Goat Cheese in Bacon Coat with Colored Lentils Salad

This comes out of my love for cheese and Mediterranean flavors, combined with the curiosity for what else you can do with lentils besides the traditional lentils soup. And of course you can do way much more. Lentils come in a large color palette, they are rich in proteins, dietary fiber, vitamin B, iron and other goodies. If curious, check this article in Health magazine.


Ingredients for 3 - 4 portions:

• 8 slices of goat cheese. I used "Frico Belle Blanche", a delicious, mild Dutch cheese. I think it's important to have a pretty firm cheese. Consider the fact that it would be heated and you want it melting on your tongue rather than in your pan.
  
• 8 slices of bacon or ham
  
• some branches of fresh rosemary
• 1 tbsp (olive) oil
  
• 1 tbsp honey
• 250 g red lentils
• 3 stalks of spring onion
• a bunch of rucola
• a branch of cherry tomatoes
• 1 tbsp tapenade or olives (optional - I completely forgot this ingredient and added it later, you can do without it)

For the vinaigrette:

• 4-5 tbsp (extra virgin) olive oil
• 2 tbsp vinegar
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
  
• 1 tbsp mustard
• sugar
  
• salt
  
• pepper

How to do it. It's so simple, a child could do it.

• Boil the lentils according to the instructions on the package.
• While the lentils boil, cut about 1 cm thick slices from the goat cheese and wrap them in the bacon slices. Heat up ca. one table spoon of (olive) oil in the frying pan, add some rosemary branches. Roast gently the wrapped cheese slices on both sides. Add the honey and glace them. Too bad there is no "attach smell" option. I would have used it here, cause it's a symphony! ♫ ♬ ♫ ♪ ♫ ♫ ♪ ♬ As you take them out, spice them up with some pepper.

• When the lentils are ready, pour off the water and let them cool down. In the meanwhile cut the onions in rings and the cherry tomatoes in halves. Wash and dry the rucola.
• Mix the oil, vinegar, balsamic vinegar, mustard, adding salt, sugar and pepper till you are pleased how your vinaigrette tastes. Marinate the lentils with this nice oily-sour-sweet-spicy potion and add the veggies & greens.
• Serve the lentils salad and the goat delicacies on a plate. Enjoy!
  

I was kind of starving at the end, and never intended to post this recipe in the first place, so excuse the leftish arrangement, the poor quality of light and so on. But I can assure you it tastes great ;)


**Note: The sources I use for this blog are the internet and cooking books. I don't take credit for these recipes, neither do I claim inventing them. I just add my personal note, replace some ingredients , adjust the quantities to my taste, sometimes mix 2-3 recipes in one, and add some information or advice that I would have found useful myself.

Steamed Chicken stuffed with Coriander - Chili - Butter

This was my first steaming experiment and also a poor attempt to start a diet. I got this nice 2-layered bamboo steamer from the Asian store the other day. And it is indeed an easy, efficient and healthy way to cook. I had some small incidents but I won't let it happen again. Let's steam!

They say these ingredients are enough for four people, but I say it's for two only, and in this particular case those two persons are the 'today-me' and the 'tomorrow-me' (being selfish, or are these the first signs of a multiple personality?)

• 4 nice full chicken breast fillets
• 50g soft butter
• 4 tbsp fresh hacked coriander - (or any herb of your choice)
• 1 chili chopped in tiny pieces
  
• a regular can of coconut milk
• 200g basmati rice
• 350 ml chicken stock or water
• 1 carrot
• 1/2 cucumber
• 3 spring onions (as you see, I used 2 and 1 small leech, cause I ran out of onions)
• 2 tbsp rice vinegar
  

- Step 6 -

How to do it in 8 fun, simple steps:

1) mix the butter, chili and coriander

2) fill the pockets with the herb-butter stuffing

3) salt & pepper and wrap the stuffed fillet in backing paper, like a Christmas candy

4) put the coconut milk and chicken stock in a pot and as it starts boiling add the rice

5) lay the wrapped chicken in the steamer, the steamer on the pot, at (!) low heat. Here I had my first incident, the heat was too high and the milk burst out

6) let it there for 15-20 minutes, and stir the rice once or twice in the meanwhile. At this point I had my second incident. Never underestimate the heat of the steam!

7) while the chicken and rice are being cooked, you slice the cucumber, onions and carrot. For good aesthetics, you can challenge your patience by cutting them in julienne strips. Huh, now you probably wonder if I used my samurai skills to do that. No, I cheated to be honest, I used a special julienne cutter ;) Pour the vinegar over the strips.

8) when the chicken is tender and the rice has been boiled, take it away from the fire, unwrap the chicken and serve it on the coconut milk-rice and decorate with the salad strips.

Hot Flavored Pumpkin for Cold, Rainy Days

This was my Halloween themed meal, and though not my favorite of all dishes but still something to try for the open-minded (or should I say open-mouthed ?). As far as my research went, it is an African dish... but I wouldn't bet my pumpkin on it.
Start cooking this 2 hours before you are about to get hungry. Yeah, I know it sounds mean... but I talk from experience. Feel free to play with ingredients, quantities...The (imprecise) figures I will list here are enough for 2 servings:

Ingredients:

• a 2 kg Hokkaido pumpkin
• 300g chopped (or minced) lamb ( / pork / beef) meat
• a handful of rice
• half stalk of leek
• 1 garlic clove
• 1 onion
• some fresh parsley leaves
  
• raisins
• almonds
  
• 1 tbsp of hot paprika & 1/2 tbsp of sweet paprika powder
• 1 tsp of ground cinnamon (not only a spice, but also a medicine)
  
• a pinch of nutmeg
  
• a dash of coriander
  
• a touch of cayenne pepper
  
• juice and peeling of half a lemon
• one small dried chili (or big, or 2 big ones..depends on your tolerated level of hotness)
• some olive oil
• salt and pepper
• playfulness
  

How to prepare your pumpkin:

• Hackle the (already washed) parsley, press the garlic clove(s) and mix them with the meat , the cinnamon, some of the lemon juice and lemon peelings, the spices and salt. Cover the crazy mix and let it rest in the fridge for a while.

• Carve a cap in the pumpkin and hollow it out, just like you use(d) to do with your jack-o'-lanterns. Just don't get carried away and start carving teeth, eyes and nose. You can do that on next occasion. After throwing the juicy part and the seeds away, keep digging the orange consistent part out. This part is a bit challenging. I did it with a spoon and my Wii-muscles. But if it is too difficult, leave it there on the pumpkin's walls. It will end up in your tummy anyway. Spread generously some salt on the empty walls and turn the pumpkin upside down on a waterproof surface. Let the chemistry do it's magic.

• Bring the rice to boil for about 10 minutes. In the meanwhile, clean and cut the leek in rings. Then dice the onion and stew it a bit in the olive oil. Add the pumpkin flesh, then the leek rings and finally the lamb meat and keep stirring till it gets a nice brown color. Salt and pepper as much as you please...

• Preheat the oven at 200°C. Mix the rice with the raisins, the almonds, the crumbled chili, the spiced meat you kept in the fridge and what's left of the lemon juice.

• You'll notice the poor pumpkin cried you a river and now you're going to dry it up with some kitchen tissues and fill it up with the stuffing. Add some water or stock over it. Lay it on the baking plate and pour 1-2 cups of water around it, so that it has the necessary moist in the sauna.

• Keep it in the oven for about one hour till the orange flesh gets nice and soft.

• Serve it in the natural shell, with playfulness. Yes, I know I said it's enough for 2. So you need some nice company, 2 spoons maybe and if you're striving for perfection, some fine flavored red wine.

Enjoy it!