Eumundi Papers: May 2009

Sunday, 24 May 2009

Winter of 100 Soups (3): Tomato, Chilli and Red Lentil

Long ago (sometime last winter), on a cold and dispiritingly drizzly Sunday drive to Maleny, we spotted this promising-sounding soup chalked up on the menu board of a local cafe.

In we went.

So perfectly did it hit the spot, and so startling were its mood-altering after-effects, that I was soon antsy to head home and rattle some pots and pans in an attempt to replicate its spicy, nourishing goodness.

And so below, without further ado, is my version of that memorable soup, which - may be I be so bold as to suggest - packs even more of a punch than the original.

Tomato, Chilli and Red Lentil Soup

350 gm or so of red lentils (no not brown, red)
large clove or two of garlic (as locally grown as possible - see Tips)
large brown onion
2 x 400g cans of peeled roma tomatoes
1-2 threateningly red birdseye chillis (don't wimp out)
seasonings: sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, and some Noosa Chilli or Tabasco sauce (see Tips)
trailer-load of fresh coriander
fried shallots (for garnish and crunch: indispensable)

Step 1: Place lentils in a sieve and wash and wash with lots of cold water. Then wash some more (they can be a tad dusty). Toss into saucepan and cover with an equal volume of cold water. Do not - repeat do not - add salt. Simmer, without a lid, until cooked to a sloppy, gruel-like consistency. Hang around: Be vigilant against burning and/or boiling over.

Step 2: Finely dice onion and garlic and fry gently in olive oil in a heavy based pot until soft and golden. Then stir through 1-2 finely chopped chillis. Be gutsy - this soup needs heat.

Step 3: Add tomatoes (pureed makes life easier), sea salt, freshly ground pepper, and, for a bit of extra heat-plus-flavour, a splash or two of Noosa Chilli or Tabasco Sauce. Let simmer for around 15 minutes on very low, with the lid on. Don't reduce too much, it just needs to cook through and develop a rich, tomatoey goodness.

Step 4: Add your cooked lentil gruel to your rich tomato sauce. You mightn't need to add it all: Go roughly 50-50, but err on the side of tomato. Lentils are pretty bland, but they add a satisfying body and texture. You do, however, need the colour and richness of the tomato to shine through.

Step 5: Taste and adjust seasonings. Then just before serving - just before, mind - stir through your trailer-load (okay, about a cup or so) of chopped coriander (finely chopped roots included). Ladle into bowls and garnish with a generous shovel of fried shallots and yet more coriander. What was that? You don't like coriander? Pffffff .....

Tips

Noosa Chilli X-Rated Oak-Aged Chilli Sauce is available at the Eumundi Markets, or online from their site. Tabasco's fine but this is seriously good.
Okay ... cough ... I'm ready to confess that I used to buy cheap, imported garlic. I mean, Aussie garlic is around $30 a kilo. Then, one fine day, I met a food auditor who had worked in China. We spoke at length about heavy metal (and I don't mean Led Zep) and dodgy certificates. $30 a kilo began to sound rather a bargain. It took, however, some painfully obvious marketing by the nice folks at Cooroy Fruit Bowl to talk me out of false economising forever. See that photo? There were three enormous cloves in this bag. Only $2.95. Less than a cup of coffee. Lasts 1-2 weeks, even with heavy-users like us. And the flavour is incredible.
Tomatoes: With food miles in mind, I'm tending towards Aussie canned tomatoes as well. I've got to hand it to the Italians though, they are way ahead with canned organic produce. And their labels have always been dead sexy: All those colour-saturated graphics of buxom, brunette peasant girls balancing vegie-laden baskets seductively on their hips. Come to think of it, if I were an Italian mamma, I'd have rows of glass jars of my own, plump, home-grown, home-preserved tomatoes. Now there's a thought ...

Tuesday, 19 May 2009

Winter of 100 Soups: Pumpkin (Versions 1 & 2)

"This," I announced to Oliver, "will be the winter of 100 soups."

"Ummmmm ... Is winter long enough for 100 soups? Isn't that more than a soup a day?"

He's right of course, (unless you live in Scandinavia), but I was just being poetic. Besides, it's something to aspire to.

With the first chill breath of winter (ignore your travel agent, people: nights get cold in subtropical Queensland - very, very cold.) my thoughts turn to soup-making. A decent homemade soup, served at just the right moment, can cure flu, fatigue, crankiness, boredom, strained relationships, existential angst ...

And so, with a glut of organic pumpkins thanks to a hyperactively fertilizing pig, soup number one had to be: Pumpkin Soup (in 2 versions).

1. Pumpkin Coconut Curry Soup

Step 1: Chop pumpkin into large chunks. Massage with olive oil, sprinkle with sea salt, and roast in a hot oven until cooked through.

Step 2: In a heavy based pot gently fry 1-2 chopped brown onions until soft and golden. Then add your favourite curry spices (see Tips below). After stirring spices into the onion, sweat a minute or two (the onion, not you), then stir through a can of coconut milk.

Step 3: Pour all of this into a blender and give it a whizz. Now add roasted pumpkin a few chunks at at time and keep right on blending. (Naturally you can do all this in the pot if you have a fancy-pants Bamix-style mixer).

Step 4: Season with salt and white pepper (white seems to work better with curry). Warm through, stirring tenderly. Don't boil! This is the therapeutic bit, the Zen of soup, so go slow. Serve with crusty bread to tumultuous applause.

2. Pumpkin and Rosemary Soup (a more Mediterranean vibe)

Similar to above, just add copious amounts of fresh rosemary, smashed cloves of garlic (no need to peel) and chunks of onion all over the pumpkin pre-roasting. When all is cooked to a squidgy, caramelised goodness, blend with a litre of chicken stock (or milk/cream if you want a creamy soup). Heat through slowly and meditatively, as for all soups. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Serve with crusty bread. Feign modesty during standing ovation.

Tips

I use Jap or Kabucha pumpkin because: we grow them (how's that for low food miles?), they're delicious, and they're easy to peel.
Roasting the pumpkin rather than steaming makes all the difference.
Speaking of food miles, Australian olive oils have the best green grassy flavour, and these days cost the same as decent Italian ones.
Same with sea salt. Give Olsson's (Australian, family-owned) a go.
Generic curry powder works fine, as long as it's a quality blend - and you can always ramp it up with whatever you fancy. I love cumin - so I chuck in a tablespoon extra of that. I'm also partial to garam masala, so I chuck in some of that too. Experiment.
I'm a big fan of Ayam organic coconut milk. When you open the can it's like someone just macheteed open a fresh coconut. Some bronze-skinned, muscle-bound, Hugh Jackman-esque ... And I love the tin. And it's Oz-certified.
Extreme slow-fooders can make their own coconut milk, and/or their own stock. I'll stick with the Ayam milk, but I have made stock. I felt quite smug. And the flavour was unbelievable.

Sunday, 17 May 2009

Soffits - little details, big results

About six months ago, when it came time to do the soffits - the last hard yards on the road to making the house all snug and weather-proof - the roofers were nowhere to be seen. We phoned them. A lot. We tried cajoling, then pestering, and finally, some hardcore harassment. They stopped returning our calls. Can't say I really blame them. Obviously, they were well and truly over our Very High Roof and its sail-like vertiginous curves.

And so, yet again, it would all be up to Phil. Trouble was, how could one man, equipped with your standard pair of arms, attach unweildy sheets of iron upside down onto eaves whilst perched several metres above ground?

Undeterred, and with his usual air of quiet determination, he set his problem-solving nouse to devising a soffiting construction system of bit-sized, manageable sections.

At this point (of course) the usual delays set in: a big electronics project up in woop-woop, followed by - surprise, surprise - a few more mini-monsoons. But finally, last Monday morning, it all came together. The sun came out, scaffolding was hired and erected, and Phil set to work like the trooper he is.

I stood by helpfully - a combo of gopher, motivational coach and tea lady. And I believe there's also an opening for a masseuse: all that Michaelangelo-style, upside-down malarkey's pretty hard on the old back, neck and shoulders.

Aside from the (important) fact that we're now almost weather-proof, it's looking great. We're really glad we decided on using mini-orb - makes a great contrast beside the larger corrugations of the walls. Now all we need is one more week of sunshine to finish the whole thing off. One more week. Let's just check the weather report ... Monday: showers; Tuesday: increasing rain; Wednesday: heavy rain ...