Luxury please - Beluga Lentil Salad with Oyster Mushrooms

Recently I came across a recipe for lentilsalad with mushrooms and spinach by Sasha Walleczek, who is THE Austrian nutrition coach http://www.walleczek.at/. It had two keywords in there which caught me: 1) Beluga lentils. and 2) freshly ground cumin for seasoning. My palates thought this might work, so I adapted the recipe along the things I found sitting in the fridge, and it turned out to be a really beautiful and tasty salad for the fall, with a little taste of luxury to it.

My recipe is as follows (for 2 pax)
Cook 1 cup of Beluga lentils in plenty of water, with a big chunk of ginger, takes about 30 mins.
Clean and cut oyster mushrooms into pieces and roast or grill them in a pan with a little bit of olive oil. Put aside to cool.
Put lentils in a bowl and combine with carrots and red beets, cooked and cut a la Julienne (both available as convenience products, but if you have the time cook the veggies right there and then, thats great).
Add some fresh leek, chopped into tiny pieces.
Finally combine the mushrooms with the rest and season to taste (the fresh leek comes out pretty strong, leave it out if you don't like that).
For the seasoning, combine about 4 tablespoons of olive oil with 2 tablespoons of Balsamico vinegar, and, here it comes, 2 tablespoons of cumin. In my vies, the cumin is essential here, but if oriental is not your taste, just leave it out and try a traditional salt/pepper, possibly garlic or dijon mustard dressing. Another thing that goes well with lentils is some grilled bacon or, for the vegetarian option, smoked tofu instead
To decorate, use some capers, olives and balsamico cream.
Enjoy!

Pumpkin(g) Jelly - His Royal Sweetness

I came across this probably a little extraordinary jelly when a dear friend had been to Portugal and gave a jar of bright-orange jelly to me, which I found extremly tasty but could not define until it was almost gone. Since then, I make pumpkin jelly (repeat: pumpkin jelly) every year at the peak of pumpkin season. My classic version is with lots of vanilla, but this year I made a special coconut edition on the side, which turned out to be pretty good too. If you want some sunshine on your October breakfast table, try this out, it is really easy (provided you're using a kitchen machine). Oh, and one last thing: I am all for reducing sugar, but this recipe needs all the sugar you can get (no 1:2 or 1:3 jelly sugar please, the pumpkin(g) needs all the sweetness he can get)

• Shred 1 kg/2lbs of Hokkaido pumpkin through the kitchen machine and mix it with 1 kg of jelly sugar. 
• Wait until the mixture produces enough fluid (allow up to 3 hours) 
• In the meantime, boil jelly jars and lids in hot water, careful, and leave them turned upside down on clean kitchen paper to dry. 
• In a next step, cook up the sugar and shredded pumpkin and, after 5 - 10 minutes of briskly boiling, puree with a stick blender. 
• Add plenty of vanillia sugar (the good one with brown spots) and put some jelly on a cold plate to see if it gets the right texture. Fill into jars and turn upside down on a tray to cool.

• For the coconut verstion, add one cup of coconut milk before the boiling part, and some shredded coconut after the pureeing. The photo below shows the special coconut edition.

• Enjoy with bread and butter, cream cheese or a young camembert.