Twice-dressed salad
of warm lentil patties
Chris, another former partner of mine, popped by one day to visit. I think it must have been mid-November, because I'd made a number of liqueurs that year, and they'd already been bottled for their Christmas and New Year's debut.
"Care to taste them?" I asked, and of course Chris said yes.
I can almost guarantee there was sloe gin (which I used to make every year) and, by this time, I was also producing both blackberry gin and blackberry vodka. But I've a feeling that that year I went one step further: I dabbled with frozen strawberries in vodka.
Several hours later, much of my Christmas stock had been happily (or sadly) depleted.
Chris and I some years after this event
How to get some food into us became the pressing question, especially as Chris is vegetarian though I am not.
I had a bag of posh salad in the fridge (the sort with julienne strips of raw beetroot in it), along with a batch of pevre I'd made the day before, and a dozen frozen lentil patties in the freezer. Thus was born my "twice-dressed salad of warm lentil patties".
Chris and I wolfed it down, enjoying every mouthful. It was something a proper Bistro would be proud to serve their vegetarian customers. Only afterwards, when he asked what was in it, did he discover that he'd eaten coriander.
"But I hate coriander," he marvelled.
When things don't taste like you expect them to, maybe it's time to give them another shot.
Ingredients
a bag of really nice salad
salt and pepper
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
6 -8 lentil patties per person
a small quantity of pevre
Find the recipes here:
Method
1.
Lay the salad leaves on a plate and season them with salt and pepper. Drizzle with olive oil and then with balsamic vinegar for the first dressing.
While you are doing this, reheat the lentil patties under a grill, turning occasionally until they are hot all the way through.
2.
Position them on top of the salad leaves, then spoon a little of the pevre over each patty. Serve immediately and enjoy!
This salad would also work well with onion bhajis in place of the lentil patties.
Any questions? You can use the comments form at the bottom of the page.
Did you know?
You'll find recipes at the back of all the books in the Send for Octavius Guy series: