QZ qz thoughts
a blog from Eli the Bearded

Mixed lentils


After a day out on Alameda Island, I stopped at a store to buy some drinks. I happened across an interesting looking corner market and went in. Although not clearly stated as such, it appeared to a Turkish shop and I could have spent a good while perusing the shelves. Instead I grabbed some cold drinks and picked up a bag of Sadaf mixed lentils. The lentils caught my eye with such a pretty mix of faded pastel colors.

pale pastel goodness

Trouble is, I had no recipe and found none while searching. So I needed to improvise. The following is a recipe that evolved from my spicy dal recipe. The general plan is cook lentils in water for a long while, then in a separate pan cook some seasoning. Mix the two and enjoy. Like that dal, this can be eaten hot or cold.

  • 3 cups water
  • 1 cup mixed lentils (Sadaf's mixture seems to be about equal parts green peas, yellow peas, green lentils, and red lentils)

Rinse the lentils and put in a suitably sized sauce pan on full heat. When it reaches a boil, lower heat and skim off the foam. Add then cover (with slight vent) and simmer:

  • 1" to 2" ginger, peeled and cut in thirds
  • 1/2 teaspoon tumeric powder
  • 2 or 3 bay leaves

Let that go for a while. Figure 30 to 60 minutes depending on how low your low heat is. Give it a stir every once in a while and add more water if it seems prematurely dry. What you are looking for is some of the lentils to have broken down to create a thick broth and some to still be whole.

When it seems about ready, time start the temper. Get a small to medium fry pan heating with:

  • 1 tablesoon of oil, or substitute ghee for all or part of the oil

When hot add one at a time:

  • 1 teaspoon of whole cumin
  • a pinch of asafoetida powder (aka "hing")
  • 1/2 teaspoon of crushed red pepper

When the cumin has been toasted for 30 seconds or so, add

  • 1/2 medium yellow onion, diced
  • 5 or 6 cloves garlic, minced

On medium-high heat, cook mixing frequently until the onions start to brown. Then it's time to look back to the lentil pan. Turn off heat and fish out and discard the ginger and bay leaves. With those out of the way, add all of the contents of the frying pan to the sauce pan. Mix the temper into the lentils along with:

  • 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt (or to taste)

I've eaten it as a side with rice and curried vegetables, and as a cold spread on warm pita, like I would have hummus. As a main dish, I'd find it wanting some more texture and some more greens. And unfortunately, the colors cook out to leave basically just a light green.

Grant Loaf


A variation of Doris Grant's 1940s no-knead "Grant Loaf". This is a dense whole wheat bread good for toast.

Line a loaf pan with baking paper. I used a 8"x4"x4" "Pullman" pan, which has a lid to use during baking. Recipe in grams and baker's percentages.

Add to a bowl:

  • 450 g wholemeal bread flour (100%)
  • 5 grams salt (1.1%)

Whisk together to mix and aerate.

Mix in another container:

  • 450 ml warm ("hand hot") water (100%)
  • 7 grams dried yeast (1.5%)
  • 7 grams molasses (1.5%)

Pour the wet into the dry, and mix with a wooden spoon for three to four minutes. The dough will be very wet. Transfer into the pan and cover to rise. I waited about an hour.

While it is rising, preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C). When adequately risen, bake for 35 to 40 minutes. Remove from pan and return to oven for 5 more minutes to give it a better crust.

fresh out of the pullman pan

Just out of the pan, the top weirdly textured from the baking paper.

Spicy dal


A simple to make, if slow, simple dish. I eat it as a hot side dish, add something for crunch to make a hot soup, or cold as a cracker dip. Today's lunch was the hot soup version with some (packaged, store bought) fried onion for crunch. I adapted this from an old Madhur Jaffrey cookbook. There she basically says "Here's the how, adapt the spices to your taste." I'm going to pass that recommendation on to you.

  • 4 cups water
  • 1 cup red lentils
  • 1" to 2" ginger

In a suitably sized sauce pan, start heating the water on full heat. While that's happening, give the lentils a good rinse to wash the dust off, it helps reduce the froth, then add to the heating water. Peel the ginger and cut into three or four good size hunks and toss those in the pan, too.

When it starts to boil, skim off the foam on the surface. Add

  • 1 teaspoon tumeric powder

Give it a good stir to mix in the tumeric, lower the heat to a simmer, put a lid mostly on, but leave a crack for some steam to escape. Then let that go for an hour to ninety minutes. If the heat is too high and the water has boiled off, add some more hot water to make it soupy. (And adjust the heat.) You can pretty much ignore it during this stage.

After hour to ninety minutes you can fish out and discard the ginger. Get a small fry pan heating.

  • a teaspoon or so of oil
  • a teaspoon of whole cumin
  • a teaspoon or two of crushed red pepper
  • a pinch of asafoetida powder (aka "hing")

Add the oil, let it heat a bit, then add the cumin, wait a few seconds and add the red pepper and asafoetida. Stir it in the pan a bit to get all the spices covered in oil and lightly toasted. The asafoetida may smell a lot, it really needs just five or ten seconds in the oil. The others thirty to sixty seconds. Then add the hot oil and spices to the lentils. Maybe add

  • a teaspoon or so corriander powder
  • a teaspoon or so salt

to the lentils as well. Stir to mix the spices in, turn off heat.

As a side, it's done now. As a soup I feel it needs something more. I've used crumpled crackers, broken chakli, crunchy fried onions, chopped cashews, etc.

Left over cold I use it as dip/spread for crackers. Or it can be reheated to be a sidedish / soup again. Easily made a day or two in advance.

It's boring and simple looking, so no photo.

Black pepper tofu, after Ottolenghi


I find the peppery sauce in this addictive. It's simplified (a bit) and moderated from the original in Ottolenghi's book Plenty. His recipes are good, but complicated.

tofu prepared, next to cookbook photo
  • 1 1/2 lb firm tofu
  • cornstarch to coat tofu
  • enough vegetable oil to fry the tofu

Cube drained extra firm tofu, roll in corn starch. Then fry in shallow oil in batches, turning frequently, until golden on all sides. Drain on paper towel.

  • 1/4 lb butter
  • 12 small shallots (figure an ounce each), peeled and thinly sliced
  • some chilli peppers, thinly sliced, quantity and strength to taste, I suggest two jalapeños
  • 1/2 head of garlic, finely chopped
  • 2 to 3 inches of ginger root chopped

With tofu aside, reuse same pan to cook shallots, chillies, garlic, and ginger at low heat in the butter. Stir occasionally and when soft, 10 to 15 minutes, add

  • 2 tablespoons sweet soy sauce (kecap manis)
  • 4 tablespoons regular soy sauce
  • 2 tablespoons sugar

Stir those in then add

  • 3 tablespoons black peppercorns freshly coarse ground

Ottolenghi calls for more soy sauce and pepper. I like his pepper quantity but it is too much for my wife. Stir again and add that tofu put aside earlier. Stir to coat on all sides as long as needed to warm the tofu back up. Finally garnish with

  • handful small, thin spring onions, cut into short matchsticks