French Lentils
Braised Carrot
Roast Potatoes
Fried Tofu
Eagle-eyed readers will recognize this meal as leftovers from Easter dinner. As I didn't really go into any of the recipes and prep, this is a chance to catch-up.
The French lentils were pressure-cooked -- 1 1/2 cups of lentils and about 2 1/2 cups of veg stock. One little extra thing we do at the beginning is to add a tablespoon of olive oil to the pressure cooker and lightly brown a half of an onion studded with five cloves and a bay leaf. Then we add the rinsed lentils, the veg stock, a splash of tamari and pressure cook for 16 minutes at 7.5 psi (or the first ring on our pressure cooker).
For the Braised Carrots: Peel the carrots, and put them into a sauce pan large enough to hold all of them in a single layer. Add water about half way up the side of the carrots. Add 1 tbs. of soy margarine. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cover loosely. Cook until the water completely evaporates and only a little soy margarine is left on the bottom of the pan. Add the carrots and whatever soy margarine is left (you can also add an additional 1 tsp. soy margarine if it looks like it needs a little more)to a gratin dish add salt and pepper to taste, and braise for 15-20 minutes in a 350F oven.
The potatoes were cut into 1-inch chunks, tossed with olive oil, salt and pepper and roasted at 450F for 30-35 minutes. The oven was turned off, the potatoes were taken out and tossed 1 tbs of soy margarine and put back in the oven until service.
The tofu was first smoked (the more things change...) (with Cherry and Maple wood chips), then pan-fried, cut into strips and pan fried again and finished with tamari.
As for why we were having leftovers, I had band rehearsal and needed to leave early (this will be a reoccurring theme going forward this month).