Lamb and Lentil Soup

Second time making a lamb soup. It worked well the first time, so naturally I'm messing with the recipe and adding lentils.

 

Ingredients:

• 1 pound of ground lamb
• 1 tbsp of lamb tallow
• 3 celery stalks, diced
• 3 long thin carrots, diced (you could probably use two stout carrots)
• 1 large Spanish onion, diced
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/2 stick of butter
• Salt, pepper, dried thyme, and dried rosemary to taste
• 1 cup of brown lentils, rinsed
• 1 quart of low-salt chicken broth (beef broth or some wild homemade broth mix should work fine)
• Ditalini and/or fregula sarda tostata pasta

Procedure:

1. Brown the lamb in the lamb tallow over medium-high heat with some salt and pepper.
2. Remove the lamb to a bowl.
3. Add the onion, carrots, and celery to the pot and sauté with salt, pepper, and herbs until softened.
4. Add the garlic and cook until its not terribly pungent.
5. Return lamb to pot and add lentils. Stir
6. Add chicken broth and bring to a boil.
7. Cover and simmer on low heat for an hour.
8. Add pasta and simmer another 20 minutes.

Not an affiliate link, but here's a link to the pasta I used.

Chili with White Beans

This was something of a fluke. I thought I had black beans in the cupboard. I was wrong, so Great Northern Beans it is.

It's a chili, so most of this is improv.

• 1 lb of ground beef (roughly)
• 1 green pepper
• 1 onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 can of diced tomatoes with green chilis
• 1 generous tbsp of chili powder (I actually filled the cap of the container)
• 1 tbsp of cumin (the cap again)
• 1 pinch of Mexican oregano (not what you were thinking, you deviants ;)
• Salt and pepper (too taste)
• Beef stock (as needed)
• Corn meal (as needed)

On this occasion, I sauteed the diced onion and pepper over medium-high heat in a bit of grapeseed oil along with some salt and pepper, then added the garlic. I put that aside on a plate while I browned the beef, then everything went back into the pot along with the tomatoes, beans, and remaining spices.

I added enough beef stock to deglaze the pot and cover the ingredients, then left it to simmer for an hour or so. I added the corn meal toward the end as a thickener and let it simmer another 15 minutes or so.

Served with a spoon of sour cream.

Chili is pretty forgiving, and this turned out quite nice.

Whiskey and Lillet, Round 2

 For a second attempt, I've just changed the ratios to see what happens.

• 2 oz Tullamore Dew
• 1 oz Lillet Blanc
• 2 dashes orange bitters

Properly stirred with ice this time before putting in a chilled cocktail glass.

As expected, this version features the whiskey more, which is good, but it's still mild ingredients. I think I'll try a different bitters next time to see what that does. Failing that, it might be time to try some real citrus.

Whiskey and Lillet

I suppose this will need a name once I finish tinkering with it.

I decided to do something simple with ingredients I had on hand, so I mixed Tullamore Dew with Lillet Blanc in equal proportions. It's not exciting, but it's certainly not bad. There's somewhere to go with this, but I haven't figured it all out yet.

A couple of dashes of orange bitters helped, but it needs something else. Might try some citrus next time.

Leftover Pilaf

I made a venison stew for Thanksgiving, and it went over quite well, but after it was over, I had a lot of broth leftover. Inspired by Wilderness Cooking, I figured it would make a good pilaf.

Making this required one cup of rice and two cups of venison broth (which happens to be how much I had). These went into the Instant Pot and got stirred together. Just to give it some meatiness, I added some frozen meatballs and little smokies.

From there, all I had to do was set the pot for rice and wait for it to be done. I wouldn't call this a fancy meal by any stretch, but it made a very nice lunch.