Tonight, we made this for dinner. I happened to chance on Renee’s newly resuscitated blog today. Renee is one of those marvelous Venn-Diagram friends that you wish you might see more of, but are happy when the your two disparate circles cross ellipses (over Katie Rose). Renee makes macarons and hard candy, crepes and canapes, beignets and souffles, and I bet she’d make one of those whole pressed ducks with duck juice if she could get her mitts on one of those crazy presses .
What I love about this blog, and this recipe, is that it reminds me of cooking when I really didn’t know beans about cooking. Second year of college, in my first real Kitchen. Following simple recipes slavishly to learn how things worked. Steak Diane calls for 1/2 tsp parsley- let’s get out the measuring spoons- (even that I’d pick to make “Steak Diane” at all is ridiculous, undoubtedly for a boy), Green Beans with Champagne-Shallot Vinaigrette (which I stumbled across the paper recipe not too long ago- on which I had written: “works with canned beans too!”), Grilled Pears with Cardamom Cream… all in search of the humble homey recipes that I could toss in whatever I had at hand, add what I knew would make it special, and go.
You can’t just start like that, you can’t just assume that because you have half a can of coconut milk and a big miscellaneous brown and yellow squash that curry and cloves are the way to go (and if you have half a thing of plain yogurt, hell might as well make the thing spicy!). Funfetti is delicious for a reason and that is so that little girls who love horses can figure out what it means to add eggs to something and have it make magic.
Renee’s lentils are so simple and easy in their simplicity that there’s something elegant about them. Even moreso that only one of the ingredients is fresh. This kind of recipe is the kind that takes you back to your roots (or at least makes you want to put some down, just a few shallotty feelers), the kind to put in your quiver to keep for rainy drizzly nights when you want to feel like you feathered your nest with home.
And beans.
Doopalus Plus 