It's too late. (Lentils)

Cafe Society
1

It’s too late
To get a date with Sharon Tate…

Here’s what I did: I chopped up half of a large yellow onion and minced a large clove of elephant garlic and sweated them with a little kosher salt in a large saucepan. Meantime, I chopped up a green pepper and a couple/few stalks of celery. (The celery was already cut up into pieces.) I cooked it a little bit while I washed a couple of dishes and cut up 1/4 pound of salt pork and two uncooked boudin sausages, and then added the meat to the pot. Next in went a pound of washed lentils, two bay leaves, some cayenne pepper, black pepper, and eight cups of water. I brought it to the boil, and then covered it and reduced the heat to a simmer.

Now that the deed is done, and before I have a chance to taste it, what did I do wrong?

2

I just tasted it. I think I got just the right amount of cayenne pepper in it. The soup isn’t ‘spicy-hot’ at all, but the cayenne is still detectable. I thought it might need a pinch more salt, but then I thought, ‘Not really.’ Not bad at all for ‘Let’s throw it in the pot and see what comes out.’

Still, what would you do differently?

3

hot sauce :smiley:

well ok, maybe not for you, but I put hot sauce in damn near everything.

Also I like to caramelize my onions. Basically toss em in a pan with a bit of oil and cook em on real low to bring out the natural sugars, makes 'em quite delicious.

4

Personally, I’d use less water and make a stew instead of a soup, and I’d probably use a stronger variety of garlic rather than elephant garlic, but other than that, it sounds like a perfectly good tasty dish. What makes you think there was anything wrong with it?

5

Oh, there’s nothing wrong with it. It’s just that this is the first time I’ve made lentils and ‘what did I do wrong’ was just a way of asking how other people would have made it.

6

The 8 cups of water could easily be augmented or even replaced by some good chicken or vegetable stock with excellent results.

7

I thought I had vegetable stock, but I didn’t. Or actually, I’ve just remembered I have a can or two; but I was looking for a quart carton. (Turns out the carton is tomato soup.)

8

It seems to me you didn’t do anything wrong, but it I were making it, I would have done three more things.

I would have added thyme, because I like the aroma.

I would have put in some turmeric, to make it golden.

Since it’s lentils, I would have tried to use the word lenticular at least once.

9

Yum, it sounds good to me. How was it?

10

Pretty tasty, if I do say so myself. :slight_smile:

I’ll remember AskNott’s suggestions of thyme and tumeric for next time. Though next time will be far in the future, since I have lots of leftovers.

11

Lentils and beans can take anything you throw at them except undercooking. :smiley:

12

I was saving the lentils for the lamb bones I’ve had in the freezer for a while, but I wanted to use some of the vegetables. Guess I’ll have to buy more lentils and see what kind of mess I can make with the lamb bones!