Lentil stew
We've had a cold snap in Paris, so this weekend I made lentil stew, and I thought I might as well write it up here. The stew I make is my version of what was originally a Spanish lentil soup recipe I got from a foodie Händel fan in North Carolina. By now I've altered the balance of ingredients, added more, and made the soup thicker so it can be eaten as a main course. It's a very flexible recipe. Here I'll write it down as I made it this weekend, which was enough for four deep bowls, main-course portions. But you could either double everything to make it for eight, or just double the lentils and water, to make the the lentils more prominent. I sometimes make it that way. It just depends on how 'lentil-heavy' you want it to be. Anyway, this is how I made it for four on Saturday. (In fact there were only two of us, so we had it on Saturday and Sunday, with no starter before, no cheese after, just a pudding each time.) Living in Paris, I can easily buy lard fumé