Monday, September 7, 2009

comfort gruel

I miss my dog, it's fall, and our cupboards are bare, Old Mother Hubbard style. Except unlike Old Mother Hubbard, I DON'T EVEN HAVE A DOG.

It's pretty bleak around here, and during bleak times, I turn to gruel. Whole pots of it. Comfort food I can cook a big batch of and eat for days. I'm thinking lentils.

I'm thinking lentils because they're the ultimate gruel, and I'm thinking lentils because I recently ordered a new cookbook. I've been cooking from my stepmother's copy for months (see recipes here for balsamic onions, basil oil, and sweet potato and goat cheese frittata), but I finally have my very own copy, all the way from ye olde England, of Skye Gyngell's A Year in My Kitchen.

To celebrate, or wallow, as the case may be, a recipe.

Lentils! Do you think they're legumes? Skye Gyngell calls them pulses. You should call them pulses, too, unless you want to seem like a crass American. Also, colour and organisation and al-you-min-ee-um.


I love lentils, and non-crass, non-American Skye Gyngell suggests keeping them in your "toolbox," which is not a British euphemism for refrigerator; she's suggesting braised lentils should be a staple you keep around your apartment flat.

And, frankly, I agree. Make braised lentils and serve them (to yourself; your husband probably won't eat them) for dinner, for example with roasted vegetables and feta on a bed of arugula, and then eat the leftovers all week—scattered on dressed greens, with some cherry tomatoes and a little goat cheese...


or straight from the Tupperware, in bed, while looking at photos of your dog (this last serving suggestion I just cannot recommend unless you are an intensely maudlin person, in which case, go for it).

Braised Lentils

adapted from A Year in My Kitchen

[This recipe is really just a guide; you certainly don't have to have all of these ingredients—other than the bay leaves and the garlic or onion, you could substitute or leave out most anything. And a balsamic vinaigrette would make a nice dressing, you could add fresh herbs after the lentils were cooked, etc.]

500 g Puy (French) lentils
1 onion, peeled and quartered
1 carrot, peeled and cut into 3 chunks
2 garlic cloves, peeled
~1 inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and very roughly chopped
5 thyme and/or parsley sprigs
2 bay leaves
1 T chopped cilantro
2 T sherry vinegar
2 T tamari or soy sauce
2 T sesame or walnut oil

1. Place the lentils in a deep saucepan with everything up to the cilantro.

2. Add enough water to cover the lentils completely and bring to a boil over medium heat. Lower the heat and simmer until the lentils are cooked but still have a bite (about 20 minutes).

3. Immediately remove from the heat and drain in a colander, removing the chunks of stuff (carrots, garlic, onion, herbs, etc.) then tip the lentils into a bowl. While still warm (so they absorb the flavours better; yes, flavours), dress with the sherry vinegar, tamari, and chosen oil.

4. Crawl into bed and eat.

12 comments:

  1. You're a brilliant--if non-British--wit even when you're in mourning.

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  2. My verification word just now was "resth." Is it just me, or have the verification words around here gone from sounding like exotic STDs to things a person with a speech impediment might say?

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  3. I love this comment so much that I'm posting just to see what my verification word is!

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  4. Hmmm... perangli - that seems a bit more like an STD again.

    And Kate, I'm going to try your lentil gruel because I too like mushy things. I almost ate oatmeal for dinner because I was feeling comfort-y, but MeatMan brought home China Express and I devoured it like it was the only gruel on Alcatraz.

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  5. Perangli is actually the name of my new pet unicorn.

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  6. I just looked it up in my personal dictionary and apparently, perangli is also an adjective meaning - when something is gross and unappealing, but you just can't help but look. In context: "Crushing the spider under the cup was perangli." OR "American's obsession with reality TV has been taken to a new level with perangli shows like Wipeout. Only the first episode of ANTM has that perangli factor when wanna-be-models interview with the panel."

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  7. Lentils - good. Feeling sad - sad. JQuizzle's molasses cookies - awesome!

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  8. Somebody save a cookie for EBiddie! (I am assuming the Yachtsman has gotten his share.) I had intended to pack individually-wrapped samples for you two but ran out of room in the box.

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  9. Cookies??? Nobody mentioned cookies!! Have I missed something important????

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  10. Curated? What kind of security word is "curated"?

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  11. The yachtsman has been allowed one cookie. I also gave one to my stepdad and offered to send one home with him to my mom, but he said it would never make it to her, so I kept it. I have eaten approximately eleven in the past twenty-four hours. EBiddie, to curate is to have care and superintendence of something. I am curating J Quizzle's cookies. You may have one.

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