2 shallots, chopped
1 butter
12 oz whole green lentils (le puy)
1 handful of chopped lovage
1 sprig of thyme
1 curl of orange peel
1 light stock or water
Directions
Soften the chopped shallots in a little butter without colouring
them. Stir in the lentils. Add a handful of chopped lovage, the
sprig of thyme, orange peel and stock or unsalted water to cover
well. Simmer until tender. Drain off and reduce the cooking liquor to
make a little sauce, enriching it with more butter and seasoning to
taste. In the absence of lovage, use the young leaves and tenderest
parts of a celery heart, and season the dish with a pinch each of
celery salt, lemon zest and powdered curry spices.
Source: Philippa Davenport in "Country Living" (British), November
1988. Typed for you by Karen Mintzias
Servings: 4 servings
Lentils With Lovage Recipe brought to you by Recipe Ideas
Categories: Bean; Vegetable
The History of Recipes
It is possible to track the history of meal recipes way back into ancient history, in fact as far into history as the Egypt of the Pharoahs, and possibly even further than that. Having said that, in the main part, these early cook books were just very simple pictorial instructions for food preparation.
In fact, the most ancient recipe discovered so far, according to academics are a few stone tablets in ancient Sumerian which recount the preparation of bread which is then used to make a drink, quite possibly a form of beer as it is recorded as making those who drank it feel wonderful and blissful. Later on, in The time of the romans around 25BC a man called Apicius created a collection of scripts showing how to cook the recipes cooked by wealthy Romans. In his scrolls, he tells us how the roman meals were separated into hors d`oeuvres, main course and afters, a style of dining still practiced today. Aspicius also describes how the cooks of Roman times made use of a wide range of spices and herbs, including a few you will know like bay, fennel and dill. Later, we have some books published in the 14th Century - a cookery book published under the title `Forme of Cury`, and another, similary entitled `Curye on Inglish`. Perhaps surprisingly, these books are not about the curry that is popular today, but instead accounts of the types of meals served to the upper classes of the period. Later on in the 1400s, knights returning from the crusades brought us a variety of foods and spices from middle-east cuisine, such as coriander, basil and rosemary. These new foods and spices caused an increase in manuscripts on food, many of which are kept safe in private cookery archives. The arrival of television brought us TV chefs and the demand for the spin-off recipe books. Which brings us neatly to the present day and the invention of computers and the internet, allowing everybody to search through massive numbers of recipes just like those on this site. |
We hope you enjoy this Lentils With Lovage recipe.
