Confused (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} confuseddave) wrote,@ 2009-05-19 11:06:00 |
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Cogito Ergo Nom
I did a culinary experiment yesterday, reproduced mostly for my memory.
My objection to lentil-based foods is that they always seem to taste horribly bland; whether I cook the lentils in water, stock or straight into the sauce, they always seem to turn out tasting overwhelmingly of mushy, starch-y lentils. So this was a concerted effort to try and make an underlying sauce which had a strong enough flavour to get into the lentils and make them a bit more palatable.
- Chop and fry a whole pepper in ground nut oil in a wide frying pan. I find raw peppers quite disagreeable, so I tend to cook them quite agressively.
- Add Cajun spices (in my case, Fiddes Payne cajun spice, which has been doing me quite well for a couple of years now) - probably about a teaspooonful or so - fry a little further, and then add garlic (my first experience with Very Lazy Garlic from a jar - reasonably impressed). I never seem to get the garlic right; possibly I'm frying it too hot. Still, I like to have it in the pan for a few moments before cooling it with the rest of the ingredients.
- Add two tins of chopped tomatoes. (ALWAYS chopped tomatoes - whole plum tomatoes have a lot of jelly and seeds in the middle which make them taste vile. Chopped tomatoes cost a few pennies extra, but are 100% flesh. Definitely worth it.)
- About a cup of lentils (actualy, 2/3rds of a cup using my measuring cups)
- a pinch of salt and two pinches of sugar (tinned tomatoes apparently need it, although I've never managed to make a sauce with fresh toms without it going kinda funny)
- A few generous sloshes of lime juice - my favourite ingredient.
At this point I let the sauce simmer a bit. In my experience, to toms don't taste right until you reduce them down to a jammy consistency, and I wasn't sure how this would work with the lentils. Sure enough the lentils sucked the water out of toms long before they were cooked, but I was standing by with a kettle of hot water and added about the same volume again - at which point the oil seperated, and I was convinced I'd ruined the whole thing. Reassuringly, after a few minutes in became an emulsion again and the lentils started to fatten. Still, it was missing something, so in the final act I added a couple more ingredients:
- two healthy teaspoons of wholegrain mustard
- another few sloshes of lime juice - which had somehow gotten lost in all that.
The final result was a kind of cajun-spiced Daal that I spread into a toasted pitta, and was actually quite satisfactory. The idea was to make something I could have for lunches for a few days, and this is probably about four to six healthy servings.
Some thoughts for variations in the future:
- It might be interesting to use something other than water or stock to fatten up the lentils. Perhaps wine or sherry. Another possibility I've been musing on for a while is using orange in a savoury dish - so I suppose orange juice might not be beyond the realm of possibility. I might need to have a hard think about what other ingredients would go with it though.
- Spicewise, I didn't use any paprika, which was possibly an oversight - still, I don't think it needed it. Obviously could move more traditional and use balti paste instead of cajun spices; and could happily add some spinach for a sag daal.
- It might be nice to try a few vegetables - Could conceivably cope with some courgette, or even grated carrot in there. Onion is always a possibility, although I'm happier without it.
- Part of me is curious about substituting risotto rice for lentils - have only ever made "white" risotto before, which was nice but kind of... cloying, after a while. Perhaps answering that mushy blandness with a bit more flavour might help.
- Obviously there are options to add meat too - while part of the attraction was to do a good tasty vegetarian meal, frying a breast or two of chicken fajita-style before adding the tomatoes might work (although I wonder whether the water would undo the yummy stir-fried goodness - possibly fry the chicken separately and throw them in as the lentils are finishing; or even serve the chicken separate, on a bed of cajun lentils. Nom. Part-grilling, chopping and then adding some sausages in at the beginning would be another way to make it a bit more meatilicious.
Mm. Lots to try. Nom.
I did a culinary experiment yesterday, reproduced mostly for my memory.
My objection to lentil-based foods is that they always seem to taste horribly bland; whether I cook the lentils in water, stock or straight into the sauce, they always seem to turn out tasting overwhelmingly of mushy, starch-y lentils. So this was a concerted effort to try and make an underlying sauce which had a strong enough flavour to get into the lentils and make them a bit more palatable.
- Chop and fry a whole pepper in ground nut oil in a wide frying pan. I find raw peppers quite disagreeable, so I tend to cook them quite agressively.
- Add Cajun spices (in my case, Fiddes Payne cajun spice, which has been doing me quite well for a couple of years now) - probably about a teaspooonful or so - fry a little further, and then add garlic (my first experience with Very Lazy Garlic from a jar - reasonably impressed). I never seem to get the garlic right; possibly I'm frying it too hot. Still, I like to have it in the pan for a few moments before cooling it with the rest of the ingredients.
- Add two tins of chopped tomatoes. (ALWAYS chopped tomatoes - whole plum tomatoes have a lot of jelly and seeds in the middle which make them taste vile. Chopped tomatoes cost a few pennies extra, but are 100% flesh. Definitely worth it.)
- About a cup of lentils (actualy, 2/3rds of a cup using my measuring cups)
- a pinch of salt and two pinches of sugar (tinned tomatoes apparently need it, although I've never managed to make a sauce with fresh toms without it going kinda funny)
- A few generous sloshes of lime juice - my favourite ingredient.
At this point I let the sauce simmer a bit. In my experience, to toms don't taste right until you reduce them down to a jammy consistency, and I wasn't sure how this would work with the lentils. Sure enough the lentils sucked the water out of toms long before they were cooked, but I was standing by with a kettle of hot water and added about the same volume again - at which point the oil seperated, and I was convinced I'd ruined the whole thing. Reassuringly, after a few minutes in became an emulsion again and the lentils started to fatten. Still, it was missing something, so in the final act I added a couple more ingredients:
- two healthy teaspoons of wholegrain mustard
- another few sloshes of lime juice - which had somehow gotten lost in all that.
The final result was a kind of cajun-spiced Daal that I spread into a toasted pitta, and was actually quite satisfactory. The idea was to make something I could have for lunches for a few days, and this is probably about four to six healthy servings.
Some thoughts for variations in the future:
- It might be interesting to use something other than water or stock to fatten up the lentils. Perhaps wine or sherry. Another possibility I've been musing on for a while is using orange in a savoury dish - so I suppose orange juice might not be beyond the realm of possibility. I might need to have a hard think about what other ingredients would go with it though.
- Spicewise, I didn't use any paprika, which was possibly an oversight - still, I don't think it needed it. Obviously could move more traditional and use balti paste instead of cajun spices; and could happily add some spinach for a sag daal.
- It might be nice to try a few vegetables - Could conceivably cope with some courgette, or even grated carrot in there. Onion is always a possibility, although I'm happier without it.
- Part of me is curious about substituting risotto rice for lentils - have only ever made "white" risotto before, which was nice but kind of... cloying, after a while. Perhaps answering that mushy blandness with a bit more flavour might help.
- Obviously there are options to add meat too - while part of the attraction was to do a good tasty vegetarian meal, frying a breast or two of chicken fajita-style before adding the tomatoes might work (although I wonder whether the water would undo the yummy stir-fried goodness - possibly fry the chicken separately and throw them in as the lentils are finishing; or even serve the chicken separate, on a bed of cajun lentils. Nom. Part-grilling, chopping and then adding some sausages in at the beginning would be another way to make it a bit more meatilicious.
Mm. Lots to try. Nom.
