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Recipe for Truffled Lentils and Eggs from chef Seamus Mullen’s cookbook Hero Food.
Chef Seamus Mullen | Recipes
March 6, 2013
Tertulia - New York, NY
Photograph courtesy of Seamus Mullen
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Tertulia
West Village
Spanish
359 6th Avenue
New York, NY 10014
T: 646.559.9909
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Hero Food: How Cooking with Delicious Things Can Make Us Feel Better
Purchase on Amazon.com / Powell’s Books
Recommended By
- Chef Dale Talde of Talde and Pork Slope in Brooklyn, NY
- Spice Maker Lior Lev Sercarz of La Boite A Epices in New York, NY
Recipes
Chef Seamus Mullen is the owner of Tertulia restaurant, which is inspired by Spain’s cider houses. He’s a James Beard Foundation Award finalist for Best New Restaurant and author of the cookbook Hero Food: How Cooking with Delicious Things Can Make Us Feel Better.
Truffled Lentils & Eggs
Recipe courtesy of chef Seamus Mullen
Lentils are incredibly versatile beans. They can be puréed, stewed, or formed into cakes and fried. And, unlike other dried beans, they need no soaking and cook quickly. Like so many other things I love to cook, I fell for lentils in Spain. It all started with a simple lentil soup in Burgos where I was spending my senior year of high school. That soup had chunks of ham and a healthy dose of vinegar. Now I always add a splash of good-quality vinegar to my lentils. This dish is an updated version of that lentil soup I remember so well. To really control the cooking, I prepare the beans in two stages, first with simple aromatics, then with another set of ingredients.
A note on decadence: everyone knows how expensive truffles are, and pretty much anyone who’s been to Spain has fallen for Ibérico ham. The pungent aroma of truffles can be overbearing if overused, but fresh or even preserved truffles used with a judicious hand, can add an incomparable earthiness to many dishes.
Serves 4
Ingredients
Lentils
- 2 cups dried Pardina lentils or French green lentils
- 1 carrot, halved
- 1 rib celery, halved
- 2 cloves garlic, peeled
- 1 nice large chunk slab bacon, about . pound
- 2 cups chicken stock
- 2 sprigs fresh thyme
- 2 fresh bay leaves
For The Dish
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- ¼ cup cubed slab bacon
- 1 shallot, finely minced
- 1 clove garlic, finely minced
- 1 teaspoon sherry vinegar
- Salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- ¼ cup finely grated Idiazábal or Manchego cheese
- 4 eggs poached in olive oil
- 1 tablespoon truffle paste, or a fresh black truffle
- 1 teaspoon unsalted butter
- 4 thin slices Ibérico ham
Directions
Lentils
1) Give the lentils a quick rinse and make sure there are no little pebbles. (When I was working in a restaurant in San Sebastián, I bit down on a stone in some lentils from family meal and shattered a molar, so I know the importance of checking).
2) Combine the rinsed lentils with the rest of the ingredients in a large heavy-bottomed pot and bring to a simmer.
3) Cook at medium-low heat, uncovered, until the lentils are very tender, about 45
minutes.
4) Drain the lentils (reserving some liquid) and discard the aromatics.
5) Makes 4 cups of lentils.
Note: I like my lentils creamy and cooked through; but if you prefer lentils that retain the shape of the bean, bring them to a rolling boil first in water and cook for 1 minute, then strain, refill the pot with water, boil 1 minute and drain again. Now they can be cooked. This helps to set the beans’ shape and keep their skins from bursting.
The Dish
1) Heat the olive oil in a saucepan over medium high heat and add the bacon, browning evenly.
2) Once the bacon is nicely browned, add the shallots and garlic and sauté briefly until translucent.
3) Then add the vinegar to deglaze all the bits of bacon goodness stuck to the pan.
4) Reduce the heat to medium low, add the cooked lentils, and season conservatively with salt and pepper.
5) With a rubber spatula, gently fold in the cheese until completely melted. The lentils should have a creamy texture: not too dry but not soupy either. Add some lentil cooking liquid as necessary to adjust the texture.
6) Meanwhile, poach the eggs in olive oil and keep warm.
7) If you’re using truffle paste, fold it into the lentils now; otherwise, for fresh truffles, wait and shave as much as you can afford directly over the finished dish.
8) Remove the pot from the heat and fold in the butter. Divide the lentils among 4 bowls, top with a poached egg a fold of Ibérico ham.
