Red Lentil Dal

Taken directly from Stay at Stove Dad.  I’ve really come to enjoy this guy’s blog over the last two months.  You should go check his blog out as I deserve absolutely no credit for this recipe and am a plagiarist in posting it.

Calorie Estimate: 1600

Ingredients

• Olive oil
• 1 onion
• 2 bay leaves
• One 2 inch cinnamon stick
• 2 teaspoons (or more) of minced fresh ginger
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1 dash of cayenne pepper
• 2 cups small red lentils, about a pound, rinsed
• 1 lemon, halved and juiced (seeds removed)
• 3 or 4 cups of chicken stock
• 3 or 4 cups of hot water
• 1 teaspoon salt

Preparation

1. Heat the oil in a heavy sauce pan.
2. Add the onion, bay leaves, and cinnamon stick.
3. Saute until the onions are translucent.
4. Add the garlic and the ginger and the cayenne.
5. Continue cooking another few minutes.
6. Add the lentils and stir to coat them with oil.
7. Add the chicken stock and the water.
8. Add the lemon juice and the squeezed halves of the fruit.
9. Add the salt.
10. Bring to a boil.
11. Reduce to a simmer
12. Cook for about a half hour, until the onions mostly break up and the lentils more or less dissolve. If it  looks like it needs more water, add some.

Preserved Meyer Lemons

Meyer lemons were on sale at Uwajimaya.  I’ve got more than I know what to do with.  So, why not preserve them?  Not sure what I’ll do with preserved lemons, but that’s a question for a month from now!  The word is Moroccan, fish dishes, salads, and pasta.  We’ll see how it goes.

The approach I took to preserving comes from here.  I also topped everything off with just a little olive oil to help ensure good isolation from nasties in the air.

Wish me luck!

Sardines and Potatoes

I’ve been trying to incorporate more sardines into my diet for awhile now.  If you get reasonably good ones, they are very tasty,very healthy, environmentally sound (low on the food chain, plentiful), and rather affordable.  Just when I’d grown weary of using them as salad protein, Edward Schneider to the rescue.

Make whatever potatoes you like: home fries, hash brown, mashed, steamed, roasted.  Doesn’t matter.  I went with some home fries this time.

Calorie Estimate: 800

Ingredients

Homefries

• 1 T butter
• 1/2 onion diced
• 1/2 lbs. potato, 1/4″ slices
• 2 anaheim peppers, seeds removed, 1/4″ crosscut strips
• salt and pepper to taste

Fish and finish

• can of sardines packed in olive oil or (butter if you can find it)
• splash olive oil (from the sardines if tasty, otherwise drain and use new)
• squeeze of lemon juice

Preparation

1. Boil a little water.  Take it off the heat and put the unopened can of sardines in to warm them.
2. To a skillet over medium heat, soften the onions in butter for 2 or 3 minutes.
3. Add the potatoes, salt and pepper.  Toss the potatoes so that they get pretty good contact with the skillet.  Cook 7-10 minutes, tossing occasionally.
4. Add the peppers.  If the pan is dry, splash a little water in and toss.  Cover and cook 8-10 more minutes.
5. Adjust salt, plate the potatoes.
6. Take the sardines out of the can.  If there oil is tasty and not too fishy, dump the sardines and oil over the potatoes.  Otherwise, drain the sardines first and then splash dish with a little olive oil to freshen.
7. Squeeze a little lemon juice over the top and dig in!

Getting the cooking bug back: ideas to try

Beans and ham hock

Beef winter soup

Red lentil dal (new favorite)

Lentil soup for a small planet

Meyer Lemon risotto

Meyer Lemon pasta

Sardines with potatoes (success!)

Fillet and soba noodles

Minestrone

Wild boar and lentil soup

Braised leeks