yum! is such a fun outlet—I love sharing my recipes with everyone. I have a knack for incorporating food into every conversation, so imagine my pure delight when another foodie joined the Sun Valley Magazine team. Our shiny new editor Michael Ames shares my gusto for cuisine and seems to enjoy talking about food as much as I do (if not more!), so I am super-excited to have him share some of his culinary masterpieces with us. (LL)
Lentils look good in jars. There’s something about the uniformity of so many tiny pebbles piled up behind glass walls. I’m reminded of those grade school contests where you guessed how many jellybeans were in the jar. Someone else always won, but everyone shared the spoils.
My friend Shaun has huge jars of pink lentils on his kitchen shelves. He literally has gallons. They are the biggest jars I have ever seen. I think he custom-orders them. He could hide a regulation-sized NFL pigskin in his lentils if he wanted, which he wouldn’t (Shaun’s a vegetarian).
How many lentils does Shaun have? Hundreds of thousands. The cosmic billions and billions? The point is, he’s got plenty. The only question is: What on earth do you do with them?
Shaun uses his plentiful lentils mostly for dal, a Hindu word for legume, or a dish of stewed and spiced, usually light-colored and quick-cooking lentils. I’ve enjoyed Shaun’s sub-continental fare many times, but I wanted to try something different. Last fall I saw a bag of French green lentils, sometimes called puy lentils or lentils du Puy, at Spinelli’s Market, in Denver’s Park Hill. I had never seen lentils like these: the skins were speckled black and the lens-shaped legumes seemed harder and cleaner than their split-pea brethren. They looked like a bag of miniature river rocks, or brindled seeds that might grow into pit-bulls (Just add water!).
At home, I poured the lentils into a perfect-size mason jar (Shaun says: Jars of lentils must be kept as close to full as possible. This ideology results in a constant game of musical jars, an unending waterfalling of lentils into smaller and smaller containers. At Shaun’s, the steady sssssshhhhhhhhst sound of dried lentils pouring into glass jars is a soothing symptom of lentil obsession.)
On my counter, in their tiny mason jar, the French green lentils looked great—such a perfect fit, I hesitated to use them at all. But when the time came, I turned to a trusted recipe resource, Saveur magazine, and found a French-country approach. I used some local Italian pork sausage and carrots and onions from Idaho’s Bounty, our local foodshed co-op. Combined with the lentils, the vast majority of which are grown in eastern Washington and northern Idaho, this meal turned out fresh, local and fulfilling in every way.
(click next to check out the recipe)
Sausages with French Green Lentils
(Saucisses aux Lentilles du Puy)
This classic main course is usually prepared with saucisse d’auvergne, a type of fresh pork sausage that is hard to find in the United States. We found sweet Italian sausages to be a fine substitute. Simmering them in wine deepens their flavor and helps keep them moist. Serves 4.
2 oz. smoked bacon, thinly
sliced crosswise
1 tbsp. unsalted butter
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 small carrot, finely chopped
1 rib celery, finely chopped
4 sprigs flat-leaf parsley
4 sprigs thyme
2 fresh bay leaves
12 oz. green Puy lentils,
rinsed and drained
2 tsp. dijon mustard
1 tsp. red wine vinegar
Kosher salt and freshly
ground black pepper, to taste
8 fresh pork sausages, such as
sweet Italian sausages
1 cup white wine
1 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1. Cook bacon in a 2-qt. saucepan over medium-high heat, until its fat has rendered, about 6 minutes. Add butter, onions, carrots, and celery; cook until soft, about 15 minutes. Tie parsley, thyme, and bay leaves together with kitchen twine; add to pan. Stir in lentils and 5 1⁄2 cups water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer until lentils are tender, about 1 hour and 10 minutes. Discard herbs. Stir in mustard and vinegar; season with salt and pepper. Cover and set aside.
2. Meanwhile, bring sausages, wine, and 1 cup water to a boil in a 12" skillet over high heat. Cook, turning sausages occasionally, until liquid has evaporated, 12–15 minutes. Reduce heat to medium; add oil. Cook sausages until browned, 6–7 minutes. Serve the sausages over the lentils.
