French Meze/Tapa: Green Lentil Salad

Lentils are an excellent source of plant-based protein and full of vitamins. Besides soup, some varieties make excellent salads. Green lentils are particularly good for this, since they hold their shape the best. Common brown lentils will also work. Yellow or red lentils fall apart when cooked, and are better in dal or as a thickener for curries.

Green lentils are most associated with France, where a particularly fine variety grows in the volcanic soil of the south-central Auvergne region. In 1000 Foods to Eat Before You Die, Mimi Sheraton suggests trying the authentic lentilles de puy. These are dark green, speckled, and smaller than regular lentils. The genuine article is rather pricey, but I found French-style green lentils at Woodman’s and decided to give them a try.

They were amazing. Somehow, the green lentils tasted vaguely like sausage, peppery with a suggestion of sage, even though none of those ingredients were present. Naturally, they would make an excellent vegetarian main course. Not only are they delicious, but I was able to make a few salads with multiple servings in each from one affordable bag.

The bag had a recipe for French-style warm lentil salad, which I’m sure would be great during the winter with mashed potatoes and/or a pork chop. For summer meze, I created my own simple recipe, dressed with vinegar and oil and flavored with onions. It can be enjoyed warm, room temperature, or cold.

If you can’t find green French-style lentils by the dried beans and peas, look in the health food section. Bob’s Red Mill is the most common brand, and is what I used. They also carry specialty grains like bulgur, buckwheat, rice flour, and so on.

Ingredients:

1 cup green lentils
2 bay leaves
¼ red onion, thinly sliced
¼ cup olive oil
2 tbsp red or white wine vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Cook and drain the lentils according to package directions, adding a pinch of salt and the bay leaves to the water. Cool slightly.
Toss the cooked lentils with the onion, oil, and vinegar. Taste for salt, and add pepper if desired.
Let rest for at least an hour before serving for flavors to meld.

Next time, I’ll post another meze recipe, for chicken with walnut sauce.

american cuisine, british cuisine, dessert, food history, recipes

Patriotic Trifle: An American Spin on a British Classic

1000 Foods (pgs. 31 – 32) for information, recipe is my own creation

While British cuisine doesn’t have a great reputation abroad, desserts are an exception to this rule. Drool-worthy examples abound on the Great British Baking Show (which you should never watch while hungry), and one of the classics is trifle. Trifles also appear multiple times in the Harry Potter series, typically at celebrations, and in the second book, Harry even ends up wearing one.

The specifics vary by recipe, but they always include cake or ladyfinger biscuits, custard and/or whipped cream, and fruit and/or jam. Basically something starchy, something creamy, and something fruity. British versions usually include sherry or another fortified wine. Originally, this was to help revive stale cake. With modern recipes this is unnecessary, but a lot of people like the taste. I omit this for a family-friendly version and clearer fruit flavor, bursting with berries and vanilla.

Wine and liquor were once extremely common dessert flavorings. Since the 19^th Century, perhaps because of the temperance movement, vanilla has largely taken their place. Despite its boring reputation, vanilla blends extremely well with fruit, chocolate, caramel, cream, and pretty much anything else you might put in a dessert. For a beautiful, fresh, and surprisingly easy centerpiece, the essentials are a good pound cake, seasonal or frozen fruit, vanilla pudding, and homemade whipped cream.

Strawberries make a particularly good trifle, because as the trifle sits in the refrigerator, the lightly sugared berries release lots of flavorful juice that soaks into the cake. If they aren’t in season, it’s better to use frozen, which tend to have a better flavor (and price) than the out-of-season fresh berries, which are usually picked underripe so they ship better and last longer on the shelf. This applies for any fruit, not just strawberries.

Pound cake is another crucial ingredient, and you don’t have to make your own for success. The frozen Sara Lee pound cakes are excellent quality. I like to make my own vanilla pudding, but an instant mix still produces a special dessert if you’re crunched for time. Just avoid the sugar-free kind, and don’t make it with skim milk. And make your own whipped cream. It makes a huge difference, and with the cost of the spray bottles, it’s actually cheaper when you need a lot.

For a full red, white, and blue effect, blueberries can be sprinkled over the top of the trifle or added between the layers. Since they don’t produce much juice, I usually stick with a strictly strawberry trifle, but I added them this time because they were in season and it was for the 4^th of July. Just make sure to layer the trifle in a glass bowl if at all possible, to show it off to full effect.

*To impress your guests, decorate the top with fruit.*

Note that the quantities in the recipe are not always specified. This is because different serving bowls have varying capacity, and everyone has their own preference for how much of each ingredient to add.

Ingredients:

1 pound cake, homemade or Sara Lee
Strawberries
2 tablespoons sugar per quart of strawberries
Vanilla pudding, homemade or from a mix
Blueberries, optional
1 cup whipping cream
1 tablespoon powdered sugar per cup whipping cream
½ teaspoon vanilla per cup whipping cream

Directions:

Hull and halve the strawberries, cutting any larger berries into quarters. Toss with the sugar and let stand while you prepare the other ingredients.
Cut enough of the pound cake into cubes to cover the bottom of the serving bowl.
Whip the cream with the powdered sugar and vanilla until soft peaks form.
Layer the cake cubes in the bottom of the serving dish. Top with the strawberries and drizzle any liquid over all.
Add the pudding over the strawberries, and top with the blueberries if using.
Finish the trifle with the whipped cream, decorating the top with fruit if desired.

If strawberry season is over but you have fresh peaches or raspberries, I’m sure they would also make an excellent trifle. And as always, don’t forget to subscribe to get posts sent to your inbox for free.

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american cuisine, food history, recipes

Cobb Salad: A Cold Main Course for Hot Weather

1000 Foods (pg. 547) for information, recipe is my own creation

This upcoming weekend is supposed to be hot. At times like these, most people don’t want to heat up the kitchen by turning the oven on. Grilling, quick-cooking pasta, and stir-fry are all popular options for home cooks, as are a variety of cold salads.

Supposedly, cobb salad was invented in California in the 1930s as a way to use up leftovers. Turning leftovers into salads was just as common then as now, though inexplicably this often involved mayonnaise and/or gelatin. Thankfully, cobb salad avoided this in favor of a vinaigrette flavored with lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, and garlic. Original ingredients included hard-boiled eggs, blue cheese, chicken, bacon, avocado, and tomatoes, presented in rows for a striped effect.

Inevitably, cobb salad’s popularity in Hollywood spread the recipe nationwide, with some variations. Since avocados were harder to find outside California, they were frequently omitted, and sometimes other diced ingredients like ham were added. Shredded cheese might replace the blue cheese, and some cooks might use the mayonnaise-based dressings popular at the time.

For my own recipe, I made three adjustments. Since I don’t like boiled eggs or blue cheese, I replaced them with feta and lentils. The French-style green lentils I found at Woodman’s were particularly good, with an almost meaty flavor. And I omitted the tomatoes because they are not yet in season fresh.

The final result was a mix of chicken, avocados, bacon, feta cheese, lentils, and romaine lettuce with a flavorful vinaigrette. All the different textures and flavors contrasted well with each other, and the platter was just so pretty.

Ingredients:

1 head romaine lettuce, washed and torn into bite-sized pieces
About 1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs, cooked, cooled, and cut into cubes
About 8 oz feta or blue cheese
About 8 oz bacon, sliced across the grain into roughly 1-inch pieces, cooked, drained, and cooled
1 cup French-style green lentils (I used Bob’s Red Mill brand) cooked and cooled, or a few chopped hard-boiled eggs
2 ripe avocados, halved, seeded, and cut into cubes
Sliced ripe tomatoes, if in season
Juice of ½ lemon
1 tbsp red or white wine vinegar
4 tbsp olive oil
1 or 2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed with the side of a knife
A few dashes Worcestershire sauce
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

For the dressing: combine the lemon juice, vinegar, olive oil, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, salt, and pepper in a bowl and beat together with a fork. Let rest for at least an hour to infuse the garlic flavor.
Arrange the remaining ingredients either on a platter or individual plates. Rows are the most traditional, but feel free to let your creativity run wild.
Remove the garlic cloves from the dressing. Whisk the dressing and pour over the salad before the liquids separate. Serve.

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