Puy lentils with smoked mackerel and oven-dried plum tomatoes
So the past few dishes I’ve posted, while tasty and tender, packed full of flavours yadda yadda yadda, weren’t exactly pretty now were they? In fact, they looked, well, a bit brown and farmyardy. If you know what I mean. And sometimes you just crave a little tenderness colour and zing.
So, in the interests of aesthetics and also not clogging the arteries with meaty fats, I’m doing something that’s tasty, flavourful and healthy. I know, I know, it may feel like an aberration. But y’know I quite like healthy food (shhhhh, don’t tell anyone).
This was inspired by the reliably interesting Yottam Ottolenghi. I boughtPlenty a while back but never got on with it quite as much as I did with its more outgoing older sibling. But, I think it’s time for a re-evaluation. It may not be as focused as the earlier book but it has some corkers tucked away in there.
And so I took a lentil recipe and just sort of twisted it. A little. Didn’t want to break the magic now did I? So no Gorgonzola (healthy, remember?). Instead I threw in some equally flavourful smoked mackerel. And I added some lemon just to cut the rich smokiness a little. And because lemon goes with everything.
A quick aside – I got the smoked mackerel from Jack and Linda Mills down on the wee fish quarter sitting quietly amongst all the fair-ground flummery and cheese on Brighton’s seafront. It’s run by a pair of antique smokers who really know their stuff. They smoke a wonderfully rich kipper (no sniggering at the back, thats no innuendo).
Back to business, after the mackerel and lemon gambit, it was a matter of store cupboard necessity. Puy instead of Castellano lentils, parsley instead of sorrel and so on. The plum tomatoes and chives remained the same though.
The result was a real Yottam specials. Straightforward ingredients combined to create something that (literally in the case of the tomatoes) bursts with flavour. Every mouthful yielding a mix of earthy lentils, fresh herbs, sweet, caramely tomatoes, and rich smoky fish (hey, cliches exist for a reason). All underpinned and balanced with acidity of the lemon and vinegar.
I served with some granary bread and a – ahem – modified version of Ursine Cuisine’s brilliant aubergine puree. Modified, it has to be said, because I forgot to prick the aubergine when I baked it. I’m now calling it “exploded aubergine puree”. I also added a little tahini and Greek yoghurt.
Lentils with smoked mackerel and oven-dried plum tomatoes
Serves four with some extra bits and pieces
As you may gather from the post above, you can play with this (I’ve always loved playing with my food – take that etiquette) to your hearts content. It would work with quinoa, couscous or bulgar wheat just as well as lentils.
Ingredients
5 plum tomatoes
Extra virgin olive oil
Balsamic vinegar
Sprigs of thyme
Sea salt and black pepper
1 cup(ish) Puy lentils
1 red onion, finely sliced
1 small pinch sea salt
2 small fillets smoked mackerel – torn into lumps
Handful chopped parsley
Small bunch of chives – finely chopped
1 lemon
1 tblsp of extra virgin olive oil
1 tblsp red wine vinegar
1 clove garlic – crushed
Directions
First set your oven to 130C. Quarter the plum tomatoes and space them out on a baking sheet coved with baking parchment. Drizzle over a little EV olive oil and balsamic vinegar and lay the sprigs of thyme on top. Season with some salt and pepper and roast, low and slow for about 90 minutes.
Put the onions in a bowl,scatter over a small pinch of salt and mix it I with your hands. Now put the lentils into boiling water and simmer for about 25 minutes until they’re cooked but have a little bit of bite left.
Combine the cooked lentils, onion, oil, vinegar and garlic in a bowl and leave to cool while the tomatoes finish cooking. When they’re done add the smoked mackerel, herbs and tomatoes to the lentils, squeeze over the lemon and season with black pepper.
Mix and serve at room temperature with some bread and aubergine dip/cheese/whatever the hell you want. Enjoy in the sun if possible.
