Prudence Pullao (and dhal)

Prudence Pullao

Yesterday I arrived home from Denmark after playing a Boy George gig at the Esbjerg Rock Festival.
As usual, after a full days travel, which commenced with a (reasonably) early start, following on from the previous days travel – soundcheck – gig – and a couple (ahem) of drinks at the bar  after the show, I was pretty tired and in two minds about whether to cook, or just plump for the takeaway option.

However, a look inside the fridge quickly persuaded me that cooking would be the far more prudent path to take on this occasion, given the fact that I had so much stuff to use up, not least of which was a few pieces of lamb kebab left over from a barbeque a couple of days before. There was also 1/2 a bunch of asparagus and a single carrot. I quickly hatched a plan. Here’s what commenced:

Ingredients:

• about 6 pieces of leftover barbequed lamb,
• 1 small tin of anchovies,
• 1 small onion,
• 1/2 inch pce of ginger,
• 3 cloves of garlic,
• 1/2 tsp tumeric,
• 1/2 tsp garam masala,
• 1/2 tsp mustard powder
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1 carrot,
• 4 sticks of asparagus,
• 1 red chilli,
• 1 tblsp natural yogurt,
• 1/2 tblsp tomato puree
• 1 tsp dried mint
• 1 cup basmati rice (soaked and drained)
• 2 cups of boiling water

Method:

• Heat some oil in a pan, and mash the anchovies into it until they’re dissolved.
• Chop and fry the onion, ginger, and garlic.
• Add the tumeric, garam masala, mustard powder and black pepper, and fry briefly.
• Add the lamb (sliced thinly) and fry in the spices.
• Add the chopped carrot, asparagus and chilli, and fry round some more
• Add the rice and fry for a few moments.
• Add the yohurt and tomato puree and stir through.
• Add the boiling water and mint and bring to a simmer.
• Cook until the rice is done, adding more water if necessary or drying off in a medium oven for 10 mins if needs be.

And that was that. You may notice I used anchovies instead of salt or stock. I tend to do this a lot with lamb, since it’s such a strong flavour, I think chicken stock confuses the issue. But anchovies go very well with it and don’t taste at all fishy in the mix….

Finally, I found a portion of dhal in the freezer, which I’d made some weeks earlier, so just thawed it out slowly in a warm pan.
To serve, I moulded the pullao into a small bowl, and simply upended it into the serving bowl – (hey presto !) and surrounded it with dhal as you can see above.

All in all, preferable to a takeaway, and very welcome after planes, trains and automobiles……