UZBEK FOOD

Roomie knocked on my surfboard door, early, and announced if I could cook Uzbek food. I said, text me the recipe. It was a curious dish: using lentils, root vegetables and herbs (specifically cilantro and basil), and with a touch of cabbage to cream the stew. I think I will turn out delicious. I imagined pairing it with brown rice cooked in orange water, and another side of toasted wheat baguette with chunks of cashew butter melting on top. Here’s what you need, as preparation for two: 

• two small Maui onions rough uneven sliced; 
• one large yellow bell pepper, rough uneven sliced;
• peeled and cubed large purple yam and ditto for the Idaho potato; 
• half a cup of green lentils; 
• six ripe plum variety tomatoes, quartered, spare one for later;  
• one medium peeled, pitted and quartered nectarine (broiled separately with extra tomatoes and green chili peppers with stems and leaves; also add a sprig of rosemary, toss all with oil and salt and pepper, broil until charred; this combination roast will be nuanced and add depth to the soup);
• white half-head of cabbage rough uneven chopped, and parboiled in water with salt and pepper (later to use stock to liquefy/adjust stew for correct viscosity);
• from your herb garden cut and arrange a bouquet garni of cilantro, violet basil and chives (these are the *keystone ingredients to your dish), half of whole garni to use for the pot infusion, and the other rough chopped to sprinkle and toss in your orange water brown rice. 

In  a tall pot under high heat, add a luxurious amount of olive oil and drop with it the onion, bell peppers, root vegs, and lentils. Cover for five minutes. Unlid and release vigorous steam and stir the pot well and turn to medium low. Add tomatoes. Salt and pepper, squirts of juice of lime, half a cup of water. Cover and let alone for 12 minutes. Time to broil the rest of the ingredients mentioned, until charred; rotate tray to balance blistering, then wait till it smokes sweetness, twenty minutes of so. In a separate medium sauce pan with handle, boil the cabbage as prescribed. Now returning to the food pot, check tenderness of the lentils and then mash the tomatoes to release their juice and pulp. Stir and keep mashing the tomatoes and bell peppers on the side of the pot, check liquid juice, add the cabbage water for sufficiency (hold the cabbage for later). Prepare your two sets of herbs and leave on your wood chopping board. Rice is a staple in my household and I have extra from last night (I always cook my rice in citrus or herb water, whichever infusion I have). 

Now it’s time to put them all together. Add the broiled vegetables in the melting cauldron including all the oil drippings from the tray. Add the cabbage. Add the keystone bouquet. Stir with a long wooden spoon until incorporated and increase heat to high, stirring constantly to vibe-boil one last time. Season to taste (by now the flavor profile of the stew should unleash a ratatouille of flavors on the mild spicy side due to the chili peppers left intact.  The dish should be thick but soupy, and fragrant like a Mediterranean tagine. Remove from heat and relax the food. Herb your rice. Set the table. Serve in square plates with rice and stew and bread a beautiful pattern. Call your housemate. Ask, got the drinks? 

(Food note: a keystone species, in ecological parlance, is an essential actor in the ecosystem cycle. Its job is to distribute nutrients and minerals because of its passage- and the nature within its reach relies on this mineralization. An example is the trout salmon. From the sea returns to the river, taking with it the sustenance of the marine world and other robust bio-energies.)