Serves 4 people.

Ingredients

• 6-cups of water
• 2 cups of chana dal (split chickpeas)
• 1 tsp turmeric powder
• 1½ tsp salt
• ghee/oil of choice
• 8 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tsp chilli powder
• large handful fresh coriander, roughly chopped

Method

1. Place the dal in the Speedi pot without the crisper tray. Add the water, turmeric powder, and salt. Set to “steam” mode for 60 minutes.  When this step is done, it should still be slightly soupy.
2. Add 3 tbsp of ghee/oil to hot a pan. Add the cumin seeds and garlic. Cook for 3 minutes or until golden.
3. Add the chilli powder and coriander. Stir through and then add to the dal. Cook for 2 minutes on sear/saute Hi5

This pilaf is a light and quick dinner from “Chetna's 30 Minute Indian: Quick and Easy Everyday Meals” by Chetna Makan. It doesn’t need a major side with it just some pickles and yoghurt, or perhaps some dhal or potato sabji.

Ingredients

• 2 medium onions, thinly sliced
• 2-3 tbsp sunflower oil
• 1 tbsp fennel seeds
• 4-5 cloves
• 4-5 black peppercorns
• 3 cloves garlic, grated
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp chilli powder
• 200g fresh spinach, chopped (~7 oz)
• 250g basmati rice, washed (~1 cup)
• 450ml boiling water (~2 cups)

Method

1. Heat oil in a pan and cook onions for 5 minutes until lightly golden.
2. In another pan, lightly toast the spices until they are aromatic and the color has changed slightly just a few seconds.
3. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute.
4. Use a pestle and mortar to blend the spices into a coarse powder.
5. Add to the onion pan with salt and chilli powder and mix through.
6. Add spinach and mix.
7. Add rice and mix through to coat in the flavours.
8. Mix the boiling water into the pan and cover and cook for exactly 15 minutes.
9. Once it is cooked, turn the heat off and leave to sit for 12-15 minutes to let the steam fluff up the rice.

I had about a fourth of a recipe of cornmeal crust left over. Didn't want to throw it out. So I mixed it with an egg, two cups of milk, sugar and some almond extract. Put it in a pyrex pan in a 325°F oven for about 30 minutes. Really tasty.

• 2 cups yellow cornmeal
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp brewers yeast
• 3 tablespoons oil
• 1/2 to 3/4 cup of hot seasoned stock (or enough to make a stiff batter)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Mix and pat into an oiled deep 9-inch pie pan or cake dish. Bake for ten minutes before filling.

From "Diet for a small planet" by Frances Moore Lappé

2020-01-28: This is the first time I'm trying this crust. Truth to tell, I didn't think it would work. I didn't really believe the corn meal would hold together without an egg, but it did.

I didn't add brewer's yeast. By mistake I used an entire teaspoon of salt. I kept adding liquid until all the loose corn meal was gathered up, which probably took one cup or one and a quarter cups of water in total. One recipe I saw suggested that if you were cooking in a glass dish (as opposed to a metal pie pan) that you should reduce the cooking time by one quarter or one fifth. That sort of made sense to me since it would continue cooking for a bit when you took it out of the oven, so my 8.5 x 8.5 inch square Pyrex dish I put in for only 8 minutes. When it came out of the oven, it hadn't browned, but it looked like it would work. I was quite surprised.

The crust worked well. I made it too thick on the sides, so cutting the driest top part took some elbow grease.