ONE HUNDREDTH POST ~ Tomato Pesto Salmon with Lentils (sorta) and Roasted Brussels Sprouts (plus, a bonus meal!)

So a few nights ago marked my one hundredth post!  I really thought I would feel more pomp and circumstance, but to be honest, it was just another fun evening of cooking, no more or less special than all the others.  I experimented, I enjoyed some old favorites, I made some mistakes, and had some successful enterprises. All in one meal!  Pretty much summarizes the Accidental Chef journey thus far...

So last nightI decided to continue my foray with lentils. I'll tell you right now, it didn't work out as well as I would have liked, but I've learned in the process.

Here's what you'll need:

~ One fillet of salmon
~ Wegmans (or comparable) prepared sundried tomato pesto
~ EVOO
~ Sesame seed oil (or EVOO)
~ Brussels sprouts, quartered
~ Fresh herb of choice (oregano for me!)
~ Sea salt
~ Lentils
~ Patience

After a relaxing evening of prepping for a meeting, responding to emails and (the best part!) a Skype chat with my adopted-uncle Kenton who's currently teaching overseas, I was in a very good mood, and ready to top the evening off with a good meal.  I put some Madeleine Peyroux on my GoogleMusic player, poured a glass of last night's Carmenere, and set to work.

First, I boiled some water in a shallow pan and put the lentils in.

: : PAUSE : :

Here's the thing.  Websites about lentils are not too helpful.  The instructions I found stated that lentils take "anywhere from 10 minutes to one hour."  So, I boiled them for 2 minutes as instructed, and then let them simmer while I prepped the brussels sprouts.  In retrospect, I may have jumped the gun on deciding the lentils were done.  So follow these instructions, but know that lentils take longer to cook.  I'm not sure how long, exactly.  I'll get back to you on that.

: : UNPAUSE : :

So I boiled and simmered the lentils and danced around the kitchen to Madeleine, and used a brand new tool for the brussels sprouts.  It's called an Ulu, and it's a knife native to the indigenous people of Alaska.  I actually have been in possession of it for well over a year and a half, but sadly keep forgetting to use it.  I must say, it made very short business of quartering the brussels sprouts.

I drizzled sesame seed oil over the brussels sprouts, a generous gift from my friend Darrin, who knows a guy in Austin, TX who makes his own sesame oils and roasted seeds.  I have to tell you, the sesame seeds are SO good, I occasionally grab a pinch out of the jar when I'm passing through the kitchen just to munch on.  Super yummy.  The oil is also equally good, giving any dish a certain rich, nutty flavor.  I've been using this sesame oil a LOT in my cooking (in the aforementioned "un-blogged" meals) and will have to suffer the pains (ha ha) of cooking with it a lot more so as to inform you all of its many uses.

So, over that I sprinkled sea salt and fresh oregano.  Into the pre-heated toaster oven they went, on broil, at 350.  I tossed them around occasionally as I cooked.

I drained the lentils, figuring this HAD to have been enough time (I was wrong) and put them in a prep bowl with some hot water and about a teaspoonful of the pesto.  I covered them, figuring this would cook them the rest of the way through.

Into a pan I started some of the tomato pesto simmering.  Into that I added a bit of EVOO and blended it together.  I sauteed the salmon for 2 minutes on one side, 3 on the other.  I ended up having to toss it back in to cook it just a little more, so I'd probably end up leaning toward 2, flip, 3, flip, 2.  That should do it, for future reference.

I put the brussels sprouts on the plate, spooned on some lentils, and topped that with the tomato pesto salmon.

And the lentils were NOT cooked all the way.

Everything else was very yummy, but the lentils had a certain "underdone" crunch to them.  After reading up on it, it seems that the Internet is pretty unanimous on the whole "don't eat underdone lentils" thing.  Given that the next day would be the first day of my new class, I decided not to risk it and tossed them.

The rest of the meal was fantastic, though.  The tomato pesto gave the salmon great flavor, and the brussels sprouts were infused with the nuttiness of the oil and the sweetness that all veggies seem to get when roasted.

I ended up having leftover salmon, which I saved for the next night's meal:

I added some fresh oregano to the container to infuse it with flavor while it sat.  The following night, as I said, I taught a class, so I returned home exhausted and very, very hungry.  A quick yet satisfying meal was in order.  Earlier that day, I had decided to master, once and for all, lentil cooking.  I cooked them in a small pot of water for about 45 minutes altogether.  They definitely looked more cooked, with some of them falling apart in the water, but most of them maintaining their shape.

When I returned home that night, I started some water boiling immediately, and cooked my favorite tortellini for 10 minutes.  At five minutes in, I started the salmon, some tomato pesto, and the lentils sauteeing in a stick-free pan.  When the tortellini was done, I dumped it in and tossed the whole thing around for a bit.  What resulted was a flavorful, quick, satisfying meal (that also happened to go great with the remaining Carmenere!).  All in all, a satisfying 100th post - a combination of items that gave me two meals, a learning experience, and, most of all, a fun, relaxing way to spend a few evenings.

Yours in the love of good food and wine,
AL


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The blogger is not an experienced chef. She takes no responsibility for the quality of the meals prepared while following her advice. Use your own judgment regarding cooking times and proper food handling.

Ninety-Ninth Post (One more!) ~ Cooking with Lentils

This past week, I was on a cruise with my family in the Caribbean to celebrate my grandmother's 80th birthday.  I've got to say, all the good food made me really miss blogging.

Don't get me wrong - I've been cooking and eating LOTS of good food over the last few months - I just haven't been blogging as much as I'd like.  Hopefully, that shall change.

Certainly the inspiration to reach 100 posts will help nudge me!

So, while we were on this cruise, I ordered a phenomenal pork roast dinner.  The pork was fork-tender.  The bread was crackle-perfect and the wine robust.  But what really stole the show for me (I'm sure to the chef's chagrin, should he have known) were the perfect little lentils spread under the roast.  I was immediately reminded of how much I love these little beans.  Perhaps it's because they're tied to a memory.

When I was a junior in college, I had a schedule during the winter months that allowed me to take a morning class and then drive back to my apartment for a breather before heading off to night classes.  I had, if I recall, about an hour and a half total for a break.  I'd throw my bags on the floor, take off my shoes, and prepare a hot lunch.  More often than not, it was a bowl of Campbell's soup (I wasn't such a cook back then).  One of my favorites was lentil soup.  I'd line up a re-run episode of Frasier on my DVR, sit with a heating pad on my back to relieve the chill and eat hot soup, relish in a good laugh, and, though I didn't know it at the time, build memories of my very first apartment and independent young adulthood, memories that will stay with me, steeped in nostalgia, forever.

So as I tasted the lentils, these memories came to me, and I told them to my family.  We talked about how food can be so closely tied to memories, and I resolved myself to return home and blog the very first meal I cooked.

Which happened to be lentil soup.

About which I knew absolutely nothing.

So I hit up AllRecipes, and came across this one.  I decided that my first foray into lentils would be well-instructed.  If this venture went well, I'd continue on unassisted.  One of my favorite aspects of soup is that it can be (and in my and my mother's opinions, SHOULD be) a laissez-faire kind of thing.  I decided to alter the ingredients a little to make it a bit more "throw-in-a-pot-and-walk-away."

Here's what you'll need (and as you can see, I followed the original recipe very closely but with a few substitutions in method - I'm not trying to pass this recipe off as my own!):

~ 1 (12 oz.) bag Wegmans pre-cut, pre-washed course mirepoix 
~ 1/4 cup EVOO
~ 2 cloves chopped garlic (although I think I'd press it next time)
~ 1 tsp each dried basil and oregano
~ 2 bay leaves
~ 1 (14.5 oz.) can tomatoes in whatever form you can find them in (I ultimately found "diced in juice")
~ 2 cups dried lentils
~ 8 cups water
~ good handful baby spinach, rinsed but not cut
~ splash red wine
~ fresh oregano
~ salt

I pre-measured everything before I even turned on the pot.  Doing so makes for faster dump-and-go soup-making.  While the original recipe calls for chopping onions, carrots and celery, I decided to cheat with the pre-made mirepoix.  I started the EVOO simmering and dumped in the whole bag.  I let it cook until the onions were nearly translucent, then added the garlic and the herbs (and wow, did THAT smell good!).  I added a good amount of salt at this point.  I let it cook the recommended 2 minutes, and added the tomatoes, lentils and water.  I walked away for an hour and change, coming back to stir it occasionally and take in the fantastic aromas.

Finally, I turned off the heat and let it sit for about an hour until I was ready to eat.  I turned it back on and added the final ingredients.  The original recipe calls for vinegar.  In my opinion, wine just makes me happier than vinegar.  Unless we're pouring it over curly-cue french fries.  So I added a splash of the Carmenere I got for this meal.  The recipe also calls for sliced spinach, but I opted to go for baby leaves so I wouldn't have to do anything to them.

I let the soup bubble for a few minutes while I changed into my PJs and poured the wine (mine is a comfortable household).  I ladled the soup into my bowl and topped it with a bit of fresh oregano.  Then, I grabbed my soup, grabbed a crusty rosemary roll from Wegman's bakery to go with it and grabbed my glass of Carmenere and sat down to enjoy.

This Chilean wine, by Arboleda, was on sale at the wine shop right around the corner from my old apartment (see?  I told you I was feeling nostalgic!).  It's full, ripe, rustic, and steeped in berry flavor.  It made a fine companion to this meal.

The soup also did not disappoint.  The lentils were tender and flavorful, the vegetables were perfectly cooked, and the fresh oregano gave a punch of bright flavor to the stewed ingredients.  I feel as though I may have found a new favorite bean!  Versatile enough to be a side or a main course (as well as being healthy AND inexpensive), this is not the last you shall read of lentils from THIS accidental chef!

Yours in the love of good food, wine, and nostalgia,
AL


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The blogger is not an experienced chef. She takes no responsibility for the quality of the meals prepared while following her advice. Use your own judgment regarding cooking times and proper food handling.