Two bowls of deliciousness

 

Lunch. At an exciting angle!

 I'm renowned for my optimism, and this week my optimism has led to an oversupply of onions in our house, due to my wildly inaccurate guess at how many hot sausages (with onions) we could sell to raise funds to set up an op shop. (The op shop will raise funds for animal causes so, yes, we were holding a fundraiser for a fundraiser!)

Anyway, back to the onion mountain. Those which were already sliced, I cooked down for about an hour with a little tamari and balsamic vinegar, and froze in meal-sized batches. But first, I used some of them in this very simple dahl. (If you don't happen to have pre-cooked onions, you could simply cook the dahl for longer, until the onions are as soft as you like them, or replace them with a quicker-cooking vegetable. Don't forget to change the name of the dish too!)

The fennel seeds come from Mack's herb garden. They're so delicious; they add a lovely mellow sweetness, which works well with the onions.

Sweet onion dahl

1 cup split red lentils

1 1/2 cups onions, peeled, sliced and cooked  until soft

2 1/2 cups water

1 teaspoon fennel seeds

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1/4 teaspoon turmeric

1/4 teaspoon chilli powder

2 drops liquid smoke

1/4 teaspoon salt

Put all of the ingredients except the salt into a medium-sized pot.

Bring to the boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 30 minutes with the lid on.

Stir occasionally to check that it's not sticking to the bottom; add a little more water if necessary.

Add salt, if necessary, at the end of the cooking time.

I enjoyed this for lunch with a mixture of leafy greens from the garden (silverbeet, magenta spreen and a couple of dandelion leaves) and green peas.

  

Brigadeiros nestled in a lovely little 

bowl made by my gorgeous young cousin Alex.

 I've also been enjoying these, the second recipe from the NY Times article on condensed milk. They're not as knock-your-socks-off as the chocolate fudge from the same article, but they're good. And they have an exotic name. I love the way they look like eggs in a nest... gives me some Easter inspiration!

Thank you, Erik Marcus and the New York Times

 

I follow many blogs, but Erik Marcus' blog is probably the most info-rich of 'em all. He posts several times most days, and is always brief and interesting. Usually I agree with his posts, but yesterday we definitely disagreed! He was outraged that the New York Times would dedicate page-space to lauding the resurgence of sweetened condensed milk, whereas I - as the proud importer of Olvebra sweetened condensed soya milk - was very happy about it!

  

My boy Mack is pretty happy about condensed milk, too.

I promptly made the NYT's easy fudge recipe and boy oh boy, it's really good! And ridiculously easy. Erik Marcus, if you have a sweet tooth, get in touch and I will send you fudge. Seriously.

For everybody else, here's the recipe, so you can make your own.

Absurdly Easy Mocha-Peanut Fudge

Adapted from Michael Chu's recipe published in the New York Times

INGREDIENTS
1/4 cup dairy-free margarine (I used Olivani)

500g dairy-free dark chocolate (I used Barry-Callebaut chocolate drops)
1 can sweetened condensed soya milk
1 tablespoon instant coffee powder
1/2 cup chopped peanuts

METHOD

1. Line an 8-inch-square baking pan with baking paper.
2. Make a double boiler by sitting a metal bowl over a pan of simmering water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water)
3. Put all the ingredients except the peanuts into the metal bowl. Stir gently as the chocolate melts. You want to heat it only as much as necessary for the chocolate to melt.
4. Mix in the nuts (I kept a small amount aside to sprinkle on top) and pour the delicious mixture into prepared pan. Refrigerate until set (at least 2 hours).
5. Use the baking paper to lift the fudge out of the pan and cut it into pieces using a large knife.

 

Just a little farewell teaser shot of the melting-in-the-bowl....