2018 if fully upon us and with the Year of the Dog quickly approaching, why not promise to be more courageous and daring this New Year.
The New Year is the one time of year when venturing outside the house without layers opf clothing seems improbable, so why not heat up 2018 by being adventurous and adding some spice to your cooking.
Using trusty cast iron cookware like our Chasseur range, you can turn uninspired casseroles into a fiery, colourful curry full of different spices that bounce and complement each other perfectly.
Cooking with cast iron cookware is more versatile than you may have thought, with your casserole dish being the perfect pan to cook up some fresh, doughy bread and alternately create a slow cooked spicy lentil dhal with Naan bread, Your dependable assistant in the kitchen, our Chasseur cookware is essential.
Spiced Lentil Dhal with Nann bread
Prep time: Less than an hour
Cook time: 2 hours
Ingredients:
Lentil Dhal:
3 tablespoons of vegetable oil
250g of yellow dried split peas, heavily rinsed
1 tablespoon of cumin seeds
1 onion thinly chopped
3- 4 whole green chillies
2cm of fresh ginger, peeled and sliced into thin strips
3 whole garlic cloves, peeled
3 tomatoes
1 teaspoon of ground turmeric
1 teaspoon of garam masala
1 ½ ground coriander
Salt and ground black pepper
Chopped fresh coriander leaves
Naan bread:
250g of plain flour
2 teaspoons of sugar
½ teaspoon of salt
½ teaspoon of baking powder
130ml of milk
2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
Method:
Using a small saucepan add the yellow dried split peas to 900ml of water and bring to the boil.
If any froth forms at the surface, skim the forth off using a spoon. Once the water begins to boil, reduce the heat and cover the pan before leaving to simmer. Leave the lentils to simmer for 40 minutes, make sure to stir the lentils regularly until they have turned tender. If you need to add more water while the lentils slowly cook, feel free to add more.
After the lentils have thoroughly been cooked, remove the pan from the heat and leave to cool of the side.
Using your Chasseur pan, on a medium heat add oil to the pan. Place the cumin seeds into the pan and leave to fry for around 30 seconds, or until they have become fragrant.
Place the onion, chilli and ginger to the pan before frying for 4-5 minutes.
Using a blender, blend together the garlic and tomatoes until they have been thoroughly mixed.
Once the mixture has become lump free, add the mixture to the pan and stir in the onions and chillies.
Into the pan, add the ground spices and 100ml of water before stirring. Season the mixture with the salt and pepper and leave to simmer for 20 minutes. You will notice that when the ingredients have simmered that the oil from the sauce will rise to the surface creating a greasy film.
Leave the ingredients to simmer and add the cooked lentils to the pan, placing the lid on top and leaving to boil. If the mixture has become too thick, add extra water to loosen the thickness of the water.
Season the ingredients with more salt and pepper.
Add the chopped coriander to serve and stir.
Now time to make the Naan Bread:
In a mixing bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. In another mixing bowl mix together the milk and oil.
In the centre of the flour mixture make a well and slowly pour the milk and oil mixture into the well.
Mix together the ingredients to make dough, work from the centre to include the flour from the edges of the bowl. Once you have mixed together all the ingredients to make a soft dough, knead the ingredients for 8-10 minutes, adding more flour if the dough becomes too sticky.
In an oiled bowl, place the dough and cling film for 10-15 minutes in a warm area. Once you have left the dough to rest, evenly create five same sized dough balls.
Using your Chasseur cast iron pan, add baking paper to the inside of the pan and place on the top shelf on a preheated oven to warm up.
While the pan is warming in the oven on a medium heat roll out the dough balls into a thin circular shape and place onto the warm baking paper inside of the frying pan. Place into the oven to grill for 2 minutes, or until the naan has turned lightly golden.
Remove the cooked naan before cooking the other naan balls all separately. When cooking your naan, you can keep the flavour plain or spice it up by adding different flavours including: poppy seeds, nigella seeds or garlic.
Once your naan has cooked, brush with butter and serve straightaway with your spicy lentil dhal.
For those customers wanting to treat themselves to a brand new casserole dish or perhaps are wanting a cast iron frying pan to cook up this tasty spiced Lentil Dhal, use the code CHASSEUR25 for Buy One Get One 25% off our Chasseur collection. Offer excludes discounted items.
