Caramelized vegetable lentil stew (for a rainy day) — Transcript

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1. 0:00There's a hurricane. Lauren is sick. So,
2. 0:04baby, we got a stew going. Lentils. You
3. 0:07could put some meat in this if you
4. 0:09wanted to, but honestly, it doesn't need
5. 0:10it. Very cheap, very savory, a little
6. 0:13labor intensive, but you can do all the
7. 0:15prep as you cook. And it freezes great.
8. 0:18Here's a few cups of water that I boiled
9. 0:20in the microwave. And in goes half an
10. 0:23ounce, 14 g of dried mushrooms,
11. 0:25porchini. Not many for this quantity of
12. 0:28food. It's not going to taste mushroomy.
13. 0:30It's just going to taste meaty. Leave
14. 0:32that over here to steep. Maybe get the
15. 0:34handle out of the shot. Get some olive
16. 0:37oil in a big pot. Get it heating. Couple
17. 0:39of big onions. I'm going to roughly
18. 0:41caramelize them. So, I'm going to need a
19. 0:43lot. They cook down. And if you do these
20. 0:45in thin strips or wedges, they actually
21. 0:47help to hold together your individual
22. 0:50bites of lentils. They'll be very soft
23. 0:52by the time we're done with them. First
24. 0:54one in. Do the other one. My heat is
25. 0:57quite high. I want to get some browning
26. 0:59on these. Without meat, I need browning
27. 1:01wherever I can get it. Other onion in.
28. 1:04And I'll try the molecular gastronomy
29. 1:06trick where you fry a star anise or two
30. 1:09with the onions. Theoretically, the oil
31. 1:12dissolves the anithol which reacts with
32. 1:14the sulfur compounds in the onions to
33. 1:16get you meaty flavors. Or it might just
34. 1:18make your stew taste like licorice.
35. 1:20Let's find out together. I'm giving this
36. 1:22a whole head of garlic. Break apart the
37. 1:25cloves. Trim off all the root ends.
38. 1:27Can't forget to stir the onions before
39. 1:29they burn. Always be stirring. I'll give
40. 1:32each clove a bash. Remove the paper. And
41. 1:35then these go in virtually whole.
42. 1:37They're going to caramelize with the
43. 1:38onions. They're going to be sweet, soft,
44. 1:40and mild by the time we're done here.
45. 1:43Some celery sticks. Celery gets meaty
46. 1:45when you brown it. I'll bict the skinny
47. 1:48ends and then chop in those go. The more
48. 1:51wet mass I add here, the less at risk of
49. 1:54burning this will be. But that brown
50. 1:56stuff in there is going to burn
51. 1:57imminently. So, some water. Scrape a
52. 2:00little. I guess I'll tricseect the fat
53. 2:02ends and then chop in those go. Got a
54. 2:05couple of red chilies here for a lot of
55. 2:07food. So, no need to take out the ribs
56. 2:09or anything. Little pieces. Who cares
57. 2:11how you do it? It's all going to break
58. 2:12down. And I want to cook these veggies
59. 2:14until they are deep amber. deglazing
60. 2:17with water every now and then just to
61. 2:19keep the bottom from burning. I want as
62. 2:21much dissolved brown stuff as possible.
63. 2:23It is the basis of my flavor here. I can
64. 2:26cut up some big carrots into big chunks.
65. 2:28Now, when you're cooking meatless, never
66. 2:31pass up an opportunity to have something
67. 2:33be big and chunky. And I want these to
68. 2:35have some bite to them in the end. So,
69. 2:36I'm going to hold off on them for now.
70. 2:38Caramelize this veg the rest of the way.
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102. 3:55you, ExpressVPN. Anyway, I left some
103. 3:58garlic behind. Leave no garlic behind.
104. 4:01Those can still go in. And I actually
105. 4:03meant to save like half a raw clove for
106. 4:06a thing. After like 20 minutes of
107. 4:09aggressive heat and stirring, I've got a
108. 4:11dark amber flavor bomb in here. Carrots
109. 4:13can go in. Time to make a little well.
110. 4:16Drop in a huge knob of butter, like a/4
111. 4:19cup. Could just be more olive oil. Also,
112. 4:22a roughly equivalent volume of tomato
113. 4:24paste and a roughly equivalent volume of
114. 4:27flour. Stir, stir, stir to get that
115. 4:29flour dispersed so it doesn't clump. And
116. 4:32then wait until you start to smell it
117. 4:34browning. This rough r will hold the
118. 4:37lentils together as you eat. And it's
119. 4:39another big source of brown flavor, as
120. 4:42is the brown tomato paste. Wait, hold.
121. 4:46Right before the bottom burns, it is
122. 4:48time to delaze. And I've got my kavasier
123. 4:50right here. Turn the flame off so I
124. 4:53don't molotov cocktail myself. I love
125. 4:55brown liquor with mushrooms, but you
126. 4:57could skip it. Just use water or any
127. 4:59stock. Heat back on moderate. Scrape the
128. 5:02bottom clean. I'll throw in a little
129. 5:04water just to loosen this up, keep it
130. 5:06from burning. Now is a good time to fish
131. 5:09out those star anise. They'll be hard to
132. 5:11find once the lentils go in. They always
133. 5:13break up into little hard pieces. That's
134. 5:15why I usually don't use this anise
135. 5:17trick. I'll fish out the bigger chunks
136. 5:19of rehydrated mushroom. Most of the
137. 5:22flavor is in the water, but there's no
138. 5:23reason to waste these. Just chop them up
139. 5:25real fine so your wife doesn't notice
140. 5:27them in there. I'll start off with a
141. 5:29couple of big pinches of salt. This is a
142. 5:31ton of food we're making, so going to
143. 5:33need even more salt than that by the
144. 5:35end. In goes the mushroom tea. I'll hold
145. 5:38back the last little bit where any sand
146. 5:40will have settled. Porchini in
147. 5:42particular tend to be sandy since they
148. 5:44are wild harvested. Time for a pound of
149. 5:47red lentils. And I did not like this
150. 5:50kind. As you're going to see, these fell
151. 5:52apart too quickly. Even though the
152. 5:54stated cook time is the same as my
153. 5:56normal brand GR, what I usually use for
154. 5:58this dish are the red lentils that look
155. 6:00brown or green in the bag because they
156. 6:03still have their seed coat on them. That
157. 6:05coat holds them intact even through very
158. 6:07long cooking. I thought the pretty ones
159. 6:10would be good for the video and the gods
160. 6:12punish me every time I prioritize
161. 6:14aesthetics. Rinsed lentils in. Here's
162. 6:17twice their weight in waxy potatoes.
163. 6:19Waxy varieties boil better. Rinse those
164. 6:22off. These little guys I can just cut in
165. 6:25half. They're going to shrink. And
166. 6:26without meat, we want big chunks of
167. 6:29something. Stir, stir, stir. This is
168. 6:31thick stuff. Don't let it stick to the
169. 6:33bottom and burn. You actually, you could
170. 6:35use what we have in the pot right now as
171. 6:37a base for a vegetarian shephardd's pie,
172. 6:39but I didn't feel like making mashed
173. 6:41potatoes. Much easier to just throw
174. 6:43these in and boil them. Some more
175. 6:46seasoning to start with. A lot of
176. 6:47pepper. A lot of smoked paprika. If you
177. 6:50wish there was bacon in this, the smoked
178. 6:53paprika will scratch that itch, though
179. 6:55you could absolutely have put some bacon
180. 6:57in with the vegetables at the beginning.
181. 6:59Enough water or stock just to cover
182. 7:01everything. I will add more water as I
183. 7:03go as the lentils absorb water. I just
184. 7:06want to be conservative with it so that
185. 7:07I have a stew texture at the end, not a
186. 7:10soup texture. Though, if lentil soup is
187. 7:13your worst case scenario, you're doing
188. 7:15pretty well in life. Some thyme sprigs
189. 7:18and bay leaves to infuse. And now I just
190. 7:20simmer until the carrots and the
191. 7:22potatoes are tender, like half an hour.
192. 7:24Garnish time. Got to clean my board and
193. 7:27my knife a little bit. Scrape some zest
194. 7:29off of an orange. I love orange with
195. 7:32legumes. Here's that half a raw garlic.
196. 7:35I saved some leaves for my celery. Chop
197. 7:38this all up very fine. You could
198. 7:39sprinkle this like a gremlada over the
199. 7:42final stew. Or you could throw it in a
200. 7:44bowl with some pepper, pinch of salt, a
201. 7:47little pinch of sugar just to balance
202. 7:48the bitterness of the zest. And stir in
203. 7:50some plain Greek yogurt or skewer or
204. 7:54sour cream or creme fresh or whatever.
205. 7:57This is enough for like four portions.
206. 7:59We got way more than that in the pot,
207. 8:00but I'm going to freeze most of it. That
208. 8:03yogurt mixture will taste even better as
209. 8:05it sits for a little bit. Final knife
210. 8:07operation is to cut that orange in half.
211. 8:10Lentils are almost done. I'm going to
212. 8:12finish this uncovered because this is a
213. 8:14little more watery than I want it.
214. 8:16Scrape the bottom. This stuff will tend
215. 8:18to stick and burn. Let's have a taste.
216. 8:21Needs more salt. Some of which I'll take
217. 8:23from soy sauce for some extra umami, but
218. 8:25not so much that it tastes like Chinese
219. 8:27food. A little more salt. A lot more
220. 8:29smoked paprika. A lot more pepper. And
221. 8:32it's not spicy enough. I want some chili
222. 8:34flakes. Stir in all that beautiful
223. 8:36stuff. Are the carrots and potatoes
224. 8:38tender yet? Not quite. These split
225. 8:42lentils that I bought are going to fall
226. 8:43apart a bit before the chunks are done.
227. 8:45That's fine. They'll still be good. It's
228. 8:47just different from the texture I
229. 8:48normally get with the whole lentils. I
230. 8:50can fish out the bay leaves and the
231. 8:52thyme sticks. And there we go. Potatoes
232. 8:54are fork tender. At the last minute, in
233. 8:57goes your friend and mine, frozen peas.
234. 9:00I can also scrape in a few fresh thyme
235. 9:02leaves for more color. Stir those to get
236. 9:05the peas thawing. And I will juice in my
237. 9:08orange, which will brighten this up a
238. 9:09little. We are done. In the bowl we go.
239. 9:12And it's great as is, but for me, it's
240. 9:15the yogurt condiment that really makes
241. 9:17it. It gives you some heterogeneity of
242. 9:19both flavor and temperature. This may be
243. 9:22the meatiest meatless dish in my
244. 9:24repertoire. Those caramelized vegetables
245. 9:26provide a great deep base of flavor. I
246. 9:29think the starinise mostly just makes it
247. 9:32taste slightly of licorice, which is
248. 9:33honestly a great combination with the
249. 9:35orange and the thyme. Super nutritious.
250. 9:38big satisfying chunkies. It's a bit of
251. 9:41an afternoon project, but you can hold
252. 9:43it on low for a long time once it's done
253. 9:45and just finish the bowls with yogurt. I
254. 9:47would totally make this for company.
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258. 9:56stay dry out there. Don't blow away.