Marinated lentils, kale salad and chocolate banana bread
Good morning! Here’s what I’ve been cooking and reading this week.
I enjoyed these marinated lentils (I in fact used Laird lentils from Flourist, but really any lentils that keep their shape would work) for several meals. I added grated kohlrabi and sunflower seeds to mine, and then on day two, steamed beet, chopped parsley and feta.
This kale salad recipe from the L.A. Times was also really good – the peanuts are an unexpected inclusion – though the dressing approaches chain-restaurant levels of sweetness. (It tastes like nothing more than lemon curd.) Next time I would reduce the sugar and increase the mustard.
All I want to eat, though, is toasted slices of this multigrain sourdough raisin bread. (Sorry, raisin haters.) It’s a cheater sourdough because it includes yeast but on the bright side it comes together fairly quickly. I used two 8” x 4” pans.
I made this double chocolate rye banana bread and ate far too much of it during a low mood one afternoon. It is really good! If you don’t have rye flour, the original Smitten Kitchen recipe it’s based on uses wheat. (She actually has five different banana bread recipes on her site, as well as banana bread-adjacent recipes like banana bread crepes and banana cake, so if you have brown bananas around, I think that’s the place to be.)
Also on the sweet side, I made this black sesame mochi cake last night. If you’re a black sesame lover, and especially if you like mochi, it might be right up your alley. One of the commenters says they put extra black sesame caramel on some popcorn as a snack and I think I want to live at their house?
Reading list
There are nations (such as the Mi’kmaq) that have been using wheat flour for longer than Italians have been using tomatoes, and yet there is no questioning whether or not the tomato is a central part of Italian cuisine.
I recommend this article on Canada’s relationship with Indigenous foods from new-to-me blog Anise to Zaatar, and bonus – it comes with a recipe for bannock french toast with saskatoon berry compote.
“My Black is not a trend,” she tells me. “Supporting and purchasing from Black business owners is a great way to put money into that community, but it’s not a fix for racism. I encourage everyone to think deeper and recognize the way racism exists in their life, and the systemic ways it exists in this country.”
This is a good interview with Eden Hagos of Toronto-based Instagram brand Black Foodie. She recommends a few Black-owned food businesses, including one that sells teff flour, which makes me think it might be time to try making injera again. (My last attempt ended in a successful fermentation topped by questionable mould, so I had to throw the whole thing out. Anyone have any injera tips?)
A caller may technically be asking about how to halve a recipe, but what they really want to talk about is how they’d usually make a full recipe to share with their grandchildren. “You can’t actually give them everything that they need,” Perry says. “You can just let them know that you’re there and that a lot of other people are calling with the same feelings.”
I’ve adored King Arthur Flour’s all-in approach to content for a long time now, but I had no idea they have FIFTEEN people working their baking hotline – which, according to this story in Eater, has been busier over the past few months than in December.
Talk to you all next week! Hopefully about strawberries.
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