Spiced Lentil Soup

The weather here lately has been pretty naff.  This soup was just the tonic for adding a bit of heat, the ginger and cumin worked well with the chilli flakes.  The end result was a thick, stick to your ribs kind of soup, just the way I like my soup!  The only downfall was that the recipe isn't quite as healthy as I had first hoped, who knew red lentils have so many WW points in them!

I will also agree that it isn't the prettiest looking bowl of soup either.  But they say not to judge a book by its cover and so I believe we should not judge a soup by its colour!

Spiced Lentil Soup

Oil, for frying

A small piece ginger, peeled and grated

1 tsp cumin

A pinch chilli flakes

1 onion, finely chopped

2 large carrots, peeled and grated

150g red lentils
1 litre veg stock
1 lime, juiced to taste
A small bunch coriander, leaves only

Heat 1 tbsp oil in a large pan and fry the ginger and spices for a couple of mins. Add the vegetables and cook for 5 mins more then add the lentils and stock. Bring to the boil and simmer for 15 mins, stirring occasionally until the lentils are tender. Blend until smooth or leave chunky. Stir through a squeeze of lime juice and serve sprinkled with some coriander.

Serves 4

Olive, Aug 10

Carrot Cake

Well in for a penny in for a pound - here goes my first blog entry. OMG! Feeling slightly intimidated I have to say!

Anyhoo, Hubby has been nagging [read:asking] for me to make him a Carrot Cake for quite sometime now. He has been very supportive with all the bits and pieces going on in my day to day life lately so he deserves a treat, and the more calories it contains the better - although in an attempt to fool myself into thinking of this cake as 'slightly' healthier I used extra light cream cheese for the frosting!

This is one I have made before and its always been a success and tends to get very receptive responses. It makes a whoopingly huge cake so don't be scared of the quantities listed, it took the entire bag of carrots to get enough grated weight! I made the cake yesterday after work and iced it tonight before dinner.

Carrot Cake
250ml veg oil
250g light brown sugar
3 eggs
720g coarsely grated carrot
120g coarsely chopped walnuts
375g SR flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tsp mixed spice
Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
30g butter
80g cream cheese, softened
1 tsp finely grated lemon rind
240g icing sugar

Preheat oven to 180C. Grease a deep 23cm round cake pan and line the base with baking paper.

Beat oil, sugar and eggs in a small bowl with electric mixer until thick and creamy. Transfer mixture to a large bowl, stir in carrot and nuts, then sifted dry ingredients.

Pour mixture into the prepared pan, bake in moderate oven for about 1 1/4 hours. Cover the cake loosely with foil halfway through cooking. stand cake for 5 mins; turn onto a wire rack to cool. Spread Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting over the cold cake.

To make the frosting; beat the butter, cream cheese and rind in a small bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy; gradually beat in icing sugar.

Serves 12
Taken from The Australian Women's Weekly Cafe Cakes Cookbook

May need to work on the old photography skills me thinks! Don't let this shocking photo put you off, the cake defies the picture - honest!

Sticky Five Spice Chicken with Chilli Slaw

We have welcomed two new additions to our family this week.  Yep - TWINS!  While we had been expecting the imminent arrival of Bessie for sometime, I don't mind telling you that Betsy was a little bit of a surprise.  Bessie arrived first;

Isn't she sweet!?!?!  I know - she isn't a real baby, but she is my long awaited KitchenAid Food Processor.  My old food processor (a Kenwood) served me well for a few years but he decided to pop his clogs on Christmas Eve and we've been saving ever since for Bessie. 

The shock addition, Little Betsy (the KitchenAid Blender) is currently in the dishwasher awaiting her very first bath and didn't want any nudie type baby pictures appearing on the Internet thank you very much.  We'll get a photo of the shy little thing when she least expects it though.  As Ken was both a food processor and a blender, his departure from our lives left some big shoes to fill.  Thankfully the retailers are all having sales at the moment so we managed to pick up Betsy for a bit of a song (not a whole song mind!) and she joined our family a couple of days after Bessie.

Big Bertha (the KitchenAid Mixer) is pleased as punch to be a big sister and seems to be sharing her cupboard space well, although a bit of rejigging is required for a comfortable fit.  I wouldn't say it loud enough for Bessie to hear but she is a bit wide around the girth!

So tonight was the night that Bessie got her first proper workout, she helped me make Chilli Slaw to accompany dinner and then also helped with making dessert.  She managed shred cabbage and grate carrots with the minimum of fuss and she is so quite compared to Ken, but of course girls are always far more demure than boys [ahem]!

Chilli Slaw
2 carrots
3-4 red chillies, deseeded
1/4 pointed green cabbage (I used a sweetheart cabbage)
Zest and juice of 1 lime
3 tbsp creme fraiche
2 tbsp mayo
1 tbsp rapeseed oil

Coarsely grate the carrots and place in a bowl.  Finely slice the chillies into strips, add to the carrot and mix well.  Finely slice the cabbage and add to the bowl with the remaining ingredients,  Season, toss well and serve.

Serves 4 as a side
Delicious Mag, August 2010

I wasn't 100% sure how the Chilli Slaw was going to go down with either of us, Hubby isn't it creamy salad dressings at all and usually steers well clear of things like coleslaw. The dressing for this Chilli Slaw is really light and tangy though and doesn't become a really cloying flavour that overpowers all the others. The chilli was the ingredient that worried me, I don't dislike spicy food but I'm not keen on the whole mouth burning from heat sensation. While the heat from the chilli was there, the dressing helped tone it down, a win : win for both of us.

Sticky Five Spice Chicken
8 chicken thigh fillets, trimmed
60ml sweet chilli sauce
60ml oyster sauce
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/2 tsp Chinese five spice powder

Place the chicken, sweet chilli, oyster sauce, garlic and five spice powder in a bowl and mix well to combine.  Heat a large non stick frying pan over medium heat.  Cook the chicken for 4-5 mins each side or until cooked through and sticky.  Serve with an Asian-style coleslaw and coriander leaves.

Serves 4
Donna Hay Newsletter

The chicken was delish!  I think the sauce would work really well as stir fry as well so I'm going to give that a try next week.  Hubby went back for seconds on both the chicken and the Chilli Slaw which was a bit of a relief after I called him to the table and he took one look at his plate and decided he "didn't like it"!  Honestly!  Who needs children when you have a husband who is a fussy eater ;0)