mexican lentil-nut loaf and jarocho rice

Our friend Caro is in Perth at the moment, and delightfully she brought with her 'A Taste of Mexico,' a vegetarian cookbook. As regular readers of this blog will know, I have a slight obsession with Mexican food, borne of Australia's lack of available Mexican food.

So last Friday I flipped through the book and found some interesting recipes, and then modified them a bit as we went along. This lentil and nut loaf is super delicious, and the sweetness of the rice was pretty awesome, too.

These two recipes were modified from 'A Taste of Mexico' by Kippy Nigh



lentil-cashew loaf

ingredients
loaf
vegetable oil
1 tbl onion, finely chopped
3 celery ribs, chopped
2 chillis, chopped
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
300g(ish) red lentils, washed
200g cashews, chopped
1/2 cup bread crumbs (you can skip this step, or use gf bread crumbs - just changes the texture)
3-4 cups water
1/4 cup parsley
1 tablespoon light soy sauce (or tamari)
1/2 teaspoon salt

tomato sauce
vegie oil
1 tablespoon onion, finely chopped
5 tomatoes
1 cup vegie stock
1 bay leaf
salt + pepper


method
Heat the oil, saute the onion, celery and chillis for five minutes. Add the lentils, stir, and add three cups of water. Bring to a boil, then lower and simmer, lid on, for 40 minutes. You may need to add a little more water. Add the parsley, nuts, bread crumbs, soy sauce, and salt, and combine. Mix well.

Line a bread pan (13x23 ish cm) with foil, and fill with the lentil mixture. Cover, and bake for 45 minutes at 175C.

Saute the onion in some oil until golden, then add the tomato. Simmer over low heat with the lid on for twenty minutes, then add the bay leaf, salt and pepper, and a little bit of water, then continue to simmer for another twenty minutes.

When the nutloaf is finished baking, leave to stand in the pan for five minutes before removing. Leave to cool another five or ten minutes before cutting. Pour the tomato sauce over the top.




Jarocho Rice

method
1/2 onion chopped
garlic clove, minced
lots of olive oil
2 cups long grain rice
3 cups of vegie stock
1/2 cup sultanas
1 sliced banana

Saute the onion and garlic in the oil for five minutes. Add the rice and saute for ten minutes, then add everything else, and bring to a boil, before reducing the heat and leaving to simmer for twenty minutes.