A Record Breaking Cook-Off Year!

This Lentil Lady has a bushel of thanks to offer everyone who entered the 2011 Legendary Lentil Cook-Off! 118 luscious lentil recipes have come in from 32 different states, up from 20 states last year! (But not all 50 --we will try again next year. Get with it Alaska!) I was pleased to see an entry from Red Lion, Pennsylvania come in. The lovely women I spoke to personally on the phone decided on a lentil salad. She had never cooked lentils before. Way to go! And I am humbled by another first - we got an entry from Switzerland! This was a round about way to get an entry. Seems this cook gets visits regularly from a local resident and has cooked our local Palouse lentils many times. (They receive them as gifts!) After some encouragement they entered this year and through the miracle of computers, they got the entry here by the deadline. I am told a 'snail mail' copy is on the way, complete with Swiss postage, just to be official. I plan to frame that entry!
So my heartfelt thanks go out to all who entered and I wish you the best of luck. These 118 entries will be narrowed down to 50, and those will be cooked and tasted on July 21st to narrow it down to 6. A difficult job indeed! Then the 6 will be prepared and presented for tasting to our Festival Goers on August 20th and we will have a winner! Whew! A National Lentil Festival Cook Book, with a fresh new look, will be available soon. Stay tuned...

Little Old Lady From Pa....

This Lentil Lady had a chance to chat with a lovely little old lady - not from Pasadena but from Pennsylvania this past week. Seems she saw an article in their local paper about our Legendary Lentil Cook Off, and purchased some lentils a few weeks ago. This is the very first time she has ever cooked lentils, but she has been working up some recipes to enter into our contest. Her conversation with me was to try to narrow it down to the required limit of 1 recipe per person. Although I am not at liberty to sway an entrant one way or the other, our short phone visit reminded me that I had never even SEEN a lentil until I moved to Pullman, Washington 22 years ago. And I certainly had never cooked one, but since then I have experimented with many recipes. I have years of National Lentil Festival cookbooks at my disposal, so it's not hard to come up with a winner.
With only a week left to enter our cook-off, this Lentil Lady urges you to send in your recipes quick! After all I need the new recipes from this years cook book for my future endeavors!

We Need Your Lentil Recipes!

The July 1st deadline for the National Lentil Festival Legendary Lentil Cook-Off is approaching, but it's not too late to try and win the $1000.00 grand prize! Our goal is to get entries from all 50 states and you can help. Know a great lentil recipe? Know someone who may know a great lentil recipe? Lentils are an amazing, nutritious ingredient to add to many dishes, including desserts! We even have an "I Hate Lentils" competition! Our judge, Bill Weed from KQQQ Radio, states firmly that he does NOT like lentils. He will taste any of the recipes where the lentil presence is not visible and name a winner! Points are deducted if this special judge can see, smell, feel or taste the lentils in the recipe. Lentils are simple to prepare and take on the flavors of whatever they are cooked with. Simply rinse to remove any debris, then boil 1 cup lentils in 2 1/5 cups water for 15-20 minutes. There is no need to soak lentils prior to cooking.
Cook-Off recipe's require 1 cup cooked or 1/2 cup raw lentils. Download an application and enter today at http://www.lentilfest.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Cook-Off-Application2.pdf

Poster Unveiled!

What a fabulous event! This Lentil Lady was very impressed at the delicious food and drink that was presented by our local wineries, breweries and restaurants. And did the Barley Boys or Swirl Girls win? It was the Barley Boys, hands down with 57 votes for Palouse Falls Brewing Company and their Summer Whitman Wheat. Now I am not a beer drinker and have to say I personally voted for the wine, but it was a decisive win for the brews!

The food was another story. Winning by just a small margin was Gladish Commercial Kitchen with their Roast Beef Sliders. I understand a close second was the Summer Shrimp by South Fork Public House. With 10 different and fabulous appetizers, it's clear that next year will need more winners!

The Art of Pairing

It's only a day away from the Poster Unveiling and Wine vs Brew Tasting. Guests will have a chance to taste specially prepared appetizers that pair well with a specific beverage. Wine AND beer provide a perfect sensory experience when matched with a food. Just after sampling the taste and aroma of an appetizer, slowly sip the beverage. The ideal combination is obtained when the taste notes harmonize and create an exciting NEW synergy. This elevates the pleasurable tastes of both. For instance, the dark, spicy red chili tastes are a perfect match to the rich red fruit and underlying spiciness of a deep red wine. A terrifically spicy/sweet experience! Are you ready? See you June 9th!

Tasting Tips for the Poster Unveiling

You often see wines described with words like "spicy" or "floral" but this Lentil Lady wanted to know more of what those words really mean.

When you taste your wine, sip slowly. Savor the tingly feeling on your tongue. Inhale as you swallow to get the full effect. Then look for these flavor clues they often list on the back of the label. Descriptors like "vanilla" "butterscotch" "caramel" "smoke" or "nutmeg" indicates the wine has a woodier taste, often acheived by the the type of barrel it is aged in. If newer oak barrels were used in the winemaking process, the wines will often have a hint of vanilla in both the aroma and flavor.

Words like “zesty” “racy” “tangy” suggest a fresher, brighter style, more descriptive of the acidity and fruitiness of the wine.

Take a peek at the alcohol percentage and this will tip you off as to how heavy the wine will feel in your mouth. 10% should feel similar to water, 12-13% can feel like skim milk, 15% or higher will have the body of whole milk.

Stay tuned and we will look into the finer points of brews!

Don't Swallow in Utah!

As things are heating up for the Poster Unveiling & Wine vs Brew Tasting, I thought a little wine tasting etiquette might be good. So after a little research, it was interesting to find that in Utah, wine used at wine tastings MUST NOT BE SWALLOWED! Which poses the problem, where exactly do you put it after some momentary swirling in your mouth. The idea of spitting it into your glass seems just a bit gross, even with rinsing. And I can't speak for you, but no way would this Lentil Lady spit into a bucket in front of people. How gauche!

So I plan to solve that for our guests on June 9th. Here in Pullman Washington it is legal to swallow. So simply rinse your glass, empty it into one of our lovely buckets and move on to the next.
Happy tasting!