Salami Cheddar Lentil Muffins #MuffinMonday

Spicy salami, extra sharp cheddar and tender lentils combine to make a delicious savory muffin that’s great for breakfast or lunch, with flavor and protein enough to get you through the day. 

If you’ve never cooked lentils before, you can surely used canned ones for these tasty muffins, but lentils are one of the easiest legumes to cook, taking only about 25-30 minutes and no soaking beforehand. Just add a little salt and cover them amply with water. Bring to the boil and then simmer until tender. Rinse and use how you will. (I save the broth for soups too!) I often make a pot of lentils and then drain them and freeze the little green nuggets of goodness. They are great in salads, soups, muffins and quiches or throw a few in an omelet. I also make a lentil burger that I should share someday. Meanwhile, there are muffins!

Ingredients
2 cups or 250g flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 1/3 oz or 150g extra sharp cheddar cheese
7 slices salami (about 2 1/4 oz or 65g)
1/2 cup or 105g cooked, drained lentils (I like the French Puy lentils.)
3/4 cup or 180ml milk
1/4 cup or 60ml canola or other light oil
2 eggs

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your 12-cup muffin tin by spraying with non-stick spray or lining with muffin papers. I tend to just use the spray when I’m baking a cheesy muffin, in case the cheese sticks to the paper liners.

Grate your cheddar if it didn’t already come grated and slice your salami into long strips. Set aside a handful of the cheese, a handful of the drained lentils and 12 of the longest salami strips for topping. Chop the rest of the salami up in smaller pieces.

Combine your flour, baking powder, paprika and salt in a large mixing bowl.

Isn't that paprika a fabulous red?!

Add in the smaller pieces of salami, the bigger piles of cheese and lentils and mix well. Use your fingers, if you have to, to separate the pieces of salami from each other.

In another smaller bowl, whisk together your milk, eggs and oil.

Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ones and stop when it’s just mixed.

Divide your batter between the 12 muffin cups.

Sprinkle the tops with the reserved cheese and lentils. Roll your long strip of salami up into a spiral and poke it into the top of the muffin batter.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Allow to cool for a few minutes in the pan and then remove to continue cooling on a wire rack.

If you can't stand it, go ahead and cut one open and eat it. They are lovely inside.

Enjoy!

Classic Cassoulet

This classic cassoulet is a hearty, rich bowl of white beans with bacon, sausage and duck confit, the perfect dish on a cold winter's day.

When I started this blog, it quickly became both a place of experimentation and recording old favorites, a creative outlet where I could explore the food options as I moved from Kuala Lumpur to Cairo and then on to Dubai, even as I cooked and reminisced about family recipes. For all the things I missed when left behind, I discovered new options that had not been available to me. 

Two years ago, we were newly in Cairo and I wrote a post about butchering a whole duck, using the breasts for one meal, making confit out of the legs and thighs and then roasting and simmering the carcass for rich stock. Eventually, when my mother came to visit, that duck confit was turned into a classic cassoulet, one of the tastiest dishes ever concocted, but with some of the ugliest photos ever snapped so it never saw light of day in this space. I’ve since made it a couple of times but somehow never got around to posting those either.

When I saw that the theme for today’s Sunday Supper was Beantastic, I knew cassoulet would have to be revisited yet again. The photos still aren’t spectacular but I think the richness of the dish shines through. Cassoulet is meant to be peasant fare but, unless you have a duck you've hunted for yourself to make confit, that one ingredient is kind of expensive to buy. Let me say this, though, it’s totally worth it, not just for what it adds to the cassoulet but also for the extra duck fat you get that sits around the confit duck in the can or jar. Save that stuff! It’s fabulous!

Classic Cassoulet

Apparently the essential ingredients of a classic cassoulet are hotly debated and depend on the region of France. Although all will include beans, the meat that is added varies. Today’s tasty dish is in the Languedoc-style with confit duck and sausage and bacon. It's my favorite. 

Ingredients
1 lb or 450g dried white beans
1 medium onion
2 large onions
10 cloves garlic
7 oz or 200g slab bacon (I like smoked bacon. Some purists say it should be unsmoked. Pffft to them.)
2 bay leaves
Several fresh thyme sprigs
Olive oil
1 1/4 lbs or 540g fresh pork sausage
4 leg/thighs duck confit  - You can make your own. It’s not hard, just time consuming. Or buy the ones in a big can or jar. For this dish, I used these from Rougié.  <affiliate link
Salt
Black pepper

Method
Soak your dried beans overnight or cover amply with boiling water and leave to soak for one hour.

Meanwhile, cut your medium onion into quarters and cut your slab bacon into chunks.

Pour off the soaking water and put the beans into a large pot with the thyme sprigs, the quartered onion, the bacon chunks and one bay leaf. Cover with fresh water and cook until tender over a low fire. Stir the pot occasionally and add more water, if necessary. You do not want the beans drying out.

Drain the beans and bacon and reserve the cooking liquid. You can discard the thyme sprigs and bay leaf but the onion has probably melted away to almost nothing so I wouldn’t worry about it.

Scrape the fat off of the confit duck legs and thighs and save it in a clean jar in the refrigerator.

Slice your other two onions and your garlic and slowly caramelize them in a saucepan over a low heat, with a drizzle of olive oil or, better yet, some of the lovely duck fat you just saved.

If you are just sitting around, waiting on your beans to cook to tenderness, you can wait till the onions and garlic are caramelized and use the same pan to brown the sausage. Or use another pan and get on with it, if your beans are already ready.

When your onions/garlic are well caramelized, eyeball the pan (or the bowl into which you have transferred them to reuse the pan for the sausage) and mentally divide it into three major portions with a little leftover for the final topping.

Brown your sausage in a little olive oil or a little duck fat.

Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C.

In a cassole or casserole dish, start with a good drizzle olive oil or duck fat, then add almost one-third of the caramelized onions/garlic. Top with half of the cooked beans and tuck the browned sausage into the beans. Sprinkle with salt and few good grinds of fresh black pepper. Add on some more (perhaps almost one-third again) caramelized onions.

Now spoon on the rest of the beans, the boiled bacon chunks and season again with a sprinkle of salt and black pepper.

For the final layer, add almost all of the remaining caramelized onions and top with the confit duck and then the very last of the caramelized onions. Pour in some of the reserved bean cooking liquid to cover the beans and come half way up the duck. Not pictured here but you should: Tuck a bay leaf into the liquid.

Bake in your preheated oven for about an hour or until the duck is lovely, golden and crispy on the outside and the beans melt in your mouth.

Serve with a hearty red wine and some crusty bread to mop up the juices.

Enjoy!

Check out all the Beantastic recipes we have for you today!

Beantastic Beginners

• Avocado Hummus by Our Good Life
• Bean Ragoût and Crisped Mushrooms by Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Black Bean Chili Nachos by Brunch with Joy
• Chickpea Fries (Panisse) by Curious Cuisiniere
• Five Layer Greek Hummus Dip by Food Done Light
• Pizza Roasted Chickpeas by A Kitchen Hoor's Adventures
• White Bean and Basil Spread by Peaceful Cooking

Bean-a-rific Soups and Stews

• Butternut Squash White Bean Soup by Magnolia Days
• Chickpea and Bean Soup by Momma's Meals
• Classic Cassoulet by Food Lust People Love
• Navy Bean & Kale Soup by An Appealing Plan
• Navy Bean Soup by The Messy Baker
• Slow Cooker Pork and Bean Stew by Nosh My Way
• Kielbasa and White Bean Soup by Cosmopolitan Cornbread
• Spicy Sausage, White Bean and Spinach Soup by Bobbi's Kozy Kitchen

Bean-a-licious Sides

• Bean and Cornbread Salad by MealDiva
• Clams with Black Beans by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Gluten Free Green Bean Casserole by Gluten Free Crumbley
• Gold Rush Baked Beans by Lifestyle Food Artistry
• Maple Brown Sugar Baked Beans by Carrie's Experimental Kitchen
• Pinto Beans With Cornbread Croutons by Nik Snacks
• Whiskey Bacon Baked Beans by Sew You Think You Can Cook

Incredi-bean Main Meals

• Arugula Tomato and Beans Flatbread by Family Foodie
• Bean and Bacon Tacos by Jane's Adventures in Dinner
• Beefy Lima Bean Casserole by Cindy's Recipes and Writings
• Colombian Red beans - Frisoles Antioquenos by Palatable Pastime
• Italian Beans and Greens by Simply Healthy Family
• Honey-Lime Black Bean and Sweet Potato Tacos by The Chunky Chef
• One Pot Tuscan Style Garlic Herb Pork Chops by Hezzi-D's Books and Cooks
• Orecchiette with White Beans and Swiss Chard by Delaware Girl Eats
• Skillet Black Beans and Pork by Cooking Chat
• Ultimate Chili Stuffed Sweet Potatoes by Pancake Warriors
• White Bean Ragout, Frisèe, and a Fried Egg by The Wimpy Vegetarian

Amaze-beans Sweet Endings

• Chocolate Covered Espresso Bean Bark by Love and Confections
• Flourless Almond Joy Cookie Dough Ball by Cupcakes & Kale Chips
• Flourless Mocha Brownies by That Skinny Chick Can Bake
• Gluten-Free Black Bean Brownies by Wallflour Girl
• Gluten-Free Donuts by NinjaBaker
• Pecan Praline Black Bean Brownies by Rhubarb and Honey
• Soy Awesome Cookies 2.0 by What Smells So Good?
• Strawberry Coco-Cacao Bean Smoothie by Dandelion Greens
• Sweet Bean Pie by Shockingly Delicious
• Vanilla Bean Creme Brulee by Noshing With The Nolands

Pin this Classic Cassoulet! 

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Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti

Chewy dried cranberries lend both sweetness and tartness to these crisp Italian-style cookies and the pistachios! What can I say about the pistachios? Their color, flavor and nutty goodness elevate plain cranberry biscotti to fabulousness. 

We were so well-organized! Weeks and weeks ago, Lauren from Sew You Think You Can Cook wrote to ask if I’d like to participate in a virtual baby shower for our fellow blogger, Tara of Tara’s Multicultural Table who was expecting baby number two. The theme was going to be biscotti because it means twice cooked. You know, like second time with a bun in the oven. Pretty clever, huh? Who could resist the opportunity to make a big deal out of a second baby AND bake biscotti! Not I.

This whole thing is a surprise party for Tara, who, as far as we know, doesn’t suspect a thing. But the biggest surprise was for us, when the baby came four and a half weeks early! It’s been so hard keeping the virtual baby shower a secret when we just wanted to be shouting from the rooftops. If you follow Tara on Instagram, (and you should!) you’ve seen a picture of the little one. Adorable! Congratulations, Tara, to you and to your newly expanded family!

Now let’s bake some biscotti! I had never made them before but, I can tell you, I will certainly be making them again. My recipe was adapted from this one in The Daily Telegraph.

Ingredients for about 3 dozen biscotti
4 eggs
1 1/2 cup or 340g sugar
Zest 1 orange (I used a blood orange but any orange will do.)
4 3/4 cups or 595g flour
2 heaped teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups or 200g whole pistachios
1 1/2 cups or 200g dried cranberries
4 tablespoons melted butter

Method
Preheat the oven to 300°F or 150°C and prepare a cookie sheet by lining it with parchment or a silicone liner.

In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs with the sugar until they are glossy, turn a pale yellow and the sugar has started to dissolve.

Use a microplane or small grater to zest the orange into the egg bowl and whisk again.

Measure your flour into another bowl and add the baking powder and salt. Mix well.

Sift the flour mixture into the egg bowl and stir with a wooden spoon until you get a soft dough.

Add in the pistachios and cranberries and work them into the dough.

Divide the dough in half and roll the pieces into logs about 12-14 inches or 30-36cm long. The dough is still rather sticky so I found it easiest to wrap it in cling film and shape it by pressing on the cling film until I reached my desired size and shape.

Place the logs a few inches apart on your prepared cookie sheet and bake in the preheated oven for about 25-30 minutes. As you can see, one log is longer than the other. I decided not to care and you shouldn’t either. You want to make sure that the logs are baked completely through so, like bread, they should sounds a little hollow when tapped.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely on a wire rack. I left mine for just over an hour so I turned the oven off when I took them out.

Once the logs are completely cooled, preheat the oven to 300°F or 150°C again. Use a serrated knife to cut the logs into 1/2 inch or 1cm slices. I cut mine on an angle so that the biscotti were longer. My helper dog and I shared the end bits but I still got 36 bake-able slices.

Place your slices on cookie sheets and brush them with the melted butter.

This is the first pan and it held 25 biscotti. The second small pan held only 11.

Bake for about 10-12 minutes or until lightly golden.

Pour yourself a cup of tea or coffee and enjoy!

Are you ready for a virtual baby shower? No gifts, just lots of love and biscotti! 

Many thanks to Lauren from Sew You Think You Can Cook for organizing this virtual baby shower for Tara! Check out all the other lovely recipes that have been made in Tara’s honor!

• Blueberry Pecan Biscotti from Renee at Magnolia Days
• Chocolate Dipped Biscotti Bites from Nicole at I am a Honey Bee
• Cinnamon Biscotti from Lauren at Sew You Think You Can Cook
• Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti from Stacy at Food Lust People Love
• Dark Chocolate Orange Biscotti from Amy at Amy's Cooking Adventures
• Green Tea Almond Biscotti from Rebekah at Making Miracles
• Jam-Filled Mandelbrot from Kelly at Passion Kneaded
• Maple Walnut Biscotti from Sally at Bewitching Kitchen
• Nut-Free Anise Biscotti with Chocolate Chips from Susan at The Wimpy Vegetarian
• Orange and Dark Chocolate Biscotti from Lynsey at Lynsey Lou's
• Parmesan-Peppercorn Biscotti from Camilla at Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Spa Water from Dorothy at Shockingly Delicious
• Tangelo, Date, and Almond Biscotti from Karen at Karen's Kitchen Stories