Last Night’s Dinner

Yesterday was so beautiful all I could think about was sitting outside, enjoying the fresh air and sunshine and marveling at how seemingly everything around us is in bloom. We had thawed a large Cornish game hen that made the trip from Brooklyn with us, and we had planned to roast it, but the weather all but demanded that we grill instead.

Mike rubbed the bird with a mixture of salt, pepper, lemon zest and olive oil and grilled it over hardwood. My contribution to the meal was a combination of barley, beluga lentils, asparagus and pea tendrils, dressed with a little good olive oil and a copious amount of fresh lemon juice - tasty, but it got a tiny bit overcooked, and I think I would have preferred the texture if I had cooked the components separately. The hen, however, was juicy and succulent, with crisp skin and a lovely light smokiness that whispered “summer’s coming.”

I’ve served salmon with lentils probably dozens of times since Mike and I have been sharing meals, and while it’s a great combination, last night I decided to change it up a bit. Since we were away last weekend and weren’t able to do our usual food safari, I had to stock up on a few provisions earlier in the week. I went a little crazy at Greenwich Produce, bringing home fingerling potatoes, Meyer lemons, little stem cherry tomatoes (I know, I know, but they were so pretty and jewel-like I couldn’t resist), red and golden beets, and a gorgeous bunch of rainbow chard. Since chard and lentils play so well together in soup, I thought I’d combine them to go alongside our salmon fillets.

I started by separating the chard stems from the leaves, trimming the bottoms and slicing the stems thinly. I sautéed them in a bit of olive oil along with a couple of smashed garlic cloves and a pinch of kosher salt until they were tender, and then added a cup of Puy lentils. I poured two cups of water into the pot, added a generous amount of fresh thyme, covered it and let it simmer over low heat. While the lentils were cooking, I rolled up the chard leaves like little cigars, sliced them into about 1 inch ribbons and gave them a good rinse, letting them drain but leaving a little water clinging to their leaves. When the lentils were tender and had absorbed almost all of the liquid in the pot, I added the chard leaves, gently stirring them through until they were just wilted. I dribbled in a little sherry vinegar, gave it another stir, and spooned the mixture onto our plates, topping them with our salmon and a quick little pan sauce of sharp Dijon mustard, white wine, and lemon juice with a knob of cold butter whisked in at the end.

The salmon was great but I really loved the chard and lentil combo. It was quick and wholesome and would actually make a great meal on its own, topped with a little feta or goat cheese (or one of my favorite poached eggs). I liked it so well, in fact, that I’ve packed the leftovers for my lunch today. As Terry B can attest, sometimes the side dish really is the star of the show.

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you’ve probably noticed that I rarely follow a recipe to the letter. That was definitely the case last night. See, about a week ago, Mike forwarded me a recipe called “Rockstar Lentil Soup.” He had obtained the recipe during the course of an email exchange with our friend Kelly Sue, and she raved about it. I’m a big fan of lentils in any form, and this soup sounded like just the thing for a cool autumn night, so I wrote it into our meal plan for this week.

As I reviewed the original recipe, I had a few changes in mind from the start – I usually like to start soups with a base of diced vegetables sautéed in whatever fat I’m using and begin adding the seasonings to build the flavors, so I would cook the onions and garlic first rather than adding them in later. I was standing over the pot stirring my spices into the onion-garlic mixture when my phone rang, and I have to be honest, while I chatted with my folks I kind of put the rest of the soup together on auto-pilot. In the end it tasted great, but the measurements I’m going to give below might be a bit imprecise. I have no idea how my version compares to the Rockstar version, but I’ll print both recipes here – try them both and decide for yourself!

Rockstar Lentil Soup
(Kelly Sue informs me that this soup gets its name because she got the recipe from her friend Maggie Estep, who got it from Blixa Bargeld)

1 1/2 cups lentils
8 cups vegetable stock
1 large potato
2 bunches (about 1 1/2 pounds) Swiss chard
1 medium-sized onion, finely chopped
4 T olive oil
1/2 cup coarsely chopped fresh cilantro (or 1/2 cup chopped parsley plus 3/4 tsp ground coriander)
3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp ground cumin
3 T lemon juice

Rinse lentils; sort through and discard any foreign material. Drain well.

Combine lentils and stock in an 8-quart pan; cover and bring to simmering.

Peel potato and cut into 1/2-inch cubes; add to lentils. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes.

Slice chard leaves and stems crosswise in 1/2-inch wide strips. Add to soup, cover and continue simmering until lentils are tender (About 20 more minutes).

In a small frying pan, cook onion in oil, stirring occasionally until onion is soft and golden. Add to onion 1/3 cup of the fresh coriander (or the parsley-cumin mix) along with garlic and cook for 1 to 2 minutes.

Add onion mixture to soup during the last five minutes of cooking. Stir in salt to taste, pepper, cumin and lemon juice. Garnish soup with lemon slices and remaining chopped coriander or parsley-cumin mix.

Lentil and Swiss Chard Soup

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 red onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
Kosher salt
2 tablespoons ground coriander
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon chipotle powder
1/4 cup white vermouth
1 1/2 cups green lentils
6-8 cups stock (we didn’t have vegetable stock so I used the rest of our homemade chicken stock)
2 cups diced Yukon Gold potato
Sherry vinegar
1 bay leaf
1 bunch Swiss Chard, chopped into about 1 inch pieces
Juice of one lemon
Greek yogurt or crème fraiche for garnish

Heat the olive oil in a heavy-bottomed pan over medium heat. Add the onion, season with salt and cook until softened. Add the garlic, coriander, cumin and chipotle powder and cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring well. Add the vermouth and stir, scraping up any bits stuck to the bottom of the pot. Add the lentils, stock, bay leaf and potato, cover and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, stir in a couple of splashes of Sherry vinegar, cover again and cook until the lentils and potatoes are tender, about 35 minutes. Remove the bay leaf, add the chard and cook just until wilted. Off the heat, stir in the lemon juice and ladle into bowls, topping with a dollop of yogurt or crème fraiche.

Mike and I are big fans of curries and of Indian flavors in general, but despite having a bunch of the requisite spices in our pantry, we really haven’t cooked these types of dishes much at home. There was a strong possibility that I would have to work late Monday night, so when planning our meals for the week, I thought a soup would be a good option.

I had a bag of red lentils in the pantry, as well as some canned chickpeas, and they seemed like natural partners for the curry spices I wanted to use. I started building the soup by toasting and then grinding a tablespoon each of whole cardamom, mustard seeds, allspice, cumin and coriander. I melted two tablespoons of ghee in the Le Creuset and added half a chopped red onion and a bit of kosher salt. The toasted, ground spices went in next, along with a bay leaf and two teaspoons each of ground cinnamon, turmeric, fenugreek, paprika, and powdered piquin chile (you can, of course, substitute your favorite prepared curry powder for this mixture of spices).

I added a cup and a half of red lentils, six cups of my homemade chicken stock (you can substitute vegetable stock or water if you wish), plus about cup and a half of whole peeled tomatoes with their juices. I broke up the tomatoes a bit with my spoon, then covered the pot and let it come to a boil, then reduced the heat to a simmer and cooked it for 20 minutes or so, until the lentils were tender.

At this point, I turned off the heat, fished out the bay leaf, and pureed the soup with my immersion blender. I then turned the heat back on and added one can of drained and rinsed chickpeas and a handful of frozen chopped spinach. I let the soup cook for another 10 minutes, then served it with a dollop of Greek yogurt on top and some purchased naan bread which I had topped with chopped garlic and olive oil before heating briefly in the oven. The soup was a little spicy and a lot savory, really delicious and filling on a snowy night.

We eat salmon fairly often, as it is healthy, sustainable, and easy to prepare in a variety of ways. One of my favorite ways to eat it is paired with lentils - there’s something about the way the richness of the fish works with the earthiness of the lentils that is really pleasing. This is a simple but elegant meal that is great to have in your repertoire for nights when you don’t have a lot of time to spend on getting dinner on the table - start to finish it usually takes me a little over half an hour.

For the lentils, I start by sauteeing a chopped shallot with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil and a pinch of salt. Once the shallot is softened, add a cup of lentils (I use the tiny green puy lentils, but you can use whatever variety you like - with the possible exception of red lentils, which won’t hold their shape), plus two cups of water and a sprig of fresh thyme. Cover the pot and let it simmer for 25-30 minutes, until the lentils are tender but still have a little bite to them. Once they are cooked, stir through about a tablespoon each of sherry vinegar and olive oil.

The salmon is even easier to prepare, and takes just minutes to cook while the lentils are simmering away. Coat the inside of a cast iron skillet with a thin layer of olive oil and heat it until it is almost smoking, then reduce the heat to medium. Season the salmon filets with kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper, and place them into the hot pan skin side down. Cook the filets for about five or six minutes on the first side, then flip them and allow them to finish cooking on the other side for another 3 minutes. (The most important thing to remember with the salmon is once it goes into the pan, don’t move it around before you flip it - you want the skin to get really crispy so the fish won’t fall apart when you flip it, and allowing it to cook undisturbed will make that happen.)

Using a slotted spoon, place the lentils in a shallow bowl and lay a salmon filet on top. Toss a simple salad, pour a glass of Cotes du Rhone, and enjoy.