Lentejas con Jamón (Lentils with Ham)

Being Indian, Bengali specially, I have this love affair with lentils. Back home we call it 'masur dal'. Anyway was quite surprised when one of my Spanish friends suggested this recipe, which seems to be a very popular dish both in Spain and Latin America. If you are interested you could check out this one with ham or this one with chorizo. Anyway, my version is a simpler one- love cooking but hate spending hours cooking. This one's with bacon, but tastes as great if you want to skip the bacon and just make a vegetarian version.

Ingredients (Serves 2):

• Lentils- 1 cup
• Carrots- 2 finely chopped
• Zucchini- 1 finely chopped
• Leek- 1 chopped (my recipe omits it as leeks are right now pretty expensive in Muscat)
• Onion- 1 large finely chopped
• Tomato- 1/2 pureed
• Bacon- 3 slices
• Bay leaves (laurel)- 4
• Turmeric- 1/4 tsp; this is totally optional, but as I was adding bacon without frying just put it in to be safe
• Olive oil- 1 tbsp
• Salt- To taste

Preparation (40 mins):

Heat the oil in a deep saucepan. Add onions, carrots, zucchini and fry on low heat.  









Wash the lentils, add into saucepan. Add water to cover the lentils and just a finger more. If you want, you could add a little turmeric like I did, but its not necessarily.








Turn down stove to medium-low. Cook for twenty mins. Now add in chopped bacon, tomato pulp and the bay leaves. Cook for 10 mins and your lentils are ready.

Tips :

• You could pair this with a small portion of rice, but the lentils by themselves are a complete meal.

Aubergines stuffed with cheese, bacon and 'methi'

Quiz time: Identify what possible concoction can you make with the ingredients shown below? And how does a single guy end up with these esoteric ingredients for dinner on a weekend?

Had gone to the supermarket to buy eggs, and the smallest package was 30 eggs. Since that didn't make sense and I was short of loose change, I picked up three small aubergines and a discounted bottle of grated cheese. All for OMR 1.7. Having solved the first problem (which always leads to a bigger one), I was raking my brains on what to do with them and the stuff I had back home.

So here it is a new brinjal/ eggplant/ aubergine bake. With all due apologies to all the grand dining places whosoever served me Parmigiana/ Moussaka or the lovely Karniyak from Hachi Baba from Istanbul. Just to set the record straight and preempt future libel from anyone who has done any of these three recipes, "I, declare that this recipe is my sole creation and bears no resemblance or relation to any of the above mentioned, or not mentioned, eggplant recipes (living or dead), cooked, served, dreamed of and enjoyed by anyone anywhere. Any resemblance is purely coincidental."

Ingredients (Serves 1- Very hungry and tired bachelor on weekend):

• Baby aubergines- Three small, tender.
• Cheese- As much as required/ possible; I used a dry mix of Romano, Parmesan and Asiago as that was the only one on discount.
• Dried bacon flakes- 1 tbsp
• Fenugreek/ Methi- 2 tsp dried leaves
• Butter- 1.5 tsp
• Chilli flakes- As hot as you want it.
• Olive oil for basting
• Salt- To taste

Preparation (Pre-bake time- 10 mins, Baking- 5 mins)

 

Hollow out the eggplants with a small knife. Keep the pulp separate.









Add salt, butter, bacon, cheese, chili flakes and fenugreek (methi leaves) leaves to the mix. And lightly fry in a skillet till the ingredients blend in.

Baste the eggplant shells with olive oil/ butter and stuff with the pre-cooked bacon and cheese mix. Seal the top off with a little extra cheese to trap in the juices.

Pop into microwave and cook at 600 C/ Medium for five minutes. Serve hot as hors d'evours or for dinner to a hungry guy on a weekend.

And ready for dinner.

Tips: 

• Being as cheesy as it is would suggest serving this with a tzatziki or even a simple side dish of yogurt and shredded cucumbers and unleavened bread.

Spaghetti with bacon

Being the Eid break, have had more time on my hands to try out new things. This going to be a quick one. One of those dishes that you throw around in a jiffy if you have a small group to feed. Takes less than 20 minutes and can be thrown together with the bare minimum of hassles with easy to buy and store ingredients.

 Ingredients (Serves 2):

• Spaghetti- 200 gm
• Tomato Mozarella sauce- 100 gm (In absence of tomato mozzarella sauce  you just any ready made salsa and throw in a handful of shredded mozzarella
• Pepper- 1/s tsp coarsely grated
• Garlic- 3 medium cloves, chopped
• Bacon- 3 small rashers, minced (You can substitute with 3 tbsp of dried bacon as I did)
• Fresh Basil- 4-5 leaves
• Olive Oil- 1 tbsp.
• Salt- To taste

Preparation (Cooking time 25 mins):

Boil pasta with salt and water in microwave on high heat setting for 10 minutes. Add in everything else except basil leaves and microwave on high for 10 minutes more. You will know your pasta is done from the rich crust formed.

Leave it to stew in own juices for 10 minutes. I find that this way the pasta absorbs the sauce better and is real succulent. Garnish with fresh basil and serve hot.

Tips:

•  Leaving pasta to soak in the sauce for five-ten minutes before serving really makes it open up and become more succulent. Added advantage being that you are left with no extra sauce to dry out at risk of burning the dish.