Lentil and leek kedgeree with smoked mackerel

My neighbor is Filipino-Californian (is that how you say it?) and when he hosts impromptu dinner parties in his kitchen, it's not just the people around the table who are a colorful mix (Turkish-Italian-Indian-French-Scottish-Swedish- American-German), but also the unforgettable menus that he serves us. Recently there was homemade wild garlic pesto made from hand-picked wild garlic from the nearby Plänterwald forest with roast beef with gnocchi, spicy chicken burrito with coriander cilantro and fried polenta with mushroom ragout ...

In any case, these inspiring evenings with their creatively composed food combinations made me want to try another cross-over number for our recipe of the week. That's why today we have lentil and leek kedgeree, a dish from Anglo-Indian cuisine with warming spices and therefore just right for this hanging party (it actually snowed the other day! In April!), made from green French lentils, Portuguese smoked Mackerel and free-range eggs from Brandenburg.

Ingredients:

• 3 tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 500g dried green lentils – eg the famous Puy lentils . I used the slightly lesser known Green Berry lentils
• 1-2 leeks, finely sliced
• 8 crushed cardamom pods, or 1 tsp ground cardamom
• 2 cloves
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 4 bay leaves
• 2 teaspoons allspice (I have to admit that I didn't look up the translation for "allspice" that was given at this point in the English original recipe and instead used an Indian spice mixture that seemed appropriate to me ... - so I would simply recommend adding what you like)
• 2 tsp curry powder
• Salt
• Pepper or piment d'Espelette
• a handful of flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
• 2 cans of smoked mackerel
• 3 large hard boiled eggs
• Spring onions, thinly sliced
• 1 lemon
• 8 tablespoons sour cream, crème fraîche or crème épaisse

Preparation:

1. In a large saucepan, heat the vegetable oil briefly, then sauté the lentils, leeks, cardamom, cloves, cinnamon sticks, bay leaves, allspice (or other spice of your choice) and curry powder over low heat for about 20 minutes.
2. Pour in 700ml water and then cook the whole thing with the lid on for another 30 minutes until there is no more water in the pot. After this, if you find your lentils are still too firm, simply add a little more water and let them continue to cook.
3. Remove the bay leaves, cloves and cinnamon, season with salt and pepper or other spices to taste. Now add the 2 tablespoons of olive oil and the juice of the lemon.
4. Allow the lentils to cool slightly before adding the parsley, mackerel chops, egg, spring onion and crème fraîche or épaisse.
5. Serve and enjoy. Bon Appetit!

My tip: while it looks nicer served separately, this meal - like bibimbap (to complete the cross-over fusion round here) - tastes ten times better when you mix everything together and the many great flavors all taste at once. And as with all dishes of this type, it tastes even better when it has been through the night!

Our wine recommendation: Cuvée "Le monde en parle" , a spicy and peppery wine with berry notes.

For dessert we treated ourselves to a ricotta with acacia honey from the Pyrenees and the incomparable Piedmont hazelnuts ... I'll let the pictures speak for themselves...

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The original recipe comes from Harry Eastwood, who published it in his book "A Salad for all Seasons" published by Bantam Verlag in 2013. I found it on the cooking blog "Valentina's cookbook" .