Day 56: Sausage and lentil stew

Well-fed workers = happy workers = productive workers. Just ask Larry Page, the CEO of Google who has got that philosophy down to a tee. I remember watching a programme on TV a number of months ago about the best places to work in Ireland and Google was in the top three with Microsoft at no.1.  Hardly surprising as they gave the viewers an overview of life at Google with their Michelin-star chefs, the finest cuisine to hand and the loveliest, high quality snacks for employees to munch on in-between. Now there’s a workplace after my own heart. So, with that in mind, I got to work on a nice lunch for Dear Husband and the workers today. In case you thought I was exaggerating the other day about my home looking like a building site, I was not kidding. Just see the photo below. Right enough, there are days when that sign could go inside the house - what with my cooking and Dear Son's antics of throwing things.

So, for lunch, I decided to make Sausage and lentil stew. I started off by adding oil to the casserole dish and fried diced chorizo for 5 minutes. The recipe said to use streaky bacon but I was out of it having gone through two packets the other night so the chorizo saved me yet again. I then added sliced onion, chopped garlic and finely chopped celery. After 15 minutes, I added puy lentils and 150ml of red wine. Once it came up to the boil, I let it cook for 3 minutes until most of the red wine evaporated. I then added in the chicken stock, a bay leaf, a sprig of rosemary and the sausages (adding extra of course!). I always use M&S Classic Butcher Sausages as they are 78% pork. Once it all came up the boil, I popped the lid on and into the oven the dish went for 30 minutes. In the meantime, I put on a pot of potatoes using Rachel’s fail-proof method for boiling potatoes. After 30 minutes, I took out the bay leaf and sprig of rosemary and seasoned the dish. I topped it all off with grated parmesan cheese and lots of freshly chopped parsley.

The verdict…

9 out of 10, 10 out of 10, 10 out of 10 etc. You get the picture. The general consensus was that this dish was beautiful and that is saying something considering that I fed workmen lentils!!! However, I was wise enough to serve the dish with a big pan of spuds as I knew they’d be looking for them. Surprisingly, they actually rated the potatoes on their own as 10 out of 10! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, boiling potatoes isn’t an easy thing to perfect but as long as you follow Rachel’s method, you won’t go wrong. What you do is put the potatoes in a saucepan of salted water (skins on) and boil for 10 minutes; then, empty all but 4cm of the water out of the pan, reduce the heat to low and let them cook for another 20-30 minutes with the lid on. Do not, and I repeat, DO NOT stick a fork or skewer in them; otherwise, they will fill up with water.

To conclude, I loved this recipe on a number of fronts; it fed Dear Husband, the workmen, it only took one pot, included healthy lentils and it used up sausages which were two days near their use-by date. Despite the fact that quite a few ingredients were needed, I will definitely make this recipe again especially if there’s quite a few hardworking mouths to feed. A real winner in my book. In Olympic terms, this would surely get a gold medal.