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Snacking in the Kitchen

~ Culinary Adventures In & Out of the Kitchen. Recipes, Reviews, Culinary Musings.

Category Archives: French

French Lentil Salad with Crispy Bacon and Vegetables Recipe

22 Wednesday Aug 2012

Posted by snackingkitchen in Bacon, Cooking, French, Lunch, Recipe, Salad

≈ 1 Comment

Just in time for the latest cookbook club potluck, I prepared this French Lentil Salad with Crispy Bacon and Vegetables.  I bet you could make this with regular lentils, but using the French variety elevates this dish slightly, making it more decadent and special.

We were reading An Everlasting Feast: Cooking with Economy and Grace by Tamar Adler.  She cooked a lot with lentils and beans.  She used a lot of parsley. Majority of her recipes came straight from her well-stocked pantry.  I tried to do the same, using what I already had on hand, brightening the dish with parsley and briny capers.  I think Tamar would be proud….accept for the part where by mistake I poured out the broth from the lentils, instead of saving this flavorful, deep liquid and making soup out of it the next day.  I’m sorry, Tamar.


French Lentil Salad with Crispy Bacon and Vegetables

Ingredients

Lentils

1 1/2 cup French lentils, rinsed
1 shallot, quartered
3 garlic cloves
1 bay leaf

4 bacon slices, diced
1 small red onion, finely diced
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
2 ribs celery, diced
1/2 cup parsley, chopped
2 tablespoons capers, roughly chopped

Dressing
zest and juice of one lemon
1 tablespoon spicy mustard
1 clove garlic, grated
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1.  Place lentils, shallot, garlic, and bay leaf in a pot and cover with cold water.  Bring to a boil, lower the heat, cover, and simmer lentils until al dente.

2.  Cook bacon over medium heat until crisp.  Remove from the pan and drain on paper towels.

3.  Drain the lentils and discard shallot, garlic, and bay leaf.  If there is too much bacon fat in the pan, skim off some of it.  Add the lentils to the bacon fat in the pan and gently stir.

4.  Stir in the vegetables into the cooked lentils.


You can make the dressing separately and drizzle it over the salad, or stir everything together directly in the skillet.  Taste and adjust the seasoning, if needed, with salt, pepper and lemon juice.

5.  Garnish with bacon right before serving.

The salad keeps well in the refrigerator over night.  It also heats up very well, so feel free to enjoy it cold or warm.  I almost want to call the salad vegetarian, but the bacon gets in the way.

French Lentil Salad with Crispy Bacon and Vegetables Recipe


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A Food Lover’s Dream Book Club – Julia Child’s Inspired Potluck

21 Sunday Aug 2011

Posted by snackingkitchen in Book Club, Cooking, French, Seattle

≈ 2 Comments

Last week I crashed a Book Club.  Crazy ha?  People crash weddings, parties, maybe free conference lunches. But book clubs?  You might not be so surprised or perplexed once I tell you the nature of the said book club – food enthusiasts, meeting to discuss As Always, Julia: The Letters of Julia Child and Avis DeVoto.


It all started with a photo on Facebook.  My friend, Brook of Learn to Preserve posted a photo of a single steamed artichoke with tarragon lemon butter sauce – her contribution to the evening’s book club.  I was intrigued!  


I have been to quite a few book club gatherings before – usually held at a local restaurant, where over drinks and food the book club members would discuss the book for 5 minutes and then move on to the latest and greatest life happenings.  This book club, was going to be different!  The guests, some of my friends from the Seattle’s food community, were gathering for a French, Julia Child’s inspired potluck at the home of Myra, Seattle Bon Vivant.


Myra’s Roasted Chicken

Thinking that it was too last minute to join this time, I asked to be invited to the next book club.  Instead, I received a generous invitation for the future and the present!  And off I went (not one to show up empty handed, but short on time to whip up one of Julia’s dishes, I decided to bring a raw Beet, Daikon and Radish Salad I was testing for Robyn.)



I will let the pictures speak for themselves, but this was by far one the most delicious potlucks I’ve attended in a long time.  More exciting though, was our discussion about the art of writing letters, cooking for the ones you love, traveling, and loving food.

 Kate McDermott’s  beautifully shucked Totten Inlet Virginicas from the Taylor Shellfish Melrose Shop

 Potatoes: Karen Rosenweig’s Potatoes Dauphinoise and Kate’s Tarragon Potato Salad

Cheesy Goodness (gougeres) from Sonja Groset and Cheese & Pate from Lorraine

 Dana Wasserman Wootton’s Radicchio Tart and Rachel Strawn Thibodeaux‘s Cake

Sadly, I missed taking photos of lovely contributions from Nazila’s Cherry Clafoutis, Jeanne’s Gluten-Free Chocolate Cake and a few others that I must be forgetting due to the divine food comma.


I look forward to the next time we meet to discuss The Feast Nearby: How I lost my job, buried a marriage, and found my way by keeping chickens, foraging, preserving, bartering, and eating locally (all on $40 a week) by Robin Mather (that’s one long title!)

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