Foodie Lass From the bestselling author of East and Made in India.
Dinner is a cookbook that provides the reader with 120 Vegan and Vegetarian recipes for the day’s most important meal.
Meera Sodha gives the reader some wonderful advice on how to cook dinner for friends without encountering the usual stress of preparing a meal. Dinner is well laid out with simple chapter headings and easy-to-follow recipes. This is just not a cookbook but also a reference guide to several useful cookery tips on portion sizes, ingredients, dinner accompaniments, recipe timings, equipment (especially knives) and adapting recipes for young children.
Irrespective of whether you are a vegetarian, this cookery book ticks all the boxes, using simple ingredients to produce delightful tasty dishes, with choices such as Wild garlic and new potato curry with lime pickle, Fennel and dill dal and, also a collection of desserts such as Cardamom dream cake plus Bubble team ice cream.
As winter is fast approaching I have chosen this very robust recipe from the cookery book to share with you, Swede Rasam. Swedes always seem underrated as a vegetable and no-one seems to know how to cook this root vegetable to make it appealing. Read on and find out how to make an extremely tasty dish to share with family or friends.
Swede Rasam
Serves 4
200g split peas
1 large swede (900g)
Rapeseed oil
Salt
1 tsp black mustard seeds
¼ teaspoon fenugreek seeds
1 x 400g tin of chopped tomatoes
2 tbsp tamarind paste
¼ tsp ground black pepper
1 ¼ tsp ground coriander
1 ¼ tsp ground cumin
1 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder
½ teaspoon ground turmeric
2 cloves of garlic, finely sliced
2 green finger chillies, halved lengthways
To serve
Cooked basmati rice
Put the split peas in a large bowl, wash well in a few changes of water, then drain. Cover with fresh cold water and leave to soak for 3 hours.
Preheat the oven to 200C fan/220C/gas 7 and line a large oven sheet with baking paper.
Wash and peel the swede , cut it into quarters, then cut each section into 1 cm thick slices. Place in a bowl, pour over a tablespoon of oil and ¼ teaspoon of salt, and toss with your hands, so all the swede is coated. Put on the tray, bake for 30 minutes, or until the swede is tender and browning, then remove and put to one side.
Put 2 tablespoon of oil into a large saucepan over a medium heat. When really hot, add the mustard and fenugreek seeds and cook for 30 seconds, until they pop. Add the drained split peas, pour in 1 ¼ litres of cold water, pop a lid on top, slightly cocked, then bring to a boil on a medium heat. Turn down the heat to low and leave to simmer, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes, until the split peas are soft; they should have the consistency of cooked potato; if not, keep cooking until tender and top up the water if need be. Then stir in the tomatoes, tamarind paste, pepper, ground coriander, cumin, chilli powder, turmeric and 1 ¼ teaspoons of salt, and simmer for another 10 minutes, with the lid cocked.
Stir in two thirds of the roasted swede and cook for 6 minutes – don’t worry if the swede breaks up, it’ll help thicken the rasam, then adjust the seasoning to taste, if need be.
Put 2 tablespoon of oil into a small pan over a medium heat and when hot, add the garlic and chillies and fry for 2 minutes, or until the garlic is bronzed and the chillies are blistering white.
Pour the garlic and chilli mix into the rasam and mix, then decant into a deep dish or individual bowls. Top with the reserved swede and serve with some steamed basmati rice.
Enjoy this spicy warming dish on a cold autumn day.
Dinner will make a great addition to your kitchen book shelf and would make an ideal gift for a foodie friend.
Dinner is available from all the usual book outlets – published by Fig Tree (part of the Penguin Random House group) Photo credit David Loftus
