Lentils and nostalgia

Another French-type dish, although not entirely, last night; I tend to cook for 2 nights' running if I can, mainly because I usually work from home 2 days a week so make something on Mondays and Wednesdays which last me the rest of the week unless I have a takeaway on Friday night...

Last year's holiday was to St-Etienne; which is vastly underrated in the guidebooks. I stayed in a flat on the top floor of a former ribbon factory; and the museum's specialities are the ribbon industry and the building of bicycles. (And the manufacture of guns, but I didn't do that floor.) And I went on a wonderful cookery class and learned to make macarons. It's full of lovely open squares and promenades. Go. (When you can go anywhere, anyway). But I digress.

About 90 mins away from St-Etienne is Le Puy-en-Velay. It's a pilgrimage site on the route to Santiago de Compostella and has a fine selection of religious tat shops (we're not talking Mont-St-Michel or Lisieux here, but getting there); and its three specialities are lace, lentils and verveine. It has two lace museums, and is utterly delightful.

The annual "Roi de l'Oiseau" festival has one day just for schoolchildren, many in costume. It was delightful.

This was the view from the top. 325 steps. So nearly gave up.

The oldest manufacturer of Puy lentils is Sabarot, and they were celebrating their 200th anniversary. Unfortunately, I couldn't lug too many packets of lentils home, but these have spoiled me for anyone else's lentils. So in December I bit the bullet and ended up ordering 4kg, which is the smallest quantity you can buy for delivery outside France. And now that gesture of extravagance feels like sound forward planning.

So. Lentils. This is a 2-person quantity... and uses another staple from the freezer, soffrito. Or mirepoix. (Or, you know, chopped mixed veg.) In a rare organised routine, I make this with a bunch of celery and the same weight of carrots and onions, about every three months. (I'd just bought the veg for the next batch at the weekend so will be doing lots of chopping tomorrow.) I weigh it into 75-80g quantities and put it in the freezer - makes about one quantity a week for 3 months.  It's an absolute godsend when you come in at night and can't face cooking - it's done all the complicated stuff for a risotto or these lentils in advance and you just have to take it out of the freezer and whack it in a pan.

Lentils, veg, an actually clear and clean counter. Yay.

Put 125g of Puy lentils into cold water (don't add salt), bring to the boil, and then simmer for 20 mins. Drain; rinse if you like but these ones don't seem to need it. Other kinds I've had in the past tend to get a bit scummy on top though.

Make about a mugful of stock with a cube or powder.

Fry the veg in a couple of tablespoons of oil (whatever you like. In this case, the leftover sunflower oil I used to make a batch of duck confit because I am fancee like that), add a couple of bay leaves and a heaped teaspoon of thyme, and fry off.  I added smoked bacon lardons (chorizo works well too) but it's also lovely made vegetarian with chopped mushrooms, and some chipotle flakes or smoked paprika.  Ooh, and because I had some, I put in a glug of madeira. (Vermouth also good, but you can leave it out. About a couple of tablespoons)

Nom. This pan is very tatty, but it's the one I went off to college with in 1986, so...

Once those are ready, your lentils might be too (but you can cook the lentils in advance, too...)  Fish out the bay leaves, and add the drained lentils to the pan. Warm up the lentils, and add enough stock so it's the texture you want - I like them sort of slushy; not as wet as risotto but not dry either. Give it a good season at this point - I love a good quantity of pepper...

Last night, I fried up 2 Cumberland sausages from a pack, so I stirred chopped-up sausage in at the last minute. And I also had some goat Camembert (a substitution for the Reblochon they didn't have several weeks ago) which was on its use-by date, so I put some chunks of that on top to melt.

Aesthetically dubious, but delicious, I promise

I'm going to be warming the rest up tonight, with a handful of frozen peas thrown in for a change...

Had a slightly surreal trip to food shops this morning, but more of that tomorrow. I'm still processing the experience...