Adventures In Cooking - Something New This Week

Since I can't remember what I made this past week that was new, I'll share a couple of recipes that I am going to make this coming week. I found both recipes on Allrecipes

Chorizo And Lentil Stew

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, sliced
• 3/4 pound bulk beef chorizo sausage
• 5 ribs celery, sliced
• 1 cup dried lentils
• 3 cups water or chicken broth
  
• 1 teaspoon ground dried turmeric
• 1 teaspoon curry powder
  
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 Tablespoon Tomato Paste
  

1. Heat olive oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir in garlic, and cook until it turns golden brown, about 45 seconds. Add the chorizo sausage; cook and stir until the sausage is crumbly and beginning to brown, about 4 minutes. Stir in celery, and cook until the celery softens, about 4 minutes more.
2. Pour off any excess grease from the sausage, then add the lentils and water. Season with turmeric, curry powder, and cumin. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until the lentils are tender, about 40 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper before serving.

** I'm going to make it twice - once with curry and once with paprika instead of the curry powder, because some of my friends/family don't like curry and will use chicken broth instead of water. I'm using beef chorizo, which is harder to find in my area, because my family doesn't generally eat pork.

I'm going to serve this with a loaf of homemade bread recipe that I have found on the same site.

Jo's Rosemary Bread

• 1 cup water
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 1/2 teaspoons white sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/4 teaspoon Italian seasoning (Tuscan Sunset from Penzey's Spices)
  
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon dried rosemary
• 2 1/2 cups bread flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

1. Place ingredients in the pan of the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select white bread cycle; press Start.

I make this by hand, because I don't own a bread machine. Here are the instructions that I use to make this brso I started by proofing the yeast in the water for about 5 minutes, then added one cup of the flour, the sugar, salt, and oil and mixed in my stand mixer on pretty high speed until it was a thick creamy batter (looking almost like pancake batter), 3-4 minutes or so. Then switched attachments to the bread hook and began adding flour gradually, along with the herbs and pepper. Knead just until all dough pulls away from the bowl, then finish kneading by hand (about 5 minutes or so). I let this rise is a greased bowl for one hour, then punched down, formed into an oval loaf and let rise another hour. I brushed with olive oil and coarse sea salt before baking, and I also spritzed this with water about 3 times during baking (it gives it that crunchy outer crust, but it still stays soft in the middle). I baked this about 20 minutes at 375 then turned the heat up to 425 for about 10 more minutes.