Lemony Red Lentil Soup
With Fried Shallots

"I have never approached cooking as a technical endeavor – following recipes to the letter or strictly adhering to measurements...I learned the beauty of cooking this way from the best – my mother.  Season your food to your liking, and enjoy the process of preparing it for the people you love most..."
–Rawia Bishara, from Olives, Lemons & Za'tar



Olives, Lemons & Za'atar is one of the more inspiring cookbooks I've read, as it brings to pages a new and colorful world of spices, beans, and grains, full of non-technical (but soulful) expertise.  The rich bounty of the Middle Eastern Market comes to full life in a particular snapshot of Bishara's

kitchen at famed Tanoreen in Brooklyn, in which a row of spices are set to the cook's reach much in the same way a painter's paint might be – a pinch of this, a dash of that, color here, time for zest, more texture, etc.  I have found in my own home cooking over 20 years Bishara's secret above, that to cook for instinct as much as prescription, is as good of an end goal in cooking as any other could be.  If, after years of cooking soup, for example, your family

has provided feedback that they like lentils or vegetables still firm in soup, then you might not necessarily cook a particular recipe as long as it suggests; if, on the other hand, all the above is preferred soft, even mushy, then you can adjust accordingly.  Less cumin, more coriander, steep the lemon juice or let it skim over the top...?  The cook is always of at least two minds: how might I like the dish I am cooking; how might they like the dish I am cooking.  Make it look inviting. Let bold flavors hint, not bully.  In this, the simple family style recipe of Red Lentil Soup, found on the Williams Sonoma weekly recipe app. was a nice exercise for the home cook.  The recipe asks to begin with a full yellow onion, sautéed in oil.  Depending on how long the soup is to cook, I sometimes

The slight heat of red pepper flakes avoided in this batch of soup

change the whole onion to half: I like plenty of onions, but do they?  Not always.  Add cumin, coriander and red pepper flakes to cook.  A pinch of each of these can be fine once all has reduced down its appropriate sauce, but too much red pepper, for example, might turn an otherwise positive grin to a secret growl.  At this point, add one cup of red lentils.  As Olives, Lemons mentions several times, lentils "after soy beans, they have the highest protein content of any vegetable and are also fiber

packed."  I wonder, as I go on to stir the pot for the next 40 minutes, if cooked lentils might not be added to many more meals as an easy way to pack-on a non meat protein?  Add the broth, diced carrots, one peeled, seeded and chopped tomato, some salt along the way and the soup base is complete, now time to simmer until desired tenderness.  Along the side, I made a panini out of chopped ham, turkey and mozzarella, clumped together in a pile and spread out over a grain bread spread by a combination of mayo and a honey mustard dressing (but only enough mustard to hint). At this point, the recipe calls for pureeing in a blender, then moving back to the pot in order to add fried shallots and then the lemon, but I skipped this part, seeing that the soup had a perfect texture just as it stood, and knowing that raw fried shallots were going to look more like a warning sign than an invitation. I added more water to the soup to loosen and added a final twist of a half lemon for pure zest. Forty minutes later a complex yet very edible family soup, inspired by Middle Eastern family soul food, and prepared to our liking.

Weeknight Cooking: Foiled

After years of following a particular recipe for chicken in a foil packet – chicken, mozzarella, zucchini, and tomatoes – it dawned on me this time around that this type of meal could become not

only easily personalized but could become its own sort of regularly prepared subgenre...the sky is the limit.  The standard recipe called for a chicken breast to be split open and stuffed with mozzarella cheese, which is then set on aluminum foil and piled over by sliced zucchini and tomatoes, splashed with olive oil, seasoned, then wrapped and cooked.  In its own right, this a good family style meal – the ingredients end up quite soft, the vegetables

more as textural support to chicken that stands out as soft and cheesy.  Yet, I wondered, why not marinade the chicken first in a tangy vinaigrette to deepen the flavor? This time I chose our deli selection of chicken breasts instead of the pre-wrapped.  These tend to be thicker cut and provide one edge that is conveniently wide to cut and stuff with cheese.  I took my roll of fresh mozzarella, cut it into quarter inch slices, soaked them in olive oil and some leaves of fresh basil, then placed them in the chicken.  Spray a foil sheet with olive oil, place the breast down on center, and pile with virtually any vegetable.  I chose zucchini again, both yellow and green, a few stalks of asparagus, sliced roma

tomatoes, then slipped one small dice of garlic over the top for aroma.  I could see small button mushrooms being a great addition; baby carrots; even a few green beans, maybe all drizzled with honey and a mere dash of mustard instead of the marinade for next time.  In a 400 oven, our five packets took about 45 minutes to become perfectly cooked.  The fewer the vegetables, or the thinner the chicken breast, the less time.  The foil cover protects the chicken very well and it would be hard to imagine a combination that would ever come out as dry as, say, a grilled version can sometimes produce.  With a side of simple rice, the packets are little adventures to open up, to see and smell.  This would also be a

very easy style of meal to allow the children of the house to create on their own, virtually piling in the ingredients, wrapping, baking, and opening within an hour's time.

Weeknight Cooking:
Going Homemade

"A well-stocked pantry helps you think creatively about how to feed yourself, and anyone who happens to be with you, a thoughtfully prepared, flavorful, and wholesome meal, without expending very much time or effort. I've come to realize that it's the way I use my pantry, more than any individual ingredient,, recipe or technique, that defines my personal cooking aesthetic."
                        – Alice Waters, from My Pantry



Reading through some of the first pages of the new book by Alice Waters (essentially founder of the West coast farm to table movement) stirred up the revelation that for the somewhat serious home

cook, a good next step in home cooking is to (try to anyway) evolve from the more obvious stage of actually cooking most of your meals with as fresh of store bought items as you can find, to gradually making as many of your own ingredients as possible.  I thought about a recent batch of chicken alfredo pasta, a very simple and well-received meal in its own right, but that no

doubt could have become more personalized, flavorful, creative and expressive with only a slight bit more planning and investment in time.  The recipe called for two jars of alfredo sauce, a pasta of choice (farfalle recommended), some more parmesan to top, slightly seasoned chicken breasts, some peas, a pinch of garlic, all baked to a proper consistency.  The secrets to this simple recipe is not to overcook the pasta in boiling water, but leave el dente; to choose seasoned chicken things over chicken breasts; to choose the brightest peas available.  Yet I wondered, what would happen with this meal if Waters's advice had been followed?  What – the home cook comes to consider more and more over time – happens to the process of meal-making as it becomes more personalized?

I would first begin by making my own pasta next time: I would choose the herb pasta 'penne' attachment for my pasta machine and perhaps add diced dashes of parsley (grown from the herb

garden) or season with a favorite spice of parmesan herb.  I might then pan fry or even roast the chicken thighs seasoned again with the parmesan herb seasoning in a bed of carrots and red onions.  As for the cheese, even though I know a good local Wisconsin cheese is very easy to find, why not make my own?  Other pasta cheese and cream sauces call for a variety, including cheddar,

goat, or parmesan. Maybe a single variety, pre-made and properly stored, would be a perfect way to top the homemade pasta. As the fine chefs at Blackberry Farm in Tennessee suggest about cheese-making, "Thankfully, anyone who wants to experience the alchemy of cheese making needs neither a cheese aging room nor an extended calendar.  With a handful of simple ingredients and a few hours over a weekend, you can create your own miracles of transformation in the form of fresh cheese."  So, what do we have here?  Nothing wrong with the commercial recipe admittedly, yet now the pasta

is a richer, softer and more flavorful version than the boxed farfalle, seasoned by a grown herb which is then mirrored by an addition onto chicken thighs, and submerged by a cheese of choice that is likely far less preserved and more creamy. Pick peas that shine and hold up to a bake. It is at this point that the full transaction of the meal is offered – in this version, there is pride, explanation and offering.  If done well, there is the request to make sure it is a weeknight repeater.