Monday

Here’s my lentils curry recipe for meatless Monday.

Brown Lentil Curry

Boil 1 cup brown lentils for approximately 30 minutes or until semi soft. Pour it into a colander and rinse thoroughly. 

In the mean time braise an onion in a tablespoon of oil until golden brown. Add 1 tsp crushed garlic and 1 tsp crushed ginger. Add a chopped tomato and 1 tsp tomato paste as well 1-2 chillies finely chopped (chillies are optional) 

Add to onion mixture

3 cardamoms

1 piece stick cinnamon

1 tsp salt 

1 tsp turmeric / borrie

1 tsp coriander / koljana 

1 tsp cumin / jeera

½ – 1 crushed chilies

2 tsp leaf masala / roasted masala
Cook the spice mixture for about 15 minutes, adding water as necessary. Then add the boiled and rinsed lentils. Cook a further 10 minutes. 

Add 2 large peeled and quarter potatoes and cook for further 15 minutes on slow heat until the potatoes are soft. 
Stir in a handful of chopped dhanya. Serve with puris.

Salwaa’s Puris (quick and easy)

Ingredients:
250g self-raising flour or for each cup of normal flour use 1 tsp of baking powder to make your own self-raising flour
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
Enough buttermilk to make soft, roll able dough or ( take one cup of milk add 1 tbs of vinegar or lemon juice ) to make your own buttermilk
Oil for deep frying

Mix all the ingredients together in a mixing bowl. Knead dough for a few minutes until dough no longer sticks to your hands or surface. Leave dough to rest for a few minutes. Roll out very thinly, cut into circles, rectangles, any shape that takes your fancy!! Fry in hot oil until puri puffs up, 2 minutes, turn and fry the other side.

Thursday

Salwaa’s Vegetable Curry
You can use any fresh vegetables in season for this recipe.

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp oil
½ tsp mustard seeds
½ tsp cumin/jeera seeds
½ tsp coriander/koljana seeds
1 medium onion, peeled and chopped
1 tsp crushed garlic
½ tsp crushed ginger
1 – 2 green chillies
3 curry leaves
1 Tbsp roasted masala
½ tsp turmeric/ borrie
1 tsp salt
¼ – ½ tsp chilli powder
1 tsp salt or to taste
1 large tomato, finely chopped
1 small cauliflower, broken into florets ( or half cauliflower and half broccoli)
1 small courgette, sliced
1 large carrot, sliced
1 large potato, peeled and chopped

Method:
Heat the oil in a large, heavy pot. Fry all the seeds for 1 to 2 minutes until they began to splutter. Add the onion and curry leaves and fry for 5 minutes.
Add the rest of the spices, mix and fry for another 5 minutes adding water if necessary.
Then add all the vegetables and 1 cup of water. Cook over medium high for a few minutes before turning the heat to low. Simmer until the vegetables are tender. Serve with flat bread, roti and garnished with curry leaves. Serves 4

Friday

Salwaa’s Tomato Sausage Bredie

500g sausage cut into small pieces
1 tablespoon cooking oil
500g red ripe tomatoes, washed, chopped or liquidised or 1 tin chopped tomatoes or use both the fresh and tin tomatoes
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 large onion, chopped
1 teaspoon salt or to taste
2 green chillies , chopped or more
1 heaped Tbsp tomato paste
3 potatoes, peeled and sliced into quarters
2 tablespoons sugar or to taste

Method:
Heat the oil in a big, heavy-bottomed saucepan, over medium heat.
Sauté the onions in the oil until golden, soft and golden brown.
Add the potatoes and simmer over medium heat for 15 minutes , stirring often and adding water to prevent the potatoes sticking to the pan and burning.
Add the tomatoes garlic, salt, chillies and tomato paste and simmer a further 15 minutes.
Add the sausages and cook until the potatoes are completely soft.
Add the sugar and cook a further 5 minutes.
Serve warm with steamed / boiled white rice.

Cooks Tip:
DO NOT add the sugar until the potatoes are completely soft as the sugar will prevent the potatoes from softening.

Add a a tin of baked beans to stretch this dish even further

Sunday

Salwaa’s Cabbage Frikkadel (Kool Frikkadel / Oumens Onder Die Kombers)

Serves 6, keep the left overs for the next day. It taste great the next day, trust me!

Ingredients:
500g mutton/beef pieces
2 tablespoons oil
2 medium onions, chopped
Salt to taste
7 cloves
1 – 2 green chilies, deseeded and chopped
1 piece stick cinnamon
1 large cabbage
Nutmeg
Butter
Water as needed

Frikkadel ingredients:
500g fat free minced meat
1 medium onion
1 small green pepper
1 tomato
1/2 bunch dhanya (optional)
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon crushed garlic
1 slice of slightly stale bread soaked in water
1 large egg
Salt & pepper to taste
Method:
Wash and drain minced meat well.
Soak bread in water and squeeze excess water out.
Chop onion, pepper, tomato, dhanya finely.
Add all the ingredients in a mixing bowl and mix thoroughly using your hands.

Method:
Heat the oil in a large deep pot. Braise the onions until very brown, add the meat and spices and cook until the meat are brown and tender, 20 – 30 minutes depending on you meat, adding water (not excessive) to prevent it from burning. In the meantime separate the outer cabbage leaves, cutting the veins from each leave but don’t cut through the leave. Chop the inside (the hard part) of the cabbage finely, put the chopped cabbage in a colander. Pour boiling water over the cabbage and leave to drain. When the meat is nicely browned add the chopped cabbage in the pot, stir and cook another 10 minutes until the cabbage are browned as well, stirring often to prevent burning. Wash the cabbage leaves you left whole and steam on top of the meat remove when softened and set aside.