16 Mar 2012

Around the World in 18 Fridays- Week 7- South Africa

This week I was starting to run out of ideas for international meals I've cooked before, so I decided to choose a country and just find something random that sounded good to cook!

Well, I chose South Africa because I had no idea about their cuisine, and I don't regret it!

A lot of the recipes I found contained meat, and that's why I was so excited when I discovered all the vegetarian versions of Frikkadels out there! A 'Frikkadel' is like a tomatoey spicy meatball, but there were all sorts of vegetarian recipes out there using either soy protein or lentils in the place of meat!






I chose lentils, since it's what we had in the cupboard, and they were AMAZING!


I've really missed meatballs since becoming vegetarian, and although these weren't the same, they were better!


I know I probably sound incredibly vain right now, but I'll just point out the recipe is heavily based on this one.


Though I did have to do a few substitutions because Australia doesn't really have a lot of South African cooking supplies!


Oh, and do make the yogurt! It's simple, but incredibly delicious! Especially if you mix everything on your plate up (after taking photos, of course)!







Lentil Frikkadels
Based on: http://blogs.food24.com/aspoonfulofsugar/2011/12/12/spiced-lentil-frikkadels/


Ingredients

250g Brown or Green lentils
750ml Cold water
2 Organic stock cubes (vegetable or chicken, whatever you like)
5 tsp Worchestershire Sauce (or 1 tbsp and 1 tsp, whatever suits)
50g Tomato paste
2 tsp Cumin powder
2 tsp Coriander powder
1 tsp Chilli powder
2 Cloves of garlic
2cm Thumb of ginger, grated
1 Green chilli, chopped finely
1 Small red onion, chopped finely
60ml Lemon juice
Flour for dusting
300ml    Canola oil for frying
For the yoghurt dressing
1 cup Plain smooth yoghurt
1 tsp Cut mint
Zest of 1 lemon
1/2 tsp Fresh ginger, finely grated
1 tsp Brown sugar
1/4 tsp Salt
1. Add cold water, lentils and crumbled stock cubes to a pot. Bring to the boil, then reduce heat and cook for 30-50 minutes, or until lentils are very soft.
2. Once lentils are cooked, drain off any excess water and mash with a potato masher until the lentils take on the form of a thick paste.
3. Add the rest of the ingredients, except the oil and flour, and mix together. Taste and test the seasoning. Adjust if necessary.
4. Mix and shape into small rounds, approximately 3cm in diameter. Roll each round in flour, just lightly covering it, and dust off excess flour. Then heat oil in a heavy-based pot or pan.
5. Fry rounds in oil, about four at a time, leaving for approximately 1 minute on each side. Turn only once.
6. Drain on paper towels and once cooled, cover and refrigerate.
7. Mix all the ingredients for the yoghurt dressing together, and serve! I recommend putting them on pasta with a basic tomato sauce and the yogurt, but they'd be fine on their own!



Mia :)

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