Lentil Stew

Serves 4

I adapted this dish from a recipe I found in one of my Food & Wine magazines. I don’t know about you, but it seems like I’m finding more and more “quick & easy” recipes available in cooking magazines and cookbooks. I think more and more people are cooking but have less time so the periodicals and TV shows are featuring more recipes under an hour.

The recipe is from José Andrés, a celebrity chef from Spain often credited for bringing small plate dining to America. The article featuring this recipe is called Star Chefs’ Dream Recipes and features recipes from members of the Chefs Make Change coalition whose goal is to “support farmers, fight hunger, help at-risk kids and more.”

You can learn more about their cause at Chefs Make Change and make a donation if you feel so inclined.

Roast Chicken Thighs with Lentil Stew

Although the recipe is for roasted chicken thighs, I’m focusing on the lentil stew served with it because I think home cooks need more side dishes to add to their cooking repertoire.  Besides, roasting chicken thighs is easy:

1. Preheat the oven to 450°.
2. Coat the thighs with a little bit of oil.
3. Season with some salt, pepper and any other spices you may enjoy.
4. Roast in the oven for about 40 minutes until the chicken reaches an internal temperature of 160° knowing that while resting it will reach its target temperature of 165°.

That’s it!

Lentil Stew

This is a great side dish you can prepare with lots of meals. I can see myself serving this with pork tenderloin, lamb or even duck breasts. Chef Andrés recipe calls for green lentils but I substituted red lentils because that’s what I had in my pantry and I thought it worked.

Because lentils cook more quickly than other dried legumes, there is no need to pre-soak them. This cuts down on the cooking time and makes them accessible for busy weeknight meals. However, it is important to wash them well and pick out any small stones that you tend to find in a bag of them.

Lentil Tip

Don’t add salt to the liquid you are cooking them in because it toughens the lentils. Season after they are cooked.

Ingredients

• 5 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 slices of bacon, diced finely
• 1 small onion, chopped finely
• 1 quart of chicken stock
• 8 cloves garlic plus 1 tablespoon chopped garlic
• 1 leek, white and pale green parts only, halved lengthwise
• 1 medium carrot, halved lengthwise
• 1 large bell pepper, quartered
• 1 cup lentils ( I used red but the recipe calls for green)
• 1 thyme sprig
• Salt
• 1-teaspoon Pimentón de la Vera (smoked Paprika) – if you can’t find Pimentón, substitute sweet paprika.
• 2 teaspoons sherry vinegar

How to Prepare Lentil Stew as a Side Dish

Heat up a large saucepan over medium heat and add 1 tablespoon of the olive oil. When hot, add the bacon and cook until it is brown but not crisp. Next, add the diced onion and cook for about 3 minutes until you can smell them release their aromatics.

Add the stock, garlic cloves, leek, carrot, bell pepper, lentils and thyme sprig. Bring this mixture to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes.

When done cooking, remove the thyme spring from the lentils. You may find like I did that it breaks up into pieces and is hard to remove every bit of it. Don’t worry; it adds a little additional flavor to the stew.

Pick out the garlic, leek, carrot and bell pepper quarters and transfer to a blender.   Add about ¼ cup of the cooking liquid and puree the vegetables.

The recipe says to drain the lentils and return them to the pot. My experience was there was nothing to drain. I’m not sure if this was because I used red lentils rather than green lentils but I don’t think so. So if you experience the same, don’t worry about it.

Add the pureed vegetables to the lentils and give them a stir.

Heat a small skillet over medium heat, add the remaining 4 tablespoons of oil and then the garlic. Reduce the heat to low and cook the garlic for about a minute. Add the smoked Paprika, stir and transfer it to the lentils. Stir and simmer for a few minutes.

Add the sherry vinegar, taste and if needed, season with salt.

Serve it in a bowl and top with the chicken thighs but do try this with other meals as a side dish. Lot’s of flavor and easy to prepare. And don’t hesitate to create your own version using other ingredients you have on hand.

Have you ever looked at the ingredient list on a package of fish sticks? There are so many unpronounceable ingredients that it’s a little disturbing. And often the first ingredient in minced fish.

That means it has been pressed into stick shapes and held together with some kind of binding agent.  I don’t know about you, but I think that any home cook can do better for their family than store-bought fish sticks. Use a nice mild fish like pollock or haddock for the kids, and then offer a couple of dipping sauces - one the kids will enjoy and another for the adults.

White fish is very economical to buy, and sustainable sources are easy to find, as well.  Make a whole bunch of fish sticks at one time, and freeze some for another meal or two. Here’s a great opportunity to break out your FoodSaver to freeze the fish in.

Fish Sticks

It is hard to say how many this recipe will feed - it completely depends on who is eating, how many are eating, and how hungry they are. Figure 2-3 fish sticks per young child and maybe 4-6 per older kids and adults.  Feel free to pan fry or bake these. They will be very tasty either way.

• 1 pound mild white fish fillets, such as pollock, haddock, flounder or tilapia
• juice of half a lemon
• 1 cup flour
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 2 egg whites, lightly beaten
• 1 1/2 cups dried fine bread crumbs, preferably panko
• 1/2-1 teaspoon Old Bay Seasoning (or your favorite spice blend)
• olive oil (not extra virgin) for frying, optional

Cut the fillets into sticks of as equal a size as you can get, approximately 3-4″x1/2″.

Sprinkle the fish with lemon juice. Set aside.

Stir salt and pepper, to taste, into the flour and put in a shallow dish.

Place the egg whites in a shallow dish.

Whisk your preferred seasoning blend into the bread crumbs, and put in a shallow dish.

Spray a cooling rack with pan spray and set over a cookie sheet or jelly roll pan.

Dredge each fish stick in lightly in the seasoned flour, knocking off the excess. Then, dip in the egg white. Let drain a few seconds. Lastly, dredge in the seasoned bread crumbs. Set each stick on the rack.

At this point, you can either bake these or pan fry.

To bake:

Preheat the oven to 450F.

Let the fish sticks set up for about ten minutes on the rack. This will help to keep the breading from flaking off.

Bake on the cooling rack/jelly roll pan set up until the fish is cooked and the breading is nice and golden brown, about ten minutes.

To pan fry:

Heat a heavy-bottomed skillet over medium-high heat until hot.

Add olive oil to a depth of about 1/4″.

When the oil is hot, fry the sticks, making sure not to crowd the pan.  Turn as each side cooks and turns golden brown. Total cooking time will be about ten minutes.

Remove to paper towels to drain.

Kid-Friendly Sauces

• ketchup
• honey mustard (simply whisk together honey and mustard, to taste)
• the kids’ favorite barbecue sauce
• ranch dressing or other salad dressing
• tartar sauce
• raita or tzatziki sauce
• marinara sauce

Adult-Friendly Sauces

• Hollandaise sauce seasoned with parsley and dill
• Cocktail sauce with horseradish
• Soy sauce and Sriracha
• a mixture of mirin, dark soy sauce, minced fresh ginger and a pinch of sugar
• curry sauce
• sauce puttanesca

My Dad passed yesterday just a couple of weeks shy of his 90th birthday. He loved to cook and was not “reluctant” at all to try new ideas in the kitchen. He tried Chinese, Italian, French, but without much success, although his burgers and steaks were terrific.

As a little boy, I loved to stand with him as he started up the grill with charcoal briquettes and a little gasoline, something we would never do today, and watch him cook a steak to perfection. He’s throw a few baked potatoes wrapped in tin foil on the coals and there was our Saturday night meal.

He also loved to make desserts, especially apple pies, and had more variations on Jell-O than anyone I knew. He would make a batch of pudding at night and complain when my brother and I ate most of it the next day when we came home from school.

His had his cooking flaws too especially when it came to seasoning and cooking with wine. If a little was good, a little more was better in his eyes. So a lot of the “experiments” didn’t work out because they were over spiced or tasted too much like wine — and not very good wine I might add.

We worked hard around the yard on weekends and he always made us great lunches of fried bologna sandwiches or mini pizzas made with fresh Jersey tomatoes topped with American or Velveeta cheese on Wonder Bread with a little oregano sprinkled on the top and stuck under the broiler until the cheese melted. I can still taste them just thinking about them.

I can picture him during tomato season with a huge plate of sliced tomatoes seasoned with salt and pepper, topped with Hellman’s mayonnaise. My Dad could make a meal out of them and often times would.

One of my fondest memories of my Dad in the kitchen was the time we caught a couple of bushels of blue claw crabs down the Jersey shore at my grandfather’s. We brought them home, boiled the lot and started removing the meat. The process was slow especially with a couple of young boys trying to help.

He decided to speed up the process by using a water pic to blow the meat out of the legs and smaller swimming legs. The idea worked but there was crab meat everywhere. When my mom came home and saw small pieces of crab on the ceiling she made him scrub it down and repaint it the following week.

He loved to grow his own vegetables, especially potatoes. When I visited my parents on weekends, he would take me to his garden out back and dig for new potatoes. (In recent years, he carried on this tradition with my two daughters who thought it was like a treasure hunt!)  We would bring them into the house with some other fresh vegetables and fry some fresh flounder or grill some meat and boil the potatoes. This tiny, round, red skinned potatoes were served only with a little butter and salt and pepper. They were incredible!

Somewhere I have on home movies a cooking show he and I produced, directed and starred in on how to make a peppercorn sauce with demi glace. This was years ago, filmed on an old video camera. I think we were imitating the Galloping Gourmet in his early days when he drank wine on the show. We maybe indulged a bit much but we also laughed and laughed while we made one mistake after another. I hope I can find that tape somewhere.

I’ll miss my Dad, heck, I miss him already but I have lots of fine memories of hanging out with him in the kitchen and learning some of my first cooking techniques. Rest in Peace Dad, I love you.

This is the perfect time of year to prepare braised short ribs in you Dutch oven or handy crock pot. The cooking magazines are filled with recipes for short ribs and there is no shortage of variations available. I have a recipe for Crock Pot Short Ribs as well as one for Short Ribs with Asian Flavors braised the more traditional way.

Typically, I make extra whenever I prepare them at home because I know the leftovers, including the luscious sauce made from the braising liquid is going to be incredibly delicious. Besides, serving them the next day gives the cooking liquid some time to let the fat surface to the top of your storage container and be removed making the dish less fatty, healthier for your diet and in my opinion, tastier than the original night.

What to Serve Leftover Short Ribs On

In my opinion, you can serve leftover short ribs on just about anything and they will be delicious. Rice, potatoes, couscous, risotto but my favorite is either egg noodles or pappardelle pasta. Not always easy to find but I’m seeing pappardelle in a lot more supermarkets these days. I happened to find some at a decent price at Trader Joes but you can also purchase pappardelle on line at Amazon.com.

On or Off the Bone?

I like it both ways. Often I’ll take the meat off the bone if I have time, but when in a hurry like in the middle of the week when I have about 20 minutes to put dinner on the table, I’ll just leave the meat on the bone, reheat and serve.

There really isn’t much else to do but make a salad and/or serve with a side vegetable like sauteed spinach. The flavors from the braising liquids are going to make this leftover dish incredibly tasty. I highly recommend next time you braise short rips, you prepare a few extra for another meal the next night or later in the week. Two meals from one dish, each both equally good.

Found this egg Pappardelle at Trader Joe’s

Heating up the leftover Short Ribs Ragu

Our girl Bailey keeping an eye on the cooking hoping something will fall from the counter.

I am just back from a vacation trip in Park City, Utah where enjoyed some great food with old friends and neighbors. At altitudes from 6,000 feet in town to 10,000 feet at the top of the mountain, I found myself a little out of breath and realized I needed to get in better shape in 2012. Part of getting in better shape means to lose a few pounds, not so easy when you write about cooking and food as a hobby.

I’m not a big diet fan because they are often very difficult to maintain so I try to work out a little more and eat better foods, staying away or eating less fattening foods. One might ask what are the best foods to loose weight and I found out by reading an informative article on msn.com called The Best Superfoods for Weight Loss.

In the article, I learned some of the “so-called superfoods ….. that help build bones, prevent chronic diseases, improve your eyesight, and even keep your mind sharp” are also great foods for losing weight AND some of my favorite foods including avocados, salmon, pears, grapefruit and wine, to name a few.

Here are a few of the foods mentioned in the article, but I encourage you to read the entire article to find some of your personal favorites and learn why they may help you lose some of those holiday pounds.

Salmon - not only one of my favorite fish but my kids love it. Salmon is a great source of protein and an excellent source of omega-3 fatty acids. There are lots of ways to cook salmon including dry roasting, grilling, pan frying and poaching. See my recipe for Poached Salmon with Dill Sauce.

Grapefruit - my wife has been eating grapefruit in the morning for years and now I know why. According to the msn article, “eating half a grapefruit before each meal may help you lose up to a pound a week!” Ok, I can go along with that. Grapefruit is 90% water and a good source of protein plus it has compound that can lower your insulin, a fat storing hormone. Because they are so popular, you can find fresh grapefruit from different areas of the country at your local supermarket all year long. I’m going to join my wife and start eating them with her every morning.

Broccoli - here’s one we eat all the time at our house. My youngest loves it raw as a side dish but the rest of us like it steamed. Easy to prepare, an antioxidant, a great source of fiber and low cal unless you serve it with a lot of butter. Besides serving as a side dish once or twice a week, I have used broccoli in dishes like chicken and broccoli stir fry and broccoli pasta soup.

Garbanzo Beans - beans in general are a great alternative source for protein, fiber and healthy fats and garbanzo beans are one of my favorites. Also know as chickpeas, I love using them in soups and salads as well as Chickpea Curry.   Garbanzo beans are also an essential ingredient in hummus.

These are just a few of the “best super foods for weigh loss” and there are many more. I’m going to try and incorporate a bunch of them in my daily meal planning especially since most of them are readily available and foods my family enjoys.  Besides, who doesn’t like an occasional piece of dark chocolate to “slow down your digestion” and “rev your metabolism to burn fat and calories.”