Sweet Curry Lentil Soup with Mistress Mae

This is Mistress Mae. And this week I cooked her a sweet curry lentil soup. I met Mae when I was four and we traipsed in and out of the same schools until we were 18 and went to separate colleges. One of my first experiences with experimental cooking involved Mae, a microwave (we were not allowed to use the stove), brown sugar and carrots. The experience struck me so much, that when I mention Mae to my mom, she brought up the brown sugar microwaved carrots as well.

Mae and I didn’t talk much over the last five years, aside from the occasional facebook post. I remember Mae once commenting on a link I posted on facebook of a photography project I was working on documenting life at the BDSM Chateau where I was training. She wrote, “Where was I when you were becoming fucking AWESOME?” And I wanted to tell her that I had always been awesome, but that I was just shy. When we met up after college, after both finding ourselves living in Brooklyn, she asked what I was doing. I told her that I was working as a dominatrix. She replied with the epitome of nonchalance, “Oh, cool. I was working as a domme last year.”

Mae is a dominatrix AND a vegetarian. Which is something that I had not learned well enough until after cooking this meal for her, and showing her the blog post, to which her only comment was, “CHICKEN BROTH?” Oops. Consent was always something that I had thought about in regards to the dungeon, not the kitchen. As a dominatrix I have learned how to negotiate 'scenes' and I suppose that it is important to negotiate your wants and needs in all aspects of your life, and make your hard limits of ‘meat broth’ be known upfront.

Mae will tell you that you can use vegetable broth in this recipe, and I will tell you what my father told me, “never trust a vegetarian.”

Sweet Curry Lentil Soup

One medium sized sweet potato

Red Onion

3 handfuls chopped Kale

1 cup of green lentils

Chicken Broth / Bouillon

Curry Powder

Paprika

Dill

Bay leaf

Cumin

Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper

1. Cube the sweet potato, the onion and chop the kale. Heat oil in soup pot on medium, and cook the veggies until the onions are caramelized.

2. Pour chicken broth (or water and chicken bouillon) so it just covers the veggies and they just start to float. Add in 3 sprigs of dill and 2 bay leaves. Wait for liquid to start to boil and turn it to simmer. Simmer veggies for 30 minutes or until the sweet potatoes are soft.

3. Once soft, turn heat off and remove the bay leaves. Take an immersion blender (or food processor / blender) and blend until smooth. Add in 2-3 heaping tablespoons of curry powder, 1 teaspoon of cumin and a dash of smoked paprika. Add salt and pepper to taste.

4. Can be served with a dollop of yogurt or sour cream and garnished with a fresh sprig of dill.