warming winter supper

This snowy weather is making everything look lovely, and causing us to wrap up warm. I'm sitting and typing in four layers with a scarf, because I'm not keeping the central heating on all day. I like to think I look poetic, although to the more critical eye I may look like a rather tall pile of unruly laundry.

Anyway, less heating from the outside concentrates the mind on heating from the inside, and of course cooking can keep you warm! Supper tonight: one pan coconut dhal, rice, ginger potatoes and cabbage stir fry. 

All the dishes for this supper can be made separately, this combo is for the greedy if there are few of you. It's a vege feast, you could of course add a nice bit of meat, chicken skewers maybe? The recipe for one pan coconut dhal is here.

Also I do love using lime juice, I love the look of limes. Still, I'm not shy of using the bottled kind. If you have no lime use lemon, the result is slightly less perfumed but still good.

I like to have a little fresh salad on the side too, chopped tomato, onion, cucumber, sprinkle of cumin, grind of pepper and salt, squeeze of lemon and pinch of sugar. Add chopped coriander if you want, too. I know there are people who feel it's an overwhelming flavour, so if you're one of them, don't. If you're one of them you probably won't be interested in most of the recipes on this page. I'm not one of them.

Recipes to follow:

Dry fried ginger potatoes

Cabbage stir fry

Rice 

one pan coconut dhal

Coconut dhal
This dhal is a staple in our house, it is the first recipe I wrote out for my darling daughter, it's cheap and easy to make and delicious. I included the ingredients when I sent a care package after she told me she'd been living on pot noodle alone, along with a savoy cabbage and a cake. 

Ingredients	Equipment needed
Orange split lentils Water/stock 1 onion 1 carrot Garlic Curry powder Fresh coriander 1” Creamed coconut Salt, pepper 1 Tomato Optional extras Potatoes or 1 apple	Wooden spoon Medium sized saucepan Mug Chopping board Knife
Peel onion and chop up roughly Peel carrot and slice up Take one or two cloves of garlic and crush under flat of knife and peel Take 1 mugful of lentils, put in pan Add two generous mugfuls of water or stock to pan Bring to boil and simmer over low heat You may see some scum start to bubble up – just remove it with the spoon – if you don’t everything will still taste fine Add chopped onion and carrot Add 1 tsp curry powder, pinch of salt, pepper and tomato Cook over low heat until the lentils are getting soft, about 15m Add creamed coconut, check that there is still enough liquid, if it’s getting dry add some more water and cook 5m more Add chopped coriander leaves and stir through – check seasoning and add salt if needed You might like to add a squeeze of lemon Eat with rice or on its own.

If you want to make this into soup use three mugfuls of water.

My aunt cooks this and eats it with rice. Any leftovers she puts in a pot and then eats spread on toast as pate. Sounds a bit weird? I thought so, and ate it out of politeness, only to discover it is really delicious. She chops everything up much finer than me. Just a little tip. 

An easy supper: Cabbage and bacon

You don’t have to spend a lot of money to have a great meal. In this case that’s as long as you have a good head of cabbage. If you’re veggie, leave out the bacon, add more onion and some red pepper, for colour.

As a kid I was forced to try dishes, including those that I might have rejected in previous samplings. I never came around to tripe or sauerkraut, but hunger, sibling rivalry and the prospect of supper for breakfast meant I managed to choke most things down. This is one I got to love and is so good it also conquered daughter number two without the extreme measures I was subject to. In fact my wasted sensitivity earned me the reproach ‘why didn’t you tell me about this?’

So, let’s debate which type of cabbage to use. This recipe can be made with pretty much any cabbage, but I like Savoy cabbage best. It’s beautiful, with intricate lace-like veining, brain-like bumpiness and it’s leaves range from rich green to sunny yellow at the heart. It tastes great and, by the way it’s also the best cabbage to use if you want to make stuffed cabbage.

So, other than a good head of cabbage, to serve four hungry people you’ll need an onion, a packet of bacon, a knob of butter, a healthy pinch of salt (adjust the pinch if you’re using salted bacon) and some vigorous grindings of black pepper.

Cabbage and bacon Serves 4

What you need

* 1 cabbage
* 1 onion
* 1 packet bacon
* Knob of butter
* Pepper
* Salt

How you do it

1. Remove the core and any damaged outer leaves of the cabbage
2. Slice up the cabbage and leave to rinse in a bowl of cold water
3. Chop up the bacon
4. Put pan onto low heat, add chopped bacon and knob of butter
5. Peel the onion and chop up roughly, then add chopped onion to cook with the bacon, stirring occasionally
6. After about five minutes, or once the onion becomes soft, add the wet cabbage. Don’t shake off the water, that’s all the water needed to cook the cabbage
7. Add pinch of salt and black pepper
8. Cover with pan lid and cook for around 15 minutes, or until the cabbage is soft, and most of the water has cooked off. The cabbage should still be a good colour green.

Eat straight away, on its own, or top it with an egg or some cheese to make a substantial meal

Word of warning: keep the heat low, or you may end up with burnt cabbage

Any leftovers are great mixed with potato and fried up to make bubble and squeak, or as a tasty topping for shepherd’s pie, veggie or meat.