Lentil, black bean and pork stew
Proper summer weather begins in June in Boston, but today it was decidedly chilly again - anything below 60oF/16oC may as well be the middle of winter to a kiwi like me. So after spending a day at the lab with the inside air conditioning being a little cooler than usual (they’ve turned the heat off now that it’s “summer”) and with the apartment also a little chilly (again no more heat) I had a hankering for something hot for dinner.
This dish has been influenced by a number of sources. First up was my attempt to make a vegetarian version of sausage rolls which involved a lentil/tofu/mushroom base. It’s pretty good but it’ll have to wait for another post. While making the base for the vegetarian sausage I decided I quite liked lentils. They have such a wonderful nutty flavour and unlike many other pulses do not require overnight soaking before cooking. But the real inspiration for this dish was Evan. We were getting a bit peckish one night when Evan was over but I was feeling a bit of a lack of inspiration in the cooking department. I asked Evan if he could have anything he liked for dinner what would it be? I think he had recently had a lentil and pork soup that he liked at a restaurant somewhere and it was the first thing that popped into his mind. It just so happened I had lentils left over from the vegetarian sausage rolls and frozen pork steak in the freezer so Evan’s obscure suggestion became reality in less than an hour.
Since then I’ve made a few variations, and here’s tonight’s effort.
½ cup of lentils
2 cups of water
1 tsp salt
Pork bone (optional)
few drops of liquid hickory smoke
½ can of black beans
1 tbsp of chopped fennel leaves
1 head of roasted garlic
1 pork loin steak (~300g) – cubed and soaked in brine
½ cup of peas
Cut pork into cubes and soak in brine while lentils etc are cooking. Boil lentils in salted water with pork bone for around 20 mins. Remove pork bone and add drops of liquid hickory smoke, black beans, fennel and garlic. Simmer together to combine flavours for ~10 minutes. Drain pork cubes and sear in a frying pan to seal. Add pork to lentil/beans and simmer till pork is cooked through. Add more water if stew becomes too thick or starts to "catch" on the bottom of the pot. A few minutes before serving add peas to pot and cook for a few minutes to soften peas. Serve in bowls and garnish with fennel sprigs.
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