Italian Lentil Salad

Ok, time to catch up on my Giada recipe adventures. Last Tuesday, I decided to make the Italian Lentil Salad. Obviously, it has lots of lentils in it.. So I cooked those up in a sauce pan. Then, you chop up and add all of these things:

 Back to front, left to right, grapes, hazelnuts, cucumber, scallions, bell pepper, and then the lemon you use for zest and juice. You mix all of this with some olive oil, salt and pepper, and then you serve your cold salad. Easy enough, right? I hadn't counted on this..

 Hazelnuts. Apparently, they are the biggest pain in the behind EVER. I never knew this. I saw hazelnuts in the recipe and I thought back to my fond memories of cracking hazelnuts, almonds, and whatnot and eating them from the shells. We only pulled out the nutcracker at Christmas, so I had this warm Christmasy wave of nostalgia wash over me.
I went to Trader Joe's and bought a large bag of hazelnuts, thinking of all the fun things I would do with the rest of the nuts. I only needed half a cup for this recipe. Visions of hazelnut risotto and hazelnut cookies danced in my head.
As I looked over the recipe, I noticed that these hazelnuts should be skinned, roasted and chopped coarsely. Still naive, I googled 'skinned hazelnuts' and that is where the madness started. Apparently, there are 2 ways you can skin hazelnuts. And also apparently, hazelnuts are terribly bitter if you leave the skin on. Believe me, my lazy self considered this option.
One way to skin hazelnuts involves boiling them in hot water and a few tablespoons of baking soda for a few minutes, then rinsing them individually under cold water and 'popping' the skins off. Then, since the hazelnuts have absorbed so much moisture, you put them on a pan and roast them in the oven.
The second method is to throw the skinful hazelnots on a baking sheet, roast them, and then put the hot hazelnuts between 2 towels (that you don't care about) and rub them together until the skins come off. According to my sources, this method is time consuming and less effective than the first.
I chose the second method. Laziness aside, I just couldn't quite face boiling nuts in baking soda. The picture above is the aftermath. As you can see in the first picture and the picture below, though, I think I did a fairly decent job.

So this is the finished product. I would give it a thumbs-middle. It was ok and the grapes and hazelnuts made it really interesting texturally. Bu, I kept getting bites that tasted like a mouthful of vinegar. And there was no vinegar in it! I'm thinking it might have been the scallions. Maybe if I try it again, I would use red onions instead.
Oh, and hazelnut risotto? Suddenly sounds atrocious.

Lentil soup

I made some lentil soup today. Here's how it went:

1> Cut up onion, celery, carrots and garlic and sautee in some olive oil.

2> Add in some chicken stock (vegetable, if you are a vegetarian). I would add this whole carton.

Just look at this swirlin' goodness.

3> Go through the lentils, pick out any little rocks or wierd lookin' lentils.
Rocks and wierds are top right. Bottom left is a little fish. Yes, this is supposed to be my fish cutting board. I don't cook much fish.

Quick side note about lentils- today I used just the regular old greeny-greyish lentils. They're pretty good. The best lentils for soup, in my opinion, are the little red ones.

4> Rinse lentils in water. Pour off the water, including anything that floats.

5> Add lentils into the stock and vegetable mix.

6> Flavorings- a bay leaf, ground coriander, ground cumin, juice of 1/2 a lemon.

Bring to a boil, then simmer for 30-40 minutes.

Finished product:

This bready goodness on the side is some italian bread, spread with olive oil, sprinkled with garlic salt, italian spices, and parmesan cheese, and put under the broiler for a few minutes. Try it. You'll never be the same.