Lentils with mushrooms and preserved lemon ragout
Ingredients
- 10g dried porcini mushrooms
- ½ medium onion (100g)
- 4 thyme sprigs (5g)
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 medium carrots (240g in total), peeled; one cut in half widthways, the other cut into 1 cm dice
- 175g Puy lentils
- ¼ small celeriac, peeled and chopped into 1cm dice (100g)
- 75ml olive oil
- 30g coriander, chopped
- 1 large leek, cut in half lengthways and white parts sliced into 5cm chunks (230g)
- 200g ceps, cut into 0.5cm slices
- 200g mixed wild mushrooms, cleaned and roughly torn
- 3 tbsp double cream
- 35g preserved lemon skin, finely diced
- 160g Greek yoghurt
- salt and white pepper
Procedure
- Soak the porcini in 200ml of boiling water for 1 hour. Strain the water – it can be gritty – into a fresh bowl through a muslin cloth and keep aside; rinse the porcini in fresh water and add them to the strained water.
- Fill a medium saucepan half full with water. Place on a high heat and add the onion, thyme, bay, halved carrot and ½ teaspoon of salt. Bring to the boil and then add the lentils. Reduce the heat to medium and gently boil for 15-20 minutes, until the lentils are cooked but still retain a bite. Drain, remove and discard the vegetables and herbs and set the lentils aside.
- Preheat the oven to 220°C/200°C Fan/Gas Mark 7.
- Place the diced carrot and celeriac in a small bowl with 2 tablespoons of the oil,½ teaspoon of salt and ¼ teaspoon of ground white pepper. Spread out on a baking tray and place in the oven for 30 minutes, stirring gently once during cooking, until the vegetables are cooked and starting to caramelise. Remove from the oven and transfer to a bowl, along with the lentils and 20g of the coriander. Keep warm.
- Place a large sauté pan on a high heat with 1 tablespoon of the oil. Add the leek with ½ teaspoon of salt and fry for 2 minutes on each side, until soft and caramelised. Remove from the pan and add the ceps, with another tablespoon of oil and a pinch of salt, and fry for 3 minutes, until caramelised. Add these to the leeks and then repeat with the wild mushrooms, with another tablespoon of oil and a pinch of salt, before returning all the seared mushrooms and the leeks to the pan. Add the cream, preserved lemon and porcini mushrooms and strained water. Increase the heat and boil for 5 minutes, until the sauce has thickened and reduced by half.
- To serve, divide the lentils between 4 plates and spoon over the mushrooms. Finish with the yoghurt, sprinkle over the remai