It's Friday before Thanksgiving long weekend and I'm all poised to throw myself into a frenzy of Thanksgiving cooking. This year I'll be hosting an intimate dinner for three. If all things go as planned, we'll be enjoying corn chowder, roast capon, mushroom chestnut pancetta dressing, pan gravy, spiced port apple cranberry sauce, maple glazed sweet potatoes, and, and, and...some sort of potato sidedish. This is embarrassing to admit but I've been too lazy to label the varieties of potatoes I received from my CSA. Believe me, it's been different every week! Up until half an hour ago, I was certain that I'll combine all those purple beauties into a dramatic purplish garlicky mash. But now I am not sure whether I have Russian Blue (high starch, low moisture) or Purple Viking (low starch, high moisture) or a bag of each. On the bright side, they are stored neatly in seperate paper bags. So my game plan is to reach for one of the two bags, cut a potato open. If it is a Russian Blue, I'll make mashed potatoes. If it is a Purple Viking, I'll make a warm pesto potato salad. I love surprises.
What will NOT be a surprise is our dessert. Since my reintroduction into the world of pie baking, I am proud to say that I am one confident piemaker. This year, there'll be three pies to share among the three of us. First up, caramel pumpkin pie (Dorie Greenspan's Baking From My Home To Yours) made from cute little pie pumpkins from my CSA. This is the first time I work with fresh pumpkins instead of canned pumpkin puree so I've been a bit cautious. The pumpkin puree looked a bit watery to me so last night, I whipped out my brand new jelly bags (purchased at Zabar's) and strained out the excess moisture. Who knew my newly-acquired canning skills would be put to good use? Pie #2 is of course the classic double crusted apple pie. I've been lucky to find gorgeous Northern Spy apples at my local farmers' market this week. That is my absolute favourite baking apple so I snapped up 14 for $6. A flakey cream cheese crust with juciy spicy filling, what's not to love? Last but not least, pie #3 will be my very own creation of [drum roll please] Black Forest Cream Pie. I can already taste it in my head...flakey cream cheese crust lined with dark chocolate, chocolate pastry cream, red wine poached cherries, kirsch whipped cream, and shaved chocolate. Oh my! This will totally be the piece de resistance for Thanksgiving 2010.
All these cooking and cleaning obviously require plenty of energy. Of course I thought of that too. I need quick easy meals to sustain me, food that I can eat right out of the fridge before turning my attention back to cooking. I made a hearty vegetarian main course salad last night and I can't wait to eat it again today and tomorrow. A salad of sweet beets, lentils, and goat cheese tossed in shallot vinaigrette provides great balance of carbs, protein, and fats. Besides, it's delicious and totally seasonally appropriate. The key to flavourful lentils is to season it while it's still hot. It's imperative to have your vinaigrette ready when the lentils are done.
Salad Of Beets, Lentils, Goat Cheese
serves 3 as main course, 4 as sidedish
Ingredients
- 4 medium-size beets, scrubbed and trimmed of greens
- 1 bay leaf
- 3 sprigs of thyme
- 1 cup dry beluga lentils, rinsed and picked over
- 1 shallot, thinly sliced
- 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- salt and pepper to taste
- 4 sprigs of parsley, chopped
- 90g unripened goat cheese, crumbled
Method
- To cook the beets: In a medium saucepan, bring water to boil and drop in the beets. Cook for 30-45 minutes until fork-tender. Remove from heat until beets are cooled enough to handle. Slip the peel from the beets and chop into small chunks. Can be made a day in advance.
- To cook the lentils: In a medium saucepan, bring water to boil. Add in bay leaf, thyme, and lentils. Turn heat down and simmer for approximately 15 minutes until soft.
- While the lentils are cooking, make the vinaigrette. In a large mixing bowl, stir together shallot and red wine vinegar. Let it marinate for a few minutes to soften up the shallots. Whisk in olive oil and Dijon mustard until homogenous.
- Drain lentils and discard herbs. Immediately toss with vinaigrette in the mixing bowl and season with salt and pepper.
- Fold in parsley and beets. Adjust seasoning if necessary. Top with goat cheese and serve. I like this salad warm, room temperature, or chilled. Convenience is never overrated!
