Isabelle's 'lentilles au confit' recipe

Here's a warming dish for cold winter nights: I've just posted it on the RECIPE page of www.alacartecuisine.com

The French were eating lentils long before the veggie/organic/fairtrade crowd got round to vaunting their virtues. Isabelle, who lives in the rolling country just north-east of Toulouse, between the Garonne and Tarn valleys, uses locally-produced confit d'oie to spice up the traditional lentilles au petit salé.

Ingredients (for 4 to 6 people):
500g of green lentils. The best are from Le Puy.

confit d'oie. A couple of cuisses (legs) or 4 manchons (wings)

Saucisse de Toulouse. You will need about 200 g... or for a stronger taste - a piece of andouille: a mild tripe sausage (chitterlings sausage).

fresh pork belly. Again about 200g will do.

vegetables - 3 large carrots, two onions, a leek, 2 or 3 sticks of celery with leaves. 2 bay leaves, sprig of thyme.

Method
Chop the onions, carrots and leek and fry gently in a couple of tablespoons of goose fat (taken from your confit) in a heavy bottomed cast-iron pot (or earthenware pot like Isabelle's) on a low flame. Add the Toulouse sausage in 6 inch pieces. Add the belly of pork diced. Stir around a bit to get some colour on the meat before adding the pieces of confit and the sticks of celery roughly chopped. Give it all another five minutes on the flame before adding the lentils, another dollop of goose fat and a couple of cloves of garlic roughly crushed with the flat blade of a knife. Mix the ingredients around a bit but add neither salt nor pepper at this stage. Add about a litre and a quarter of water and a quarter litre of dry white wine. bring to boil slowly and simmer very gently for about an hour to an hour and a half.

Check and stir every now and again: the finished dish should be fairly liquid so don't hesitate to add more water or white wine if it sticks or thickens too much. Add salt and pepper at the end of the cooking period.

Like most lentil dishes this one is even better re-heated the next day.

Accompany with a Gaillac Red or Côtes du Frontonnais.