It's Tuesday morning and all is grey and gloomy here in Copiapo. It is such a change from recent times, when the weather has been like Queensland (beautiful one day, perfect the next...) - cool (but not crisp) mornings, brilliantly azure-coloured skies, no clouds, temperature in the low 20's (celcius). It's actually not too long since I last wrote that it had rained but given the reputation of the area, it is surprising that it might rain again. The local forecast has predicted today would be day of rain for the last week, but who believes weather forecasters?
By the middle of the afternoon and it's been raining since roughly the middle of the day. As per last time, it's not soft drizzly rain, but reasonable drops. The streets have rapidly filled with water and have turned into rivers, which makes quite entertaining watching (from the 6th floor) of the unfortunate pedestrians trying to navigate their way across them, while dodging the cars that are zooming along and spraying muddy grey sheets of water out from the wheels. I'm rather thankful I'm not out in it!
The rain finally ceases late in the day. Its ended up being quite cold during the day and I'm looking forward to my Indian Spiced Red Lentil "Soup" that I made yesterday, which was so fantastic, I'm going to share the recipe with you at the end of todays blog, however I get an even better offer to have dinner with Mauricio and Lizette, who is threatening to let me try her sopaipillas (sort of a deep fried pastry) and Mauricio is going to make pebre to go with them.
I end up at the company "Guest House" at the end of the day to wash my motorbike, which is dirty after the weekend trip to El Salvador and has been parked here since yesterday waiting for me to wash it. The House is at the western end of town, while the office is in the central part. For almost the entire trip, we'd almost be better off having a boat, there is that much water flowing in the streets, however when we turn off the main road (Ruta Cinqo), the feeder road is dry! It looks like there has been no rain here at all. I'd rather been hoping that the rain would have done most of the job for me, but alas, no luck.
After washing the bike, I head home to get changed, grab some wine and my "soup" to take to Lizette's place and share a bit of it. There is still a lot of water around and having just cleaned the bike, I soon realise that riding it now isn't the smartest move I could've made, as by the time I get to my apartment, the whole thing is covered in mud and sand that has been washed onto the roads. Back to Lizette's and it is very dark, quite cold and in some parts of town, the river/roads are still flowing. On the narrow streets, water maybe 10cm deep, I imagine the smiling faces of the car drivers as they go past in the opposite direction, spraying sheets of water at me from their wheels!
Lizette's sopaipillas live up to the hype, as do Mauri's pebre. Delicious! Next, it's time to introduce my hosts to the spiced lentil "soup". Lizette is a brave soul and will try most things I cook (in fact, I don't think she has refused anything so far?), but even she is looking at it a bit doubtfully. A small taste, then a slightly larger taste and she is hooked, threatening to eat the whole lot and leave me with nothing! Mauri takes a bit of cajoling, but he tries a little bit in the end, but is a bit concerned about it. Spicy food is not really his game!
Eventually, the food is gone, the wine is gone, and it's time to go home to bed.
Before I go, the recipe follows;
Indian spiced red lentil soup
Ingredients ( serves 4 )
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 brown onion, finely chopped
1/4 cup korma curry paste
1 litre salt-reduced vegetable stock
400g can diced tomatoes
2/3 cup red lentils, rinsed (personally, I skip the rinsing, as they just turn into red mush, and a lot of the colour disappears down the sink)
1/4 cup pearl barley, washed
1/2 cup chopped fresh coriander leaves
Crusty bread, to serve
Method
1. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion. Cook, stirring, for 3 to 4 minutes or until softened. Add curry paste. Stir to combine.
2. Stir in stock, tomato, lentils and barley. Cover. Bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low. Simmer for 20 to 25 minutes or until barley is tender. Divide between bowls. Top with coriander. Serve with bread.
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