My Kitchen in the Desert

I’ve been unwell over the past couple of days with GERD (well, I assume that’s what it is). Gastro-oesophageal reflux disease. A wee bit of nocturnal reflux and a lot of upper right abdominal pain which pierced right through to my back. Into this mix we throw some nausea and feelings of feebleness. The pain was so severe the other night that I did consider asking to be taken to the emergency department at the local hospital, but I was so tired and all I wanted was to sleep. Which I did, off and on … eventually. I’m not yet fully convinced that my gall bladder isn’t involved with my (poor) health symptoms. (Previous tests, usually done when I’m symptom free, have shown no sign of gall stones or inflammation.)

I lost most of my appetite over the few days of illness. I was eating only because I knew I had to. Thankfully I’d managed to roast some potatoes, kumara (orange sweet potato) and red capsicum, which I then served over a bed of warm, lime-juice drenched couscous. My partner and daughter both loved it. I was able to eat it, but as I said earlier, I was only eating because I knew I had to keep up my nutrients.

Today I feel I’m back into the land of the living and my appetite is returning, albeit slowly. I watched Nigella Lawson’s Feast last night. It was the episode featuring exotic, bite-sized foods.  Whilst I didn’t feel the rush and urgent need to dive into my kitchen and start cooking as I usually do after watching Nigella, I did feel slightly inspired, with the thought “must file those recipes away for future use”. So I knew I was on the road to recovery.

This morning I opted to cook something that is warming to eat and look at, nourishing and extremely low-fat yet high in protein. I wanted something to fill me up, that would make me feel good inside, that would feel as though it was healing my inflamed stomach and intestines. (My intestines feel like they’ve had the rough end of a pineapple shoved through them, brutally, leaving me feeling very sore and bruised inside.)

So I prepared a form of dhal. I added chickpeas and vegetables to my lentils.

• 1 onion, diced finely
• spices: ground cumin, coriander, turmeric & garam masala (to taste)
• 440g tin chopped tomatoes (no added salt)
• 1 cup vegetable stock (plus extra water or stock)
• 1 cup red lentils (dried)
• 2 carrots, diced
• 3 small potatoes, chopped or diced into small cubes
• 440g tin chickpeas
• salt and pepper to taste
• fresh parsley or other green herbs to taste, chopped roughly

Sauté the onion on low heat until onion is very soft, almost caramalized. (I cook in grape seed oil and use a large, heavy-based saucepan.) Stir in the cumin, coriander and turmeric whilst onion cooks. This will release the aromas and flavours of the spices. I used 1 large tsp of cumin, 1/2 tsp coriander and probably 1/4 tsp of turmeric (just a sprinkle). I added 1 tsp garam masala just as the onion was fully cooked.

Add the tin of chopped tomatoes (you could use 2 -3 fresh tomatoes, peel first) and then the cup of stock. At this stage I saw a cup of liquid stock was not going to be adequate so I added another half cup of water. I then added the carrots, potatoes, lentils and chickpeas. Stir. Add more stock or water to cover (you need enough liquid for the carrots and potatoes to boil and cook, and to allow for the lentils to swell during cooking.) Reduce heat and simmer, with the lid on for 20 – 30 mins until lentils and other vegetables are cooked through.  Stir occasionally. I found I needed to add a bit more water during the cooking.

When it’s cooked, the dhal should be thickened, all vegetables cooked through, the lentils softened and it should look and smell glorious. If you’re a fan of spicy or curry, you could add curry powder to the mix. I omitted this today as I know my stomach wouldn’t cope.

I added a big chunk of chopped fresh parsley at the end and transferred into a large casserole dish.

I’ll serve it tonight with wholemeal (brown) rice. I like the nutty flavour of the brown rice.

By the time the dhal and the rice were cooked it was almost lunchtime. I’d been flipping through a copy of Nigella Express and I was reminded of the scrumtiousness of  mushroom pizzas. Nigella uses naan bread, I used Greek Yiros bread. I spread a mix of hommus (reduced fat) and tomato paste over the base. Over this I scattered a very large helping of fresh, chopped basil and parsley. Some chopped Swiss Brown mushrooms and kalamata olives. Topped it off with a pile of grated reduced-fat tasty cheese. Cooked it in an 180C oven for 12 minutes until the cheese had turned golden but before the yiros bread had crisped too much. It was a delightfully aromatic experience to eat. Not to mention healthy. (I only ate half, my partner ate the other half.)

I only wish now that I was fit enough to go into town and do the shopping. But alas, I’m still recovering and I think the rest is doing me good. Maybe tomorrow.