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Sausages with Lentils, Bretonne
Soak in fresh water for twelve hours a pint of lentils. Drain well and place in a saucepan with three pints cold water, a teaspoon salt, one medium carrot, cut in quarters, one branch of celery and branch of parsley, the celery and parsley tied up together. Cover the pan and let simmer for two hours. Uncover, remove all the vegetables. Heat in a small saucepan half ounce of butter, adding two tablespoons flour; briskly stir, then add one small white onion finely chopped up; stir again and let get a light brown colour. Pour in all the liquor of the lentils in this pan, lightly mix and boil for five minutes. Then add the lentils, mix a little and boil for ten minutes more, then keep warm. Lightly prickle with the prongs of a fork twelve stringless fresh sausages. Heat a tablespoon lard in a frying pan, place in the sausages and fry for five minutes on each side. Remove. Dress the lentils on a large hot dish, arrange the sausages on top of the lentils, crown-shape, and serve.
A straightforward braise of lentils finished with a brown roux, topped with fried sausages. A few of the quantities and timings need adjusting for modern lentils and modern sausages.
- The soak and the simmerModern split or small brown lentils do not need a twelve-hour soak and will collapse if given one plus two hours of simmering. Use whole brown or green lentils (Puy, or the small French green sort), skip or shorten the soak, and expect 25-40 minutes to tender.
- QuantitiesA pint of lentils is 2 cups dry, roughly 14 oz, which will feed six to eight generously. Three pints of water is 6 cups. Half an ounce of butter is one tablespoon.
- Salt timingA teaspoon of salt in the cooking water is fine, but taste again at the end; the sausages and the roux both add seasoning and lentils absorb salt unevenly.
- The roux is the pointThe roux -- Cook the butter and flour together for a minute or two before the onion goes in, and let the mixture take real colour -- a pale roux gives a floury, flat sauce. Add the hot lentil liquor gradually to avoid lumps.
- Save the liquorDrain the lentils over a bowl rather than a sink. The recipe depends on that cooking liquid as the whole of its sauce; if it has reduced too far, top up with stock rather than water.
- \Sausages sold in casings today do not need pricking — it dries them out and loses fat. Skip it. Ten minutes total in a pan will not cook a thick modern sausage through; use a moderate heat and allow 12-15 minutes, turning, to 160F internal, or brown them in the pan and finish in a 375F oven.
- "Stringless" -- The sense is not certain; it may mean a fine fresh sausage rather than a dried or coarse-cased one, or simply sausages not joined in a linked chain, which suits the crown arrangement. Any good fresh pork sausage works; chipolatas suit it well.
- ServingServe straight from a warmed shallow dish. Lentils thicken as they stand and the roux thickens further, so loosen with a little of the reserved liquor before dressing if needed. Chopped parsley over the top is in keeping.
"à la bretonne" in French cookery signals a garnish or sauce built on white beans or onions with a brown base, and by the nineteenth century it was firmly attached to haricots served with pork or mutton, lentils being treated the same way in some kitchens. The name is generally treated as a kitchen classification, like "lyonnaise" for onions. Lentils with pork sausage is a peasant pairing of long standing across northern France and into Germany, where lentil and sausage dishes are equally entrenched.