planet.
Giveaway: Real Food Must Reads
Congratulations!
The winner of the Real Food Must Reads Giveaway is juliebmorton.
Julie, please email me your shipping info and confirm which book you’d like and I’ll get it sent out right away
renATedibleariaDOTcom
Thank you for participating, everyone!
All the best,
Ren
Kristen the Food Renegade wants to empower people to choose wholesome, healthy, traditional foods. Towards that end, she has carefully compiled a list of almost two dozen must reads for the Real Food practitioner..
and a dozen more..
Are you ready to learn about preparing lacto-fermented sauerkraut, a fresh loaf of sprouted whole grain bread or a glass of kombucha.. to rebel against the dominant food culture and become a food renegade?
If so, simply go spend some quality time looking around at http://www.foodrenegade.com (including the Must Reads section, of course) then come back here and tell me (using the comment section below) which one of these books you feel will most help you on your way towards freedom from the Standard American Diet (SAD, for short).
Include a thoughtful reason or two for your selection so that I know your interest is sincere, OK?
I’ll choose one eligible entry at random, order the winner’s book of choice from The Food Renegade’s store and ship it to any U.S. (only, sorry) address.
Contest ends September 4, 2009.
Giveaway: Nourishing Traditions, Wild Fermentation
We have a winner!
Congratulations, Katie @ Kitchen Stewardship! Please send your shipping info to “ren AT ediblearia DOT com” and UPS should be ringing your doorbell in a couple of days.
Thank you all for participating, and be sure to check back soon for details on the next giveaway!
ps I’d love to hear any ideas you might have for the next giveaway. Thanks, everyone!
“Unfortunately, fermented foods have largely disappeared from the western diet, much to the detriment of our health and economy. For fermented foods are a powerful aid to digestion and a protection against disease; and because fermentation is, by nature, an artisanal process, the disappearance of fermented foods has hastened the centralization and industrialization of our food supply, to the detriment of small farms and local economies.“
So wrote Sally Fallon, author of Nourishing Traditions in the forward to Sandor Katz’ Wild Fermentation.
Fallon concludes by saying “Wild Fermentation represents not only an effort to bring back from oblivion these treasured processes, but also a road map to a better world, a world of healthy people and equitable economies, a world that especially values those iconoclastic, free-thinking individuals—so often labeled misfits—uniquely qualified to perform the alchemy of fermented foods.”
Fallon and Katz have both had a huge impact on the way that I eat. Indeed, it is their/your/our good old ways and modern science that underlay much of what I try to share here from day to day. I know, some days are better than others, right?
OK, here’s the deal. I feel strongly enough about the healing and nourishing power of traditional foods (that which Michael Pollan describes as food that our great grandmothers would recognize) that I’m going to send a copy of either Fallon’s Nourishing Traditions or Katz’ Wild Fermentation to one of you. But first, you have to go on a little scavenger hunt. Nothing too involved, but enough to let me know that your interest is sincere. Cool?
To participate, just go spend some time looking around at either http://www.westonaprice.org/ or http://www.wildfermentation.com/, then come back here and tell me (using the comment section below) something that you want everyone to know about fermentation. Dig around- there’s a lot of information out there!
I’ll choose one eligible entry at random, and ship the book to the winner at any U.S. (only, sorry) address. Contest ends in 1 week.
This post is part of the Real Food Wednesdays Blog Carnival
Updated: Compound Tomato Sauce (lacto-fermented ketchup)
Adapted from recipes from Abby Fisher (1881) and Sally Fallon (2001), this healthy condiment keeps its Old South flavors..
1 1/2 cups tomato paste
1/2 cup (more or less) filtered water
1/4 cup whey
2 teaspoons walnut oil
1 tablespoon molasses
1/8 cup fermented fish sauce OR 1-2 anchovies, mashed OR 1 teaspoon anchovy paste
2 cloves garlic
1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
1/8 teaspoon cayenne (or to taste)
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Grind dry ingredients together in a spice grinder or mash in a mortar (if using fish sauce, be sure to taste before also using sea salt). Add to the rest of the ingredients in a non-reactive bowl and stir well to combine.
Add filtered water to achieve the consistency that you prefer. It will thicken as it stands, so you might want to leave this a little on the thin side.
Transfer ketchup to a jar with a tight-fitting lid and allow to sit at room temperature for 72 hours before transferring to refrigerator for long-term storage.
(Here’s an earlier version of this recipe)
This post is part of Food Renegade’s Fight Back Fridays
Lacto-fermented Raisin Chutney
When I read the recipe for raisin chutney in Sally Fallon‘s Nourishing Traditions, I knew that it would be wholesome and nutritious, but I was a little doubtful about how good it would taste. Boy, was I wrong!
Star anise, ginger, coriander, fresh cilantro, plump raisins.. this stuff is seriously delicious!
1 1/2 cups organic raisins, soaked in warm filtered water for 1 hour
2 cloves of garlic, peeled
1/2 bunch fresh cilantro leaves
10 black peppercorns
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
1/2 tablespoon cumin seeds
1/2 tablespoon anise seeds
1/2 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
1 teaspoon sea salt
2 tablespoons whey
1/2 cup filtered water
Place garlic and cilantro in food processor and pulse a few times. Drain raisins and add to food processor along with peppercorns, red pepper flakes, seeds and ginger. Pulse a few times until the mixture becomes a coarse paste. Transfer to a pint-sized, wide-mouth mason jar and press down lightly with a wooden pounder or a meat hammer. Mix salt and whey with water and pour into jar. You may need to poke a few holes in the chutney to allow liquid to percolate through. Add more water if necessary to cover the chutney. The top of the chutney should be at least 1 inch below the top of the jar. Cover tightly and keep at room temperature for about 2 days before transferring to refrigerator. The chutney should be eaten with 2 months.
Te’s Chicken
Known to her family and friends as Te, Alphonsine Davalis was born in the small farming hamlet of Trois Veveres, France. She lived a fascinating life, moving to Paris as a young teenager, later fleeing the Nazi regime, establishing a chicken farm in Connecticut and coming up with the idea of producing a small, plump bird hailed by gourmets around the world.
Mrs. Makowsky, having grown up on a farm, drove the back roads of New England in search of land. She settled on nearly 200 acres in northeastern Connecticut, which her husband named Idle Wild Farm. The couple began raising and selling African guinea hens.
In October 1949, their flock was lost when a fire roared through the couple’s chicken houses. Although production was halted, the Makowskys promised their customers that they would soon continue with deliveries.
The Makowskys began cross-breeding the Cornish game cocks with various chickens and game birds, including a White Plymouth Rock hen and a Malayn fighting cock, to develop the Rock Cornish game hen — a succulent bird with all-white meat, large enough for a single serving.
Using methods and flavors described by Sally Fallon and Judy Rodgers, here, then is Te’s chicken, roasted with herbs and served with a smashed grape demi glace and tarragon stuffing.
Rinse birds thoroughly inside and out and pat completely dry. Insert fresh herbs of your choice into the pockets between the skin and breast, then season liberally with sea salt and cracked black pepper. Cover loosely and refrigerate overnight.
Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Preheat a cast iron skillet over medium heat. Place bird(s) in the skillet, breast side up. It should sizzle. Roast birds for 15 minutes, remove from oven, flip breast side down and roast another 10 minutes. Flip one more time and roast another 5 minutes to crisp the skin. Transfer to cutting board to rest.
Deglaze the skillet with white wine then scrape up all the brown bits. Add a little stock and reduce until sauce just coats the back of a spoon, about 10 minutes. Add halved seedless black grapes and simmer 5 minutes. Smash the grapes with a potato masher or the back of a wooden spoon. Finish with a spoonful of demi glace.
Split birds and serve with tarragon bread stuffing and smashed grape demi glace.
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