Miso lentil stew

This one is for you Jenny...... ;-)

[Photo to come]

This is a relatively easy and yummy lentil stew. Great for lunches, or as part of a dinner. It's from one of my favourite recipe books: Real Fresh Food, by Anna and Roger Wilde.

Ingredients:
2 cups green or brown lentils
1 Tablespoon oil
1 onion, sliced
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 carrots, cubed
500g pumpkin, cubed
4 bay leaves
2 Tablespoons miso paste
small bunch parsley

Soak lentils overnight. (This makes cooking faster). Drain and rinse lentils, then set aside until required.

Heat a large heavy-based pot over medium heat. Add oil, onion and garlic and saute for a few minutes.
Add lentils, carrot, pumpkin and bay leaves. Cover with water to about 2cm above the contents, and bring to a boil. After 20 min, check if there is still sufficient water. (You want to have just a little liquid remaining after the lentils are cooked). Continue cooking for 30 minutes or until lentils are soft.

Dissolve miso in a little of the liquid from stew and add to dish. Season. To serve, mix in freshly chopped parsley.

Lamb Shank Ragu

Tim made this one. It was super yummy and reasonably priced .... I thought it was a bit like spaghetti bolognaise with better meat!

Ingredients:
1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 celery stalk, finely chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
2 Tbsp your chosen oil
2 lamb shanks
1/2 cup red wine
400g tin chopped tomatoes
1/2 cup beef stock
2 Tbsp tomato paste
1 Tsp treacle (we used molasses)
1 sprig rosemary
1 bay leaf

In a heavy pan heat the oil and gently fry the onion, garlic, carrot and celery until golden and translucent. Remove from the pan and set aside, adding the in lamb shanks to brown on all sides. Once the shanks are browned, add the wine to deglaze the pan.

Transfer the shanks, reduced wine, and all other ingredients to an ovenproof dish or slow cooker. If putting in the oven, cook for 2-3 hours at 150deg.

When cooked, the meat should fall off the bone. Shred the meat into the sauce and serve tossed through cooked pasta, topped with parmesan.

Food interlude: Walking home from work on an autumnal Tuesday evening....

I like to combine my work commute with exercise, killing two birds with one stone. I aim to cycle 2 days per week (that's about all a fair weather cyclist can get in wellington), and do a walk-drive combo the other days. All-in-all it gives me a minimum of 1 hour exercise every day.... This is what I got today....

'Put together' carrot radish capsicum salad that really worked!

Ok, so this was put together using left overs from the fridge, but it actually tasted really delicious!

Ingredients:
- grated carrot
- green pepper, sliced really thin
- spring onion, sliced
- radish, sliced into small slithers, really thin
- tamari roasted seeds

Just mix together. No need for any dressings at all!
I served with crumbed fish and lemon couscous. Yum!

Fish Veracruz

This is a slight variation on Alison Holst's Fish Veracruz recipe....

For 2 serves:
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, sliced
2-3 cloves garlic, crushed
2 dried red chillies, deseeded and sliced
1 green pepper, deseeded, quartered and sliced
2 bay leaves
1tsp cumin
1/2tsp oregano
400g whole tomatoes in juice
300g firm-fleshed fish (eg: monk)
1-2Tbsp fresh coriander leaves, chopped
1 Tbsp lime (or lemon juice)
Salt

Heat oil in a large frypan. And onion and garlic and cook until the onion softens, then add the chillies, green pepper and bay leaves.
Continue to cook, stirring occasionallly, until the onion is translucent and the green pepper is soft. Add the cumin and oregano, and then the tomatoes.
Carefully stir in the cubed fish, and simmer gently, stirring once or twice to turn the fish. Remove from the heat as soon as the largest cubes of fish are just cooked, and stir in the coriander leaves. lime juice, and salt.
Serve over rice.