Purple Things That Are Way Cooler Than Barney

Howdy. I just got out of the shower after watching episode 1 of season 2 of True Blood. I love it when a shockingly gruesome scene ending an episode is immediately followed by incongruent music. In this case, a horrible murder scene transferred over into a perky country song.

Last Thursday night, I made purple carrots braised in a red wine sauce with garlic mashed potatoes and black beluga lentils with spinach and garlic scapes. As many of you already know (I've been yapping about it ever since ;)), it was a divine version of a bastardized, separated shepherd's pie. And they said I couldn't cook comfort food!

Garlic mashed potatoes are simple. I use butter and soymilk or real dairy of some sort if I have it on hand. For the lentils, just cover them with a bit of water and add some vegetable or chicken broth for flavor. I don't measure or time it. You just do it a few times until you've gotten the hang of it, and it depends if you like your lentils a little soupy or not. The carrots were braised in a sauce of onions, garlic, mushrooms (recipe called for porcini, but I used shiitake because it's what I had), red wine, rosemary, thyme, a smidge of flour, and a dash of tamari. You could also add tomato paste to thicken it. There's a great recipe for it in Deborah Madison's Local Flavors: Cooking and Eating from America's Farmers' Markets.)