The local tomatoes are out in full force. I picked up a half dozen fatties from the market and cooked up some lentils.

I scored an x on the bottom of the tomatoes, cored them, and then blanched them in boiling water for 30 seconds, until cracks in the skin started to appear. I then removed them to a bowl of cold water to stop them from cooking and then the skins pretty much fell off. I quartered them, seeded them, and chopped them up.

In cooking the lentils, I added a bay leaf, some dried chillies, and a small amount of powdered boullion. That might technically be cheating. It was fairly hot on it's own but it also gave us a chance to try out the habanero sauce.

I haven't cooked a whole lot lately, was painting some rooms in the house. I did make another green lentil dish during the week that I should write down sometime soon. I made some dal and rice tonight.

I pretty much stuck to that recipe except I added three cloves of garlic to the lentils while they were cooking. I peeled the cloves, smashed them and added them along with the turmeric and dried peppers. I took them out when the lentils were cooked, I'm not sure if it made much of a difference or not. I also added a bit more lemon juice, 2 whole lemons worth, which made it a little more acidic.

The other thing I did a little different was to add the ground cumin seeds and garam masala to the onions and garlic at the very end. When I was finished sauteing, I added those spices in for about a minute just to heat them up in the ghee.

I picked up some soy beans this weekend to try making soy milk some night this week and then use it to make tofu. The goal is to get some smoked tofu going eventually.

I also picked up a new cookbook from the bargain bin at the bookshelf titled The Saucy Little Book. I picked up the ingredients I need to try out a haberno sauce.

I made some vegetable stock tonight and then used it in some chickpea and leek soup. I had some chickpeas soaking from the other day and wanted to use them up.

The carrots I had were slim so I used the whole bunch, about 6, in the stock. Fennel bulbs were small and $2 so I didn't use one, used a half dozen onions instead along with some fresh button mushrooms. I reduced this stock for almost an hour.

Is it possible to use too many onions in making a vegetable stock?

I just tried cooking the mushroom strogan-however-you-spell it again.

It was nice and tasty but a little on the saucy side. I tried putting the lid on for a bit while I was browning the tempeh and I think that prevented it from reducing more. Bad bad.

This time I deglazed the browning onions and fennel twice using some vermouth. I have no clue if I'm supposed to do that? I also used a whole fennel with 2 small onions this time. You could taste more of the fennel in the final dish which was the point.

It's insane hot and humid, I'm going out for a beer, specifically a creemore....