Featured Cookbook: Dec 2011

This month’s featured cookbook comes to us from Leanne Kitchen of Sydney, Australia. I discovered book from Omnivore Book’s December newsletter and was enticed by its collection of warm, spiced recipes including Red Lentil Soup with Minted Eggplant (recipe below) and Slow Roasted Lamb with Pomegranate Juice – perfect for the chilly, foggy weather we’ve been having here in San Francisco. Along with the recipes, Leanne recounts her 4 trips to Turkey, which started in 2008. She ventured out onto less traveled paths through the countryside in search of cheeses, yogurts, meats and desserts. During her travels, she not only discovered a rich culinary culture but also found a wealth of hospitality from the people she encountered.

“I went into Kurdish villages way in the east and people gave me bread out of the oven and sat me down and served me soup that they made with their own home-made yogurt and herbs they picked from the side of the mountain… Everything is really fresh and I guess you could say organic because they don’t use sprays and so the food is just very simple but extraordinarily tasty – just amazing.

I’d sit down at somebody’s house and they’d bring out a platter of cracked walnuts and honey… it’s a really simple thing but the flavours would just be extraordinary. Those are the kind of food encounters I suppose that really stay in my memory, not fancier things or more elaborate things; it’s more just the quality of the produce.”

Red Lentil Soup with Minted Eggplant

Difficulty: Easy
Course: Soup
Serves: 6

Ingredients

150ml extra virgin olive oil
2 onions, finely chopped
21/2 cups red lentils
10 cups homemade chicken or vegetable stock
60ml (1/4 cup) lemon juice, or to taste
1 large eggplant (about 500g), trimmed and cut into 1cm pieces
2 gloves of garlic, crushed
3 teaspoons dried mint
21/2 teaspoons sweet paprika

Method

Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onions and cook, stirring, fro 6-7 minutes or until softened. Add lentils and stock then bring to a simmer, skimming surface to remove any scum. Reduce heat to low, partially cover pan then cook for 40-50 minutes or until lentils are very soft and have collapsed. Add lemon juice and season to taste with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Meanwhile, sprinkle 2 tablespoons salt over the chopped eggplant in a colander and stand for 20 minutes. Rinse eggplant well then drain. Pat dry on kitchen paper. Heat the remaining oil in a large, heavy based frying pan over medium heat. Add eggplant and cook, turning often, for 5-6 minutes, or until light golden and tender. Add garlic and cook, stirring for 2 minutes then add the mint and paprika and cook for another 2 minutes or until fragrant. Divide soup among bowls then spoon over eggplant and oil and serve immediately.

Purchase “Turkey, Recipes and Tales from the Road” from Amazon.com

Find more recipes each Friday on her Facebook page.

Read the book review by The Syndey Morning Herald