![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Anyone who was unfortunate enough to ask me yesterday how I was doing got a response like "better tomorrow." On site before nine, everyone had this about-to-the-storm-the-beach look of dogged determination. ( Except for Merlinia, who was jetting about like a chipmunk on speed. ) My shell shocked answer was untrue, I had a lot of fun yesterday. Of course, today I feel like a truck ran over me and backup up again to see what made the thump noise.
Everything seemed to go well. I didn't get any negative feedback; a lot of people said wonderful things. During "show time" I did what all of us were doing in our own way, running about making sure the table was stocked, people were happy, and nothing bad happened. Before that, I did "soup." Probably the least glamorous thing on the table, but it's what I got, so here's the recipe and story of it.
The recipe card we put out said: "A simple pottage ( onion lentil soup ): onions, lentils, ginger, bay leaves, olive oil, salt." The quantities used of the base ingredients are on the large side. 24lbs of red lentils and 30lbs of onions. Sadly, the troops only managed to finish about a third of this ( we're still waiting on an official head count, easily over 400 though. ) I blame the exceptional yumminess of the rest of the offerings. ( I probably wouldn't have bother with the soup, either. )
I'm not the person to ask to do the vegetarian food. A confirmed carnivore, I'm not a huge fan of lentils or dal, either. However, I do love onion soup (albeit with beef stock.) To my immense surprise, I really liked the flavor profile of this vegan friendly dish.
Straight up onions and salt in water are a complex flavor in their own right. Part of that flavor profile is an unpleasant sulfurous metallic taste. It's not overwhelming and any number of other things will knock it right out, but it really needs to be killed. Pepper seems to do it in, but we couldn't use pepper. It's a big allergen for a local honorary; none of the day board had pepper. Not knowing other options off the top of my head, I knew we needed something earth that would round it out. Ginger immediately came to mind.
Ginger is used in a number of period recipes, particularly in pottages. An underused spice, earthy and bright at the same time, I prefer it to cinnamon in my oatmeal. Oh yeah, we also couldn't use cinnamon. The result was perfect. You can't really taste "ginger", but the bad onion flavor disappears completely and the result is smooth and tasty.
The lentils added a thick mouth feel to the dish and the end result might evoke thoughts of chicken stock, or at least some kind of tasty animal fat. Though I knew it was not only vegan, but nearly fat free. Probably one of the healthiest things I've ever made.
The recipe we used goes something like this:
The onions, the heart of the dish, are not quick, but they can be done ahead of time. We essentially used the process described in Cooks Illustrated:
Using a roasting pan that we cooked onions in ten pound loads. Some olive oil was put down first, then ten pounds filled our roaster. Over the oven time, we periodically moved the contents around to prevent things sticking in one spot and burning. Water and deglaze on stove. Ten pounds of onions became aprox 4.5 cups of deep brown onion soup starter.
I used a bag of made from 10 pounds of onions to an 8 pound bag of red lentils ( aprox 16 2/3 cups ). The lentils must be started separately from the soup base, they don't want anything but water. One 8 pound bag of lentils to at least two and a half gallons of water. The ratio here is approximately 2-to-1 water to lentils. ( Someone told me red lentils don't grow much, they were wrong. Two words; mung beans. ).
Bring water to a boil, add lentils, bring it up a boil again, then drop the heat to a simmer. At this point add four or five bay leaves (use the cheese cloth baggy thing) ( NO SALT ). They can burn real easy. If they start sticking to the bottom, leave them be down there, they have been sacrificed so that no burnt beans infect the rest of the pot. These should take about 20 minutes, but can take as much as 45.
In the other pot, boil those onions; get all the flavor they're willing to give. If some should disintegrate, so much the better. Bay leaves here too. Add the salt here. When the lentils are soft, it's time to combine. Take lentils off the heat. Add the extra water from the lentils to onion side, but not the lentils yet.
Lower the heat on the onion side and taste. It will be strong and "need something." Add a couple teaspoons of ginger. Taste again. You don't want to taste the ginger, you want to knock out that odd onion bite. When it's tastes right, with a round flavor, add the lentils and mix well. You may need a little more salt.
That's it, ready to feed the masses.
Everything seemed to go well. I didn't get any negative feedback; a lot of people said wonderful things. During "show time" I did what all of us were doing in our own way, running about making sure the table was stocked, people were happy, and nothing bad happened. Before that, I did "soup." Probably the least glamorous thing on the table, but it's what I got, so here's the recipe and story of it.
The recipe card we put out said: "A simple pottage ( onion lentil soup ): onions, lentils, ginger, bay leaves, olive oil, salt." The quantities used of the base ingredients are on the large side. 24lbs of red lentils and 30lbs of onions. Sadly, the troops only managed to finish about a third of this ( we're still waiting on an official head count, easily over 400 though. ) I blame the exceptional yumminess of the rest of the offerings. ( I probably wouldn't have bother with the soup, either. )
I'm not the person to ask to do the vegetarian food. A confirmed carnivore, I'm not a huge fan of lentils or dal, either. However, I do love onion soup (albeit with beef stock.) To my immense surprise, I really liked the flavor profile of this vegan friendly dish.
Straight up onions and salt in water are a complex flavor in their own right. Part of that flavor profile is an unpleasant sulfurous metallic taste. It's not overwhelming and any number of other things will knock it right out, but it really needs to be killed. Pepper seems to do it in, but we couldn't use pepper. It's a big allergen for a local honorary; none of the day board had pepper. Not knowing other options off the top of my head, I knew we needed something earth that would round it out. Ginger immediately came to mind.
Ginger is used in a number of period recipes, particularly in pottages. An underused spice, earthy and bright at the same time, I prefer it to cinnamon in my oatmeal. Oh yeah, we also couldn't use cinnamon. The result was perfect. You can't really taste "ginger", but the bad onion flavor disappears completely and the result is smooth and tasty.
The lentils added a thick mouth feel to the dish and the end result might evoke thoughts of chicken stock, or at least some kind of tasty animal fat. Though I knew it was not only vegan, but nearly fat free. Probably one of the healthiest things I've ever made.
The recipe we used goes something like this:
The onions, the heart of the dish, are not quick, but they can be done ahead of time. We essentially used the process described in Cooks Illustrated:
The secret to a rich broth was to caramelize the onions fully. The good news is that caramelizing the onions, deglazing the pot, and then repeating this process dozens of times will keep ratcheting up the flavor. The bad news is what a laborious, hands-on process this proved to be. The answer was to first cook the onions covered in a 400-degree oven for two and a half hours[...] Then we only needed to deglaze the onions on the stovetop three or four times.
Using a roasting pan that we cooked onions in ten pound loads. Some olive oil was put down first, then ten pounds filled our roaster. Over the oven time, we periodically moved the contents around to prevent things sticking in one spot and burning. Water and deglaze on stove. Ten pounds of onions became aprox 4.5 cups of deep brown onion soup starter.
I used a bag of made from 10 pounds of onions to an 8 pound bag of red lentils ( aprox 16 2/3 cups ). The lentils must be started separately from the soup base, they don't want anything but water. One 8 pound bag of lentils to at least two and a half gallons of water. The ratio here is approximately 2-to-1 water to lentils. ( Someone told me red lentils don't grow much, they were wrong. Two words; mung beans. ).
Bring water to a boil, add lentils, bring it up a boil again, then drop the heat to a simmer. At this point add four or five bay leaves (use the cheese cloth baggy thing) ( NO SALT ). They can burn real easy. If they start sticking to the bottom, leave them be down there, they have been sacrificed so that no burnt beans infect the rest of the pot. These should take about 20 minutes, but can take as much as 45.
In the other pot, boil those onions; get all the flavor they're willing to give. If some should disintegrate, so much the better. Bay leaves here too. Add the salt here. When the lentils are soft, it's time to combine. Take lentils off the heat. Add the extra water from the lentils to onion side, but not the lentils yet.
Lower the heat on the onion side and taste. It will be strong and "need something." Add a couple teaspoons of ginger. Taste again. You don't want to taste the ginger, you want to knock out that odd onion bite. When it's tastes right, with a round flavor, add the lentils and mix well. You may need a little more salt.
That's it, ready to feed the masses.