Late again for French Fridays with Dorie, as it's already Saturday night here as I'm typing up this post. The comforting thing though is, my fellow Doristas and other readers are so forgiving and I sure am not the first one (nor the last!) to be late in the history of FFWD. One of the reasons for this was that I'd spent a good part of the week scouring local stores to procure lentils du puy, or French green lentils, a key ingredient in this week's Roasted Salmon and Lentils recipe. Then Friday came...and went...and still no green lentils.
So this morning, I went out one last time to a speciality food store that stocks those difficult-to-get ingredients at the regular stores and.... nope, they didn't have the green lentils either. Normally, I would've settled for the more common (over here) red, yellow or black lentils, but I've read reviews swearing over the utter loveliness of these green lentils so I persisted in looking for them. Just as I was about to throw in the towel, I spotted a packet on the shelf printed with "Mélange Pour Soupe - Aux Légumes", a vegetable mix for making soup that consisted of lentils, split peas, barley and alphabet pasta bits made from wheat flour, spinach and tomato. Okay, there had to be a few lentils du puy in there....it would have to do!
Apart from the repeated boiling and straining steps involved in cooking the beans, the overall effort required to put this dish together was surprisingly minimal. I even managed to bake a set of muffins for my participation in Muffin Monday while this was on the stove. That was how easy it was!
I'm also quite used to throwing in a pinch of whole cloves when I cook my local dishes, so the one clove required in this recipe seemed to me rather piddly. In the spirit of compromise, I used three :). That still didn't have that much impact to the overall flavor of the dish that I was glad I hadn't stuck just one clove into the onion. Before the last boiling phase, I chopped up the softened onion but decided to leave the carrots in large chunks as they were. Yes, I can be inconsistent like that.... besides I was already thinking about the aesthetics of the presentation at that point. So annoying!
The seasoning for the salmon was very simple and in my mind's palate, bland. To make the fish portion a bit more interesting, I sprinkled paprika over it just before it went in for roasting and that worked to enhance the dish. Lastly, I snipped chives over the plate and drizzled olive oil over the salmon and lentils. Truffle oil? Oh, how I wish.
This was a very hearty meal, especially since my base was also made up of not just lentils but barley, peas and pasta bits. Everyone at home loved it. Lentils du puy or not, I know this recipe willl be revisited again...soon.
If you're interested in this recipe of joining our FFWD online cooking group, pick up a copy of Around My French Table and you're all set for an amazing sharing experience every week. If you still don't believe me, click here to check out what everyone else who cooked this dish had to say about it.
Have a great rest of the weekend, everyone!
23 comments:
Wow ~ I didn't know it was so hard to find green lentils ;) but it looks fantastic and I love the alphabet pasta hehe
I'm a fan of salmon so would definitely like to try this recipe but I've never cooked with lentils at home :P
Wow ~ I didn't know it was so hard to find green lentils ;) but it looks fantastic and I love the alphabet pasta hehe
I'm a fan of salmon so would definitely like to try this recipe but I've never cooked with lentils at home :P
healthy delicious looking combination of flavours
healthy delicious looking combination of flavours
That's a beautiful plate of food and not too late for me. :)
Never any need for forgiveness... We shall call it fashionably late, since your lovely dish is deserving of its own special entrance :-)
Wow! I love this!look amazing dear!
LOVE ow you fished out the letters to spell out Foodiva's Kitchen. I'm all for playing with food. Lovely finished dish, Maya!
We'll forgive you THIS time. hee! Looks great! I think i used normal green lentils. I didn't know du puy was something else. Liked it anyway!
Such a lovely presentation, looks so delicious. Tricia
and I both thought this to be rather bland, however, I peppered my salmon with Old Bat seasoning
that helped a lot.
I mean Old Bay seasoning. Sorry about that...
your persistance is astounding! :) and how cute that you spelled out your blog title! That's exciting! :)
that last comment was from me!
Alice @ http://acookingmizer.wordpress.com
I really appreciate it when suggestions are given to spice up the recipes that may otherwise need a bit of help. Your dish is just beautiful!
This dish looks delicious! My mouth is watering!
-Lisa
You made a somewhat ugly looking dish look absolutely fantastic! Love your creativity!
I made mine with green lentils, not knowing the difference! Then after reading all the comments I went back to Whole Foods and bought the French Lentils! We'll see??? Anyway, your plate looks gorgeous! As always, you do such a great job with presentation! Lovely!
Maya you always manage to change an ordinary dish into something spectacular. I love what you did with this and it looks wonderful. I don't cook lentils much but would like to more. I'm just not sure my family is much of a fan.
As always Dorie's book is truely a masterpiece - a book everyone should invest in.
Thanks for sharing your version of her recipe.
That is just gorgeous--love the combination of lentils and barley, which I'm sure makes for a hearty winter dish.
I'm surprised how difficult it was for people to find lentils du puy since I found them in Oklahoma! You never know what the grocery is going to stock. Your legume mixture looks delicious!
Lentils are not something that Adam and I tend to eat very often at all - unless we eat out! We would like to cook them more often at home though. We do however love salmon! This dish is so interesting and thank you for sharing.
Hi Maya,
It looks fantastic and glad things turned out delicious in the end. The first shot is making me want to dig right in. Hope you are doing well :)
How did I miss this??? You have an artist's eye...as this is truly a gorgeous plate. Makes me want to have this again...beautiful, my friend!
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