Grandma's Birthday

In a final flurry of entertaining, we had Grandma's birthday party today. First Ron and I played a recital of a Mozart duet sonata, the Chopin two-piano rondo Opus 73, and a jazzy Gershwin arrangement. With champagne.

For lunch I made salad plates consisting of a layer of lettuce on which I placed a mounds of curried chicken salad*, curried lentil salad, grapes, and glazed pecans. I made a batch of blueberry muffins to serve with the salad.

For dessert I made a French chocloate tart.

*I read in a catering book years ago how to prepare chickens in bulk for various dishes. You put whole chickens in a roasting pan with an inch of water, then tent them loosely with foil and bake at 350 degrees for about an hour and 45 minutes. This keeps them moist but has a lot more flavor than poaching. I used two chickens and then made broth with the carcasses in the crockpot. Last night we had some of the chicken broth in Red Chile Sauce, which I served over thick Sonoran masa cakes.

Salsa, Hiking, and Lentil Soup

We hiked on the Arizona Trail with friends yesterday and saw many wildflowers, including this, which I think is called a Mariposa Lily. We started from Kentucky Camp, an old mining camp in the Coronado Forest--it is within a few miles of the place where we scattered Grandpa's ashes.

Then we went to Patagonia for lunch and Santos Cafe is gone! In its place is Mercedes Restaurant, which served Mexican seafood and other things. It was pretty good, but not AS good. At least they didn't fancy the place up at all.

That evening I made lentil soup, cornbread, and a sliced tomato and herb salad. The real reason for this post, though, is to communicate my tomatillo salsa recipe to Sam. We got to talking about salsa while hiking.

Jack Bishop's Roasted Tomatillo Salsa

1 dried red chile (about 4 inches long)

3 cloves garlic, unpeeled

1 pound tomatillos, husked

1 tablespoon minced cilantro

Salt

Preheat broiler. Broil red chile for a couple of minutes to toast. Remove.

Place garlic and tomatillos on a broiler pan and broil, turning occasionally, until they start to blacken, 8 minutes or so.

Seed the chile and cut in pieces. Place chile, garlic, and tomatillos in food processor and puree. Add cilantro and salt to taste.

Cooking All Day

I feel like I've been cooking all the livelong day (you know that song: I've been working on the railroad, all the livelong day. It was in the Golden Book of Songs we all knew when we were young. I'm pretty sure everyone from the Midwest and North could join in the chorus on that particular song. Is it still in the conciousness of your generation?)

I made a lentil salad and an almond tart for lunch with Grandma and John and Kathy. Then I went home and made an enormous French chocolate tart and a rum cake for my student recital tomorrow.

We were lucky enough to have leftover meatloaf from Grandma's lunch, so we didn't have to cook dinner, except for a big batch of beets from the garden. The variety Dad plants is Red Ace.

Have I ever made this salad for you? Just open up your spice cupboard and put in some of everything.

Curried Lentil Salad

1 lb dried lentils

Cook until barely tender, not mushy! This depends a lot on whether you use green or red lentils. Drain.

½ cup vegetable oil
½ cup wine or balsamic vinegar, or a combination
1 tablespoon sweetener (sugar, honey, etc.)
1 ½ teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons ground black pepper
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon dry mustard
½ teaspoon turmeric
½ teaspoon mace
½ teaspoon ground coriander
½ teaspoon ground cardamom
¼ teaspoon ground cayenne
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
¼ teaspoon grated nutmeg
¼ teaspoon cinnamon

Whisk together the above dressing ingredients. Combine gently with the lentils and marinate all day, or overnight.

1 or 2 hours before serving time, add:

½ cup dried currants
1/3 cup capers
¾ cup finely chopped red onion
Optional: 1 or 2 cups cooked quinoa (this makes the salad milder and lighter, if desired)

Chicken and Lentils

I've been thinking more about my last post, which sounds like I've got it all figured out. I don't. Knowing how best to think and talk about food is really hard.

And compared to many people I know, maybe I am obsessed with food. Certainly I think about food much more. In fact, that's the real difference between someone who cooks most meals and someone who doesn't: not the time spent preparing food, but the time spent thinking about it. Sure, I often spend an hour or two making dinner, but just as often I spend only ten minutes actually working in the kitchen -- no more time than someone who heats up a few TV dinners. The difference is that earlier in the day I thought about what to make. I probably talked about it, too, or sent a few emails. I didn't have to make myself plan dinner -- it just happened.

For cooks, food takes up a certain amount of constant head space. I just try not to let it take over.

So yesterday afternoon I went to Jason and Laura's to drink and play with their Wii, and before I left I put the following items in the crockpot. By dinnertime four hours later, we had a delicious stew:

- two onions, sliced and sauteed
- somewhat less than a whole chicken, browned (I used 1/3 of it in the soup earlier this week)
- two carrots, chopped
- two cloves garlic, sliced
- a two-inch chunk of ginger, sliced
- two tablespoons pine nuts
- two small dried red chiles, deseeded
- two bay leaves (I promise I didn't mean to put two of everything in)
- one scant tablespoon garam masala
- some peppercorns
- one cup French lentils, rinsed
- water to almost cover
- salt

It was sort of like a tagine, but one made from Indian, Mediterranean, and French ingredients. So I served it with quinoa (South American) and chopped parsley. It was great. I've been making meat-free versions of similarly seasoned lentils lately, too.

Red Lentil Volcano

I cooked those beautiful red lentils I bought a few months ago, and indeed, as I'd read, they break down really easily. They're delicious, but in a pleasingly mushy sort of way.

They also, if you leave them unattended over too-high heat, will explode all over the stove.

Moreover, they're not really red. Uncooked they're coral, and though there is a dash of turmeric in there to enhance the yellow, they're quite naturally yellow when cooked.

The recipe was from Modern Indian Cooking, a book I scorned when its publicist first sent it to Cooking Habit. It has a terrible index -- unusable, actually. It's just the recipes in alphabetical order, so there's no index entry for lentils, just "Spicy Red Lentils"... under "S". As for the recipes, they're sort of Indian fusion. I was not impressed. But I've come to it several times in the last few months looking for simple vegetable and bean recipes, and I've been impressed. I won't post the whole recipe here, at least not yet -- I'm not completely happy with it yet -- but it's simple: lentils precooked with turmeric and a bay leaf, then some sauteed onion and ginger, basic spices like cinnamon and cumin, fresh chiles, lime juice, and cilantro. It's almost Mexican except for the ginger, and very fresh and good.

Further revelation: turnips are awesome. I cubed them, tossed them with olive oil and salt, and roasted them at 375 for about 20 minutes. This was on a hunch, since I love sweet potatoes and beets and other root vegetables that way, and it worked perfectly for turnips. Unlike sweet potatoes and beets, though, they were better warm than at room temperature.

French Lentil Soup

I usually buy the cheap, grayish-green lentils from the grocery store, but last week I went to the bulk section at Earth Fare and picked up some other kinds: red lentils, which actually look coral to me, and French lentils, which are a wonderful dark green.

I baked some crusty bread last night and decided French peasant bread deserved French lentils, which deserved a French soup, so I made this, which is part Julia Child and part me. It's got very simple, big lentil flavor. The French lentils cooked up so glossy and round and wonderful -- they're really something.

Cut two strips of bacon into small pieces; heat in pan with 2 tablespoons olive oil.
Saute 1 chopped onion and 2 chopped carrots in the oil. Add 2 cups dry lentils and saute for a few more minutes.

Add and bring to a simmer:
- 2 cloves garlic
- 3 twigs fresh thyme
- 3 sprigs fresh oregano
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 cup white wine
- water

Add a cubed potato after half an hour and cook for half an hour more or until potato is tender. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve with bread and butter and a small salad.

Concord Grapes for Dessert

Have you eaten Concord grapes? They're everything kids don't like about grapes--tough skins, big bitter seeds. The flavor is so intense and wonderful that one grape takes a long time to eat and consider. Also, they are one thing that hasn't been hybridized to extend the growing season. They are only available in the late summer, as they should be.

We were Italian vegetarians last night:

Mushrooms with Tomatoes and Mint

Fennel au Gratin

Lentils with Wine, Onions, and Tomatoes

Homemade bread

The fennel was sliced and parboiled for five minutes before tossing it with bread crumbs and grated Asiago cheese, then baked for 15 minutes.

Lawnmowing Lentil Lunch

For lunch yesterday we came in from planting and digging and lawnmowing and were accidentally vegan. We had a spinach salad with almonds, orange bell peppers, and some bitter greens from the garden, and we had lentils. This was a made-up lentil dish, and it was so good:

Saute half an onion, then two cloves of garlic, in 1 tablespoon olive oil. Add 1 teaspoon each of cumin seeds, salt, and chile powder (pure, not prepared). Add 1 cup dry lentils and mix them in for a minute or two, then add a whole bunch of water. I think I used twice as much as the basic recipe on the bag. Simmer with a wooden spoon stuck under the lid until the liquid is absorbed and eveything is creamy, maybe 2 hours, maybe more.

It's good to remember that hard work does not always require country ham, biscuits, and a four-egg omelet.