Food in France

• Wine.
• Coffee.
  
• Bread.
  
• Pastries.
  
• Cheese.
  
• Nutella everything.
• Beer. (but only Belgian or German, because French beer is gross, even though we're so close to the border in Lorraine.)

Also, meat is really expensive here, so I pretty much just eat lentils all the time. THE FOOD OF THE GODS.
Since we're into posting recipes these days, here's my recipe for mujadara, my standard midweek meal. But I do something different every time I make it, so your mileage may vary (mine does).

Mujadara (Aromatic rice and lentil pilaf with caramelized onions)

Ingredients

2 + 2 tbsp olive oil, divided
1 onion, sliced
3 cups chicken stock or water
2 cups green lentils, rinsed
2 bay leaves
2 + 2 tsp cumin, divided
2 cups rice
1 bouillon cube (optional)
2 tsp five spice
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cayenne pepper
4 cloves garlic, minced
salt and pepper

Directions

Heat 2 tbsp of the oil in a small frying pan. When the oil is hot, turn the burner down to medium / medium-low. Add the onions. After 5 minutes, add a little salt and sugar if you want. Caramelize the shit out of the onions. This should take about 20 minutes. Stir occasionally.

Meanwhile, in big pot, bring the stock or water to a boil. Add the lentils, bay leaves, and 2 tsp of the cumin. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes.

If the onions aren't caramelized after 20 minutes, take the lentils off the burner and keep cooking the onions until they're done. Try not to eat them as they're cooking (I am bad at this part).

If you removed the lentils from the burner, put them back. Add the caramelized onions, the oil they were frying in, the rice, and (if you used water instead of stock) a boullion cube. Bring the mixture back up to a simmer, cover, and cook for another 10 minutes.

In the meantime, rinse out the pan you used to caramelize the onions. Heat the remaining 2 tbsp of the oil on medium. When it's hot, add the remaining 2 tsp of cumin, five spice, cinnamon, and cayenne pepper. Cook the spices for a minute, then add the garlic and cook for another few minutes, until the garlic is golden. Add the cooked spices, oil, and garlic to the lentils, stirring well.

If the rice is not done or the liquid isn't mostly absorbed, cook longer. If the rice isn't done and the whole thing is starting to burn, add a half a cup of water and keep cooking.

When everything is cooked and no liquid remains, take a bite and salt / pepper to taste. Glop a bunch onto a plate (it ain't pretty) and eat all of it at once, you fatty. If it's gross, change something and do it again. I've seen recipes that call for adding caramelized onions or yogurt as a garnish. Get to it.

Two Things

The First:

Apparently it isn't your fault if you don't like cilantro. But I'll still be uncomfortable with the prospect of making soup for you if you don't.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/14/dining/14curious.html?ref=dining

The Second:

I made a chocolate, no-egg cake from scratch last night. It was delicious. And probably the best cake I've ever made. Recipe to come. Kari's baking this weekend so maybe we'll have a CAS double feature or something.

I am addicted to soup.

So, we all know I'm broke. Because I talk about it a lot. But I like to cook. And I like to eat. So I've discovered this wonderful New Idea.

It's called soup.

You take something tasty and you put it in water and you boil it forever and you end up with something delicious. Sometimes, you screw up and it's terrible and you cry but more about that later.

The point is, I like soup. I like Pho. I like chicken noodle soup. I like chowder. I like stew. When Jordan and Killpack Jr. and Kevin and I went to B'roo last summer, we inhaled a box of cuban black bean soup. Did I mention I really like pho? I even like crappy box ramen.

One day, when Kevin's mama was sick, we went and picked up some chicken soup from this Mexican place in Smyrna (Mexico Lindo). It was pretty clear broth and shredded chicken and it came with tomatoes and jalapenos and avocado to add when you ate it. It was pretty much the soup of the gods, y'all.

So, every time I've made chicken soup since then, I've been trying to imitate this soup.

And this is what I've got.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

canola oil

half a medium white onion, diced

1 garlic clove, minced

3 chicken breasts (with the bone, with the skin)

1 box of chicken stock (just use decent stock. Kroger's organic is surprisingly good)

2 cups of water

½ cup rice

Salt and freshly ground black pepper (to taste)

½ teaspoon of cumin (to taste)

¼ teaspoon chili powder (to taste)

some corn tortillas, cut into 1/8-inch-thick strips

1 large-ish avocado, halved, pitted, peeled, and diced

2 jalapenos, seeded and minced

1 ripe medium tomatoes, chopped

2 limes, cut in wedges

at least 1/2 cup coarsely chopped fresh cilantro leaves

Directions

Skin the chicken. Place the breasts in a large stockpot and cover with the stock and two cups of water. Add half the cumin. Cover and bring to a boil. Skim the “muck” off the top. Boil for fifteen minutes, then reduce to a low boil (we're talking bubbles here, but you don't want to turn the chicken to leather) for a half hour or until the chicken is cooked through. Skim some more nasties off the top as you go. And then turn off the pot.

Once the water is cool enough for you to handle, remove the chicken and set aside to cool. Strain the broth and set it aside; there's going to be some nasty bits and it's better for all of us if you get rid of it. When the chicken is cool enough to handle, pull the meat off the bones and shred it.

Now back to the stockpot. Turn your burner to medium heat and add the olive oil. Add the onions and the garlic and cook until translucent (just don't caramelize them, guys). Add the stock, season with salt and pepper and cumin and chili powder. Add the juice from a quarter of one of those limes. Bring to a boil and then add your rice. Simmer for fifteen minutes or until the rice is almost cooked, and then add the chicken (something I just figured out) and let the rice finish up.

At some point while your rice is getting happy with the broth, heat a few tablespoons of canola oil in a pan. When the oil is hot – think, about to start smoking – add the tortilla strips in batches. Fry until crispy, and then drop them on a plate covered with a paper towel. You'll probably have to add oil as you go.

When your rice is cooked, things get exciting. Ladle the soup into a bowl. And add jalapenos and tomatoes and avocados and those tortilla strips that gave you so much trouble. Add cilantro. Squeeze some lime juice in there. If you're me, add even more tomatoes. If you're my friend Nataya, add half a jalapeno and more chili powder.

And then, if you weren't aware what blog you were reading, you eat it.