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Crazy Kitchen Gadgets from all over the world are currentlly being collected in the US! The event is organised by Not Eating Out in New York. You've probably also got some such doodad of which knows any more what it is actually good for.
Anyway, this is my contribution.

My kitchen is quite well equipped, I think. Actually there is nothing I haven't used at least one time. I may have used the one or other thingy only once: just before tossing it out with howls of fury. But that's not what I want to talk about.
I want to show you one of my extraordinary kitchen gadgets. The other day, there was a new recipe for lentils balls which I happened upon and I realised: this is a sign from heaven. Onions had to be grated for this dish. Hooray, here comes - no, not a grater - but my onion mask!

Granted, when I bought it it was called a diving mask. But if you ever had to chip a hole sackful of onions, you will be admit that a diving mask can be rather helpful in a kitchen. So let's call it an onion mask.
By the way, on this picture I'm not wearing a neoprene diving suit but a black cotton t-shirt. You can't see I was actually barefoot when the photo was shot but I was not wearing flippers, I swear.
So, when I started grating the onions my eyes were save, no tears, no cry, but it turned out that grating onions with my kitchen grater is not very effective. When I instead used my electric food cutter it was much easier and the result was a simply perfect puree.
Anyhow, I felt a little bit disappointed when I realised I would not need my beloved, tried and tested onion mask any longer. Shortly afterwards I noticed the recipe was rather schlock and the mush I had produced reminded me of the flavour of fire proof paper. Seemed it was't my best day.
Well, I chucked the whole in the garbage bin and then I fished my own proven lentil balls recipe out of my recipe binder. Here it is:

Curry balls my style
Cathegory: vegetarian
Serves: 6 - 8
Recipe source: own recipe
Ingredients:
Lentil balls:
600 ml water
1 tsp. cucuma
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. Madras curry powder hot
2 tsp. Madras curry powder mild
1 tsp. paprika powder hot
1 tsp. salt
1 piece of ginger, sliced
1 tsp. vegetable soup instant
1 tsp. sugar
250 g lentils
lemonjuice
2 eggs
8-10 tbsp. breadcrumbs
oil to deep-frying
spice bag:
lemon grass
dried chili
2 tsp. coriander seed
sauce:
2 cloves of garlic
1 piece of ginger, grated (sic!)
250 ml mushed tomatoes
500 ml vegetable soup
250 ml heavy cream or coconut cream
200 g string beans
2 carrots
2 eggs
Preparation:
For the lentil balls heat the water with the spice bag and all spices except the lemon juice and let the lentils simmer in it for about 35 min. Pour off the water, let the remaining water evaporate and remove the sliced ginger.
Mix 2 whisked eggs, breadcrumbs and lemon juice, to make a dough, season to taste and shape 20 small balls in your wet hands. Deep-fry the balls in very hot oil for about 3 min. Be careful: use a big pot because oil can awfully foam up. Remove the balls from the oil and let them drip off on kitchen paper.
For the sauce boil the eggs until hard, peel and dice them. Wash the beans and blanch them in salt water for 5 min., put them in very cold water. Peel, slice and braise the carrots slightly with some butter, salt and sugar.
Chop garlic and ginger and braise it in 2 tbsp. of oil. Add the mushed tomatoes, vegetable soup and fresh cream (or coconut cream) and let it all simmer for about 10 min. Add the beans, carrots and lentil balls and let it simmer for another 5 - 10 min. while carefully stiring one or two times. Season to taste, add the egg cubes and serve.

Or maybe you have to cook somewhat bigger portions of lentil balls, say for 90 or 150 people. You may rest assured that this will happen if you tell the world how delicious these lentil balls are. So be careful with my recipe. It is so terrific that you will have to grate many, many ginger roots anyway. And actually you will be lucky having an onion mask in your kitchen ready to hand all time.

More recipes in English