John Dory and black lentils with a cider cream sauce.

Thank you for your kind comments and thoughts. We have had our third week of friends/family visiting, which has been lovely and a real tonic for me although I am drowning in piles of ironing this week!

I enjoy cooking lentils and I know they have a bad reputation, but give them a try like this.

Using about a cup of lentils per 2 people, bring to the boil half a pan of water. Put in the lentils and cook for five minutes on a high roll boil. Strain over the sink and put back in the pan with water covering the lentils and bring back to the boil then reduce the heat. Add in some stock cube to season. Cook for a further 13 minutes in all (check your packet but 18 minutes is about right for a packet that says 20 minutes). You must taste them to check - looking for a pleasant bite in them not mushy! If they are older and therefore drier, they will take longer to cook. These are black/caviar lentils which look fun on the plate! Add a little butter or olive oil at the end.  You always want to have a good few spoons of cooking liquid with it. I have added skinned and deseeded chopped tomatoes just at the end and they just warm trough staying raw rather than cooked tomatoes.  

The sauce is 1/ 4 cup of cider 1/2 cup of water, season and bring to the boil for a minute. Add in 1/2 cup of heavy cream. I then put in the fish and poach it for a few minutes spooning over the sauce. It must stay on the thin side so add more water if your fish is thicker (cod, haddock etc) and cook for longer. 

Have a good week!  I shall press on with readying the house for more guests!

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