mamster's mystery basket results

[Jim Dixon]

Here's my entry. I deviated from the list a couple of times but tried to stay close. I used a few pantry items (eggs, flour, olive oil, butter, white wine) and aromatic vegetables (onion, garlic, carrot, celery).

I cooked these over the course of a few days,and while they could be combined together in a single meal, I'm not sure that a couple of things wouldn't clash a bit, or at least seem out of character with another dish. But it all tasted pretty good, not bad since I had never cooked any of thses dishes before.

squash and potato fritters

I first saw Alton Garcia, formerly of Genoa and now at Navarre, make something similar with cooked pumpkin at a Farmers Mkt demo this year, and they serve them at Navarre.

Since I already had delicata squash, that’s what I used. Combine about 1 cup each cooked squash and potato (I microwaved the squash and scooped out flesh, steamed the spud, then peeled and coarsely mashed it) with an egg, 1 t salt, and about 1 T flour. Mix well, then drop small spoonfuls into 1-inch deep hot olive oil (use 2 teaspoons to shape each fritter as you drop it into the oil). Fry until brown, drain, sprinkle with good salt and eat right away.

lentils and potatoes stewed with bacon

Cut a couple of slices of thick bacon into half-inch pieces and cook until starting to crisp up. Add 1 cup lentils (the small green French lentils are, I think, now grown in Eastern Washington), 3 cups water, and 1-2 potatoes, peeled and cubed. Bring to boil, cover, and simmer about 20 minutes or until lentils are done. Drizzle with generous amount of good olive oil at the table.

Napa cabbage stuffed with chicken

Poach two chicken thighs (I used skinless, boned thighs) in water to cover until cooked, about 25 minutes. Remove meat and reduce stock to about 1 cup, reserve.

Remove about 10 outer leaves from cabbage. Bring a large pot of water to boil and cook whole cabbage leaves until soft and pliable, about 4-5 minutes. Drain and set aside.

Saute about 1 T each finely diced onion, carrot, and celery in 1 T butter for a couple of minutes, add about 1 1/2 cups finely chopped mushrooms. Shred the chicken and add, along with any chicken fat you can skim from the reserved stock (easiest to cook the chicken early, cool the stock in the reefer).

Starting at the top end of the cabbage leaf (Napa cabbage has a wide central stalk with softer, frilly edges at the top), roll a walnut-sized scoop of the chicken-mushroom mix in the leaf, folding the softer edges inward as you roll down toward the base (like rolling a burrito). Arrange the stuffed cabbage leaves in a lightly oiled casserole, pour the remaining chicken stock over them, and bake, covered, at 350 until the edges of the cabbage browns slightly.

nut-crusted tuna with pepper-lemon butter sauce

I had a bag of roasted peppers, a jalapeno hybrid that tastes more like an Italian frying pepper, in the freezer. I also had some filberts (aka hazelnuts), so I deviated from the list more for this dish. With real jalapenos the sauce would be much hotter.

Combine 2 roasted, peeled, seeded, and finely chopped jalapenos with 1 clove chopped garlic and saute in mixture of butter and olive oil (about 1 T each) until garlic is translucent. Add 1/4 cup white wine, 2 T lemon juice, pinch of salt, and zest from small lemon (or lime... I used a Meyer lemon). Cook until the liquids are reduced by half, let cool, and puree (I used a stick blender). Return to heat briefly, and when hot remove and swirl in 2-3 T butter.

Lightly coat each side of a 1-inch thick tuna filet with a few drops of olive oil, then press chopped filberts into the fish. Sear in hot, dry skillet (cast iron works best) for about 1-2 minutes each side (depending on how rare you like it). Serve immediately with sauce.

The only thing I really missed was cheese...next time add Parmigiano to the list.

Jim

[Jim Dixon]

I'm not really sure how I started this topic when I meant to post in Matthew's original....anyway, I'm reposting this there.

Jim

[mamster]

Sorry, I split it off because there's supposed to be an embargo on spoilers in the main topic until everyone has had a chance to cook (the deadline is Tuesday).

[mamster]

It's spoiler time!

Just to shake up everyone's expectations, I made a Thai meal. Sort of. One of the dishes was Chinese, one vaguely Caribbean, and another, despite some Thai flavoring elements, came out awfully Eastern European.

Here's the menu. Some of the translations were done by me, which means they're wrong, so don't go saying them to your Thai friends because you will have inadvertently said, "Mustn't I clone your rutabaga?"

HAMACHI CEVICHE WITH GREEN PAPAYA AND PECANS

yam pla malakaw

First dish and already I'm cheating. Okay, green papaya is nobody's idea of a "pantry ingredient," but what I had in mind was this amuse-bouche I had at Lumiere last year. It was a small square of raw yellowfin tuna topped with som tam, Thai papaya salad. Making it into ceviche and adding toasted pecans were my ideas. The pecans worked pretty well, as did a bit of coconut milk and chopped jalapeño, but I don't have the ceviche concept down, because every bite was a blast of lime juice before any flavors peeked through. Once the raw sourness had died down a bit, it was good. Presumably I needed to drain it better and add some sugar.

Yes, it's served on a napa cabbage leaf.

KABOCHA-LENTIL SOUP WITH COCONUT MILK

geng bouad mak fak kham

You know what I need around here? A soup tureen. I'm always serving soup out of a metal stockpot or a big pyrex bowl. That's about the worst thing you could say about this soup though, because it rocked. I made homemade chicken stock earlier in the day (Asian-style, with scallions, ginger, and star anise) and combined it 50-50 with coconut milk (Chaokoh). The recipe was based on one in Thai Food by David Thompson. You pound a paste of dried shrimp, shallots, cilantro, and white peppercorns, and dissolve that in the broth. I cooked the lentils about an hour and added the cubed squash halfway through. The result was smooth as silk, with the squash still in coherent cubes that dissolved the second they hit your tongue. The lentils didn't add much, but they didn't hurt. That was the toughest ingredient for me, by far.

Peeling kabocha squash is a near-death experience. I eventually settled on a paring knife. Tips, anyone?

CHICKEN SALAD

larb gai

What's a day without larb? This was actually a last-minute addition. It was also cheating, since while I was shopping I planned to save time by buying ground chicken, and I did, but all they had on hand at Uwajimaya was white meat. There were some thighbones in the carcasses I used to make stock, though. This was a very straightforward chicken larb, with lime juice, fish sauce, shallots, and cilantro. In fact, I made a bowl of chopped ginger, scallions, and cilantro and just dipped in to garnish everything. You can see the remnants in this photo.

Napa cabbage leaves for wrapping. That cabbage gets around.

STEWED MUSHROOMS WITH CHILE DIP

tom het pa gap prik dam

This was also based on a recipe from Thai Food, page 262. I was intrigued by the author's suggestion that "the paste in this dish can either be dissolved in the broth or served as a sauce to be eaten with the simmered mushrooms." Since I already had a soup on the menu, I served it that way. I quartered the cremini mushrooms and simmered them in chicken broth, then drained most of the broth and served them with the chile paste on the side. The paste consisted of dried red chiles, galangal, shallots, garlic, shrimp paste, and salt. A little bit went a long way.

SICHUAN-STYLE POTATO SHREDS

pad man farang

Originally I was planning to recreate a dish I'd eaten at Grand Sichuan International, which consisted of thick slivers of potato stir-fried with ground pork. I was going to replace the pork with chicken and use the chicken and potatoes in one go.

Then I remembered a different dish I'd had at Grand Sichuan, qiang tu dou si in Chinese, which had thinner potato shreds and no meat. I looked in Fuchsia Dunlop's Sichuanese Cookery and of course there it was. You slice the peeled potatoes ultra-thin on the mandoline, then julienne to make gossamer threads. Stir-fry in peanut oil with dried red chiles, sichuan peppercorns, and fish sauce (okay, the original recipe used salt). When it comes off the heat, stir in some sesame oil. I think the idea is not to brown the potato, just barely cook it through, but I let it take on a little color. This isn't a very strongly-flavored dish but makes a good foil for some more pungent Sichuan or Thai dishes.

BRAISED NAPA CABBAGE AND BACON

tom pak kaat khao plii moo

The remaining cabbage went into a saucepan with some thin-sliced bacon and roasted chile paste (nam prik pow). I added a dash of lime juice as it came off the heat to cut the richness a bit, but it was still kind of sludgy. Napa isn't really the best cabbage for this sort of thing, nor is is this remotely a Thai dish, but it wasn't bad.

JASMINE RICE

khao suay

From the rice cooker.

Clockwise from upper left: potatoes, ceviche, soup, mushrooms, larb, chile paste for mushrooms, cabbage. Yes, this photo sucks.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS

This is the most cooking I've ever done in one day. Despite cleaning as I went, I soiled almost every dish in the house and spent almost an hour doing dishes after dinner.

It was also a blast. Part of the fun was the fact that most of these dishes didn't have to be served piping hot, so if I put them on the table a few minutes apart, it didn't matter. (Although when I said that to Laurie, she said some of the dishes should have been hotter. Am I hot or not?)

The big winners were the soup and the larb. If you'd like more specific recipes for any of these dishes, please let me know. They were mostly improvised. Three were book-inspired, but except for the potatoes, I changed the recipes so much I would have no qualms about publishing them as my own (though I'd mention the inspiration).

Ingredient usage went well. I used all of the two quarts of stock I made, and all I ended up with in the drawer was some galangal and green papaya. And some bacon, but there's no chance of that going to waste. We had a friend over for the meal, and this was way more than enough food for three, but I've been steadily eating the leftovers.

Here's a PDF of the menu that I set out on the table. rai khan aharn

Okay, post your results!

[Jinmyo]

Very nice, mamster.

To be honest, I had forgotten about it.

Re peeling kobacha. I split it with a cleaver, debowel it, then into smaller sections. Then I use either a flexible boning knife or a paring knife. Or I get someone else to do it once they know what I want.

[mamster]

That's okay, Jin. Hey, even if Jim and I are the only ones who remembered, at least we ate well.

[Anna N]

You're not the only ones who remembered! I'll have to post later though - don't have time right this minute. Anna N

[gknl]

Here's what I did yesterday. I think I'm still tired. I agonized for days over which flavor themes to go with, either southeast Asian or vaguely Mediterranean, but ended up going with the latter. The menu was: napa cabbage leaves stuffed with tuna confit and napa slaw with two-lemon dressing; Chicken Wilfrid (seared and bunged in the oven to finish); lentils braised in red wine with garlic mushrooms; potato puree; and kobacha squash puree.

My cheats were using regular mushrooms instead of criminis and Idaho potatoes instead of Yukon gold (I bought some yukons, but realized the Idahos were getting old and needed to be used up. Frugality, right?)

I'm not sure if this is cheating or not too, but I also used some preserved lemon in addition to fresh. Hey, it's in the refrigerator, right?

I made a couple of mistakes: forgot the pecans which I was going to put on the squash puree and I forgot some parsley for the mushrooms and lentils. Didn't miss either though. And I need to work on my timing, towards the end, things got chaotic, but it all came together and tasted pretty good, if I do say so myself. The ingredients for each dish are listed below. This was a lot of work, but pretty fun!

Napa cabbage stuffed with tuna confit and two-lemon napa slaw

Tuna Confit (preserved tuna from Judy Rodger's Zuni Cafe Cookbook)

Tuna, salted, cut in chunks and gently poached in evoo, lemon zest, pepper, red pepper flakes, garlic, bay leaf

Napa cabbage slaw with two lemon dressing

1 carrot, grated

inner leaves cabbage cut in ribbons

1 shallot

1 jalapeno pepper, minced

1 green onion thinly sliced on the bias

dressing:

juice from one lemon

1/2 preserved lemon, rinsed and minced

1 garlic clove, crushed

evoo

pepper

Broiled Napa Cabbage leaves

outer cabbage leaves

evoo

salt

Lentils braised in red wine and chicken stock

3 slices bacon, diced

1 carrot, diced

1 celery rib, diced

1 onion, diced

1 1/4 cups lentils

thyme

1 cup red wine

2 1/2 cups chicken stock

evoo

Garlic mushrooms

3 slices bacon, cut in chunks

2 shallots, sliced

4 cloves garlic, sliced

1 lb mushrooms

evoo

Roast Kobacha Squash puree

1 squash, quartered and roasted

butter

dried ginger

powdered clove

potato puree

potatoes, cut in chunks and boiled

butter

half and half

Chicken Wilfrid (seared and bunged)

chicken thighs

marinade:

evoo

lemon juice from 1 lemon

2 garlic cloves

herbs de provence

salt

pepper

ediot: get the damn tags right

Edited January 28, 2003 by gknl (log)

[snowangel]

Other than the shopping, Diana and I did not sit down and plan this out; we just winged it:

Bacon candy (with pecans).

Tuna larb. Absolutely outstanding; served on napa cabbage leaves.

A soup with the mushrooms, chicken thighs, star anise, ginger, jalapeno, remainder of the cabbage, and bean thread noodles. We also added some dried black mushrooms, slivered, and finished it with sesame oil. This was also outstanding.

We braised the lentils (like Grant did), pureed them, and served them over riced Yukon Golds. Again, very good.

Finished the meal with a butternut squash pie.

Not bad, considering we just pulled the stuff out and started cooking. She and I had a blast cooking together, and she wants to know when we will get the next market basket. She also told me she considers bacon to be a "pantry" item.

[mamster]

Excellent, gknl and snowangel. snow, I like that we each larbed a different ingredient, if I may use "larb" as a verb. gknl, the tuna confit sounds excellent.

I'd definitely like to do another of these, but I'm hoping someone else will organize the next one. Not that it was any trouble doing this one; I'd just like to be at the mercy of someone else's ingredients, since I already know what I like.

[torakris]

I tried my hardest to get this into one meal and think I succeeded.

Lentil soup with bacon, potatoes, chicken, and mushrooms and topped with gremolada

----Sauteed bacon and onion, addd stock and lentils, simmer until tender adding potatoes near the end of cooking. Then separately sautee boneless chicken thighs cut into bitesize pieces and mushrooms cut in half, add to teh soup and top each serving with a gremolada (garlic, lemon peel, and parsley)

napa cabbage pickles

----napa cabbage is thinly sliced, combined with salt, water, lemon rind, lemon juice, dry chile pepper, and kombu and then placed into a Japanese pickle press.

(I usually make this with yuzu, but the lemon made is taste more "Westerny")

seared nut crusted tuna on a bed of grilled kabocha

----the kabocha was thinly sliced tossed with olive oil, S and P and then grilled on a griddle pan

----the pecans were ground and then mixed with finely minced jalapenos, S and P and then patted on to the tuna, this was brushed with olive oil and then seared on the griddle pan, sliced on the diagonal and placed on top of the kabocha, the dish was than sprinkled with lemon juice and olive oil

Unfortunately our digital camera is broken and we are not going to get another until my birthday (March) so no pictures for now.

As to peeling kabocha, if it is going to be used in a soup or otherwise pureed, cut it in half remove the seeds and then pop it into the microwave for 3 to 5 minutes.

[Dana]

I did a brunch:

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup with Smoked Spicy Pecans

Three Onion and Lentil Salad with jalapeno and bacon lardons

Potato Crusted Mushroom and Bacon Quiche

Herbed Salmon Fillets

Oriental Cole Slaw with pecans

Lemon Mousse

I didn't use the chicken thighs. I thought I really had enough without them.

I wasn't that happy with the lentil salad. Those lentils really absorbed a lot of dressing (lemon balsamic), and they were almost too earthy-tasting. I couldn't get the green ones - had to use the brown. Is there a big taste difference? I tried adding some apple for a hit of fresh/sweetness, and that helped some, but it still needs some work.

This was really a lot of fun.

[col klink]

That's okay, Jin.  Hey, even if Jim and I are the only ones who remembered, at least we ate well.

You guys aren't the only one who remebered either! I was with Mamster at Uwajimaya when he bought everything. Unfortunately for me though, I was there buying 30 lbs of meat and fat to make kielbasa so I didn't have time to do the basket.

[gknl]

I wasn't that happy with the lentil salad. Those lentils really absorbed a lot of dressing (lemon balsamic), and they were almost too earthy-tasting. I couldn't get the green ones - had to use the brown. Is there a big taste difference?

I had to use the brown ones too. They soaked up the 3 1/2 cups of liquid so I added the juice from the sauteed mushrooms and a splash of water to loosen them up at the end. I thought they'd end up "soupier" but they were still firm and had a really rich, intense taste. Maybe it's the way they absorb liquids?

[Anna N]

This posed more of a challenge than mamster or I intended!

First, between the idea of a basket challenge and the execution of same, we began a long-deferred kitchen, livingroom/dining room hall renovation! Nothing is where is should be in my kitchen and I am constantly fighting plaster dust!

Then, the management installed a new stove - very nice - but it works backwards from my last stove - the elements turn counter-clockwise from warm to hot - the last one was clockwise - many almost burnt pans in the last few weeks! And the oven actually gets hot!

I made the dishes, like others, over a few days.

Salmon bisque

Napa cabbage salad with a hot ginger and rice vinegar dressing

A lentil side dish with apples, pecans, and bacon

A roasted butternut squash and potato soup

A standard (in this house) chicken thighs, bacon and mushroom bake.

A cold lemon souffle with tuilles

The salmon bisque was my most inventive and most tasty of all.

Some leftover tomato puree, leftover salmon, a touch of tarragon, some heavy cream, salt and pepper and a touch of Worcestershire sauce. No recipe as I tasted as I went along and knew where I was headed. The Dane gave it rave reviews.

I tossed the napa cabbage with some thinly sliced scallions and then heated some finely diced ginger and some rice vinegar, sugar and some hot pepper flakes and poured it over the salad just before serving. The Dane gave it thumbs down as he doesn't like ginger but my daughter and I ate most of it and enjoyed it.

The lentil side-dish was a total bomb! I based it on an Emeril recipe for Wild Pecan Rice Dressing but used lentils instead of wild rice. Sorry people but I HATE lentils and so does the rest of my family! If I closed my eyes and just tasted, it really wasn't so bad but the look - YECH! Maybe it's the colour of anything made with lentils - I don't know but I was willing to give them a try. The recipe called for onions, celery, pecans, apple and crispy bacon.

The roasted-butternut squash, potato recipe likewise got thumbs down from The Dane and my daughter though I found it OK - I'm not big on the texture of squash and I like my soups to be broth-based and have identifiable things floating in it. -- but then, I argue with myself as we really loved the salmon bisque which was only slightly less thick than the squash soup. I roasted the squash with some maple syrup and some cinnamon then sweated some garlic and onions and added some water, some sherry, a bit of thyme, a cubed potato and some milk and cooked until the potato was done. I then pureed the result and added a bit of heavy cream. I'm still eating it for lunches and it's quite tasty but I don't think I'd do it again. (found out that I had nothing really suitable in which to bake a butternut squash - so used a dutch oven which worked OK)

The chicken dish is a family favourite - chicken thighs topped with bacon and mushrooms and garlic, baked and then the sauce reduced and cream added.

The lemon souffle was from Charlie Trotter's Gourmet Cooking for Dummies but I did it in ramekins rather than lemon shells. This was my first attempt at anything like this and it was quite yummy. I made tuilles from the same book and found out how ill-equipped my kitchen is, once again. My baking sheet warped as it heated and the tuille batter flowed into a tear-drop shape! Oh well - further, they were really hard to make as the batter refused to spread and just glopped up on the spatula. Yesterday, refusing to be defeated, I used the recipe for tuilles from The French Laundry Cookbook. Lots more work but the batter was so much easier to work with and if only I had used my head and left out the salt, they might have been quite good! I folded them over into half moon shapes while they were hot and let them cool in some shooter glasses! The looked very nice.

All in all, this was a revealing and fun experience. I shuddered when I read mamster's list - lentils??, squash?? tuna??? all on my list of I don't DO these. But I learned so much from the experience. I still don't like lentils or squash but the lemon souffle will become a standard and I gained so much confidence with the salmon bisque on following my own instincts. So many thanks, mamster. I hope someone does another market basket soon!

[Jinmyo]

Anna, I don't much care for lentils or squash either (though I cook them frequently).

Trotter's book is great, isn't it?

[Anna N]

Anna, I don't much care for lentils or squash either (though I cook them frequently).

Trotter's book is great, isn't it?

Glad to hear I'm not alone on the lentil/squash dislike. If you don't like them but cook them often, I assume you cook for other then your family? Sorry I'm still new so probably haven't picked up as much as I should from the threads.

Trotter's book is fun and I just might buy a copy. Mine is from the library. The French Laundry Book is interesting but there's little in it that I might make. Still, it's got some basics and some explanations that were well worth borrowing it for. I wish some of the photos were a little less artistic and a little more clear - but what the heck! And it's not a book to take to bed - nearly breaks my arm!

[Anna N]

I meant to add to my report how inspired I was by what other people did with the same ingredients. When the disaster that is now my kitchen resolves itself, I'm sure I will be trying a few of these dishes. So, many thanks to all who participated.

Anna N

[mamster]

You guys aren't the only one who remebered either! I was with Mamster at Uwajimaya when he bought everything. Unfortunately for me though, I was there buying 30 lbs of meat and fat to make kielbasa so I didn't have time to do the basket.   

Dude, it's sausage. You could have just thrown in all the other ingredients, for "texture".

[mamster]

Torakris and Anna N, your menus also sound great. I'd never done tuna before either, I should admit--I hate canned tuna and while I like it fresh, I've generally enjoyed it most in sushi form, and I wasn't going to try to do sushi at the same time as a bunch of other dishes.

Lentils are really tricky. I specified green lentils because I think they have the best taste, but also because they're hard to overcook and turn into mush. As I said, the lentils didn't add much to my soup. I think the only really great lentils I've ever had were at La Côte Basque in New York, where they do a few du puy lentils with their sausage appetizer. Did anyone's lentil dish really rock? If so, I'd like to try making it.

Squash is also tricky. I don't generally like sweet things during dinner, so I always try to find a way to make it less like dessert. Combining it with the dried shrimp base helped. If anyone has come up with a dessert involved dried shrimp, I never, ever want to hear about it.

[Jinmyo]

What I usually do with squash that is less repellant to me than the squash and shrimp soups and such is to blacken it. Thin slices, blanched slightly, then seared until crusty and black, served with shoyu and wasabi. Still don't like it much though.

[Bond Girl]

Okay, here is my entry. As you guys may know, I’ve never learned how to cook properly, so my rendition of what is “contemporary American” food may be off. Here is what I served to three of my neighbors:

Braised Lentil over toasted bread slices

Originally, I had wanted to serve lentil puree. So, I sauté some onions and garlic in a bit of olive oil and throw in the lentils to cook for a bit. Then I pour in some vegetable stock and a sachet of herb de provence. The Lentils cooked for over an hour, still I was not getting the consistency for a puree, and so I decided to test a bit of it anyway. Needless to say, I ended up with a sandy gritty mess at the bottom of my food processor. Improvisation: drain the lentils, stir in some capers and chopped tomatoes and serve on slices of toasted bread.

Maple Roasted Butternut Soup with toasted Pecan

I actually made this ahead of time. Can’t find the kabocha squash, so used butternut instead. Spent half an hour banging the squash on my kitchen floor with a chef’s knife. This is the toughest part about making this soup. Brush the squash with some butter and roasted it in the 350 degree oven. While the squash was roasting, I toss the pecan with some sugar, salt and rosemary, and toast them on the upper rack. Scrape out the flesh and cook it with some vegetable stock. When I was ready to serve it, I heat the soup through, stir in some maple syrup and heavy cream with a pinch of cinnamon and top with with roasted pecan.

The funny thing is when you tell people that they are going to have butternut squash soup, they usually hate for it. But once they taste it, they end up loving it. Of everything I made, this one had the unanimous vote of approval.

Pan Seared Tuna over Pomme Fondant with Cabbage, Artichoke Hearts and Crimini Mushrooms

Pomme Fondant was something I learned from Melissa Kelly of Primo in Maine. Put a bunch of potato slices over pieces of butter and cover it with water. Cook it on stovetop until the water evaporate and then brown it in the oven. Since the oven was on all day for the butternut squash, I cook it ahead as well. The potatoes were re-heated in the oven later.

The cabbage was sautéed with a bit of bacon, artichoke hearts from my pantry and crimini mushroom. I like to throw in a bit of vinegar and sugar for taste.

Not being a meat eater, I did not know how to make crisp bacon. The smoke alarm went off twice during the cooking venture. In the end, one of my guests stepped in and did it for me.

Finally, tuna was patted dry and seared medium rare. It’s a good presentation with the tuna layered on top of the cabbage over the potatoes.

Lemon Granite

Can’t imagine life without dessert. Never made granite before, but hey how hard can it be? Okay, may be I forgot to stir it every five minutes, but breaking up those pieces was hard work. So, I’ll just say my guests had big pieces of lemonade ice for dessert. Will think about investing in ice cream machine.

[gknl]

Lentils are really tricky.  I specified green lentils because I think they have the best taste, but also because they're hard to overcook and turn into mush.  As I said, the lentils didn't add much to my soup.  I think the only really great lentils I've ever had were at La Côte Basque in New York, where they do a few du puy lentils with their sausage appetizer.  Did anyone's lentil dish really rock?  If so, I'd like to try making it.

I don't know if lentils ever really rock but my dish was pretty good. I don't cook lentils very often. I don't dislike them, but don't particularly like either. Anyway, I got the basic recipe from The Zuni Cafe Cookbook by Judy Rodgers. She says "the stingy-with-the-liquid method, which will remind you of risotto making, keeps the flavors concentrated." She says to use the green French or the black Beluga lentils too, but Albertson's only had the plain brown ones which cooked up fine without getting mushy.

I used homemade chicken stock and cabernet sauvignon wine (it was open in the refrigerator) and the flavor was rich and deep. The bacon was my improvement. Putting the sauteed mushrooms on top helped the final dish too, so I'd recommend taking the extra step. Plus you can add the liquid the mushrooms give off to the lentils. I got the idea for that combination from World Vegetarian by Madhur Jaffrey.

The basic cooking technique is to add the wine and half the stock at the beginning, then stir the lentils, adding the rest of the liquid as necessary to keep the lentils covered and stirring until the lentils are cooked through. I really think that was the key to the dish. The lentils absorbed all the flavor from the stock, wine and mirepoix without getting mushy. I'm sure you can alter the liquids and flavors to suit your taste.

ediot: damn tags

ediot II: should I have put this in the lentils rock thread?

Edited January 29, 2003 by gknl (log)

[torakris]

I am not a lentil eater either. (I do love squashes though!)

I want to like lentils!

I try them and try them but they always taste the same. I do have two recipes that I do make occasionally one is an indian dish from Madhur Jaffrey with red lentils, green beans and chicken all in one pot and the other is a lentil salad.

I wasn't really happy with my lentil soup, it wasn't bad but I wouldn't be repeating it.

I added a gremolada to brighten up the flavor, but it just didn't go right.

Later I was thinking maybe I should have sauteed the chicken, bacon, and mushrooms together and then served them on a bed of lentil puree and then topped with the gremolada.

[gknl]

I'd definitely like to do another of these, but I'm hoping someone else will organize the next one.  Not that it was any trouble doing this one;  I'd just like to be at the mercy of someone else's ingredients, since I already know what I like.

Is there any particular way you (the collective you) want to deal with this? I agree it would be interesting to have different people come up with the ingredients, but is there an etiquette we should adhere to? Both in terms of the type of ingredients but also the posting so we don't end up with competing baskets? And how often to do it? Once a month? Every two weeks?

Sorry to be so official about this. . . .