Lentil experiment (and something with potatoes)

[cjsmith]

I don't cook; I apply heat to piles of completely random ingredients with no rhyme or reason behind it at all.

I found some dried lentils in the grocery store, so on a whim I bought some. I washed them & put them in the crock pot along with some dried barley, a big pile of water, and everything I could find that smelled good. Joy of Cooking says simmer for four hours so I figure four hours in the crock pot ought to do it.

I'll be fascinated to see how the water to other stuff ratio turns out. Different sources varied enormously on this. I may have what looks like a pile of veggies for a dinner plate or I may have water with a few things piled at the bottom of it. I'll have to check part way through.

I have a little stick blender for turning it into soup when it's done, but with the barley in there maybe I'll skip that step. Looking at the spices I chose, I probably should have skipped the barley. Oh well.

Stuff:
2.5 cups dried lentils
1/4 cup dried barley
8 cups water
small handful dried minced onion
hefty spoon of curry powder
couple shakes of turmeric
couple shakes of garlic powder
couple shakes of black pepper
tiny pile - maybe a scant 1/4 teaspoon - of ginger
teaspoon or less of salt

Now that I've thought of the stick blender, I want to get out the second crock and do potato-leek. But I'd have to go back to the store for leeks, and it's raining like whoa, and my feet still hurt from the first trip. Au gratin it is. I *will* make something better than and nearly as easy as that $1.29 box of mix... even if it takes me many tries. I am determined. (And potatoes aren't costly.)

Comments

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

I apply heat to piles of completely random ingredients

So you're starting with entropy, and adding heat to increase the entropy, obeying the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics. ;-)

Not big on lentils, myself, but the base looks good - like it might work as a soup stock for a number of things.

[bastette-joyce.livejournal.com]

I don't cook, I apply heat to piles of completely random ingredients with no rhyme or reason behind it at all.

That's hilarious. I would ask to put that into my quote file, but the truth is, I do cook. But it does apply to a lot of people!

By the way, I tried to join the choirloft community, and they declined, saying that they hadn't met me in person. Do you know how this might be arranged? I see that you are a member. I live in Oakland, and I'm interested in this.

Thank you!

[ladycelia.livejournal.com]

Try adding a carrot.

[sunnydale47.livejournal.com]

I think that sounds delicious -- especially with the carrots and celery added. If it's too wet, just call it soup!

Couscous is a great thing to have around to add to casseroles that turn out to have too much liquid, especially if you want to keep the discrete ingredients rather than blending everything into a thick soup. Just throw some couscous in for the last few minutes of cooking, and they'll sop a lot of the liquid up. Even if you already have barley in it, couscous would work fine -- especially if it's whole wheat couscous.

Lentils are not just Indian -- lentil soup is popular in Jewish cuisine also, and probably a number of others.

[jtidwell.livejournal.com]

Onion + carrots + celery = mirepoix.

Onion + green peppers + celery = Creole "holy trinity".

These are usually sweated or sauteed first in oil, for a higher cooking temperature. Garlic is always good with either :-), though I usually put it in after the others have cooked for a while (it burns more easily). If you go as far as browning the onion, you get a much deeper, sweeter flavor out of these aromatics.

Browning reactions are good in general -- this is another secret to good cooking! Just boiling stuff together is nice, but if you brown some of the ingredients by sauteeing them in oil, searing them on a dry pan (for red meat), or roasting them in the oven, you get even better flavors. I often do this with lentils and barley; I start by sauteeing the mirepoix, then add garlic, then add dry lentils and barley and keep stirring. (Keep stirring!!! It burns easily.) Eventually the barley gets a brown tinge, and then you add the liquid to cool everything off and cook things for real.