This recipe, which I got from a South African Gujarati family, is not really a soup but rather a sweet and sour soupy dish called fajeto. It is normally served with meals in small bowls and eaten with the fried puffy breads called pooris, but I strain out all the leaves and seeds that would normally float in it and serve it as a soup. My friends and family love it. It needs to be served hot, as it is thickened with very nutritious chickpea flour that does not behave well when it is cold. It is very quick and easy to make, since it uses canned mango puree. One of India’s finest mangoes is the Alphonso, and it is canned Alphonso puree that you should look for. All Indian grocers carry it. The brand I like and use is Ratna. It comes slightly sweetened. Conveniently, the 30-ounce Ratna cans hold exactly 3 cups, just what you need here.
The first time I saw a Caesar salad served with quartered heads of lettuce, I was horrified! Since then, I have come to embrace the “lazy lettuce method,” as I now call it. While this isn’t a classic Caesar (it pains me to eat a salad with more calories and fat than a burger), it is a lovely variation, and the eggs make it a complete and rather filling meal.
This is a great way to use up the last 1/4 cup (75 g) of jam often left in the refrigerator. I like apricot the best, but you can use raspberry, blueberry, cherry, or strawberry. Roast the carrots first, then dress and rebrown the carrots with the jam so the jam doesn’t burn beyond the point of pleasantness. Note: If your jam is particularly sweet, add a squeeze of lemon over the whole thing to tart it up.
Pretty sure I’m going to develop a scented candle based on how good this soup smells while it’s cooking. I actually wanted to create a whole line of delicious savory-smelling candles, but my dog talked me out of it. She says that would mess with her head.
Patrick Thibault, our gardener, is the James Underwood Crockett (erstwhile Victory Garden host) of Montreal; he dutifully tends to the daily greens and produce we harvest from the Vin Papillon and Joe Beef gardens, while also leisurely providing the end-of-season greens we might use to create a torte like this one.
RICE PILAF WITH ORZO ŞEHRİYELİ PİRİNC PİLAVI
Region: İzmir, all regions
Burned Bread Pudding | Kazandibi
Region: İstanbul, Marmara Region
Quinoa is a brilliant and speedy ingredient for the kitchen. Tender when cooked, with a delicate white furl of a tail, it has a nutty, satisfying taste. Mixed here with eggs, feta and herbs, and fried as a fritter, the cooked quinoa provides some welcome ballast to a dish that is bombproof. I’m a sucker for a striking name, and it doesn’t come much better than Green Goddess – a pungent mayonnaise-based sauce made intensely green with masses of herbs and spring onions (scallions). I’ve supplemented some of the mayonnaise with yogurt to lighten the result.
Black chickpeas have a slightly different flavour to the regular, beige-coloured chickpeas – a little nuttier, perhaps – and their texture is more robust, so they don’t become completely soft during cooking, and they don’t break down and crumble apart. They are cooked with just a few basic spices in this simple dish that’s full of flavour. In India, it is often eaten with deep-fried puris, but I suggest serving it with chapatti or rice, with chutney and salad.
Cooking it with love, slowly over a low heat, brings out the flavour of the black lentils and black cardamom and results in a rich, intense, deep taste.