As I was flipping through my version of the Sears Toy Catalog I noticed a recipe for braised lentils that looked pretty darn good. Last night was the night I decided I would make them. When I decide I'm going to make something on a certain night, well, I generally do, no matter what comes up. Last night was one of those challenging evenings.
Here is a LINK to the recipe.
Everything in this recipe sounded good to me, bacon, onions, carrots, garlic, wine!
I got this far when, as luck would have it, the power went out! So I waited. The power is never out for long at our house. I could clean up the prep dishes while I waited, yea, that's what I'd do. Almost half an hour later I decided to call the power company.
Their very friendly automated system told me that the power was estimated to be restored by 9pm. Shoot! Now what? My new (not so new anymore I guess) fancy duel fuel range has a safety feature that will not allow you to use the gas range when the power is out. My old one I just used a match!
So do I order pizza? No! I got out my Lodge pot and started preheating it on the grill. I could do this on the grill, right? Sure I could!
Look at that bacon sizzle! My backyard was going to smell pretty good!
Once the bacon is rendered, the carrots, onion and celery are added. I watched the "kids" wrestle while the veggies softened.
Next the garlic and wine are added. I just love the smell of wine when it's added to a dish!
Finally the stock and lentils are added and the whole thing needs to be brought to a boil. Lid on, several minutes later I had a nice simmering pot of lentils!
Thankfully I had a fully charged Kindle battery so I could occupy the 40 minutes or so my dinner needed to cook! But wait! The power was back on!
Well now I was having fun. I wanted to be Ree Drummond! Cook my dinner over an open fire! Well, I could still do that so I just started prepping a treat for work the next day and let my dinner cook on the grill.
Ten minutes later (if that!) the power was out again! It didn't come back on until several hours later so I got my wish!
Don't these look delicious? They were! The smokey bacon and earthy lentils were so good! I will admit the texture of the lentils was a little more firm than I would have liked. I'm guessing that had something to do with the lack of fine control over temperature I had on the grill. I'll definitely make these again. I think they'll be a perfect side to a nice pork tenderloin!
I was so excited about getting my braised lentils done on the grill I didn't make anything to go with it!
No comments:
Post a Comment