Lucky Lentils
Leftovers, Ruth Reichl and Boxes of Chocolate
Buon Anno a tutti!
In Italy, eating lentils on New Year’s Eve supposedly ushers in a year of wealth and good fortune - lentils resemble little coins! I grew up eating lentils with musetto, a fatty winter sausage, on New Year’s Day. I made a big batch of lentils on January second, for some new year luck. Here is my recipe for lucky lentils:
Ingredients:
2 minced garlic cloves
1-2 celery ribs, chopped
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 onion, chopped
3 tablespoons olive oil, plus more to finish
1 cup brown/green lentils
1 heaping tablespoon tomato paste
3/4 cup red wine
4 cups chicken stock
bay leaf
rosemary sprig
salt and pepper
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
parmigiano reggiano
Method:
Heat 3 tablespoons olive oil over medium heat in a large heavy bottomed pot. Add garlic, celery, carrot and onion. Season with salt and pepper, and cook til onions are translucent, about 8 minutes.
Add tomato paste, and let it caramelize slightly on the bottom of the pot. Then mix in with the rest of the vegetables. Add lentils and stir to coat them in the olive oil and tomato paste. The lentils should glisten. Add red wine and simmer until wine is completely evaporated.
Add stock, bay leaf and rosemary, and bring to a boil. Once boiling, bring down to a simmer, cover pot, and cook for about 25 minutes, until lentils are cooked through.
Season lentils to taste with salt and pepper. Serve lentils with parsley and cheese on top.
Buon appetito!
Holiday Remains & Cookbook Club
Julia Child’s The Way to Cook is an instructional textbook cookbook focussing mostly on American recipes. She provides follow-up recipes for “feasting on the remains” of dishes that create a plethora of leftovers, such as a whole ham. I made a small ham for Christmas, and used her Granny’s Ham and Potato Gratin recipe. Save this for your Easter ham!!! Potatoes with mustard garlic béchamel and cheese and ham, what’s not to like!? Served with French bistro salad, baguette and light red wine (as Julia herself suggests), its a simple and yum way to feed a crowd.
While you could put the ends of your holiday cheeseboard (or any cheese board leftovers from entertaining) in your gratin, if you have a hunk of blue, make a batch of the The Silver Palate Cookbook’s blue cheese and potato soup. I love it! Full of root veg and flavoured with the cheese, it’s a funky, creamy and filling main course.
Popcorn
I fell in love with food writing because of Ruth Reichl; this month I read Garlic and Sapphires, her memoir from her tenure as restaurant critic for the New York Times during the late 1990s. Historically, the NYT restaurant coverage focussed on French and Italian fine-dining. Reichl wrote about and gave stars to hole-in-the-wall, affordable and approachable restaurants from other cultures, specifically Japanese, Chinese and Korean cuisines. Of course, she also ate at iconic NYC establishments like Daniel and Union Pacific, and this book is a keepsake from the 90s golden era of restaurants. Her pages are bejewelled with foie gras descriptions:
“The first bite was a shock; the pâté had been soaked in Armagnac and spices, and they ignited the tongue. But with the second bite the intensity segued into something more muted as the strawberry-balsamic emulsion came forward to temper the taste. With the third beans the fava beans began to show themselves, their sleek smoothness shining against the velvet softness of the pâté. It was a dish that robbed you of conversation.”
To be sipping sauternes and eating foie gras in the big top dining room at Le Cirque during its prime…A dream.
I re-read Maurice Sendak’s children’s book, Chicken Soup with Rice a few days in to the New Year. The book revolves around descriptions of the months, and January’s is oh-so fitting:
Sexy Little Snack
Luxury to me is a box of chocolates. A selection of confections. During the winter months, chocolate is an opulent reprieve from snow and sludge. I am obsessed with SOMA chocolatier in Toronto, and bought a box of their truffles for my Christmas dessert. My candy bowl is filled with festive Purdy’s salted butter toffee bites. The last couple Christmases I made dark chocolate and ginger truffles from Elly Curshen, and chestnut truffles from Camilla Wynne’s Nature’s Candy, to take to holiday parties. I also made David Lebovitz’s fruit and nut bark with almonds, pistachios and dried apricots from Ready for Dessert to bring to a winter dinner party. To finish a meal with chocolates, the peak of chic. Chocoholic alert!
XOXO! Ciao!