Spiced Lentils with Spring Onions by Alison Roman

Alison has four lentil recipes between her two cookbooks, and this is my third one to cook. The final recipe, which will be posted next, uses the lentils made here in a nicoise-like salad. Since I only feel like writing about lentils one more time, this essay will suffice for both recipes. 

I’ve previously written about the first time I ate lentils (also the first time an onion made me cry), and a particularly memorable lentil soup that I ate in Rwanda. I have one final lentil memory to share. It’s not really a story, but rather a certain lentil stew that will always be considered the best I’ve ever had. 

In the earliest days of my career, I worked for an advertising agency in downtown Chicago. The office was located in the historic Monroe Building on Michigan Ave, which was quite the location for a first job out of college. Across the street from our office was Millennium Park, the Bean, the Art Institute, and just beyond, shining Lake Michigan. Our office was located at the very top of the building on the 15th and 16th floors, and the view from those windows often took my breath away. At the bottom of the building were two establishments: Dunkin Donuts (which I do not prefer for donuts nor coffee) and Pret A Manger. Pret (as we called it) is a sandwich/salad/soup chain with coffee drinks and breakfast sandwiches in the morning. It’s not cheap, but it got the job done when you forgot to pack a lunch and had only minutes between meetings to find a substitute. 

It was on such an occasion that I hurriedly walked through Pret to find an affordable lunch before a meeting and stumbled upon the best lentil stew I’ve ever had. It came with a small baguette, which I used to dip into the hot stew and use as a pseudo spoon. The stew itself had tiny bits of onion and carrots, and the flavors consisted of the perfect ratio of salt to acid. I’ve since tried to find their recipe online, and the other fans (yes, other people also love this stew) have surmised that balsamic vinegar is used as the acid component. No other lentil stew has ever come close to that of Pret. 

Alison’s spiced lentils are a fresh-tasting take on the kind of lentil salad that you’d get at a deli counter. Fresh garlic and crushed spices like coriander and fennel seed spend time infusing some olive oil over a low temperature. Alison requests only 15 to 20 minutes of infusion, but I felt the oil could have spent even 30 to 40 minutes over the stove for extra flavor. Once the garlic is lightly browned in the oil, a bunch of scallions (or spring onions if you can find them) and lemon zest, join the pot briefly before the oil and its contents are poured out over the cooked lentils. I added salt and pepper before serving. 

There’s nothing extraordinary about these lentils, but I don’t think Alison means them to be. They’re just a reliable, and flavorful way to prepare these grains, and they can be eaten with just about anything else. Or on their own. 

153 recipes cooked, 72 to go.

Slow-Roasted Pork Shoulder with Garlic, Citrus, and Cilantro by Alison Roman

You know when you’ve recently had something so good that afterwards you can’t help but compare anything else you have that’s like it? Well I recently made a Melissa Clark Instant Pot carnitas recipe (yes, I know, Instant Pot, a shortcut, I get it, also, get over it) with chipotle peppers and fresh-squeezed orange juice and limes. I let the pork cook in the pot, but fried it in the leftover fat to give it a crispiness at the end. Wow, it was spectacular. 

Alison’s pork shoulder recipe doesn’t purport to be carnitas. She doesn’t even want you to shred the pork, just slice it! But the flavor profile is so close to that of carnitas, and frankly, the meat was way too soft after 3+ hours in the oven to hold together in slice form, leaving me no choice but to shred it. So how could I not compare it to Melissa Clark’s carnitas? It was simply out of my hands. I couldn’t compare texture, because, different recipes. But in terms of flavor, Melissa’s was more particular in flavor, and Alison’s surprisingly more mild. I found myself craving Melissa’s leftovers, but let Jordan take care of Alison’s. Jordan loved Alison’s pork, but then again, he loves any shredded pork. At the end of the day, I’d choose Melissa’s carnitas. Just putting this out there. 

Given the subtle flavor profile and moist, juicy form of the pork, this recipe would work really well if you’re serving picky eaters, or children, or bringing food to a potluck where you’re not sure how everyone feels about spice. The main flavors here are the citrus (lots of orange and lime), some coriander, and plenty of garlic.

Here’s a quick rundown. Brown some seasoned pork shoulder in a large pot (preferably a dutch oven) on all sides to render fat at the bottom of the pot. Pour most of the fat out but keep enough to cook two halves of a large orange and two heads of garlic cut in half, plus spices like thyme, coriander seeds, and chile flakes. Pour in a cup of freshly squeezed orange juice and some water and stir. Put the pork back in the pot and cover it before placing the pot in the oven for three or more hours at a low temp. 

At this point, I left my apartment to go to a workout class. By the time I returned an hour and some change later, the smells of garlic and orange practically hit me in the face as I walked through the door - in a great way! After another two hours of smelling the pork, I pulled the pork out of the pot to rest and added lime juice to the juices in the pot. I quickly noticed that the pork had softened past the point of slicing (which I had suspected and wasn’t mad about), and decided to shred it. After pouring the leftover juices mostly over the shredded meat, along with the softened garlic cloves, the meat was ready for serving. We ate it with warmed corn tortillas and Alison’s Iceberg Salad. And don’t get me wrong - it was good pork! Just more mild in flavor than I prefer. 

152 recipes cooked, 73 to go.

Iceberg with Pecorino, Crushed Olives and Pickled Chile by Alison Roman

Did you also read this recipe title and think, “what? no, no thanks.” I was chatting with Margaret on the phone tonight and at one point she asked, “any standouts for the blog lately?” “Yeah!” I said, “Actually this iceberg salad with pickled chiles and olives was just incredible.” “Eh, really? Doesn’t sound incredible…” said Margaret. And to a large degree, she’s right. It doesn’t sound incredible to me, either. In fact, when I first read the recipe last January, I marked it down as one that I didn’t look forward to making. 

But if by some odd grace you’ve found yourself reading this blog post, then please, FORGET how this recipe title sounds, and BELIEVE me when I say that it is 100% worth making. So much so, that I even found myself snacking on its leftovers. 

The first step is to thinly slice the jalapeno and white onion and pickle them both in white wine vinegar and honey. Alison asks for five minutes of pickling. I gave them close to thirty, because why not? More pickling is best, in my opinion, and my guess is that Alison agrees. She probably just wanted to make this recipe seem *quick* and *not fancy,* which I get but will ignore. 

I chopped the iceberg lettuce into square sheets and scattered them with crushed olives. When it was almost time to eat, I tossed the lettuce with the pickling mix and served it up in bowls. Now here’s where I choked. I forgot the pecorino and olive oil. I didn’t miss either element because the acid and heat are so strong, but they would have been nice. That’s what I get for preparing the salad elements so far apart. I was distracted by the other parts of our meal (Alison’s Slow-Roasted Pork Shoulder with Garlic, Citrus, and Cilantro and corn tortillas) and understandably let the salad be an afterthought. 

When eating the meal, the salad was anything but an afterthought. I liked it even better than the pork, and found myself picking leaves and olives out of the salad bowl after I’d finished eating what was on my plate. This is not a normal eating habit for me. I might snack off a serving bowl or plate that has chips or something sweet. But salad leaves? This tells you that the flavors - tangy, spicy, a tad sweet - work really well, and frankly work far better than most of Alison’s other salads. As we were cleaning up, Jordan said, “That was hands-down the best Alison Roman salad you’ve made.” I can almost agree. 

151 recipes cooked, 74 to go.

Halibut and Asparagus with Brown Butter Peas by Alison Roman

When people ask me why I like Alison’s recipes, my first reason is usually their boldness. “She never half-heartedly commits to a flavor - it’s just all there, in your face!” Interestingly enough, this halibut recipe may be the most mildly flavored dish I’ve cooked of Alison’s (and I’ve cooked 150 so far!). And yet I’d still make the claim that she always, I mean always, pushes flavor as far as it can go. 

Though this recipe is comparatively mild, I could still taste every ingredient in its fullness. The butter was very buttery, the olive oil and salt each enhanced the soft fishiness of the halibut and the springiness of the asparagus. The peas tasted very pea-like, emboldened by the butter, lemon juice, and black pepper. These descriptions might sound corny, but I don’t know how else to say that Alison maintains her commitment to bold flavor by embracing the mild flavors inherent to the ingredients involved in this dish. 

I baked the asparagus and halibut in olive oil, salt, and black pepper, for twenty minutes, until my meat thermometer read 130 and the asparagus appeared sufficiently crispy. The butter took only several minutes to brown. The peas - thawed from frozen - spent several more minutes sauteeing in the butter before being doused with lemon juice. The meal felt almost, dare I say, healthy? And as God said on the seventh day, “It was very good.” 

Note: Alison calls for chives and tarragon here. I sadly forgot to buy them. So instead, I added some fresh thyme to the buttered peas. It was also very good.

150 recipes cooked, 75 to go.

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