The magnolia has been watched, the forsythias are in full bloom (aka ripe for punching your loved ones a la yellow car no returns) and the trees are such a lovely shade of green that it can only mean one thing – Q2 is here. That also means it’s time for another Ready Steady Gasp. This round was particularly special because Lizzy was visiting Munich and we got to try each others creations. Having spun the wheels a couple of weeks prior, they provided us with the rather chaotic mix of: Lentils, pasta, cucumber, peas and a wildcard option of fruit. Lizzy and I got to planning and concocting our creations (up until the last minute trains home from Nuremberg to Munich in some cases…). Let’s take a look at what we ready steady gasped up!
Inspiration
LIZZY (Team Green Pepper)
The wheels gave us a curséd start to Q2, there were not many things that I could find that weren’t simply just a pasta salad (boring!) that contained all of the ingredients. After some research (desperate googling) I stumbled across this ‘pasta fatteh‘, I’m still not sure if the pasta element completely negates the fatteh element. This lead me down a windy road of different fattehs, involving fruit, peas and chicken at different stages. Whilst on the Munich-Nuremberg train I stumbled across my lord and saviour: Taste of Maroc. All in one wonderful website, my problems were solved: I discovered – rfissa (the original recipe would have taken too long – so I used the site linked) to incorporate the lentils and peas, feggous – for the cucumber and fruit component and finally zaalouk for an extra fruity element and a saucy accompaniment. I strongly considered using pasta instead of the recommended msemmen, but ultimately – like Kate – settled on an extra, separate dish to use my pasta. I was influenced by many people online frying pasta… which it turns out you can’t do! Luckily whilst buying henna, we discovered far far sticks – which are basically pasta, right?
KATE (Team Red Tomato)
I think this might be the longest planning session I’ve needed yet because the ingredients are really so random and don’t really fit together in any conceivable way. I tried to branch off from each ingredient separately which led to some interesting dish discoveries including: a Swiss pasta dish with apple sauce (Älpermagrnonen) a Hungarian pea soup (Főzelék), an Italian bean and lentil soup (La Crapiata Materana) and Nepalese lentil fritters (Phulaura).
I decided to use these lentil fritters as my jumping off point as they seemed the most promising and then I struck gold by finding this recipe for pea and lentil fritters from BBC which hit the pea, lentil and fruit requirements. I decided I could quite easily serve this with some sort of cucumber salad which I found from Swasthi’s recipes. The only question then was what to do with the pasta. Then, I had a brainwave – a drink!! A frantic Google search later and luckily there is a drink that uses pasta as its base from Venezuela called a Chicha. I also found a bonus martini drink using pasta water which I thought could be fun to try. With all my dishes locked and loaded it was time to get preparing.
Protein – Lentils
LIZZY
If you peep closely you will see my lentils in the back *lentils in the back* (Lil Nas X’s next big hit). This recipe for rfissa seemed like a hearty way to include lentils. Even though there is another protein (chicken) involved I still feel like the lentils shone through and because they cook down in the sauce for a long time, they made it thick and flavourful.
KATE
Twas the night before Lizzy’s arrival in Munich and because I wanted to serve her the lentil fritters for lunch I prepared them in advance. The lentils here were pretty simple, I just rinsed them from the can and decanted them straight into my other fritter ingredients (including potato, peas, spices and fresh coriander) which made for some pretty easy lentil patty shaping before bed.
Vegetable – Peas
LIZZY
Uhoh, peas are not a traditional part of rfissa – which became an especially big problem for me because, following the recipe like a good little gasper, I completely forgot to add them in! Luckily Kate came in at the eleventh hour to oversee and asked ‘where are the peas?’. So I added some frozen peas to the rfissa and poured my sauce over some chopped up tortillas (my msemmen substitute).
KATE
The peas were also one of the main components in the fritters and I wasted no time in putting Lizzy straight to work frying these up for our lunch once she arrived (she took this photo). The mixture for these fritters reminded me a little bit of the Mauritian ones and the bread pakoras we recently made which makes sense, given the fact I think these are Indian inspired.
Vegetable – Cucumber
LIZZY
Yet again, praise be to taste of maroc! This Armenian cucumber salad (feggous) came through and saved the day in two ways. It was very easy to make – I simply grated some cucumber and then added vinegar, sugar, salt AND (which is what makes this recipe interesting) orange juice and orange blossom water. This was a really refreshing salad and would be such a gift on a hot summer’s day. Although I did find it a strange flavour combination when I ate it on it’s own, alongside other dishes it was a delight.
KATE
To accompany the Indian-themed fritters, I whipped up a quick cucumber salad with peanuts, coriander and coconut. This is what I was doing while Lizzy fried the fritters – I am not a Taskmaster promise. I love a cucumber salad, I often chuck some in a bowl with vinegar and coriander seeds as a side for my dinners but I thought I’d push the boat out a bit here. I forwent the measurements here which wasn’t the best idea because the coconut is quite dry (I actually think Lizzy might have choked on it while we were eating) so I would pay more attention to the ratios if making again.
Carb – Pasta
LIZZY
I had a very long deliberation about whether I could count the tortilla’s that I poured my rfissa over as a pasta, because we all know that pasta is basically just bread masquerading as tubes. But this idea was denied by the gasp council and my own integrity. I had, however, seen many people frying ‘pasta’ on the internet; after I had been served Kate’s array of pasta drinks, I decided to also implement my ‘pasta’ as an extra course. Luckily, Kate and I went to an Indian shop for henna and found these very artificially coloured far far sticks. I fried them up in a wide sauce pan and then tossed them in cinnamon and sugar. They were the perfect accompaniment to our fifth and final segement of it’s a mad, mad, mad world.
KATE
And now the pieces de resistance – my pasta drinks. I really cannot tell you how smug I was when I found this. For the chicha I over-boiled some pasta the night before and then blitzed it up in a blender with milk, condensed milk and sugar. It was quite a lot like Horchata but much, much denser. For the bonus martinis I did some separate pasta for lunch the day before because you need SALTY water which is not the case for the chicha – that should be plain. These look very professional, but I absolutely cannot tell you if they were good or not as I am not a martini drinker.. (see review for more detail)
Wildcard – Fruit
LIZZY
I’m sure you’re arriving at this point in the post and expecting that I would be talking about the orange juice in my feggous as my fruit… but no! I made a completely unneccessary third dish: zaalouk. I made this by roasting some aubergines (I finally understand Kate’s suffering caused by the lack of a grill) and then scooping the pulp into a saucepan and cooking it down with tomatoes and paprika (although I was struck by the curse of Egyptian Arabic and what I actually used turned out to be chilli powder!).
KATE
I was also stumped for a time on what fruit to use so I was super glad there was this apricot based chutney as a dip with the fritters recipe. Here, you blitz up the apricots with lots of coriander, chilli, lime juice and cashews. This was arguably the best part of my creations I loved the tangy sweetness of the chutney and would certainly make this again
Final Results
Dink, sink and finally try a bite of each others creations!
Food for Thought
Lizzy says: “What an absolute delight to be able to Ready Steady Gasp with Kate in person. I was especially delighted to walk off the plane and into a kitchen where I helped prepare and eat some of the most delicious dumplings and chutney of my life (my stomach just groaned at the thought of the chicha though). I really liked my rfissa and would definitely make it again; especially because it was a one pot wonder! I would, however, make sure to prepare my fenugreek seeds in a slightly different way in future (I mean, obviously I won’t always be able to go to Nuremberg, buy them from a market and cultivate them in a bottle of mineral water). The far far sticks were way too artificial for me, although a really fun alternative to popcorn! Maybe I would serve them as a novelty party dish…”
Kate says: “Considering the cards (or should I say spokes(of the wheel)) we were dealt I think we both did a very good job. I absolutely loved being able to see and taste Lizzy’s creations, and it was really cool to see what each of us came up with. I think my favourite part of Lizzy’s was the cucumber dip and the pasta snacks – purely for the enjoyment factor of watching them puff up in the oil. And for me that salsa was a standout – it was so yummy I will definitely make it again. The martinis were also so much fun especially because I finally got to use some very fancy martini glasses I found on the street years ago but they were very strong and not my up of tea. At the end of the day though, that’s what cooking’s about for me, making something (hopefully) delicious but mostly having fun in the process “
/10 Gasps
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