Spicy Lentil Soup with Lime

First of all, thank you all for your lovely wishes and kind messages on the previous post. Little Nora Adeele and I spent 10 days in the maternity clinic growing and recuperating (with K. by our side every night, feeding me and the clinic staff with his delicious cannelés). We've been back home for over a week now, and I'm happy to report that our wee girl has already gained 400 grams on top of her birth weight, purely on breast milk diet, so she's doing well.

As we're still learning each other's daily routines, my cooking has been erratic and quick. Something that can be whipped up within minutes and then left unattended until I can finally eat it, with baby on one arm and spoon in another. This soup is a good example. I made it yesterday - it demands about 10 minutes hands-on time (for peeling and chopping the onions and carrots), and then couple of stirring motions every now and then. I've had many a lentil soup this winter, and this is definitely one of the favourite ones, with lime juice adding a lovely and different zing to it.

Spicy Lentil Soup with Lime
(Vürtsikas läätsesupp laimiga)
Adapted from Olive (October 2007), a British food magazine
Serves 4

1 Tbsp oil
grated fresh ginger (about 1 cm chunk)
1 tsp cumin seeds
a generous pinch of chilli flakes
1 medium-sized onion, peeled and roughly chopped
3 large carrots, peeled and cut into small pieces or coarsely grated
150 g red lentils ('Egyptian lentils')
1 litre vegetable stock (I used Swiss Marigold)
1 lime

Heat the oil in a heavy saucepan. Add grated ginger, cumin seeds and chilli flakes and heat for about a minute, stirring to avoid burning.
Add onions and carrots and heat for about 5 minutes on a moderate heat, stirring regularly.
Add lentils and the stock.
Bring into a boil and simmer on a low heat for 15-20 minutes, until lentils are softened.
Blend the soup into a silky pureé and season with lime juice (and salt and pepper, if you think it's necessary).
Garnish with some chilli flakes and lime zest and serve.

An early and very special arrival

Let me introduce you to our little baby girl. We don't know her name yet, as she was in a bit of a hurry arriving into this world, so K. and I are still discussing the possible options. But she's gorgeous, and despite being few weeks too early, she's doing very well. So are her parents :) She arrived into this world at 5.52 pm on Friday, January 30th, weighing in at 2460 grams and 48 cm.

The picture above is taken this morning, when she's about 40 hours old (young?).

As we'll be spending the next week or so recovering at the birth clinic, there won't be much cooking happening at Nami-Nami household at the moment. But don't despair - this might just give me a chance to finally tell about those fantastic food-related trips to Spain (meal at El Bulli!) and the US we had last summer.

Life is beautiful.

Spicy-Salty Tiger Prawns

You may have noticed that there aren't many shellfish recipes on this blog. Fish recipes, yes, but not recipes involving mussels, shrimps/prawns, scallops etc. There's a good reason for that, but it doesn't mean I don't cook them at home. Contrarily to me, K. adores shellfish, so every now and then I try a new recipe. This recipe is an adaptation of Jamie Oliver's, who uses small prawns and eats them with shell and all. I much prefer cooking with large tiger prawns - they look more decent to me. K. wholeheartedly approved, and considering it took about 5 minutes in total, then it's a good recipe indeed :)

Spicy-Salty Tiger Prawns
(Soolased krevetid vürtsidega)
Serves 3 to 4

400 g unpeeled fresh tiger prawns (headless, thoroughly defrosted and drained, if frozen)
2 generous pinches of sea salt flakes
a generous pinch of fennel seeds
a generous pinch of coriander seeds
a generous pinch of cumin seeds
a small pinch of dried chilli flakes

Place fennel, coriander and cumin seeds into a pestle and mortar and bash them couple of times (just enough to crush them, no more).
Heat a large wok or frying pan until very hot, add sea salt flakes, crushed spices and chilli flakes and heat for about half a minute, until they're all aromatic.
Add the tiger prawns and shake the pan, so the spice mixture would cover the prawns nicely. Dry-fry for 2-4 minutes, depending on the size of your prawns, until they've all turned pink with golden brown, indicating that they're cooked.
Peel the prawns while eating them.