Christmas deadline extended! So long as you get me your order by TOMORROW, Sunday the 20th, I will take it to the post office Monday the 21st. The USPS says it will make Christmas Delivery if mailed no later than the 21st. Last chance! Many Sales and Free Shipping on many items!





http://www.phoenixfiredesigns.com
http://phoenixfiredesigns.etsy.com

Thank you for your continued support!

This is not precisely a slow-cooker recipe, but I think it could be easily adapted (and I'd love any advice from people who have experience cooking dried lentils in a crock). I'd intended to do it in the crock but ran out of time; the slow cooker recipe I glanced over recommended something like 2 cups of liquid for 1 1/4 cups of lentils but I ended up going with something closer to my mother's recipe for a similar stove top dish. I dimly remember her telling me four parts liquid to one parts lentils. So, this is what I made in my dutch oven; I imagine you'd want to reduce the liquid pretty substantially for a crock pot, but again, if anyone has a more confident proportion to use I'd love to hear it. I will DEFINITELY be making this again, it came out wonderfully.

1 1/3 C (I eyeballed the third a bit) dried red lentils
4 C chicken stock (accidentally low sodium - would probably also work great with veggie stock if you're feeling partial to a vegetarian dish)
1 60z can tomato paste
A healthy bit of curry powder; maybe about two tablespoons, maybe a little more.
Pinch cayenne pepper
Half a teaspoon or a little more ground ginger
1 yellow onion
Two tablespoons butter
Salt to taste (see note about the accidental low sodium stock; if you use regular you might not want it)

Chop the onion and slosh it around a bit in a skillet with the butter. Meanwhile, get the stock and the tomato paste together in your cooking vessel (crock, or dutch oven) with the heat on. After the onions start to brown, add the lentils to the skillet and slosh them around a bit, too. Add the onion and lentils to the stock and paste. Add your spices, and cook until the lentils are nice and soft and most of the liquid is absorbed.

Other slow cooker lentil recipes that I consulted recommended 2 to 2 1/2 hours on high, in a crock pot. This sat on my stove in my dutch oven on med-low/low heat (something safe enough that I could run with bare feet in my clogs out into the snow with my hair wet to watch a congregation of two hundred or so crows fill the sky above my neighborhood) for about an hour.

I served it with some saffron rice I made from a package (Mahatma brand! Mmm.) My friend and I ate pretty heartily, and I have 1-2 meals worth of leftovers (if I make more rice) in my fridge as a result. The slight sweetness of red lentils goes really nicely with the tomato, and it came out a really beautiful orange color - goes nicely with the hat I'm knitting for my cousin right now. :) (Does anyone else have trouble finding red lentils? Sometimes I can't, and it makes me very sad.)

I also want to note that, while I didn't price-check the pre-packaged curry powder in the spice aisle, I got a really healthy portion of organic curry from the bulk section of the grocery for less than two dollars, so keep an eye out!

 
A Victorian inspired baboon fur tassel necklace (with real silvery baboon fur!)
  ( more...more..more... )