Lentils

Pressure cooker speck three-ways

Posted by Gary

Dear Reader,

Happy Saturday. I hope you’re well and you’ve enjoyed the past week. I’ve enjoyed a brilliant week apart from the worst week of hay fever so far this year. Praise God for antihistamine drugs 🙂

During the week, a member of the Facebook group “Cooking meals for one,” Merryn suggested I write a post about the speck I’d cooked.

For readers who don’t know, speck is smoked pork belly. I usually describe it as fancy bacon.

The easiest way to cook it is in a pressure cooker. I cut the block of pork into three thick longitudinal strips. If you didn’t use a pressure cooker, I’d recommend stripping away the rind, which can be a little chewy. Because speck is pork belly, it feels fatty and dense in your hand. I use a sharp knife to slice it safely due to the denseness of the pork. For example, I use my Dick butchers knife.

For flavouring and to balance the nutritional value, I usually add some lentils, whole peppercorns, Chinese-five-spice powder, star anise, and master stock.

For a small block of speck, I cook the meat for 30 minutes under pressure.

The three strips make a minimum of three meals for me. This week, I got four meals out of the three strips.

Pressure cooker speck and pork belly with lentils, peppercorns, potato mash, and baby green peas.

Wednesday evening’s meal.

Pressure cooker speck and pork belly with lentils, peppercorns, potato mash, and baby green peas.

Pressure cooker speck, lentils, and peppercorns wrapped in puff pastry with a salad.

Thursday evening’s meal.

Pressure cooker speck, lentils, and peppercorns in puff pastry with a salad

Pressure cooker speck, lentils, and peppercorns wrapped in puff pastry with smokey barbecue sauce.

Friday’s lunch.

Pressure cooker speck, lentils, and peppercorns in puff pastry with smokey barbecue sauce

Pressure cooker speck, lentils, and peppercorns cooked in pumpkin soup.

Tonight’s meal consisted of a pumpkin soup made with roast Kent pumpkin, coconut cream, along with the lentils and peppercorns blended into a soup. I broke up the speck and added it to the soup.

Ingredients

  • Leftover cooked speck, lentils, and peppercorns
  • Kent pumpkin
  • Olive oil
  • Iodised salt
  • Dark brown sugar
  • Coconut cream
  • Vegetable stock

Instructions

  1. Lovingly sharpen your cook’s knife (as iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend Proverbs 27:17 NLT).
  2. Remove the seeds and the connective tissue of the core of the pumpkin.
  3. Carefully cut the pumpkin into chunks approximately 8 cm³. Leave the skin.
  4. Gently rub oil over the pumpkin chunks with your hands.
  5. Rub in some salt and then rub in some of the dark brown sugar.
  6. Place the pumpkin pieces onto a baking sheet and place them into a hot oven until the pumpkin is soft enough to pierce with a sharp probe. The aim is to penetrate the pumpkin’s flesh, and on withdrawing the instrument, no pumpkin residue should be on the metal surface. It should go in and out smoothly. Ideally, the caramelisation of the surface of the flesh with the aid of sugar will have occurred.
  7. In a saucepan, add the cooked pumpkin, coconut cream, stock, lentils, and peppercorns. 
  8. Bring the soup to a simmer and cook until the coconut cream begins to thicken.
  9. Puree the soup with a stick blender.
  10. Continue simmering the soup and drop in pieces of your pulled speck gently while stirring.
  11. Serve the soup into a bowl and garnish with whatever herbs you feel desirable.
  12. Give thanks to the Lord for the meal.
  13. Take a large spoon and enjoy the soup.

Takeaways

The soup is good. It is thick and spicy. The peppercorns in the soup are like a party in my mouth. The speck is tender, succulent, and moist. The coconut cream gives the soup an Asian feel. To augment that, I should have added some curry paste, perhaps, a laksa paste.

Final thoughts

  1. How was your week?
  2. Are you a fan of bacon? I went out this morning and enjoyed eggs benedict with bacon. It’s the first bacon I’ve eaten in months.
  3. I reckon if you like bacon, you’ll love speck. Would you please give it a go and let me know what you think?
  4. Do you have plans for Christmas? I’m looking forward to summer.
  • Eggs Benedict with bacon from Stella’s by the lake
  • Pressure cooker speck, lentils, and peppercorns cooked in pumpkin soup
  • Pressure cooker speck, lentils, and peppercorns cooked in pumpkin soup
  • Pressure cooker speck, lentils, and peppercorns cooked in pumpkin soup

Tinned corned beef with lentils and vegetables

Posted by Gary

Dear Reader,

Canberra has entered its second week of lockdown, and I have mixed feelings about lockdown life.

On the one hand, lockdown life has not been too difficult because I’ve kept my routines. On the other hand, I do miss seeing work friends in real life. I have missed attending our church bible study as well as attending church itself. 

My routines include my morning walk, morning devotion time, making coffee, cooking breakfast, lunch, dinner, and evening devotion time.

Last Sunday, I attended my first Sunday morning church service by Zoom. It was good. While online church service isn’t the same as being with others, it is COVID-19 safe. It was a bit weird singing, praying, and listening to a sermon online.

Saturday lockdown dinner. Corned beef, lentils, slow cooker vegetables, with Brussels sprouts, and roast pumpkin.

Ingredients

  • Corned beef
  • Lentils
  • Shallot
  • Red onion
  • White onion
  • Yellow capsicum
  • Red capsicum
  • Mushrooms
  • Red wine
  • Cooking sherry
  • Worcestershire sauce
  • Olive oil

Instructions

  1. Slice the shallot, onions, and capsicum and put them into a slow cooker with the mushrooms.
  2. Add a few good slugs of olive oil, Worcestershire sauce, red wine, and cooking sherry.
  3. Cook slowly for six hours.
  4. Remove the vegetables from the slow cooker and put them into a skillet, and add a can of washed lentils.
  5. Cook and combine everything thoroughly.
  6. Remove about two-thirds of the vegetables and lentils and put them into a container for use later in the week.
  7. Add a small tin of corned beef to the skillet and cook with the vegetables and lentils.
  8. Cook until the corned meat starts to caramelise.
  9. Serve with vegetables of your choosing.
  10. Give thanks to the Lord for the job to be able to buy food, the skills to prepare and cook food, ask that He nourish my body and mind, and make me a better disciple.

Final thoughts

  • Have you experienced lockdown?
  • How did you find the experience?
  • Do you have any tips?
  • Capsicums, onions, and mushrooms.
  • Saturday lockdown dinner. Corned beef, lentils, slow cooker vegetables, with Brussels sprouts, and roast pumpkin.

Beef short rib fingers and lentils with roast Tabasco flavoured pumpkin and cauliflower, smothered with gravy

Posted by Gary

Good evening dear readers.

It was a busy day with work, so I sat at my table while the slow cooker did its thing.

Coles Beef short rib fingers

Ingredients

  • Beef short rib fingers
  • Lentils
  • Beef stock
  • Red wine
  • Barbecue sauce
  • Worcestershire sauce
  • Cauliflower
  • Pumpkin
  • Tabasco sauce
  • Instant gravy

Instructions

  1. In the slow cooker, add the lentils, red wine, beef stock, a good squirt of the Worcestershire sauce, and a few good squirts of the barbecue sauce.
  2. Cook for 8 hours.
  3. Place the pumpkin and cauliflower onto a baking sheet and rub olive oil over each.
  4. Squirt Tabasco sauce over the pumpkin and cauliflower.
  5. Cook the cauliflower and pumpkin in a hot oven for 45 minutes until a sharp paring knife penetrates both vegetables with no resistance.
  6. Plate up the beef on a dinner plate, add a few spoonfuls of the lentils, and then add the pumpkin and cauliflower on the plate.
  7. Serve with instant gravy.

Final thoughts

  • How are you going?
  • What do you think I’ll do with the leftover beef and lentils?
  • Coles Beef short rib fingers
  • Pumpkin and cauliflower ready for roasting
  • Beef short rib fingers out of the slow cooker
  • Beef short rib fingers and lentils with roast Tabasco flavoured pumpkin and cauliflower. Smothered with gravy.
  • Beef short rib fingers and lentils with roast Tabasco flavoured pumpkin and cauliflower. Smothered with gravy.
  • Beef short rib fingers and lentils with roast Tabasco flavoured pumpkin and cauliflower. Smothered with gravy.
  • Beef short rib fingers and lentils with roast Tabasco flavoured pumpkin and cauliflower. Smothered with gravy.
  • Beef short rib fingers and lentils with roast Tabasco flavoured pumpkin and cauliflower. Smothered with gravy.
  • Beef short rib fingers and lentils with roast Tabasco flavoured pumpkin and cauliflower. Smothered with gravy.

Slow cooker rump roast

Posted by Gary

Dear Reader,

Slow cooker Rump Roast with vegetables and gravy. Served with lentils, baby green peas, potato, and mushrooms.

It’s a cold, cloudy day in Canberra, with a maximum forecast temperature of eight degrees Celsius today. That’s 46 Â°F for any reader in the USA, Liberia, and Burma.

It felt like a good day to have the slow cooker on as well as the heating.

While grocery shopping this morning, I saw a nice lump of rump which looked like it would be perfect for this week’s meal planning.

I hope wherever you are, that you are warm and comfortable.

Have a good weekend.

Gaz

Ingredients

  • Rump roast
  • Barbecue sauce
  • White onion
  • Beef stock
  • Lentils
  • Potato
  • Instant gravy
  • Baby green peas

Instructions

Slow cooker

  1. Empty a tin of lentils into the cooking vessel.
  2. Lay the rump roast on the lentils.
  3. Cut a potato in half and place it into the cooking vessel.
  4. Cut the onion in half and put it into the cooking vessel.
  5. Squirt a good glug of barbecue sauce into the cooking vessel.
  6. Add a cup of beef stock to the cooking vessel.
  7. Cook for eight hours.

Baby green peas

  • Cook the frozen peas with microwave radiation.

Instant gravy

  • Prepare as per the instructions for use on the packaging.

Plating up

  1. Divide the rump into pieces for meal planning for the week. My plans include a pasta dish, some cold slices and salad for lunches, and perhaps a noodle soup.
  2. Divide the lentils and keep some aside for dinner putting the rest into a container.
  3. Slice a small piece of beef and put it onto a warmed dinner plate.
  4. Serve a spoon of lentils and the potato onto the dinner plate.
  5. Put the baby green peas onto the dinner plate.
  6. Pour the gravy over the meat and vegetables.
  7. Give thanks to the Lord for wages earned to buy food, cook food, and eat food to nourish my body and my enjoyment.

This week’s highlights in life

  • Work has been good. I remain blessed to work with amazing people. 
  • It’s reassuring to see people in Canberra more aware of their health and safety and cognisant that the δ (delta) variant must be respected. This week, I read a paper that revealed that the viral load associated with the δ variant is about 1000 times greater than with the original virus recovered from the beginning of the pandemic. Without wanting to be morbidly crass, I’m in awe of the biology of SARS-COV-2 and the ability of this virus and the infection it causes (COVID-19) to change and adapt. I’m sure if I wasn’t in a sequestered, safe bubble, like Canberra, I’d be feeling more anxious and worried. ^
  • It’s been worrying seeing what has been happening in NSW, Victoria, and Queensland.
  • I started reading John Owen’s Overcoming Sin and Temptation. This book is a collection of three of Owen’s seminal works on the “Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers”, “Of Temptation: The Nature and Power of It”, and “The Nature, Power, Deceit, and Prevalency of Indwelling Sin”. It’s a challenging read in a couple of ways. Owen writes in an archaic style, and the subject matter penetrates deeply. 
  • I’m also reading Tim Keller’s Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God. The two works are complementary, in my opinion.
  • I received a bunch of fresh free-range eggs from a friend this week. Fresh eggs are the best!

Final thoughts

  • Have you enjoyed fresh free-range eggs? How do you like to cook them?
  • How have you been coping this week with the pandemic?
  • Are you in an area where the δ variant is circulating in your community?
  • What’s the weather like where you are at the moment? Let me know in the comments how you’re enjoying the weather (or not).

^The Bible App I use today presented me with Proverbs‬ 12:25‬. (‭ESV)‬‬

“Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad.”

  • Rump roast
  • Slow cooker Rump Roast with vegetables and gravy. Served with lentils, baby green peas, potato, and mushrooms.
  • Slow cooker Rump Roast with vegetables and gravy. Served with lentils, baby green peas, potato, and mushrooms.
  • Dobinsons Peanut paste Brownie
  • Dobinsons Peanut paste Brownie
  • Kettle Sea Salt Chips

Sous vide duck breast with lentils, broccolini, and potato mash

Posted by Gary

Sous vide duck breast with lentils, broccolini, and potato mash.

Sous vide duck breast with lentils, broccolini, and potato mash

I was invited to dinner tonight at a friend’s place. Unfortunately, her son has developed an infection, so we’ve rescheduled it to another time.

Fortunately, I had some duck breasts in the refrigerator and frozen potato mash, so the decision for dinner was easy.

Ingredients

  • Duck breast
  • Iodised salt
  • Black peppercorns
  • Potato mash (frozen, packet for microwave radiation)
  • Broccolini
  • Lentils (tinned)
  • Butter (salted)

Instructions

Sous vide duck breast.

  1. Season the duck breast with a liberal amount of iodised salt.
  2. Put the duck breast into a plastic bag and vacuum seal the bag.
  3. Heat a water bath to 55 Â°C and cook the duck breast for 1 hour.
  4. Remove the duck breast from the vacuum bag.
  5. Dry the duck breast with absorbent kitchen paper.
  6. Heat a cast-iron skillet and rub a little high vapour oil on the hot surface of the skillet.
  7. Score the skin of the duck and sear the skin until it reaches a pleasing colour. What is a pleasant shade, you may ask? As for me, I like a deep golden brown. Some people will go for lighter, and others will prefer darker.
  8. After searing the duck breast’s skin, set aside the duck breast and let it rest for about 10 minutes.
  9. With a freshly honed knife, slice the duck breast into slices a few millimetres thick (or thicker if you prefer your meat to be firm and thick).

Potato mash

  1. Follow the instructions on the packet.

Broccolini and lentils

  1. Trim the stalks of the broccolini with a paring knife.
  2. Empty the tin of lentils, rinse under cold water, and then drain with a sieve.
  3. Wash the broccolini under running water.
  4. After the duck breast has finished searing in the skillet, add a nudge of salted butter to the skillet and then add the broccolini and lentils.
  5. Cook the broccolini and lentils with a lid on the skillet. 
  6. Cook the broccolini to your preference.

Plating up

  1. Spoon the potato mash onto a warm dinner plate.
  2. Lay the slices of rested duck breast on the potato mash so the mash can absorb the meat juices, which will continue to ooze out of the meat. You don’t want to waste a drop of the tasty savoury juices.
  3. Place the broccolini next to the potato mash and then spoon the lentils next to the potato mash.
  4. Spoon the burnt butter by dribbling it over the duck breast, and it too will be soaked up by the potato mash.
  • Vacuum packed duck breasts
  • Dick Boning knife and Dick Butchers knife
  • Sous vide duck breast with lentils, broccolini, and potato mash
  • Sous vide duck breast with lentils, broccolini, and potato mash

Final thoughts

It’s always worth having something in the refrigerator in case of plans falling through.

I hope my friend’s son feels better soon.