Lockdown lentils

 

So, it’s Lockdown 2:Deja Flu (I have stolen this line from Adam Hills, and will be accepting neither brickbats nor bouquets). For me, it feels like something of a relief – which is not to say their haven’t been wobbles, it’s just that they were mostly a few weeks ago, rather than now. With a vulnerable husband and cases rising rapidly in Kent (I reckon we’d have been in Tier 2 by the end of this week), we’ve been in self-imposed lockdown for several weeks now. Our families are in various bits of the north, so we had to accept weeks ago that we weren’t going to be able to see them, and that it wasn’t going to be a normal Christmas at all. That was not a nice moment, but…here we are. And horrible though it is seeing restaurants and theatres post closure notices again, at least it now feels like some action is being taken against the virus, which should eventually improve things.

(I’m also hoping for the return of some of the things which helped in lockdown one: National Theatre Live, and the podcasts from Sandi Toksvig spring to mind.)

Whether you’re wobbling or resigned, here is a good comfort food recipe for you: Lentils with Rioja and chorizo. Lentils seem like an appropriate lockdown food, but this is firmly at the luxury end of lentil recipes. It comes from the Instagram of Ed Smith, aka @rocketandsquash – I’d commend his feed to you if you do Instagram. I’d also commend his book, On The Side (a collection of side dish recipes), if you’re looking to expand your cook book collection for lockdown/Christmas.

This is the recipe to serve 2. Start by sweating a finely diced onion and carrot for five minutes, then add 2 cloves of crushed garlic, and chopped parsley stalks (I didn’t have any parsley, as the lockdown parsley plant looks like it’s finally had it, but I did have chives so I added some of them), and sweat for two minutes more.

Next, add 120g brown or green lentils (I used Puy). Measure out 150ml of Rioja, and as per Ed’s original, very precise instructions, take a sip. (You have to love a recipe which includes that instruction.)Then add to the lentils, and  let it bubble for 30-60 seconds, before adding 500ml water. Let the lentils simmer for 40 minutes, until tender. Towards the end of this time, fry some chorizo.

When the lentils are tender, add grated orange zest (I used lemon) chopped parsley (or more chives in my case) 2 teaspoons of red wine vinegar, and a drizzle of olive oil if you want. The lentils should still be quite wet.

Serve the chorizo on top of the lentils, with a glass or more of the remaining Rioja, and possibly some bread to mop up the juices. The Rioja/chorizo combination is good, but I think this would also work with any fairly hefty red wine, and any sausages, although I’d add some chilli to the lentils if I wasn’t using spicy sausages.

So, as we slide back into lockdown, at least we can still eat. And, just remember, as Sandi Toksvig used to say at the end of her lockdown podcasts: We will get past this.