A dish with a definite autumnal feel to it. Porcini lend a lovely marmite/mushroom flavour - expensive they may seem, but they have a huge amount of flavour and just a small handful will stretch a long way. Strain the soaking liquid afterwards (in this case stock) through cloth as they sometimes contain grit.

Ingredients - serves 4

1 pack of Riverford kofta meatballs
150g puy lentils
20g butter
20g dried porcini
200ml chicken stock
1 shallot, finely chopped
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 medium carrot, finely grated
1 tbsp chopped parsley
1 tbsp chopped coriander
salt, pepper

Method

Heat the stock and leave the porcini in it to soak in it for 30 minutes. Brown the kofti all over in a little oil and set aside. Dry roast the cumin seeds in a small frying pan - remove from the heat as soon as they begin to release a toasty aroma.

Sweat the chopped shallot in the butter until softened then add the puy lentils to the pan together with the browned kofti and toasted cumin. Pour over the stock and porcini and add water to generously cover the lentils and kofti. Bring to the boil and add pepper (don’t add salt until end of cooking time). Cover and simmer for 20 minutes until the lentils are tender - mixing in very finely grated carrot after 10 minutes. Add salt to taste and fold in the chopped herbs and serve.