Hi. I'm Rebecca Peizer with The Culinary Institute of America at Greystone,
And I'm going to show you today how to make this delicious
Green Grape and Beluga lentils salad with a Chermoula Vinaigrette.
So, let's talk about the ingredients of this dish.
Over here, I have some Beluga Lentils.
They call these "Beluga Lentils," because of their resemblance to sturgeon caviar of the highest quality: the Beluga.
What you need to do when you're dealing with lentils, is take a look through them. And you would do the same with beans as well.
And make sure that there isn't anything in here that doesn't belong.
Here, I have maybe a little wheat berry, a couple of other cracked little bits of beans that don't belong...
So sift through those and give them a rinse before cooking them.
Over here, we have some California grapes — the green variety we're using for this salad
because of the contrast with the Black Beluga lentils.
I have a preserved lemon — we only use the outside of the preserved lemon, which we've diced up over here.
I have some green onion. I'm using the tops of the green onion for the salad,
and the bottoms, we'll be using in the Chermoula vinaigrette.
I have some toasted almonds. We've left the skin on these. These are natural almonds....
roasted red pepper — that's been peeled, seeded and diced....
And some grated carrot.
The Chermoula vinaigrette, has some extra virgin olive oil,
some cilantro and parsley,
some paprika, cumin seeds, lemon juice, garlic,
and a little bit of that green onion.
So, let's talk about cooking these lentils off.
So, we've picked through these lentils over here.
We're going to pour them into the pot,
and with them I'm going to add the bay leaf and thyme.
Should you choose to put any other flavoring agents (garlic, clove or other seasonings) .... that would be wonderful as well.
And we're going to cover |that with just enough water....
...And bring that to a boil.
Here, I've got some lentils that have been simmering away for about 30-35 minutes.
And we'll give them a little taste to see if they're done.
We're looking for them to be just tender and have a little bit of texture.
Very nice.
I'm gonna add a little bit of salt.
Mix that up.
Let it sit for just a minute or two,
and then strain those away from the water.
After I strain these, I do want to give them a rinse under cold running water, just to....
get any of the debris or dust or discoloring from those lentils out,
so that it doesn't marry too much with the other colors of the wonderful vegetables and the grapes that we have.
And we're going to want to pick these herbs out as well.
To this, let's add some of our preserved lemon. We've diced that,
and as you can see, on the inside of this preserved lemon...
....this has been preserving for about two months or so....
We want to take out the seeds, and any of the meat on the inside, and just use the rind.
Put our lovely almonds in there....
our green onions....
our carrot....
and our roasted red pepper.
We'll top that with our lovely green grapes.
And then we'll set that off to the side while we make the vinaigrette.
Chermoula is a dressing or marinade or vinaigrette that can be used in a variety of different things
all over North Africa. It starts with the toasting of the cumin seeds.
So, we're gonna take some whole cumin seeds here,
put them in a dry pan,
and give them a light toast until they're fragrant.
What that does is increase some of the flavor
and the wonderful oils that can give a lot of aroma to this dish as well.
So, while you're doing this, just make sure not to burn the seeds.
Give a little bit of a swirl to the pan
and just at the moment where I start to smell the cumin seeds,
and might hear a little bit of snap—crackle—pop.... ....that's when we want to stop.
Ground cumin would work in this purpose as well.
Of course, the fresh seeds always best.
So, we'll put the cumin seeds in here. I'm going to add one garlic clove that's been peeled,
the bottoms of the green onion — the white part,
parsley — this is flat leaf parsley,
cilantro — leaves only,
and a little bit of paprika. This is not smoked paprika, it is sweet paprika.
I'm going to add just a touch of salt.
[blender sounds]
Then process this just a little bit, before I start to add my juice — my lemon juice....
[blender sounds]
Give a little scrape down to the bowl.
And now the olive oil.
[blender sounds]
We're going to process this just enough to create a broken vinaigrette,
a little bit of chunkiness from the cumin seeds,
and the leaves of the parsley, and the cilantro.
This marinade tends to be a little bit more on the puréed side,
but for the purposes of this salad, we're gonna leave it chunky - just like that. Quite delicious.
To finish this Beluga Lentil and grape salad — wonderful salad with Mediterranean ingredients...
...We are going to add 3/4 of the dressing that we just made... That wonderful Chermoula dressing....
to the prepared salad mixture.
We're going to leave a little bit behind for decoration on the plate...
A little bit of seasoning...
Give this a gentle toss, just to mix everything together.
What I like about this salad is all the contrast of different flavors and different textures.
The grapes really do add a nice crunch, a wonderful color,
a nice acidity, and nice sweetness.
This can be a wonderful dish all on its own,
or as an accompaniment as a side dish for a variety of different....
...preparations — salads, soups, sandwiches...
Let's give a little garnish to our dish, with a little bit of extra Chermoula dressing.
Cilantro sprigs....
And here we have a Beluga Lentil and California Grape Salad with Chermoula Vinaigrette.