Chilladas with Tomato and Chilli Sauce

Ingredients
8ozs (225g) green or brown whole lentils
1/4 pint (420ml) hot water
2oz (50g) butter or vegetable margarine
1 medium onion, peeled and finely chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 medium carrot, scraped and finely chopped
1 small green pepper, de-seeded and chopped small
half tspn cayenne pepper
1/4 teasp powdered mace
half teasp mixed herbs
2 teasp tomato puree
salt and freshly milled black pepper
Then:
1 egg, beaten
dry fine breadcrumbs
enough groundnut oil for shallow-frying
Method
Wash and pick over the lentils, then place them in a saucepan with the hot water and some salt. When they come to the boil, cover and simmer very gently for about an hour or until all the liquid has been absorbed and the lentils are mushy.
Towards the end of their cooking time, heat the butter or marg in a frying pan and soften the onion, garlic and carrot in it for 5 minutes.
Then add the chopped pepper and cook for a further 5 or 10 minutes.
Next tip the cooked lentils into a bowl and mash them to a pulp with a fork (not too uniformly smooth).
Now mix in the softened vegetables, cayenne, mace, herbs and tomato puree.
Then divide the mixture and shape into 12 small rounds.
All this can be done in advance.
To cook them, dip them first in beaten egg, then in breadcrumbs. Shallow fy them in about quarter of an inch (5mm) of groundnut oil till golden on both sides, then drain on kitchen paper and serve with the sauce.

Tomato and Chilli Sauce

3/4 lb (350g) red, ripe tomatoes, skinned
1 small onion, peeled and finely chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 tbs olive oil
1 teasp tomato puree
1 teasp dried basil
quarter tspn chilli powder
1 tbs olive oil
salt and freshly milled black pepper
Method
To skin the tomatoes, pour boiling water over them, leave for 1 minute, then put them in cold water and slip the skins off.
Now halve them and chop the flesh quite small.
Next, soften the onion and garlic in a saucepan with the olive oil.
Add the tomatoes, tomato puree, the basil and chilli powder and season with salt.
Stir well, simmer gently for 15 minutes with the lid on and then for a further 10 or 15 minutes without the lid.
When it's ready, taste to check the seasoning, then you can either sieve the mixture, blend it in a liquidiser or serve it just as it is.