A Reminder

It is still winter.

All thoughts and hopes of Spring inbound were banished yesterday with the arrival of flat grey skies and a breeze like needles.  A few tiny specks of snow flurried experimentally about while I was walking the neighbour's dog, as if the weather was deciding whether or not to bother.  Luckily it decided not, but still kept it jolly freezing none the less.

This is the sort of weather that calls strictly for comfort food, the sort that's hot, tasty, easy to cook and easy to eat.  I decided on lentils, cooked according to a traditional French recipe from my grandmother; a rich, easy and cheap dish involving sausages - always a win.

Saucisses au Lentilles

The amounts are extremely flexible, go with what you have, they need not be followed to the gram.

200g smoked lardons (thick bacon cut into cubes/small chunks)

1 large onion

3 cloves garlic (if in doubt, always shove in more garlic)

2 carrots

6 large handfuls Puy or green Lentils (1 handful = cup a hand, pour in the lentils until the top ones start falling off) (approx 1 handful per person)

Pork stock cube

Bay leaf, large pinch thyme, freshly ground black pepper

Water

Start by frying the bacon until very crisp.

Turn down the heat slightly, add the chopped onion and a splash of water and cover.  Cook until the onion is soft and starting to go brown.  If it looks like it might stick or burn, add a splash more water.

                                 
Add the carrots, chopped into small chunks, and the garlic, finely chopped or mashed, and fry for a few minutes.  Add the lentils and the herbs, cover the lot in water, put a lid on and simmer for 1 1/2 - 2 hours, stirring every now and then, and checking it hasn't boiled dry.

The lentils should be soft but not mushy, and there should be some liquid left (top up during cooking if it gets low).  About half an hour before the end, cook your sausages, any kind will do - bangers, Frankfurters, garlic sausage, chorizo etc all work well.  I had some plain chipolatas that I decided to pep up a bit by removing the skins and adding some chopped Bramley apple, a large pinch thyme and a slosh of red wine that was hanging about.

I then fried them as little patties until browned and cooked all the way through.

Serve the lentils with the sausages, mustard and some good bread.

Today followed the same meteorological patterns as yesterday, although with a slightly stiffer, needle-ier breeze.  Edward had the day off work and we decided to go and amble about in London for the day.  We started at London bridge, with a trip to Borough Market for huge slow roast pork and apple sauce baps, and hot coffee to set us up.

Feeling slightly more evenly matched against the elements we then beetled along the South Bank, feeling quite smug and British, admiring the architecture and general Englishness of it all, but also mostly feeling mostly frozen.

We quickly passed the point of being acutely aware of having ears due to how much they hurt, and arrived at the point of worrying we might not have ears at all, as we couldn't feel them any more.

Photos of faces were swiftly discouraged, the eye being drawn instantly and enthrallingly to our red noses.

    It was, to say the least, fresh.

On our return home, all previous plans of a light supper and a vigorous Zumba class were rejected by my body, and no amount of visions of menacingly hovering bikinis could entice me to venture back out into the Arctic conditions wearing sports kit.  Cooking anything complicated was also out of the question, and so it is that we find ourselves curled up on the sofa eating lentils, hot buttery baguette, mulled cider and chocolate, and watching a film.  Not quite the way to a bikini body, but luckily I have just been reminded that the summer is an awfully long way off.