Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘new york times’

A warm lentil salad

Posted in Food, Recipes, tagged , , , on February 3, 2013| 3 Comments »

This satisfying and comforting dish is adapted from Martha Rose Shulman’s idea, spotted recently in The New York Times.

She calls it a salad I guess because it is dressed with a vinaigrette–and an interesting one.

She suggests serving the lentils with roasted winter squash, so I chose pumpkin with different, spicier seasoning (recipe tomorrow!).

I topped the dish off with some plain soft goat’s cheese I’d bought from Frederick, our favourite local chèvre maker, in Castres market on Saturday.

IMG_3894

I like the addition of turmeric to the cooking lentils. It lends them a touch of mystery!

8oz green lentils

1tsp fresh ginger–chopped very fine

1tsp turmeric

1 clove of garlic–peeled

1 small onion–halved

450ml/1 pint water

Combine these ingredients and bring to the boil.

Simmer gently, covered, until the lentils are tender but not mushy.

Drain off any excess water and empty the lentils into a bowl.

Mix the ingredients below together in a bowl in the order shown, leaving aside the parsley and turn this vinaigrette into the warm lentils, taking care not to mush the lentils too much.

Vinaigrette

1 tblsp red wine vinegar

1tsp balsamic vinegar

1tsp Dijon mustard

1tsp cumin powder

3tbsp olive oil

1tbsp walnut oil

salt and pepper

parsley–chopped

Sprinkle the parsley over to finish.

Read Full Post »

Turkish spinach and rice (Pirincli Ispanak)

Posted in Food, Recipes, tagged , , , on December 10, 2012| 5 Comments »

Sounding like some overly defended creature of the deep, this is tastier than the name suggests!

A one pot dish of spicy spinach with a modicum of rice for ballast.

IMG_2618

Spinach and rice with yogurt sauce and left-over lemon lentils

Adapted from a recipe posted recently by Martha Rose Shulman in The New York Times.

Simple to do.

for 2 plus

450gms/1lb fresh spinach–washed and drained of surplus water

2 tablespoons brown basmati rice–washed and soaked in cold water for 30 minutes

1 small onion–chopped

2 garlic cloves–chopped

2 tablespoons olive oil

3 tinned tomatoes–about 100 gms/4oz–chopped

1 teaspoon sweet hot smoked paprika (a prince of the spice world)

IMG_2620

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

2 tablespoons lemon juice–about a lemon’s worth

3 tablespoons water or stock

  • Steam, covered, the prepared spinach for a few minutes until it starts to wilt–remove from the heat.
  • Drain the rice and cook it–salted and covered–in enough water to cover it by a thumb nail; should take about 25 minutes–set aside.
  • Heat the oil in a pan and gently soften the onion for a couple of minutes before adding the garlic.
  • Sauté for a further couple of minutes.
  • Add the spices and the tomatoes and cook for a further 5 minutes–making a sauce.
  • Add the lemon juice, water, spinach and rice and mix together.
  • Cover and cook on a low heat for 15 minutes.
  • Traditionally this is served with a yogurt sauce–which helps neutralise the sometimes tooth tingling after-effect of the spinach.

Read Full Post »

Butterflied pork chop (with optional herb topping)

Posted in Food, other sides to this life, Recipes, tagged , , , , , , on July 6, 2012| 4 Comments »

I couldn’t think of the French word for “butterfly” at Monsieur Fraise’s, our Lautrec butcher, the other day.  The word was as elusive as the insect. Pamplemousse kept fluttering around my mind, which means grapefruit!

Papillon is the word!

When I tried to demonstrate with my hands, starting them in the praying position then opening out like a butterfly, the butcher looked flummoxed.

I don’t blame him.

The idea of slicing a pork chop almost in half horizontally was new to me when I read about it recently in the Food Section of The New York Times.

After more elaborate miming, he understood–and was game to have a go.

  • He carefully cut round the bone, freeing up the meat.

(Meredith’s photos below show me having a go….)

  • With his left hand holding the boneless fillet down, he sliced into the meat with a sharp knife working it through to leave a quarter of an inch uncut.
  • He folded back the two halves–still connected–to reveal the “butterfly”.
Below is the professional’s effort.  (Monsieur Fraise gets the Gold Medal I’d say!)
The advantage–apart from making a single chop go further–is that it cooks quickly–three minutes each side–retaining a juiciness that sometimes escapes when cooking pork longer.

Meredith and I tried out the herb topping (suggested by The New York Times). It looks good and is tasty–but leave it off if you like.

I enjoyed a piece of the chop–plain–the other evening with some slices of tomato dressed with olive oil and salt. I didn’t miss the topping.

for 2

1 thickly cut pork loin chop–butterflied

1 tblsp olive oil

salt and pepper

for the herb sauce

3 tblsps parsley

2 tblsps mint

1 tblsp chives

1 clove of garlic–sliced finely

1 tblsp–lemon juice

4 tblsps–olive oil

salt and pepper

  • Pile the herbs together and chop them finely.
  • Season to taste.
  • Add the lemon juice.
  • Stir in the olive oil.

for the pork

  • Season the chop well with salt and pepper.
  • Heat the tablespoon of oil in a sauté pan to hot and slip in the chop.
  • Turn the heat down to medium and leave the chop to cook for 3 minutes.
  • Turn it over and cook for a further 3 minutes–(the cooking time depends on the thickness of the butterflied chop. The juices should not run pink.)
  • (If you are using the topping, spread some over the chop at this point).

  • Let it rest on a serving plate–covered with foil–for 5 minutes before slicing and sharing it.

Read Full Post »