They sure don't look like lentils. But I like the shot.
This is true, Eric, but I use shorter versions - one being a sobrasada and the other chorizo, for lentil soup. These two get sliced - painful to contemplate - and thrown into an orange Le Creuset in which already resides a generous pouring of oil of pure virgins along with some apple vinegar, a couple of chopped onions, some cloves of garlic, several sliced carrots, an equally abused red pepper and several green ones too. A few potatoes also make their silent sacrifice here. Magical (variable according to the moment) measures of some various spices that my wife left behind for me play with at such times, as well as, always, a teaspoonful of Coleman's of Norwich mustard powder - only, ever, use mustard powder if you want mustard. (Avoid mustard that somebody else has prepared earlier for you in a factory; know that they despise your laziness.) If you have a leek, that can be thrown in too. Never forget the salt and some fine pepper, too. If you want exotic, drop in a couple of grains of dry chili, but this may well be overkill, as the chorizo can come in a hot version, too.
Boil and then simmer for about an hour. The lentils? Oh, they get added from a jar at the end of that time and simmered for another fifteen to twenty minutes. Longer, and they vanish. This works equally well with beans. Purists start from first principles and use uncooked lentils, I never do - take all day to do that. There'd then be no time to do anything else, not even eat.
Once done, the choice is between having a couple of bowls of this right away, or just storing it all in the freezer for those days when I can't bear the idea of eating out again, and am sick of making pasta or paella.
I have a lot of respect for lentils.
Rob
