[Sca-cooks] Lentils, lentils everywhere....

[Margaret Rendell]

Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius wrote:
>
> On Jan 4, 2009, at 11:53 PM, S CLEMENGER wrote:
>
>> Hey, gang!
>> At some point, a couple of months ago, I managed to come home with 
>> some small bags of unusual lentils and I don't really have any 
>> recipes that would do them justice.  I have one bag of itty-bitty 
>> black ones, and another bag of small, reddish-orange ones.  Does 
>> anyone have any recipes they'd recommend? I'm guessing from their 
>> small size, that they'd cook more quickly than the standard lentils 
>> I've made soup with in the past, but I'm blank past that point.  I've 
>> never worked with gourmet lentils before, lol!
>> --Maire
>> p.s.  Period recipes or modern ones...just looking to use up what 
>> I've got in the house AND vary my diet a bit!
>
> The little black ones may or may not be the French green lentils I'm 
> familiar with (the ones I used to get cases of, in one-pound boxes, 
> for use in the Provencale restaurant I worked in, were more green than 
> black, but the black ones are nonetheless known as Vert du Puy, so go 
> figure). They need about three cups of water per cup of lentils, and 
> simmer for maybe 30-40 minutes.
>
> They're good as a warm or cold salad, with olive oil, vinegar or 
> lemon, and finely diced onion, celery, raw or cooked carrots (roasted 
> ones are terrific), tomato, sweet pepper, lots of chopped fresh herbs, 
> the usual suspects, just cut small to approximately match the lentils, 
> which gives it all a refined sort of look and a great mouth feel.

this is strongly related to one of my favourite lentil salads at the 
moment: little dark whatever-they're-called lentils, flat-leaf parsley, 
still-warm diced cooked beetroot, oil & lemon & pepper dressing, feta 
crumbled on top.

Margaret/Emma