Friday 14 March 2008

Petit Salé aux Lentilles

Once your pork belly has cured (and how many chances will I have for an opportunity to start an entry like that!) it is time to start preparing your petit salé aux lentilles.

In addition to the petit sale you will need: some vegetables for making stock, bay leaves, garlic and peppercorns. And lentils. We prefer Puy lentils, but any green lentil will do at a push. First thing to do is soak the petit sale, otherwise your meal will be too salty - put in a bowl and cover with water and leave for an hour or two. Also, read the lentil instructions - they may (but probably won't) need pre soaking.

Chop the vegetables into smallish bits (its doesn't matter how big, but standard dice sized is ok) and put in a saucepan with a little oil, bay leaves, peppercorns and whole garlic. Heat on medium heat to soften the veggies slightly then put in the petit sale and cover with water.As soon as the water starts to boil reduce the heat so that the water is just moving, cover and leave for a couple of hours (2 or 3, doesn't matter really). Once the meat is so soft it is difficult to move without destroying, remove it from the stock, put on a plate and cover.

At this point classic advice is to remove the cooked veggies from your stock. I dont bother with that - I scoop out the bay leaves and peppercorns, put all the solids in a blender with a little stock and blitz it. I then return the mix to the saucepan and raise the heat slightly.

Wash your lentils, put in the pan, reduce heat to a simmer, and leave until they are almost soft, but have a little bite in them. Add the pork back to the pan for 5 minutes.

There you go - a very traditional French recipe for very little effort.

Simon

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Whish that plate was on MY table! Yum!

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