Ah daal, the poor students staple, it costs about $1.20 to make and can feed you for a week, and the best part is that it is so versatile. What ever you've got it can probably go in daal.
You'll need
2 cups lentils (I used brown)
1 brown onion roughly chopped
1 tomato roughly chopped
3 cloves of garlic
2 teaspoons freshly grated ginger
4 tsp cumin
4 tsp ground cardamom
1 tbsp biryani seasoning
Salt to taste
Rinse lentils well and remove any that are discoloured. Place lentils into a saucepan and cover with 4 cups of boiling water.
Add a few pinches of salt and place a lid on the saucepan, boil for 10 -15 minutes or until lentils begin to soften. Adding more water if necessary.
Once lentils are softened fry off onion in a saucepan until browned.
Add the lentils to the onion, add tomatoes, garlic and ginger and cook for minute or two.
Add spices and simmer for another 10 minutes or until lentils are fully cooked, if the mixture begins to dry add more boiling water.
I like to taste the daal throughout the cooking process and adjust the seasoning to taste.
Chapatis
2 cups plain flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup water
2 tsp olive oil
While the daal is simmering you can prepare the chapatis.
Place flour and salt in a bowl and make a well in the centre.
Add half the water and the olive oil and mix together.
Add the rest of the water slowly until you form a soft dough.
Roll the dough into small balls and then roll flat using a rolling pin on a well floured surface.
Cook one at a time in a hot frying pan. Cook for 2 minutes on either side and serve warm with daal.
This recipe is just a guide, honestly you can put any mix of vegetables and spices into it and it will still taste awesome! Enjoy Xx
This is probably the easiest simplest thing to cook....ever. And it's tasty
A handful of dried shiitake mushrooms sliced
2 pieces dried black fungus
Pinch sliced dried seaweed
2 teaspoons white miso paste
2 spring onions sliced.
2 cups boiling water
Re-hydrate the fungus and shiitake in some boiling water for 10 minutes or until soft (if your shiitake mushrooms are whole this will take longer).
Place miso paste in small heavy bottomed sauce pan and add a small amount of the water from the mushrooms to mix through.
Add water then mushrooms and spring onions and cook over a medium heat until boiling, reduce heat and add seaweed.
Allow to simmer for 1 or 2 minutes.
Rest for 5 minutes and then serve
Variations: Cubes of silken tofu are also really good in this dish, I just didn't have any on hand. Also fresh mushrooms can be used and some grated ginger...other ingredients which I don't currently have.
This salad is really simple, it seems too simple, but comes out incredibly tasty. You can add any vegetables you want but this is the traditional way my mum makes it. Play around with the dressing, all measurements are approximates, this is something I generally do by sploshing the ingredients together until it tastes good. Some fresh cucumber or steamed and cooled broccolini would also be great additions.
Salad
250 grams button mushrooms - sliced
1 red capsicum - cut into strips
500 grams snow peas - topped and tailed
Dressing
2 tsp fresh ginger - grated
2 tbsp sherry
1 red chilli - finely chopped
1 tbsp sweet soy
1 tbsp light soy
Arrange snow peas around the edges of a serving plate
Combine dressing ingredients and mix well.
In a bowl toss mushrooms capsicum and dressing.
Place mushroom mixture in the centre of your serving plate.
Top with freshly chopped coriander (optional)
So simple and sssssssssssoooooooo tasty. We had some friends over for drinks last night and having about $20 between us needed cheap and simple snacky food to feed them. This recipe has everything you could possibly want...
Crispy deep fried goodness? Tick
Mushrooms? Tick
What else do you need?
You can also add any flavourings you like to the crumbs, I used some fresh herbs but you can experiment with chilli's, curry powder, really anything you want.
What you'll need...
Button mushrooms....as many as you want...less is NOT more!
Plain flour
Soy milk
Panko breadcrumbs
Mixed fresh herbs ( I used parsley, lemon thyme and garlic chives)
Salt and Pepper to taste
Oil for deep frying.
Put your oil on to heat.
Chop up your herbs finely and add to bread crumbs, you can use any breadcrumbs but I really recommend Panko, they are extra crispy! Mix through a few tsp of salt and pepper.
You'll need to make a little production line, have a plate of flour, a bowl of soy milk and a plate of the crumb mixture set up.
Brush any dirt off mushrooms and trim of any long stems.
Dip your mushrooms one at a time into soy milk, coat in flour, re-dip into soy milk and then roll in crumbs. Set aside until all are crumbed and ready for frying.
If I can stress anything it would be make sure you flour them first! If you just directly crumb the mushroom all your crumbs will float off as soon as you put them into the hot oil.
I test my oil by putting a cube of bread in, if it floats and bubbles your oil is hot enough.
Lower the mushrooms carefully into the hot oil and cook in batches until all are golden and crisp, should take about 2-3 mins per batch.
Drain on some paper towel to soak up any extra oil.
Serve warm with a few beers and some good friends!
