Red Lentil Stew

So, back at this after a LONG ASS hiatus. Woke up this AM with a tweaked back/neck which killed most of the day's plans. However so long as I am standing upright the pain is minimal, as I continue to gently strrreetttttccchhh the back, neck and shoulders. A good way to make a dead day a productive one: cook something new.

I've recently been trying to be more healthy and I wanted to make something today completely from goods that I have on hand. As it turns out, a quick recipe search for lentils (a package of red lentils has been sitting in my cupboard for ages) led me to a recipe for which I already have all of the ingredients.

Starting off by making 6 cups of vegetable broth from scratch.

(Had an accumulated bag of frozen veg cuttings sitting in my freezer, primarily from the not-so-great potato leek soup I made last month).

An hourlong simmer yielded me 4 cups of the six cups veg broth I need for lentil stil recipe -- that'll do.

Next I got my stew ingredients going:

Onions got initial simmer in olive oil, garlic added shortly thereafter. Once soft & translucent, tomato paste was added to complete the base. A couple minutes more simmering then the rest of the ingredients go in. Carrots, potatoes, spices (cumin, smoked paprika, cayenne pepper), veg broth, and of course the cup of red lentils.

Turned the temperature up to high, threw on the lid and brough to boil. Reduced to simmer and let it simmer for 30 minutes. 

Added half teaspoon salt, took the initial taste test, and -- pretty good!

Removed from heat and served myself my very first bowl of red lentil stew. This is def going on the recipe rotation list. Fairly easy prep, tasty AND healthy. And my one initial misgiving about the recipe (an entire onion) is unwarranted -- I diced the onion extra fine and for the end result you don't even notice onion texture -- the lentils dominate. Def going to make this again.

Chicken Adobo

After being on an experimental cooking hiatus for quite some time, I decided to formally take up some new cooking endeavors. For this month of March, the final month of this semi-milestone year of my existence, I am intent on making the most of it.

So, night one of day one of the month of Marzo. Chicken Adobo, you're up. I actually wasn't going to try and make this until mañana, since I thought I needed to go to the grocery store for some ingredients. However, it turned out that for the recipe I decided on that I already had all of the ingredients.

There were also a few cloves of garlic that didn't make the picture, which were crushed and added to the pot along with the above ingredients. I'm following a Food Network TV recipe with the exceptions of (1) cutting the recipe in half, and (2) adding the brown sugar. Gotta have that brown sugar, babe ("I get high off ur love/I don't know how to behave"). Ha. I also plan to finish the chicken off in the broiler -- the better looking pics of other adobo recipes include this final step.

So, ingredients into my Dutch Oven, along with six boneless, skinless chicken thighs.

I am to let these marinate for 1 to 3 hours.

Marination for maybe an hour n 15 happened, then I fired up the stove, got the liquid to boil, and dropped the lid on top of the pot, dropped the flame to low, and let it simmer for 30 minutes (stirring occasionally).

Lid off and more simmer for 20 more minutes or so, so the sauce will thicken. At abt 20 and the liquid still looked pretty liquid.

I let the sauce continue to simmer on its own as I got the chicken onto the broiler pan to secure that crisp I seek.

Maybe 4 minutes total and them thighs were nice and brown. 

Within minutes I had my plate prepared and the next days' leftovers separately cooling off. Sat down w/ my plate of first attempt at chicken adobo (w/ white rice, of course). Equipped with fork, knife... and spoon, of course... I dig in.

Verdict: Pretty tasty! 

I admit the dish was smelling very vinegar-y early on -- I am historically not a big fan of vinegar-based dishes. However I keep getting that preconceived notion proven wrong -- here, once again. Admittedly I've shied away from adobo in pretty much all instances where I get the opportunity to have Filipino food (which are few and far between -- I live in a Filipino food desert (yeah, I just made that up)), so I don't have much of a reference point for critique. 

I definitely taste the vinegar, but it marries well with the soy sauce. The black peppercorns give it that slightest kick. I am glad I added that TBSP of brown sugar. I'm inclined to add more next time -- play with ratios... Maybe try another recipe. At any rate, this IS pretty good as prepared... And I've learned that I like adobo 😎