Moroccan Spicy Lentils

Adapted from a recipe published in the Boston Globe which was in turn adapted from From Tapas to Meze, ISBN 1580085865, by Joanne Weir who admits to having filched it from a Moroccan taxi driver.  This dish is worth the bit of trouble it takes to make.  It is great as a base for a strongly flavored fish, such as salmon, but cook the fish itself without any flavorings, except a little black pepper, to avoid a clash.  Adjust the spiciness to your diner's preferences mainly with the cayenne.  The quantities given will provide the main starch of four meals or a side vegetable for six.

• 1 ½ cups French le Puy lentils, rinsed and picked over
• 4 whole cloves, or more if desired
• 1 whole yellow onion
• 2 bay leaves, or more if desired
• 1 2-inch piece of lemon rind (or 2 1-inch pieces if the knife slips)
• ¼ cup olive oil (or just enough to cook the onion, see below)
• 1 large red onion, finely chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed and finely chopped
• 2 tomatoes, peeled, seeded (or half a can of tomatoes) finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• ½ teaspoon turmeric
• ½ teaspoon paprika
• ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper (or adjust to taste)
• ¼ cup fresh Italian parsley, chopped
• ¼ cup fresh cilantro, chopped
• 1 to 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• salt and black pepper, to taste

1. Take the yellow onion, stick the cloves into it (sharp end first is easiest), and put it in a medium saucepan with the bay leaves and lemon rind.  Add water to just cover the onion, bring to a boil and simmer for 20 to 30 minutes.  Fish out and discard the now squishy onion (yuck!) and the limp bay leaves and lemon rind.  Add the lentils to the flavored water.  Now, if you're doing all this at the last minute, bring the water back to the boil and simmer until the lentils are done, about 20 minutes.  In fact, the original recipe has you add the lentils from the start, so you can do that to shorten the total cooking time.  What I do, is to get this far way ahead of the rest of the cooking.  If that's your plan, just put the lentils in the hot water and leave them on the stove top with no flame.  I find that bringing them back to the boil later just about completes the cooking so you can do this when you're ready to proceed with step 2, below.  The lentils are "done" for this dish when they are tender but still have a bit of bite.  They will cook some more, so whatever you do, don't let them get soft now.  Drain them in a sieve.
2. In a large skillet, heat the oil and cook the red onion, stirring often, for 5 minutes.  Add the garlic, tomatoes, cumin, ginger, turmeric, paprika and cayenne.  Cook for 3 minutes.  Add the parsley, cilantro and lentils (but, see also Variations below).  Cook, stirring, for 2 minutes.  Add the lemon juice, 1 tablespoon at a time.  Add salt, if you must, and black pepper to taste.

Variations

If you've other food to prepare, you may not be able to time the cooking of the lentils so that they're done at the precise instant you need to put them in the skillet with the onion, garlic and tomato mixture.  You could put the drained lentils in a warm oven, but be careful that they don't dry out.  I start the onions cooking when I begin to drain the lentils, set them aside for a few minutes and add them to the onions before the garlic, tomatoes, etc., so that they warm back up.

Another problem is having each food item ready to go to table at the same time.  I find that if I do everything as above except add the the parsley and cilantro then the almost ready dish is happy on a very low heat, covered, for quite a while.  About three to five minutes before serving, I add the parsley and cilantro, stir, and then leave it on the low heat until I'm ready to put it on the plates or in a serving dish.  Remember to warm your plates and serving dishes!