When I glanced at the match timetable for today, I saw Germany - aha, I hadn't tackled German cuisine yet so that sounded like a good place to start. I had a google and discovered that Germans have as many names (and varieties) of mashed potato as Eskimoes do for snow so I picked the one that sounded nicest to me, Abernmauke. I spotted another recipe for Lentil Stew and I finished off with some lovely smoked sausages.
Lentil Stew, Abernmauke and Sausage
ingredients :
150g lentils
2 bay leaves
200g bacon lardons or pancetta
2 onions
2 carrots
1 leek
1 cup beef stock
8 potatoes
milk
butter
salt, pepper
2 packs smoked sausages
Put the lentils in a saucepan, cover with water, plop in the bay leaves, bring to the boil and leave to simmer for 20-30 minutes until cooked but not mushy. Remove the bay leaves.
Peel and finely dice the carrots, onions and leek. In a large frying pan, gently fry the bacon for a few minutes until it releases its fat. Add the vegetables and cook for 10-15 minutes until the bacon is cooked and the vegetables are tooth tender.
Prepare the potatoes - I don't peel my potatoes for mash any more, I just wash them. It saves time, adds fibre and vitamins and gives a nice texture, but that's down to personal choice. Cook in boiling salted water for 20 minutes until well cooked.
Heat the smoked sausages. I popped them in the pan with the lentils for the last 10 minutes of cooking time.
Drain the lentils and remove the sausages.
Add half of the bacon/vegetables to the lentils and mix. Add the beef stock and put back on the heat to reduce.
Mash the potatoes with the butter and milk then mix in the other half of the bacon and vegetables.
The kids moaned that they didn't like lentils when I started cooking, but funnily enough, it was clean plates all round !
I'm joining in with the World Cup recipe challenge over on the Cooking Around The World blog
Other blogposts you may be interested in :
Lots of nice well-balanced flavours going on here. I imagine it was very tasty.
ReplyDeleteIt was lovely :)
DeleteOh I love lentils, never used them to make a stew though - I think I may have to adapt this so I can do a veggie version as it does sound lovely! In particular I think Cauldron veggie sausages would go lovely with lentils.
ReplyDeleteSharon xx
Beauty, Miscellany
Ooh yes, just leave out the bacon and add some extra salt :)
DeleteThat looks delicious! I'd love to give this a go!
ReplyDeleteThat meal looks lovely. I have never heard of that expression for mashed potatoes.
ReplyDeleteThis is where I found out about German mashed potato : http://germanfood.about.com/b/2014/03/20/mashed-potatoes.htm (it's the same site as the lentil stew I linked through to)
DeleteThat's a really interesting dish - sounds delicious too.
ReplyDelete