On the menu today: Beans, Lentils and Radishes

[mmcnealy]

No, I haven't gone Vegetarian on you, I'm testing out vegetable recipes for the feast on the 27th.
We have one vegetarian that has registered, so we do need at least one dish per course that they can eat.

Personally, I like the taste of the beans much more than the lentils.

From Rumpolt Vegetable Recipes
30. Take beans/ poach them in a water/ and pull the skins off
make them with a peabroth and good fresh butter/ also green
welltasting herbs/ that are chopped small/ let simmer therewith
and do not oversalt it/ so they will be good and welltasting.

I consulted with the experts on the Cooking Rumpolt Yahoo group as to which would be the proper type of bean and they recommended either Fava or Black Eyed Peas. I went with Black Eyed Peas.


Take 1/2 c black eyed peas and bring them to a boil for a minute or two until you see the skins start to losen. Remove from heat and drain in a colander, rinse with cold water. Rub beans between your hands and remove some of the skins.

Put back in the pot and add 1 1/2 c vegetable broth, 1/2 T butter and 1 t dried parsley.

Simmer for 30 mins or until beans are tender.

Notes: I like this dish, it certainly has potential. As this is just a sample recipe, I didn't make a lot. I fully suspect this will not be the finished recipe. The poaching doesn't seem to have made much of a difference, except to have perhaps removed some of the earthy flavor of the black eyed peas. I used parsley as a good tasting green herb, I wonder what else would be good to use?

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125 Take lentils/ wash them fine clean/ and soak them. Take also a good beef-broth/ let simmer/ cut onion and a little garlic into it/ so that it comes nice and thick/ and when it is cooked/ so put green well-tasting herbs/ that have been chopped fine/ thereto/ and cooked bacon/ let it simmer therewith/ so it becomes good and tasty. You can also cook lentils without onion/ how one likes to eat it/ so it may be prepared.

1/2 c dried lentils, rinsed.
1 1/2 c vegetable broth
onion and garlic (I didn't really measure)
Simmer until lentils are done.
Add parsley.

Notes: Its just sort of a dish that makes me go "Eh." It probably needs the beef broth and the bacon to make it pop.

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Rumpolt Salads
44.Take radish / and cut it small/ broad and thin/ poach it in
water/ cool it / season it with oil/ vinegar and salt. You may sprinkle it
with sugar or not.

Bring a pot of water to a boil. Slice the radishes thin. Poach radishes in boiling water for 2 mins. Remove and let cool.
Drizzle with a dressing made with oil and vinegar, with salt and sugar to taste.

Notes: I tested both the red skinned type radish and the white daikon type radish, I like the taste of the red skinned radish the best. The dressing needs work.

Comments

[rosescottage.livejournal.com]

W.r.t. the beans dish, I would recommend adding a bit of vinegar. I never thought it would make much diffeence but I tried it recently and it brightens the dish considerably. Highlights the flavors, effectiveness wise like salt does, but not in the same way that salt does. 1-2 teaspoons for a 1/2 cup of peas?? You don't get a strong vinegar taste as a result, just a brightening of the flavor overall.

For the lentils, if your vegetarian will accomodate it, maybe saute the onion and garlic in some butter, failiing that some olive oil, something to carry the flavor? Maybe a tiny bit of salt to carry flavor also?

[joysdaughter.livejournal.com]

My version of the lentil dish, culled from goodness knows where, uses the liquid you boil a bacon joint in. While I realise that you are using a vegetarian version, there are one or two things I add apart from the stock - celery seeds work well, and add a little bite, or you could add a little chopped celery, if period correct. The other thing is I use green lentils - I'm not fond of red ones.

[ornerie.livejournal.com]

some of the other salad objects I've played with that worked well....

there's a cabbage salad (cabbage, oil, vineger, etc) that if you do half red and half white and put nicely in the dish can be rather lovely to look at (as well as tasty)

the dressed eggs (hard boiled eggs, dress with balsamic and salt) makes a super easy, familiar and tasty (and pretty!) dish. half the eggs, and drizzle with balsamic. sprinkle with coarse salt.

I got some others that I tested (some of them got used) for the low countries banquet I did a few years ago, if you're interested?

[mmcnealy.livejournal.com]

Thanks, but I think we're pretty well set menu wise, I'm jsut waiting to hear back from the cook as to what she thinks.

The eggs are already on the menu, I remember trying those at your house years ago. I bring them to day board and they are a hit!

[pepperbeast.livejournal.com]

Speaking as a great fan of poached vegetable salads, you might find the radishes are best poached for just one minute and then plunged into cold water to cool.

[merastra.livejournal.com]

You're making me hungry. :-)

Can you use mushrooms instead of the bacon?

How about hyssop and sage for the "green herbs" black eyed peas? (I've never done beans from scratch so have no real idea if that'd work. But I like those in Ember Day Tart.)

[theozgirl.livejournal.com]

For the lentils, I'm thinking a drop or two of liquid smoke with a pinch of salt and a dab of olive oil would make up for a lot of what the bacon would add. I also like the mushroom idea.

Forgive me if these are not period... What about a bay leaf tossed into the black eyed peas? It adds a nice layer of flavor in the beans I make here at home much the same way, though I've never taken the time to take any skins off of them.

Bahh! You're making me hungry! I want to register for feast at the least but there's screwy scheduling to be wrangled.