IN PROGRESS

3-4 tblsp oil or ghee

500 bottle gourd, trimmed (but not peeled)

150 g chana dal, rinsed and soaked for a couple of hours, then drained

1 tsp mustard seeds

1 tsp cumin seeds

2 medium red onions, finely chopped

Large knob of ginger, finely chopped

2 green chili, deseeded and finely chopped

10-12 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 tin tomatoes

1 cinnamon stick (ceylon)

1 tsp red chili powder

1,5 tsp turmeric powder

1 tsp coriander powder

2 tsp garam masala

Salt to taste

Chopped coriander leaves for garnish

Fry cumin and mustard seeds in the oil or ghee till they crackle, then add the onions and sautee till they become translucent.

Add ginger, garlic and green chilies and sautee for about fifteen seconds.

Add tomatoes and the rest of the spices and sautee, stirring.

Add chana dal and mix well. Simmer for about 20 minutes.

Add bottle gourd, stir, simmer till the gourd softens, probably about 20 minutes. Taste for salt and sprinkle with chopped coriander leaves before serving.

This week’s food photography assigment is one cocktail, one stew and one soup.

I don’t understand the cocktail craze, at least not the sweet, sticky ones, any more than I have ever understood why grown people drink those awful softdrinks or whatever they are called – coke, fanta etc. – nor, for that matter, why children are allowed to drink them on a daily basis nowadays. All that sugar. Gross. But I’m sure big pharma is happy, especially the insulin manufacturers. Also laughing all the way to the bank is the mind-boggling diet- and weightloss industry. Absurd, in view of the fact that it is just simple maths (number of calories IN vs. number of calories OUT) – even I can figure that one out although I am innumerate (is that what it is called – the equivalent of dyslexic but with numbers?).

And soup – naahh – not in soup cooking mode – but a stew is good timing since I am preparing a venison stew for one of those rare occasions where I am actually having a couple of friends around for a meal.

• 4 tblsp flour
• 800 g venison in 2 cm cubes
• olive oil
• 2 onions (I always use red since I find the yellow onions a bit too sweet), peeled and chopped (they do not have to be very finely chopped)
• 3 carrots, peeled and sliced
• 2 sticks celery, trimmed and sliced
• 1 tablespoon juniper berries, crushed
• “Needles” from 2 sprigs rosemary, chopped
• 50 g butter
• 6 sprigs of fresh flat-leaf parsley
• Stock
• 1 clove garlic , peeled and finely chopped

Mix 2 tblsp of the flour with salt and black pepper well and then mix in the venison, coating thoroughly.

Brown the meat in olive oil for a couple of minutes and add

onion, carrot, celery, juniper, rosemary and butter. Simmer covered for five minutes. Add a sprinkle of water or stock if necessary.

Remove the lid and continue to fry, stirring occasionally. When the onions start to caramelize, add the chopped parsley stems with the remaining flour and stock. Keep the parsley leaves for later.

Simmer the stew till the meat easily breaks apart. If you have been using stock cubes rather than stock, add water if necessary.

Chop and mash the galic, the parsley leaves, a tsp of salt and a good grinding of black pepper to a paste and add to the stew shortly before serving.

I am serving this with a mash of potato and celery (adding some milk, sour cream and butter).

Obviously vegetarian, and also vegan unless you use ghee instead of oil (I did use ghee in this case – nothing else can imitate the caramelly flavour of homemade ghee).

But first a word about the food photography course. I am running out of steam and will not be presenting a final project. What I had in mind is not quite doable, at least not with my current low energy levels – whatever energy I have goes towards taking care of Max and his exercise needs (and of course making sure that I myself eat relatively healthily and generally trying to make sure I don’t get sick).

Also, as described in an earlier post, food photography is not really my kind of thing. I just need to be able to post half-way decent photos of the dishes I cook, and I have learned a lot of useful tricks in the course, and I am still curious to see what the others come up with.

One thing that perhaps, perhaps not, suits everybody except me is that we are all asked what we think of everybody else’s photos. I am actually there to hear what the teacher has to say and not what the other students have to say, and I would imagine they also don’t care what I think. What do we know? If we did, we would not be doing a course.

Anyway, one final thought – I am astonished at the number of sweet stuff I see in the class cook – cookies, muffins, desserts, …. I hope it is just for the course, considering how bad sugar is for you and the negative effects that eating sugar so regularly has on physical, hormonal and mental health.

Equally astonishing has been all the talk of sourdough as if it is a novelty recently revealed. I have been using sourdough all my life, and my parents and their parents before me: https://www.hellemoller.eu/2012/09/12/rye-bread/ (but not for white bread which is not particularly healthy).

Enough about the course.

Today I am cooking a dish that should normally have chana dal in it, but I am using red split lentils since that is what I have available. I do not expect the result to be any different, except the colour.

I was dumb enough to make the dal paste too thin, so the the “balls” ended up more like flattened, very thick pancakes, and some of them fell apart, but I still really like this recipe and will definitely have another go at it in the near future – with chana dal, not that I think that that was the problem.

The lentil balls

• 400 gram red split lentils
• Chili, to taste, in whichever way, shape or form you have available (I am using dried chili flakes here)
• 20 curry leaves (I used frozen here, so they look a bit soggy – the flavour remains the same, though)
• 2 tsp fennel seeds (Saunf)

The curry

• oconut oil or olive oil or ghee
• 3 cinnamon sticks
• 12 cloves (Laung)
• 12 cardamom pods, slightly crushed
• 12 black pepper corns
• 4 bay leaves
• 4 chilies, deseeded
• A small handfull dried curry leaves
• 2 large red onions, finely chopped
• 2 large knobs ginger, peeled and finely chopped
• 15 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
• 3 tblsp tomato puree (the concentrated variety, from a tube)
• 3 tins chopped tomatoes
• 1 heaped tsp teaspoon turmeric powder
• 2 tsp  red chili powder
• 1 tblsp coriander powder
• Salt, to taste
• Fresh mint or coriander, for ganish

Rinse the dal and soak it for a couple of hours.

In the meantime, heat oil or ghee and add black pepper, cloves, cinnamon, bay leaves, green chili, curry leaves, ginger, garlic and onions, and sautée.

When the onions turn golden, add the tomato puree, turmeric powder, red chili powder, coriander powder, and salt.

Add the tinned tomatoes. Bring to a boil and cook for a couple of minutes. Add water if needed and simmer on a very low heat.

Back to the dal: Grind the lentils with fennel seeds, curry leaves and chili, and water as needed, for a thick batter which can be spooned into balls.

Fry them in oil or ghee until browned and crisp.

Drop them into the curry and simmer for five to ten minutes before serving.