French Green Lentils

How can it possibly be that I am just now discovering French green lentil beans. I served them for my protein at Thanksgiving with braised root vegetables and a red wine sauce. The dish was out of this world. Tonight I made a room temperature salad with lentils, butternut squash, mushrooms and tarragon.

I like their deep dark green color and the texture just works for me. I can't wait to try out more recipes. Here is the salad:

Lentils with Tarragon, Butternut Squash and Mushrooms
2-3 lbs butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1" cube
1/2-1 cup cremini mushrooms, chopped
1-2 shallots, quartered
2 Tbsp, plus 1/4 cup olive oil
1 lb French green lentils, picked over
2 cloves garlic
2 dried bay leaves
2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp honey
1 Tbsp chopped fresh tarragon
Kosher salt
Freshly ground pepper

1. Preheat oven to 425F. Arrange butternut squash, shallots and mushrooms on a rimmed baking sheet and toss with 2 Tbsp olive oil, kosher salt and pepper. Roast until tender, about 15-20 minutes. Remove from oven, cool.

2. Combine lentils, garlic and bay leaves in a 6 qt saucepan; add enough cold water to cover by 3". Bring to boil over med.-high heat. Reduce to med.-low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until lentils are tender but not mushy, 10-20 minutes. Drain in colander and let cool on a baking sheet.

3. Make vinaigrette: In a small bowl, combine vinegar and honey. Slowly whisk in remaining 1/4 cup oil in a steady stream.

4. Transfer lentils to a large serving bowl. Pour vinaigrette over lentils, and add tarragon; toss well to combine. Toss in squash, shallots and mushrooms. Season with salt and pepper and serve, or cover with plastic wrap and place in refrigerator up to 4 hours. Bring to room temperature before serving.

Vegetarian Thanksgiving

Although a bit unorthodox, a vegetarian Thanksgiving can still be a very satisfying meal. All of the traditional flavors can be incorporated into the menu. Here is what I am serving today:

Simple starter-
Kenny's Cranberry Cheese from KY, seeded wheat crackers and green grapes

Dinner-
Fennel Salad with Goat Cheese and Pomogranate dressing (Martha Stewart)
Braised Root Vegetables with Lentils and Red Wine Sauce (Deborah Madison)
Mashed Potatoes
Cranberry Fruit Conserve (Barefoot Contessa)
Macaroni and Cheese
Garlic/Rosemary Sweet Potato Bread

Dessert-
Apple Tart
Pumpkin Caramel Ice Cream
Peanut Butter Pie
Port Wine

Homemade Butter

Last night, to go with our dinner of cheese scones and tomato soup, I finally made homemade butter. I have wanted to try this ever since I started buying local milk and cream from Snowville Creamery. Their website gives directions for making butter, ice cream and cheese.

To make butter, this is what I did:

Let cream warm up a bit to 55-65F
Pour cream into food processor (about half way to top)
Process beyond the whipped cream stage
Butter will separate from the buttermilk
Strain and rinse butter under cool water (save buttermilk for another use)
Press butter with wooden spoon until water runs clear
Ta da, you have butter!

Cheese Course

For our book/dinner club last night, I wanted to serve something a little different. So I built a meal around a cheese course. I tried to keep the meal light and served a first course Warm Mushroom Salad (Barefoot in Paris). The next course was a Curried Winter Squash soup using blue hubbard, cheese pumpkin and butternut squash. The soup was simply garnished with a swirl of Snowville Creamery cream and caramelized apples. To help transition to the cheese course I served a small scoop of cranberry/orange sorbetto from Dojo Gelato at Findlay Market.

The cheese course was made up of the following:

Cashel Blue cheese from Ireland
Taleggio from Italy
Manchego from Spain
Pierre Robert triple creme brie from France
Prima Donna Gouda from Holland
Pear Hazelnut Paste
Walnut Whole Wheat Bread
Wheat crackers
Red Grapes

Brown Butter Sauce Oh My

I made cheese ravioli for dinner last night using my new Kitchen Aid pasta attachment. I had spent so much time rolling out the sheets of pasta and making the ravioli, that I forgot to put together a sauce to go with it. Usually, I make a simple tomato cream sauce.

So I improvised and made a brown butter sauce. This could not have been easier. I happened to have European style butter and used that. I heated it on the stove until it turned light brown and had a nutty fragrance. I added some kosher salt and some coarsely chopped spinach for color.

I tossed the ravioli with the brown butter sauce and oh my, it was amazing and so simple.

Inspired by Jungle Jim's

A trip to Jungle Jim's yesterday inspired last night's Asian dinner. I started by making a lemongrass/ginger broth and added shiitake mushrooms, carrots and baby bok choy. In went the vegetable dumplings, and we had an awesome soup. I served edamame and sauteed spring rolls and we had a meal. Perfect for a chilly evening.

The simple broth recipe came from my Gisslen Professional Cooking text book:

4 stalks Lemon grass
1 oz Ginger root, peeled and sliced
4 Scallions, sliced, including green part
1 qt Water
to taste Sea salt or Soy sauce
as needed Cilantro leaves

Trim off and discard the tops of the lemon grass stalks. Crush the bases, then chop coarsely.

Combine lemon grass, ginger, scallions and water in saucepan. Simmer 10-15 minutes until the water is lightly flavored. Strain and season to taste with sea salt or soy sauce.