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Pork with Green Lentils (Petit Salé aux Lentilles)

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Recipe by Graham 

Petit Salé aux Lentilles is traditional French cooking - the sort you'd come across in any country family. The meat and lentils are cooked, together with carrots, onions, celery and a generous bouquet garni of fresh herbs, then served in a soup plate with the cooking liquid.

Petit salé means lightly salted so if you can get hold of salt pork, you can skip the salting process. Also, I've seen this recipe made using belly pork which is a very fatty cut of meat and probably more loyal to the original recipes when lean meat was not something that most families could afford. But personally, I prefer to use a hock (pork knuckle) or a shank of pork. It still needs long slow cooking and I cut the skin off before serving.

My wife, Marie-Danielle, makes Petit Salé aux Lentilles using a pressure cooker, and it's done very quickly. However, pressure cookers and I are strangers to each other, so here's the 'proper' recipe!

Preparation Time

30 Minutes + waiting

Cooking Time

1 Hour 30 Minutes

Ingredients for Pork with Green Lentils (Petit Salé aux Lentilles)

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Currently displaying quantities in US Imperial Measurements

To serve 6:

2 lb hock of ham (pork knuckle) or shank
  coarse salt
2 tablespoons duck or goose fat
3 medium carrots
2 sticks celery
1 medium onion
  salt
1 lb green lentils (lentilles vertes) - uncooked
  chicken stock
2 bay leaves
1 sprig rosemary
1 stalk thyme
3 cloves garlic
1 clove
6 pork sausages
3 stick parsley (to garnish)

How to Cook Pork with Green Lentils (Petit Salé aux Lentilles)

  1. Salt the pork by rubbing it liberally with handfuls of salt. Leave to stand in the fridge for at least four hours (preferably overnight) in a non-reactive container (like a plastic box).
  2. Wash the salt off with cold water. Shake the meat dry then place it in a large pan and cover with cold water. Leave for 20 minutes to remove any impurities then pour off the water and stand the meat to one side.
  3. Peel the carrots and cut into ¾" (2cm) lengths. Cut the celery into ¾" (2cm) lengths. Peel and chop the onion. Apply a medium-low heat to the pan and add the duck or goose fat. Once the fat has melted, add the carrots, celery and onions, along with a healthy pinch of salt. Stir the vegetables to coat in the fat then cover the pan and sweat the vegetables for 5-8 minutes. Sweating helps to draw out moisture and softens the cell walls.
  4. Once the onions are translucent, add the lentils with just enough stock to cover them. Peel and crush (mince) the garlic. Add the bay leaves, rosemary, thyme, crushed garlic and the clove, then put the meat back in the pan. Cover the pan and cook on low heat (only just simmering, but no more) for one hour. Prick the sausages, brown them very quickly in a very hot frying pan, cut them in two, then add them to the Petit Salé. Cook for a further 20 minutes.
  5. Remove the meat from the pan. Allow to stand for 10 minutes to cool slightly then cut off any skin and fat and discard. Carve the meat into thick slices and stir it back into the Petit Salé. Serve hot in a soup plates with plenty of vegetables and a little cooking juice, together with a garnish of finely chopped parsley. It is ideally eaten with fresh crusty bread with a bottle of sturdy red to hand.
GRAHAM'S HOT TIP:
If you can get hold of smoked sausages or spicy sausages like Merguez, it adds an extra dimension to this recipe. Also, Petit Salé is excellent reheated if you have some left.