Still craving beans/legumes, so I decided to use some lentils I had in the cupboard. I searched through my cookbooks and found a vegetarian recipe for chili made with lentils and mushrooms. Not being one for a purely spicy dish, but something spicy and flavorful, I took the idea and ran with it, adding ingredients I had in the house. The result was good, but I think I might add some seasonings to make it more flavorful. Perhaps add a little oregano and more chili powder and maybe some corn.
Lentil Chili
1 1/2 c dried lentils
5 c water
1 1/2 tsp chicken bullion
grease from 1/4 bacon or 3 tbsp other oil
1/4 c onion, chopped
1/2 a large red bell pepper, chopped
5 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced
2 tomatillos, chopped fine
1 Roma tomato, seeded, cored and chopped fine
1 large portabello mushroom, chopped
2 tbsp chili powder
salt to taste
In a stock pot, placed lentils, water and chicken bullion and bring to a boil.
Reduce heat and simmer until tender.
In a skillet, heat bacon grease (or other oil) over medium-high heat.
When oil is hot, add onion and cook until it starts to brown.
Add red bell pepper and garlic and cook until garlic softens.
Add tomatillos, tomato, and mushroom and cook until mushrooms shrink.
Add chili powder and cook until fragrant.
Stir vegetable and spice mixture into the lentils and cook until fragrant.
Add salt to taste.
You may want to let this sit a day in the refrigerator before serving.
Showing posts with label lentils. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lentils. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Saturday, November 10, 2007
After losing my internet at home, I have been strongly neglecting my blog, but last night I devised a plan to finally update you on some of the recipes I’ve been making lately. Type the posts at home and upload them before work.
We begin this long journey into my recent past with a recipe for a Pasty potpie style. Some of my coworkers and I have created a cooking club and I was hosting the first round. We chose to do our club like a potluck, since we would be holding them on work nights. We also felt that a theme would help ensure that the foods would complement one another. The first theme was fall foods, which I was forced to enforce with certain individuals, who shall remain nameless, but had chosen the theme and suggested she bring a spring vegetable. Ahem. My strict enforcement of the theme prompted a rather unflattering association between myself and a certain WWII German political party. I, personally, had no trouble deciding what I was making. I had been craving a good pasty, but I had never made one and wasn’t quite sure what gave it its delicious flavor. Enter the internet and it’s perpetual eagerness to find what I needed in less than 4.832 seconds. I found that a generous helping of pepper and onion was the key, as was rutabaga. Done. Many of the recipes had their own pastry recipe, but our family has a tried and true recipe that I opted to use due to its dependability. I did alter the pastry recipe slightly, since I was out of sugar, but I did have some honey and it worked just as well. The pasty ended up tasting exactly how I wanted it to, thank you mom for teaching me how to smell for flavor, rather than tasting.
Pasty (potpie style)
1 double pie crust
1 lb ground pork
1 ½ onions, diced
2 potatoes, peeled and cubed
4 carrots, peeled and diced
1 large rutabaga, peeled and cubed a little smaller than the potato, but not as small as the carrots
freshly ground black pepper to taste (somewhere between 2 tsp and 1 tbsp)
salt to taste (about 1 tsp)
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Place the ground pork and onions in a cast iron skillet and cook over medium heat. You do not want the pork to brown, but you do want it to cook all the way through. Stir it often enough to prevent browning.
In a large pot, put the potatoes, carrots and rutabaga, covering with water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat a bit so that it does not boil over, and cook for 5 minutes. Drain and rinse with cool water to stop cooking.
Once the pork is cooked through, mix in the cooked vegetables and add the black pepper and salt. Smell the mixture, you should smell a good amount of pepper. If you don’t, add more. Then add about ¼ c water to moisten the mixture a bit.
Roll out one half of the pie crust and place in a 9x9 baking dish. Pour in the filling (I ended up with a little extra. My dog loved that!). Roll out the second crust for the top. Before laying the second crust on top of the mixture, use some cool water and moisten the edges of the bottom crust, along the rim of the baking dish. Gently roll the second crust onto your rolling pin and lay over the pie. Gently press down when you moistened the bottom crust. Trim both crusts so that you have just over 1 inch of crust over hanging. Roll under and crimp the edges. Use a sharp knife to slice a couple slits in the top of the crust.
Bake 35 to 40 minutes, or until golden.
One of my coworkers is engages to the son of cranberry grower, which means that at harvest time she kindly brought many of use a bag of fresh cranberries. Yum! I used them to make Cranberry Walnut Pancakes, a fruit cobbler and a filling for crepes. The cobbler came of another day where I was trying to make something from what I had in the house while also attempting to sate a sweets craving. I’ve been making crepes on the weekends recently. They are just so delicious. I’m going to share the fruit cobbler recipe I made and how I’m going to make my next batch of crepes.
Fall Fruit Cobbler
2 soft apples, peeled, cored and sliced thin
1 ripe pear, peeled, cored and sliced thin
½ c cranberries, washed and halved
¼ c brown sugar
¼ c flour
dash of salt
4 tbsp butter, softened
¼ c honey
½ c walnuts
½ to 1 c rolled oats
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Place apples, pear, and cranberries in a bowl. Sprinkle with brown sugar, flour, and salt and coat well. Let sit for 10 minutes.
Pour the fruit into a bread dish.
With your hands, mix together the butter, honey, walnuts and oats. Spread over the top of the fruit.
Bake until a fork meets no resistance when inserted into the cobbler.
Orange Crepes with Cranberries
Crepes (make approximately 6):
¾ c flour
2 tsp sugar
¼ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
1 c milk
1 egg, beaten
½ tsp vanilla
1 tbsp melted butter
zest of ½ an orange
Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add all remaining ingredients and whisk until completely smooth.
Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Using a stick of butter with the paper turned back, quickly grease the pan. Pour in ¼ c of the batter and quickly tilt pan in a circular motion to spread the mixture thinly over the bottom of the pan. Cook until slightly brown on one side, flip and brown other side. To keep the crepes warm, place in a covered dish in an oven set to warm.
Cranberries:
¼ lb cranberries
6 tbsp sugar
½ c water
zest of ½ an orange
Place all ingredients in a small sauce pan. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until sauce is thick.
To serve:
Place a crepe on a large plate, put a line of filling along the middle 1/3 of the crepe. Fold over one side, then the other. Slide aside and repeat until the desired number of crepes are on the plate. If desired, you can sprinkle chopped walnuts on top of the cranberry sauce before folding the crepes.
The past few days I’ve been craving Indian food, but I’ve also been watching my budget. This means using up what I have in the house. I discovered that I have three half-full bags of lentils in my cupboard, one of regular lentils, one of red lentils, and the last of Moroccan lentils. I used two with the following soup that was inspired by dal.
Indian-spiced Lentil Soup
1 tbsp oil
½ an onion, finely chopped
5 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced thin
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp Indian curry powder (the kind that is not spicy)
½ lb of red lentils
½ lb of Moroccan lentils
Enough water to cover, plus more to maintain soup consistency while cooking
1 tsp chicken boullion
salt to taste
Heat the oil in a soup pan over medium-high heat.
Add onion and garlic and cook until onion is soft.
Add cumin seeds and curry powder and cook until fragrant.
Pour in lentils, stir to coat, the add water to cover.
Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a low simmer. Stir in the chicken boullion.
Add water as the soup cooks. You want to maintain a slightly thick consistancy.
Once red lentils have cooked away and Moroccan lentils are tender, add the salt.
Heat a bit more, then serve.
I let this soup simmer for a few hours before eating it.
Tonight I had a craving for Indian, but also for cream of potato soup. This was the result (though, I did have to run to the store for a couple of things). Warning, this is a bit spicy!
Creamy and Spicy Potato Soup
4 red potatoes (big enough that you can’t quite fit your hand around them), washed and cubed
2 ½ tbsp butter
1 tsp mustard seeds
½ a medium onion, finely diced
5 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced thin
½ tsp ground ginger
1 tsp turmeric
½ tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 tbsp flour
2 ½ c milk
salt to taste
Place potatoes in a soup pan, cover with water, bring to a boil, and cook until tender. Drain the potatoes and set aside.
Heat the butter in the same pan over medium heat.
Once the butter has melted, add the mustard seeds and cook for a couple minutes.
Add the onion and garlic and cook for 5 minutes.
Add ground ginger, turmeric, cayenne pepper, and cumin seeds and cook until fragrant.
Add the flour and cook for about 1 minute.
Slowly add the milk, then heat over medium-high heat until thick.
Once the sauce is thick, add the salt and potatoes and stir. Bring to desired serving temperature and serve.
Now that I’ve devised my system of continuing my blog, you’ll be hearing from me more often!
We begin this long journey into my recent past with a recipe for a Pasty potpie style. Some of my coworkers and I have created a cooking club and I was hosting the first round. We chose to do our club like a potluck, since we would be holding them on work nights. We also felt that a theme would help ensure that the foods would complement one another. The first theme was fall foods, which I was forced to enforce with certain individuals, who shall remain nameless, but had chosen the theme and suggested she bring a spring vegetable. Ahem. My strict enforcement of the theme prompted a rather unflattering association between myself and a certain WWII German political party. I, personally, had no trouble deciding what I was making. I had been craving a good pasty, but I had never made one and wasn’t quite sure what gave it its delicious flavor. Enter the internet and it’s perpetual eagerness to find what I needed in less than 4.832 seconds. I found that a generous helping of pepper and onion was the key, as was rutabaga. Done. Many of the recipes had their own pastry recipe, but our family has a tried and true recipe that I opted to use due to its dependability. I did alter the pastry recipe slightly, since I was out of sugar, but I did have some honey and it worked just as well. The pasty ended up tasting exactly how I wanted it to, thank you mom for teaching me how to smell for flavor, rather than tasting.
Pasty (potpie style)
1 double pie crust
1 lb ground pork
1 ½ onions, diced
2 potatoes, peeled and cubed
4 carrots, peeled and diced
1 large rutabaga, peeled and cubed a little smaller than the potato, but not as small as the carrots
freshly ground black pepper to taste (somewhere between 2 tsp and 1 tbsp)
salt to taste (about 1 tsp)
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Place the ground pork and onions in a cast iron skillet and cook over medium heat. You do not want the pork to brown, but you do want it to cook all the way through. Stir it often enough to prevent browning.
In a large pot, put the potatoes, carrots and rutabaga, covering with water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat a bit so that it does not boil over, and cook for 5 minutes. Drain and rinse with cool water to stop cooking.
Once the pork is cooked through, mix in the cooked vegetables and add the black pepper and salt. Smell the mixture, you should smell a good amount of pepper. If you don’t, add more. Then add about ¼ c water to moisten the mixture a bit.
Roll out one half of the pie crust and place in a 9x9 baking dish. Pour in the filling (I ended up with a little extra. My dog loved that!). Roll out the second crust for the top. Before laying the second crust on top of the mixture, use some cool water and moisten the edges of the bottom crust, along the rim of the baking dish. Gently roll the second crust onto your rolling pin and lay over the pie. Gently press down when you moistened the bottom crust. Trim both crusts so that you have just over 1 inch of crust over hanging. Roll under and crimp the edges. Use a sharp knife to slice a couple slits in the top of the crust.
Bake 35 to 40 minutes, or until golden.
One of my coworkers is engages to the son of cranberry grower, which means that at harvest time she kindly brought many of use a bag of fresh cranberries. Yum! I used them to make Cranberry Walnut Pancakes, a fruit cobbler and a filling for crepes. The cobbler came of another day where I was trying to make something from what I had in the house while also attempting to sate a sweets craving. I’ve been making crepes on the weekends recently. They are just so delicious. I’m going to share the fruit cobbler recipe I made and how I’m going to make my next batch of crepes.
Fall Fruit Cobbler
2 soft apples, peeled, cored and sliced thin
1 ripe pear, peeled, cored and sliced thin
½ c cranberries, washed and halved
¼ c brown sugar
¼ c flour
dash of salt
4 tbsp butter, softened
¼ c honey
½ c walnuts
½ to 1 c rolled oats
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Place apples, pear, and cranberries in a bowl. Sprinkle with brown sugar, flour, and salt and coat well. Let sit for 10 minutes.
Pour the fruit into a bread dish.
With your hands, mix together the butter, honey, walnuts and oats. Spread over the top of the fruit.
Bake until a fork meets no resistance when inserted into the cobbler.
Orange Crepes with Cranberries
Crepes (make approximately 6):
¾ c flour
2 tsp sugar
¼ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
1 c milk
1 egg, beaten
½ tsp vanilla
1 tbsp melted butter
zest of ½ an orange
Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add all remaining ingredients and whisk until completely smooth.
Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Using a stick of butter with the paper turned back, quickly grease the pan. Pour in ¼ c of the batter and quickly tilt pan in a circular motion to spread the mixture thinly over the bottom of the pan. Cook until slightly brown on one side, flip and brown other side. To keep the crepes warm, place in a covered dish in an oven set to warm.
Cranberries:
¼ lb cranberries
6 tbsp sugar
½ c water
zest of ½ an orange
Place all ingredients in a small sauce pan. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until sauce is thick.
To serve:
Place a crepe on a large plate, put a line of filling along the middle 1/3 of the crepe. Fold over one side, then the other. Slide aside and repeat until the desired number of crepes are on the plate. If desired, you can sprinkle chopped walnuts on top of the cranberry sauce before folding the crepes.
The past few days I’ve been craving Indian food, but I’ve also been watching my budget. This means using up what I have in the house. I discovered that I have three half-full bags of lentils in my cupboard, one of regular lentils, one of red lentils, and the last of Moroccan lentils. I used two with the following soup that was inspired by dal.
Indian-spiced Lentil Soup
1 tbsp oil
½ an onion, finely chopped
5 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced thin
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp Indian curry powder (the kind that is not spicy)
½ lb of red lentils
½ lb of Moroccan lentils
Enough water to cover, plus more to maintain soup consistency while cooking
1 tsp chicken boullion
salt to taste
Heat the oil in a soup pan over medium-high heat.
Add onion and garlic and cook until onion is soft.
Add cumin seeds and curry powder and cook until fragrant.
Pour in lentils, stir to coat, the add water to cover.
Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a low simmer. Stir in the chicken boullion.
Add water as the soup cooks. You want to maintain a slightly thick consistancy.
Once red lentils have cooked away and Moroccan lentils are tender, add the salt.
Heat a bit more, then serve.
I let this soup simmer for a few hours before eating it.
Tonight I had a craving for Indian, but also for cream of potato soup. This was the result (though, I did have to run to the store for a couple of things). Warning, this is a bit spicy!
Creamy and Spicy Potato Soup
4 red potatoes (big enough that you can’t quite fit your hand around them), washed and cubed
2 ½ tbsp butter
1 tsp mustard seeds
½ a medium onion, finely diced
5 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced thin
½ tsp ground ginger
1 tsp turmeric
½ tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 tbsp flour
2 ½ c milk
salt to taste
Place potatoes in a soup pan, cover with water, bring to a boil, and cook until tender. Drain the potatoes and set aside.
Heat the butter in the same pan over medium heat.
Once the butter has melted, add the mustard seeds and cook for a couple minutes.
Add the onion and garlic and cook for 5 minutes.
Add ground ginger, turmeric, cayenne pepper, and cumin seeds and cook until fragrant.
Add the flour and cook for about 1 minute.
Slowly add the milk, then heat over medium-high heat until thick.
Once the sauce is thick, add the salt and potatoes and stir. Bring to desired serving temperature and serve.
Now that I’ve devised my system of continuing my blog, you’ll be hearing from me more often!
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Internet can be an annoying thing
I've tried posting quite a few times between my last post and this one. Everytime I get it all typed up, my internet connection disappears. I wrote this a while ago, but here it is for you pleasure:
I am in heaven, or what I might imagine it to be like, if I believed in it. My kitchen is once again functioning. I am once again cooking for myself (not just having raisins and popcorn for dinner - yes, there are times when I consider that dinner). I went grocery shopping this weekend and bought a lot of staples and a few things to try.
A few weekends ago I went to my brother and sister-in-law's for the weekend and she made this awesome marinara sauce. I asked her for the "recipe" and sucessfully made that Sunday night, but I embellished the meal a bit.
Marinara Sauce
a good amoung of olive oil
1/2 head of garlic, cloves peeled and crushed
1 large can whole, peeled tomatoes
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Heat oil in a sauce pan over medium heat.
Once oil is hot, add the garlic and stir until starting to brown.
Add the whole can of tomatoes (juice and all) and stir.
Turn to medium-low heat and let simmer, stirring occasionally, for a half hour.
Add black pepper and stir.
To serve:
Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and cook enough fresh pasta to feed the number of people eating (obviously assuming you made enough marinara to cover said servings of pasta).
Drain pasta, divide into serving dishes.
Spoon marinara sauce over the pasta.
Serve with fresh basil, allowing each person to tear off as much basil as they would like.
I added a good scoop of ricotta cheese to mine as well (who can pass up a chance to add cheese?)\
[ETA: I used this base and made a spicy version the other night, cooking real pepperoni, sliced, in the oil for a bit with some ground black pepper and crushed red pepper before adding the garlic. It was good!)
Last night I made Indian food. Dal and curried eggplant. It was perfect. I'll also admit here that when I make ghee (very simple to do), I use salted butter. I'm a bit of a salt addict and I prefer the taste of this to the unsalted ghee. I will probably face further shame when I admit that I also spread the browned bits at the bottom of the pan on bread. It very salty and very tasty and I don't really care how bad it is for me; it's fabulous.
Tonight I made cajun salmon. (First time ever that I successfully cooked fish without overcooking it. I'm very proud of myself.) I also attempted to make cornbread (sweet version), but discovered that I must not have cleaned all of the oven cleaner off the heating elements in the oven. The fumes were horrible. I gave up (must fix that problem; first my oven was filthy - honestly why do people live like pigs and leave the next tenants to clean up after them? - now it's a cess pool of chemicals). Instead, I cooked the batter like pancakes. It worked very well for a last minute fix. I also made fiddlehead ferns for the first time ever. I'm in Maine now, and it's the season. I followed my lovely guide to produce's advice and cleaned the ferns, boiled them in salted water for five minutes, drained and seasoned with lemon juice, butter, salt and pepper. I must say, I like ferns. They're yummy.
I love having my kitchen back.
I am in heaven, or what I might imagine it to be like, if I believed in it. My kitchen is once again functioning. I am once again cooking for myself (not just having raisins and popcorn for dinner - yes, there are times when I consider that dinner). I went grocery shopping this weekend and bought a lot of staples and a few things to try.
A few weekends ago I went to my brother and sister-in-law's for the weekend and she made this awesome marinara sauce. I asked her for the "recipe" and sucessfully made that Sunday night, but I embellished the meal a bit.
Marinara Sauce
a good amoung of olive oil
1/2 head of garlic, cloves peeled and crushed
1 large can whole, peeled tomatoes
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Heat oil in a sauce pan over medium heat.
Once oil is hot, add the garlic and stir until starting to brown.
Add the whole can of tomatoes (juice and all) and stir.
Turn to medium-low heat and let simmer, stirring occasionally, for a half hour.
Add black pepper and stir.
To serve:
Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and cook enough fresh pasta to feed the number of people eating (obviously assuming you made enough marinara to cover said servings of pasta).
Drain pasta, divide into serving dishes.
Spoon marinara sauce over the pasta.
Serve with fresh basil, allowing each person to tear off as much basil as they would like.
I added a good scoop of ricotta cheese to mine as well (who can pass up a chance to add cheese?)\
[ETA: I used this base and made a spicy version the other night, cooking real pepperoni, sliced, in the oil for a bit with some ground black pepper and crushed red pepper before adding the garlic. It was good!)
Last night I made Indian food. Dal and curried eggplant. It was perfect. I'll also admit here that when I make ghee (very simple to do), I use salted butter. I'm a bit of a salt addict and I prefer the taste of this to the unsalted ghee. I will probably face further shame when I admit that I also spread the browned bits at the bottom of the pan on bread. It very salty and very tasty and I don't really care how bad it is for me; it's fabulous.
Tonight I made cajun salmon. (First time ever that I successfully cooked fish without overcooking it. I'm very proud of myself.) I also attempted to make cornbread (sweet version), but discovered that I must not have cleaned all of the oven cleaner off the heating elements in the oven. The fumes were horrible. I gave up (must fix that problem; first my oven was filthy - honestly why do people live like pigs and leave the next tenants to clean up after them? - now it's a cess pool of chemicals). Instead, I cooked the batter like pancakes. It worked very well for a last minute fix. I also made fiddlehead ferns for the first time ever. I'm in Maine now, and it's the season. I followed my lovely guide to produce's advice and cleaned the ferns, boiled them in salted water for five minutes, drained and seasoned with lemon juice, butter, salt and pepper. I must say, I like ferns. They're yummy.
I love having my kitchen back.
Monday, May 14, 2007
The Sad Cook
My new company was very generous and set me up with an apartment for the time that I'm in between cities. Unfortunately, that apartment was supplied by someone who obviously cooks absolutely nothing. The knives are dull, the cutting board is glass (glass! ugh! loud and the answer to why the knives are dull), the can opener is broken, I had to buy a spatula, there are no measuring spoons, and (for me) there aren't nearly enough pans and bake ware. It's sad, and it makes for a sad cook who barely cooks. I guess I'm also hindered because I don't have all the staples I would normally have to make a wide variety of foods. But, simplicity also created this salad.
It was based on a Japanese cucumber salad that I had made before, but I added lentils and red bell pepper. It turned out really well. It's been a really long time since I made it, so I'll guess at how much I put in it.
Lentil, Cucumber, Pepper Salad
1 c dry lentils
1 cube vegan "chicken" bouillon
plenty of water
1 cucumber, scrubbed, seeded, and sliced
1 red bell pepper, seeded and sliced
2 tbsp brown rice vinegar
1 tsp honey
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp cracked red pepper
1 tbsp finely chopped red onion
Put lentils, vegan "chicken" bouillon in a pot and add plenty of water (2-3 cups).
Bring to a boil, turn down the heat and let simmer until tender.
In a bowl, mix together the brown rice vinegar, honey, olive oil, and cracked red pepper.
Add the cucumber, red bell pepper, and red onion.
When the lentils are done, rinse with cold water until cool.
Add lentils to the rest of the salad.
Let sit for at least 1/2 an hour before serving.
It was based on a Japanese cucumber salad that I had made before, but I added lentils and red bell pepper. It turned out really well. It's been a really long time since I made it, so I'll guess at how much I put in it.
Lentil, Cucumber, Pepper Salad
1 c dry lentils
1 cube vegan "chicken" bouillon
plenty of water
1 cucumber, scrubbed, seeded, and sliced
1 red bell pepper, seeded and sliced
2 tbsp brown rice vinegar
1 tsp honey
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp cracked red pepper
1 tbsp finely chopped red onion
Put lentils, vegan "chicken" bouillon in a pot and add plenty of water (2-3 cups).
Bring to a boil, turn down the heat and let simmer until tender.
In a bowl, mix together the brown rice vinegar, honey, olive oil, and cracked red pepper.
Add the cucumber, red bell pepper, and red onion.
When the lentils are done, rinse with cold water until cool.
Add lentils to the rest of the salad.
Let sit for at least 1/2 an hour before serving.
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