Puy Lentil Galettes

When I was young, my mother had a rule that she would drive me to school if it was -25C or colder. Otherwise I walked. That seemed pretty reasonable to me as a kid, just bundle up and trundle off. If the weather went down to -30C or colder, I didn't have to go to school, which happened a few times as I grew up, living in rural Alberta. I live in Saskatchewan now, and have come to respect the range of -30C to -45C a lot more, as it will exist here for a week at a time. Sometimes longer, sometimes colder. And people keep functioning... going to school and work, running errands. It's kind of amazing. As an adult who lives without a car in a city with sadly mediocre transit, I have made the general rule that I don't go out if it's colder then ~-25C with the windchill because I walk pretty much everywhere and that gets really chilly, really fast. If I can get to a bus, I'll sometimes stretch it to -30C if what I need to do is urgent.

Today it is -32C outside and with the windchill it's -45C. I stayed home. I can research from here, so there is absolutely no reason to subject myself to that kind of cold. 

I've spent a productive morning and then needed food. I felt like cooking to give myself a break from the reading, so flipped through Plenty and found a recipe that worked with what I have in the pantry and fridge. This recipe appears to be a riff on the French pastry 'vol-au-vents' and seemed summer-y, which contrasts nicely with the weather. I had everything called for, so I figured I'd give it a spin. As usual, the ingredients are straight from the book and the instructions incorporate my alterations and observations.

Puy Lentil Galettes

(p. 208, Plenty)

Serves 4

1 cup Puy lentils 

2 bay leaves

2 tsp cumin seeds

2 tsp coriander seeds

5 tbsp olive oil, plus more to finish

1 medium onion, roughly chopped

1 1/4 cups Greek yogurt

2 garlic cloves, crushed

2 cups baby spinach leaves

3 tbsp chopped cilantro

3 tbsp chopped mint

juice of one lemon

salt and black pepper

14 oz puff pastry

1 egg, beaten

Assemble ingredients:

Cook the lentils in a pot of boiling water with the bay leaves for 20-30 minutes or until thoroughly cooked. Drain in a sieve and set aside. 

In a small frying pan over medium heat, dry-roast the cumin and coriander seeds for 2 minutes, or until they become fragrant. Grind them using a mortar and pestle. I chose to use pre-ground spices today as my hands are giving me some grief and a mortar and pestle would probably only compound that.

Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a small pan and fry the onion gently for 6-8 minutes, or until golden and very soft. Add the garlic and the spices and cook for two more minutes.

Combine the onion mixture with the cooked lentils and set aside to cool down. 

Once cool, stir in the yogurt, spinach, herbs, lemon juice and remaining oil. Taste and add salt and pepper to suit. 

Roll out the puff pastry 1 1/4 inches thick and cut out four circles about 3 inches in diameter. Place on a baking sheet and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 400F. When pastry has been chilled, brush with the beaten egg and bake for 10-15 minutes, or until golden on top and underneath. Allow to cool slightly. I decided to use only 8 oz of pastry because I didn't want too much, and I chose to cut it into squares rather than circles so I wasn't wasting any. 

To serve, place the pastry in the middle of each plate. Pile the lentils high on top so you can just see the edge of the pastry. Finish with a drizzle of olive oil. I didn't add any additional oil as I felt there was enough already present.

This is the first recipe from Plenty that hasn't wowed me. It was good, but it was good in that "It's okay,  but I'd never order it again in a restaurant" kind of way. I found the flavours very muted... it was nice, but perhaps too subtle for what I was hoping for. I think I'd like to play with the filling a bit, see if I could do a variation that didn't rely on quite so much yogurt... I was thinking maybe reducing the lentils by half, increasing the onion and garlic, and then making up the difference with sauteed mushrooms. Change the mint out for some thyme or rosemary, sub the cilantro for parsley... It would be a very different dish, but might be fun. I might play around making variations of this until I come up with something that I really like, but I don't think I'd make this exactly as listed again. The presentation is cute though. I like that.