Paper Chef #17 All in a Soup

Paper Chef, the internet cooking challenge invented by Owen of Tomatilla, resumes after 1 month break, with Kevin of Seriously Good acting as the host, and Anne (Anne's Food) co-judging.

On the first Friday of every month, everyone gets to star in his/her home kitchen stadium in front of a worldwide internet audience, using 4 secret ingredients instead of just one as in the TV Iron Chef show. To find out more, check out "Paper Chef FAQ, details, past winners, newbies".

The four secret ingredients for this month are chickpeas, lavender, miso, and something local. The ingredients seem like a great combination for fusion cooking, with everything already "local" in the garden, fridge or pantry. Homemade stock looks like the most versatile choice for the "local" ingredient. Several attempts to combine the ingredients resulted in:

Red lentil soup and toasted chickpea crepe, served with smoked salmon and lavender infused horseradish cream
.... a dish with a twist, a few turns and around in circles.



Contrary to the name of the dish, this is not an Indian dish. Instead, it is a dish which brings together Japanese and French flavours in an unconventional combination of contrasting creamy aniseed flavoured soup and crispy chickpea crepe with a subtle hint of miso.

The creamy texture of red lentil reduces the need for addition of cream, although a touch of butter pairs well with the aniseed flavour. The chickpea gives the crepe its crispy texture, while the red lentils tone down the chickpea taste. The strong aroma of red fermented beancurd disappeared on toasting, leaving just a subtle hint. The idea for plating up comes from Iron Chef Sakai's "Cod Challenge", where he used baked on spring roll wrappers to cover soup bowls.

Red Lentil Soup

1 onion*, sliced
2 tablespoon butter*
1/2 teaspoon celery seed
2 teaspoon fennel seed, crushed
1/2 teaspoon aniseed, crushed
4 aniseed myrtle leaves** (or substitute 1/2 teaspoon aniseed)
2-4 young lavender tips*
1/2 cup red lentil, finely milled
2 cup homemade chicken stock* (or fish stock)
2 cup boiling water*
4 tablespoon cream*, optional
Chickpea crepe (see below)
Smoked salmon*** (or try Haalo's Paper Chef #15 cured salmon)
Horseradish cream
Lavender*, for garnish

*local ingredients from within 180 km
**Australia
***Southern Ocean

Cook the onion in melted butter until softened and starting to brown. Add the celery seed, fennel seed and lavender. Saute for 1 minute. Add the aniseed myrtle leaves, pour in 1 cup of stock, and simmer for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and strain the liquid. Adjust to 1 cup.

Mix the remaining stock with the milled red lentil. Pour in 2 cups of boiling water while stirring. Simmer the lentil mixture at low heat, while stirring, for 15 minutes until thickened. When cooked, the lentil changes to yellow-brown without the raw bean smell.

Pour the onion and herb flavoured stock into the lentil mixture. Simmer until combined. Remove from heat and add the cream. Adjust seasoning. Pour into serving bowls.

Drape chickpea crepes over the bowls. Place the bowls in a baking dish. Bake in an oven at 180 degrees celsius for 10-15 minutes until the crepe becomes crisp and starts to brown. Alternatively, toast the crepe separately in a microwave. Remove from the oven and garnish with sprigs of lavender leaves.



To serve, place a piece of smoked salmon in a soup spoon. Top with a teaspoon of lavender infused horseradish cream made by adding (sparingly) finely chopped lavender at about 1/4 teaspoon lavender to 1/2 cup horseradish cream. The soup may be eaten hot or cold. Shown below are chips, croutons and wedges made by toasting the dough from a previous post on Homemade Red Lentil and Yellow Split Pea Noodles.



Chickpea Crepe

For each flavoured dough:
2 tablespoon chickpea flour (also known as gram, garbanzo, chana or besan)
2 tablespoon red lentil, finely milled
2 tablespoon tapioca starch
6-8 tablespoon water
olive or walnut oil for rolling

For red dough:
1 teaspoon ground red fermented rice ("ang kak", red yeast rice)
1 teaspoon red fermented beancurd sauce (or red miso)

For yellow dough:
1 teaspoon fennel seeds, milled
1 teaspoon yellow mustard

For green dough:
1 teaspoon chopped chives, parsley or herb of choice
1 teaspoon chopped spinach

To make the dough, in a glass container, mix the dry ingredients with water and stir to a smooth batter. Add flavouring. Cover and cook in a microwave on high for 1-2 minutes until the red lentil changes colour. Cool.

Dab with oil and then progressively roll the dough in a pasta maker until the finest thickness. Make an interesting pattern by rolling pinwheels, weaving or plaiting the doughs.





Cut the resulting crepes to size. Mould the crepes into desired shape if required. The crepes may be eaten as is or toasted. Leftover dough can be cooked and eaten like papadams.