FYI, the
term refers to the Biblical story of Esau's sale of his birthright for a meal
of lentil stew, and connotes shortsightedness and misplaced priorities.
Don't think
so, folks, at least for the priorities part.
I was in the midst of a two-day power outage, thanks to the Blizzard of
2013, and I realized I had all the ingredients for a lentil stew, which is
actually one of my favorite winter dishes. It was Julia Child who first
introduced me to this dish (I'd never seen a lentil before), on The French Chef, although I've
simplified it a bit.
I have to
say that after two days in the cold and dark, I have a lot more respect for my
forebears, and even in the people who lived in my Victorian house. I quickly arrived at several observations. One,
it is best to plan ahead for your meal, because it's not easy to locate and
dice your ingredients in the dark. Two,
candles and oil lamps are not very bright, so it's hard to see what you're
doing at any stage, and chopping with a sharp knife in the dark may be
dangerous to the health of your fingers.
Three, I realized why so much traditional Irish food consists of stews
cooked on a crane over the fire: peat
does not produce a lot of heat, so it takes a while to cook anything!
 |
| The fireplace for the last Connolly home, built 1907, abandoned 1956 and now falling down. You can see the crane for cooking. |
Once upon a
time, lentils and other beans had to be presoaked and boiled for hours. Luckily those days are gone, and a quick simmer
is enough.
I usually
make this dish with kielbasa, but regular sausage (which was what I had on
hand) works fine—just leave it in good-sized chunks. This time I substituted
leeks for onions, because I didn't have many onions and I wasn't sure when the
power would be back or the snow would stop.
LENTIL STEW
2 cups
lentils, washed
6 cups
water
Cook the
lentils slowly, at a bare simmer, for half an hour, and drain.
1 lb
sausage (ground or link)
Saute the
sausage in a pan until it loses its pink color (it will continue cooking later)
2-4
carrots, depending on their size (enough to make
1/2 cup finely chopped)
1 onion (or
2 leeks), finely chopped
3 Tblsp
butter
3 Tblsp
flour
1/2 cup red
or white wine
1 1/2 cups
meat stock or canned bouillon
1 bay leaf
½ tsp dry
thyme or several sprigs fresh thyme
Melt the
butter in a medium saucepan and sauté the carrots and onions until tender. Blend in the flour and cook on low heat,
stirring, for a couple of minutes.
Remove from heat and beat in the wine, then the broth, and simmer for 5
minutes. Add the herbs, then taste for
salt and pepper.
In a large
pan, combine the lentils, the sauce and the sausage (including the fat in the
pan you cooked it in) and heat through.
Cook for a while at low heat to blend all the flavors. You can eat it right away, or you can reheat
it later. Just don't let it overcook
because it dries out.
And voila! Cooking by flashlight.
