Some “Hurry Down” Lentils

Food writer Nigella Lawson once said that a friend of hers described her as “the queen of the frozen pea”, simply because she had so many recipes in which she used them. Now in no way do I compare myself to Nigella (hahahaaa!), but we do share a love for peas and I’ll admit, I do have more than my own fair share of recipes for cooking different types. However, it’s the lentil that gets my top vote for the most used pea in my little kitchen.

Lentils are like my ‘go to’ pulse because they cook quickly and can be used as anything from a meat substitute to a delicious side dish. I like to think that love stemmed from my late Granny’s cooking, because of the special way she used to stew them and she always served them up with some nice macaroni pie… (more on that in another post). Of course, we don’t always have the luxury of standing over the pot and doing the sauté, so over the years I’ve been able to develop an easier way of doing stewed lentils using a pressure cooker.

It’s a pretty healthy way to do them too, because there’s no oil or butter used. All you need are lentils, water, a flavour cube or two, some nice firm fresh vegetables and your favourite local and powdered seasonings and you’re good to go. It’s no wonder I like to refer to these as my “Hurry Down Lentils” because they are really fast and easy, and I’m only too happy to show you how I do them.

First thing I always do is check through the 500g pack of lentils and search for any debris, strange looking grains or stones.

(I cannot in good conscience ever just pour lentils straight from the pack and start prepping, which is why I hardly ever buy cooked lentils on the outside. You never know…)

See what I mean?

The next step was to give them a good wash; after that, they were poured into the pressure cooker.

Next, I got my vegetables. I like to use fresh celery, pumpkin and carrots whenever I can. Luckily, I had these on hand, so I peeled and diced half of a medium sized carrot and enough pumpkin to make 1 ½ cups. I also added half an onion, sliced, 3 stalks of chopped chive, 1 large stalk of chopped celery and a few sprigs of fresh parsley.

Now for the seasonings… I’ll admit I took some anger out on 2 large garlic cloves by flattening them with a knife – and my fist. Gave them a rough chop and added them to the pot, followed by 5 chopped pimento peppers.

In goes 6 cups of water…

A couple dashes of Angostura Bitters…

 And a little less than a potspoonful of good tomato ketchup beginning with the letter ‘M’.

Two crushed vegetable bouillon cubes went in. (But if you like, a teaspoon of salt can suffice.) Also put in some crushed red pepper flakes, a couple shakes of ginger powder and a teaspoon of brown sugar.

I didn’t have any bay leaves – normally I’d put a small one in there –  so I reached for the stand in… a teeny bit of ground nutmeg.

Gave everything a good stir, and realised I almost forgot something…

A spoonful of home made seasoning. (Cue the angel voices…)

Another stir and my pressure cooker was ready to go on the stove. Placed it on a medium high flame and brought it to a quick boil, then locked my lid closed and cooked it down for roughly 18 minutes, timing it from the moment the top began to spin and make that noise…

And when the time was up and the pressure cooker cooled down, this was the sight that greeted me… voila!

Perfectly stewed lentils, or as we say at my house, ‘Hurry Dong lentils!’

Here's the recipe: 

“Hurry Down” Lentils

One 500g pack of dried lentils, picked over for stones and washed

Half a large carrot, peeled and diced

Enough chopped pumpkin to give you 1 ½ to 2 cups

1 stalk celery, chopped

3 stalks chive, chopped

2 sprigs fresh parsley, uncut

4 or 5 pimento peppers, chopped

½ a medium onion, sliced

2 large cloves garlic, crushed with a knife and roughly chopped

2 dashes Angostura bitters

A little less than a potspoonful of tomato ketchup

2 Maggi vegetable bouillon cubes, crushed

½ teaspoon red pepper flakes

½ to 1 teaspoon ginger powder

1 teaspoon brown sugar

1 small bay leaf (or ¼ teaspoon of ground nutmeg)

1 heaped tablespoon of home made green seasoning (if you don’t have home made, you can used store bought)

6 to 7 cups water

Method

• Simply add all the ingredients to your pressure cooker, pouring on the water last.  
• Stir everything together and put to boil on medium high heat.
• When it begins to boil, lock the pressure cooker lid and let it cook for approximately 15 to 18 minutes.
• After cooking, release the steam from the pressure cooker and gently stir the pot; taste the lentils for seasoning and adjust by adding more salt or a little pepper sauce for some added heat.

Serve with rice, stewed meat or fish.

Truth be told, we enjoy our lentils cooked this way so much at home that sometimes we even eat it on slices of bread. Really, this is one of the easiest ways you can do lentils if you don’t want to worry with soaking them beforehand. Cooked under pressure, they get really tender and soft with a nice gravy-like sauce, and eating them like that is nothing short of enjoyable.

Well, time for me to take a little rest, and I'll leave you with the promise that more delicious dishes are going to be featured soon. 

Enjoy trying out the recipe my friends, and like I always say, don’t forget to mind the pot.

A Broccoli 'Vaps'!

Ever since heading to Cost Price Discount Limited in Aranguez and finding out that they had the most beautiful fresh veggies on sale (including squash, zucchini and even shitake mushrooms), I’ve decided to jump in with both feet first and try cooking fresh broccoli for the first time. I'd usually get the frozen kind, but I’ve always wondered if I could handle cooking broccoli from scratch, so I decided to grab it and go for it.

I then asked my foodie friends for some advice on its preparation, but ended up getting really overwhelmed with all the great ideas they gave, so I decided to leave it alone for a while. Then, about a couple weeks ago, I was trying to figure out a side dish to prepare and I remembered I had the broccoli chilling out in the fridge. Then the vaps hit me... 'I could bake this with some potatoes, not so?' And just working from my head, I ended up creating something new that I am definitely going to prepare again, again and again, hahahaaa!

Want to see what went down? (Recipe follows afterward!)

Okay, here’s my fresh broccoli, retrieved from the coldest part of my refrigerator, lol!

I chopped the florets into little 1 inch pieces and placed them in my steamer basket, sprinkled on some salt, covered them and steamed them over boiling water for 5 minutes. I love how the green colour stayed intact.

(Plus I saved the little bits that flaked off for later!)

My potatoes were prepared by cutting them in a large dice. Into a pot of water they went, along with 2 crushed Maggi vegetable cubes.  Boiled them for 15 minutes (so they kept their shape), then drained them.

Next, I grated (a little more than) 2 cups of cheese…

Added an egg to 1 ½ cups of milk and beat in some red pepper flakes, dried parsley and a teeny bit of nutmeg. I then tumbled in all the cheese and mixed everything with a fork.

Then I added the broccoli to the still warm potatoes in the pot, then poured in half the cheese mixture, carefully blending it together so the cheese gets to melt a little. I then poured the mixture into my waiting glass Pyrex dish, which I had sprayed with non stick cooking spray.

I spread the broccoli and potatoes evenly across the dish, then poured on the rest of the cheese mixture, making sure I put little blobs of cheese all over. The last step was to sprinkle on some dry breadcrumbs, some Kraft Parmesan cheese and those little broccoli bits from earlier.

Into the oven it went to bake at 350°F for 25 to 30 minutes.

And here it is, my Broccoli-Potato Bake! Smells so gooooooood!!!

So Delicious! Here's the recipe...

Halcian’s Cheesy Broccoli Potato Bake

2 cups fresh broccoli florets

Pinch of salt

5 or 6 medium potatoes, cut into a very large dice

2 Maggi vegetable cubes

1 1/2 cups milk

1 large egg

1 teaspoon dried parsley

½ teaspoon red pepper flakes

A dash of nutmeg

2 cups grated cheese (done on the large side of the grater)

¼ cup dry breadcrumbs

¼ cup Kraft (or any other brand) Parmesan cheese

Here’s how you make it…

1. Prepare the florets by placing them in a steamer basket (or a rice strainer). Place the basket over a pot of boiling water (making sure the water doesn’t touch the basket) and sprinkle a pinch of salt over them. Cover and steam for 5 minutes until they are tender, but not too soft. Remove them from the heat and set aside.
2. Next, place the potatoes to boil in 7 cups of water into which the two Maggi vegetable cubes have been crumbled. Cook them for 15 minutes until they are soft. Drain and leave them in the pot, covered.
3. Place the milk into a bowl and whisk the egg into it. Add the dried parsley, red pepper flakes and a dash of nutmeg and mix.
4. Add in the grated cheese to the seasoned milk and mix. Set aside.
5. Drain the liquid from the potatoes (leaving them in the pot they were boiling in) and then add in the steamed broccoli. Stir gently to distribute the broccoli evenly throughout.
6. Next, while the potatoes are still hot, add in half of the milk and cheese mixture and stir so the cheese melts a little.
7. Spray a 9 x 13 Pyrex baking dish lightly with cooking spray (or grease it lightly with butter or margarine) and pour in the cheesy broccoli and potatoes; spread them evenly across the dish.
8. Using a spoon, distribute the rest of the milk and cheese mix over the broccoli and potatoes.
9. Lightly sprinkle on the dry breadcrumbs, followed by the Parmesan cheese.
10. Bake uncovered at 350°F for 25-30 minutes or until the bottom of the dish is gently bubbling and golden.

Cool before slicing and enjoy!

Hope you enjoyed checking out this week’s posting and are encouraged to try out my ‘vaps’ recipe. I promise I’ll have something else ready next week that you’re going to be sure to enjoy.

Til then, take care of yourselves and don’t forget to mind the pot!

A Dimanche Gras Beef Pelau

Hey y’all, it’s Carnival Sunday here in T&T and I am feeling pleasantly tired after making one of our most famous dishes, a tasty beef pelau that my Granny used to call the Dimanche Gras pelau. Why? Well, she would cook this kind of pelau only on Carnival Sunday, and we always had a bowl of it while we sat in front of the TV to watch the Dimanche Gras show, which is where the calypso finalists and the individual costumed Kings and Queens of Carnival Bands would compete for their titles of Calypso Monarch and King and Queen of Carnival, respectively.  

Today I decided to opt for a nice beef pelau instead of chicken, simply because I didn’t want to deal with any bones. Hopefully, I'll have enough of this to last us over Carnival Monday and Carnival Tuesday. I must admit, I really had a good time in the kitchen (dancing to some good soca music on the radio from JW and Blaze, Machel Montano and Kerwin Du Bois – just thought I’d throw that in there!). What saved me was doing most of my prep from early Saturday night (starting with the beef), so you know that the seasonings are going to be in there good and proper when you take a bite.

Want to see how it all went down? Well, the night before…

I got roughly 1 ½ lbs of beef and washed it well with some lime juice. Started up the seasoning party just like my Granny used to, with a good 2 capfuls of white rum and some apple cider vinegar. 

Now every time I make this, the seasonings are dictated by what I’ve got in the fridge at the time, hahahaa! This time I minced up 2 cloves of garlic, 3 stalks chive and half a medium red onion. I also added a spoonful of the home seasoning, minced up a little bunch of dill, and cut up 2 small tomatoes. Lastly, I crushed up a couple of tomato chicken boullion cubes and added in some red pepper flakes. Mixed everything together and it went into the fridge to sit and marinate overnight.

Here’s the seasoned beef, straight out the fridge, ready to enter the fete. But first…

I had to organize the other contestants, namely the 4 cups of rice that I washed three times and put to soak in some water. I put a little boiled water on top so it would swell and get fluffy – see, it hit the 6 cup mark.

As you can see, the corn, pigeon peas, diced carrots and green peas were waiting in the wings. My next step was to separate the beef from its marinade so I could brown it up.  

Prepared ½ cup of vegetable oil and ¼ cup of brown sugar to start the browning process. As soon as it got nice and foamy, in went the beef with that SCHWAAAAAH sound we all know! As soon as they browned up, I transferred the pieces to the waiting pressure cooker. 

Poured in 2 cups of water, locked it down and cooked them under pressure for 15 minutes.

Time’s up, and the beef is nice and soft. So I poured everything (including the liquid) back into the same pot they were browning in originally and let the liquid reduce and get a little thicker in readiness for the rice.

(Of course, I couldn’t forget those delicious seasonings now… in they went with the beef!)

Now for the rice. Strained it off and added it to the beef and stirred it well so the sauce would coat it. I found the colour of the rice grains were still too light, so I helped it along with some bottled browning – about a potspoonful went in. (See how the colour changed?)

Here's the fun part… added the diced carrots first, and let them cook for a couple of minutes before adding in the pigeon peas, my special spice mix of nutmeg, a Maggi Ginger seasoning packet and dried parsley and the canned corn.

Aaah, we’re getting closer! In went 3 cups of coconut milk (made from 2 packets of coconut milk powder), a good dash of Angostura bitters and 1 cup of frozen peas.

The last step (and ingredient) to the pelau? I sank a hot pepper in the middle of the pot.

Covered up the pot and cooked it for just 15 minutes until the liquid evaporated.

As we say in Trinidad and Tobago, “Pot Done!”

A delicious Beef Pelau for you!

So there it is, my special Dimanche Gras pelau. Taking a much needed rest until the Dimanche Gras show, where I hope to be sitting in my chair with a bowl of pelau and a glass of juice, cheering on my choices for Calypso Monarch. If you wish to have the complete recipe, drop me a line at naiclah@gmail.com and I will only be too happy to share it with you.

Enjoy the rest of the Carnival season my friends, and please be safe. Until my next kitchen adventure, take care of yourselves and like I love to tell you, don’t forget to mind the pot!