Puy
Lentils with Sausages and Crisp Cheese Topping Recipe
Merchant
Gourmet and Chef Alex Mackay
Merchant
Gourmet recently launched a brand new web site www.merchant-gourmet.com.
As well as an online store to enable you to easily order
Merchant Gourmet products a recipes section has been
created, into which video guides have being incorporated
from top chef Alex Mackay.
Merchant Gourmet was started by Mark Leatham in 1985.
He spent his time looking for the cream of the crop,
and talking about it to la crème de la crème.
Today, Merchant Gourmet now has over forty products
that you will find on the shelves of major supermarkets.
Mark is still looking for more, newer good stuff, and
working with their suppliers. The rest of the team spend
a lot of time cooking and tasting.
The range includes everything from Chestnuts to Porcini
Mushrooms, Sun Dried Tomatoes, and Balsamic Syrup. Merchant
Gourmet wants people to use them all the time, rather
than lose them in the back of the cupboard. The big
idea is that a bit of something special can elevate
your lunch or dinner. One ingredient makes all the difference,
if you will.
For written version of recipe please
scroll down page
Alex
Mackay . . . the Cook, the Teacher, the Writer and the
Father
Cooking
is everlasting, ever changing, magical fun. I cook all
the time, very often three times a day. I cook for work,
I cook to relax, I grow things that I want to cook and
I read about how best to cook them. And I really love
to talk and write about it.
Nearly
fifteen years ago Raymond Blanc called me in Bermuda
to ask me to come back to Le Manoir aux Quat Saisons
and run his Cookery School. That was the day I started
to become less of a chef and more of a cook.
These
days I'm learning to be a father as I write, appear
on television, run Delia Smith's Cookery Workshops at
Norwich City Football Club and spend as much time as
I can with the wonderful Kids Cookery School. And as
you can see I have also become the Merchant Gourmet
Cook.
I
write a monthly recipe feature for Sainsbury's Magazine.
I won The Guild of Food Writers Cookery Journalist of
the Year 2006 and was runner up in 2007 and 2008. My
book "Cooking in Provence" won the Gourmand
World Cookbook award for "Best Book on French Cuisine
in English" and was in a short list of three for
"Best First Book" at the Guild of Food Writers
Awards.
I
am a regular on Ready Steady Cook on BBC 2 and I have
featured on This Morning and Too Many Cooks on ITV.
I was a regular for five years on UKTV's Great Food
Live and made three thirteen part series for Carlton
Food Network.
My
cookery workshops at Norwich City Football Club with
Delia Smith are now going into their seventh year.
I
started working in restaurants completely by chance
after being asked to leave school in New Zealand at
fifteen. I washed dishes for a year before starting
an apprenticeship and then as soon as I finished I bought
a one-way ticket to France. I spent nearly three years
working in the kitchens of two starred Michelin restaurants
in Burgundy, Tours and Courchevel. After this I went
to work for my great friend and mentor Raymond Blanc.
I was promoted to Sous Chef after six months. I left
a year later to get a little rest in Bermuda where at
the age of twenty-three, I was runner up in Bermuda's
Chef of the Year Awards. It was then that RB called
to ask me to the come back to Le Manoir as Director
of L'École de Cuisine and Head of development
for Blanc Restaurants Ltd in charge of all its publishing
and consultancy activities.
This
time I spent three years at Le Manoir working on Projects
as varied as Raymond Blanc's books and food for Virgin
airlines. I then opened my own school, Le Baou d'Infer,
in Provence. It was soon placed in the world top ten
by the Sunday Times and Conde Nast Traveler as well
as being voted one of the Worlds Finest by House and
Garden Travel. The cookery school is now finished after
fulfilling its five-year plan and, apart from the first
year, always being fully booked.
My
projects these days are ever more varied, but food,
and people that want to learn about it are always at
the centre.
I
live in Oxford with my wife Jess and sons Jake and James.
Delia
Smith from her foreword to Alex Mackay's book Cooking
in Provence:
"Alex
Mackay is, first and foremost, a brilliant chef. Yet
at the same time he is much more than that. He has
a rare and special gift, which goes beyond simply
creating beautiful dishes. That gift is the ability
to teach, inspire and enthuse others who want to learn
how to cook."
Raymond Blanc from the booklet for Alex Mackay's
former Cookery School Le Baou d'Infer:
"I have watched Alex grow with great pride from
a fine chef into a fine teacher and listened with
pleasure to the many guests who have enjoyed his free
style of teaching and learnt so much in their time
with us. The sadness I feel as he leaves is overwhelmed
by the joy of seeing a pupil become a master."
PUY
LENTILS WITH SAUSAGES AND CRISP CHEESE TOPPING RECIPE
This is a recipe to warm you through the winter and
beyond. The Puy lentils are so tasty that I was almost
tempted to leave the sausages out, instead I kept a
large spoonful to one side for a plateful that I ate
the next morning with 2 fried eggs on top. Naughty and
very nice!
Ingredients
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
8 pork sausages
2 medium onions, peeled and sliced
4 cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced
4 tablespoons tomato puree
Half a bottle gutsy red wine (Cabernet Sauvignon is
good)
250g Puy Lentils
1 litre water
30g butter
100g fresh breadcrumbs
100g grated cheddar cheese
1 small bunch of parsley, leaves only, finely chopped
Salt, freshly ground black pepper, sugar and nutmeg
(optional)
Method
Place the sliced onions and garlic into a large, shallow
pan with the vegetable oil, cover and then sweat for
5 minutes until soft
Turn
up the heat, add the sausages, fry for 2 minutes then
add the tomato puree and fry for 2 minutes until it
all smells wonderfully roasted
Transfer
the sausages to a plate, add the red wine to the pan,
bring to the boil then boil for 6-7 minutes until
the wine has reduced by half
Add
the Puy lentils and water. Bring to the boil, boil
for 10 minutes then turn down the heat
Loosely
cover with a lid and simmer for 20 minutes, add the
sausages, put the lid back on but leave it slightly
ajar, then simmer for 10 minutes more. Turn off the
heat, leave to sit for 5 minutes then stir in the
butter and season to taste with salt, pepper and nutmeg
Preheat
your grill
Mix
the cheese, breadcrumbs and parsley together then
sprinkle the mixture over the top of the sausages
and lentils
Grill
for 3 - 5 minutes until golden. (Grills vary enormously
so keep an eye on the top, golden quickly goes black)
Prep Ahead:
The whole dish can be prepared at least a day in
advance up to the point of putting the breadcrumbs
on the top. Gently heat through, in the microwave
or oven and don’t stir too much at the start
so as not to break up the lentils. The cooked lentils
freeze very well, so why not make twice the recipe.
I have used the same lentil mixture to make both lasagne
and moussaka.
Kids
Corner:
Although there is wine in this dish, all of the alcohol
is boiled off early on. This was a great meal. So
much so that it is worth thinking about different
options to serve with the lentils for kids and also
keeping this as a standby. For the tiny and toothless
just puree the lentils and it is a smashing success.
For those with a few teeth, simply crush the lentils
a little.
Cooking
is everlasting, ever changing, magical fun. I cook all
the time, very often three times a day. I cook for work,
I cook to relax, I grow things that I want to cook and
I read about how best to cook them. And I really love
to talk and write about it. 
