Lemon-Cumin Dal

From Ruhlman’s Twenty, Michael Ruhlman, Chronicle Books, 2011.

This particular recipe in Ruhlman’s Twenty was to illustrate the effect of acidity on a dish.

I used 100g mung beans and 25g black-eyed peas and cooked them together in a saucepan with 400ml water. They were brought to the boil and then simmered for almost an hour. The water now had almost gone and the beans were tender.

Now I measured out ½ teaspoon ground cumin, ½ teaspoon ground turmeric and ½ teaspoon cayenne. With these I added a chopped garlic clove and a little grated fresh ginger. I heated a tablespoon gee in a small frying pan and when it was bubbling added the ingredients for about ½ minute. They were then added to the beans.

The beans were now tasted and they needed a little salt. I took the beans off the heat and added juice of half a lemon, the acidic element. The difference between the pre-lemon and the post-lemon was truly noticeable. From tasty but rather dull the dal suddenly took on a liveliness.

This was a pleasant dal. It was a change to have the texture of beans rather than the usual dal where all has dissolved into a type of puree.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔✔

Traditional French Onion Soup

From Ruhlman’s Twenty, Michael Ruhlman, Chronicle Books, 2011.

When I read the introduction Ruhlman made to this soup I had to make it to try it out. He went into a long explanation of how the French onion soups that people make are not the true one, that stocks should not be used as they make a different soup from the one which uses only water. He had searched out the true peasant source of the soup in France and this recipe was close to it.

Firstly I peeled and sliced thinly 5 Spanish onions. I know this type of onion as the red ones though later checking on Google it seems that there is considerable doubt as to whether the Spanish ones are the red or the brown. Anyway, I know them as red and this is what I used. If I make the recipe again I think I might use brown.

The onions were put into a saucepan with a little butter and a teaspoon of salt. The lid went on and on a medium heat they were cooked until steaming began. The temperature was now turned down to low and the lid removed. The onions cooked for about three hours until they had caramelised. Three cups of water were added and it was brought to the boil. It was now turned down again to low and a little sherry was added. It was tasted and a little pepper was added but it seemed salty enough. The soup was quite sweet so I added a little red wine vinegar.

Slices of bread from a baguette were put in the oven on a very low temperature until they had become quite hard. The soup was dished into bowls, the bread placed on top and then grated Emmenthaler cheese on top of that. It went under the grill until the cheese had melted. It was now ready.

The soup was really full of flavour. It still had a slight sweetness that was totally pleasant with the savoury cheese. The dried out bread had soaked up oodles of the soup juices while the crusts remained crunchy. A very satisfying dish.

Taste: ✔✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔  It’s not a difficult dish to make but takes time and attention.

Raw Zucchini Salad

From Ruhlman’s Twenty, Michael Ruhlman, Chronicle Books, 2011.

I can’t wait to have more time to examine this book and try out some of the techniques in it. It is a book of techniques that Ruhlman claims the mastery of which will give a person a solid foundation for their cooking. Some of the techniques sound to be more like ingredients as areas covered are such as salt, onions and sugar. Others are clearly techniques: poaching, braising and grilling. And then there are a couple of unusual ones: thinking and water. They all make perfect sense as techniques when you examine them closer under Ruhlman’s eye. Each of the techniques comes with recipes which illustrate the use of the particular technique.

I began my lessons with Ruhlman by trying out the raw zucchini salad to see the effect of salt.

Two zucchini were cut into julienne strips and placed in a colander. They were sprinkled with a teaspoon of salt (a lot I thought). They were tossed and then given another teaspoon of salt (seemed like heaps too much). They were left to stand for 20 minutes.

While the zucchini were standing a type of dressing was made from finely chopped shallot, finely chopped garlic and lemon juice.

The zucchini were now given a shake in the colander to remove any moisture which has formed. I had a taste of a strip and it was a bit on the salty side so they were given a very quick rinse and then patted dry. They were placed in a bowl, some olive oil was added together with the lemon mixture. The salad was tossed and garnished with chopped walnuts and a little chopped basil.

The salt, to my amazement, had given the zucchini a different texture. They had become somewhat limp but retained a crunch to them. The flavour of the salt and the lemon were refreshing. I would never normally eat zucchini raw but the salt soak had brought about a change that made them totally edible. I will certainly go back to having them this way as a salad vegetable.

Taste: ✔✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔