Last month, Malanga Baby became quite enamored of the plastic Fisher Price counting pig that belongs to my friend in England's children. While the pig's British accent was cute, I am glad that I held off on purchasing it until we returned home. I was able to find the Spanish version on Amazon. !Arriba el cochinito!
(And yes, that's my vintage Fisher Price barn behind the pig, which I retrieved from my older brother's basement this summer. While FP gets big kudos for their "en español" offerings, their new barn is not nearly as fun as the original version.)
In food news, I've been trying to up the ante and gave the babe spicy Red Lentils the other day. She loved them. Verdict: the turmeric is the winning ingredient since she went gaga for another recipe I made using turmeric a few weeks ago. These lentils were super easy and made a nice, cool fall day meal for Malanga Mama and Malanga Papi, too. Here's the recipe.
Red Lentil Puree (from the book "The Best Recipe")
Ingredients
1 & 1/2 cups red lentils, picked over and rinsed
1 & 1/2 tablespoons fresh minced gingerroot
2 medium garlic cloves, minced
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds (I actually used powdered cumin and it turned out ok)
1/2 teaspoon anise seeds (I accidentally skipped these)
3 tablespoons juice from 1 lemon (it was basically all the juice from a small lemon)
Ground white pepper, to taste
1. Bring first five ingredients plus 4 cups water to boil in a medium saucepan: boil for 5 minutes. Reduce heat, simmer until lentils lose their shape, 15-20 minutes. Whisk lentils to make a puree, set aside.
2. Heat butter in a small saute pan. Add cumin and anise seeds; saute until butter is nutty brown. Remove from heat, add lemon juice. Stir mixture into lentil puree. Season with pepper, adjust other seasonings and serve immediately.
