This worked a treat with the added flavour-enhancing ingredients, so I’m posting the recipe. It is a dead-easy dish to knock up. To make it you will need:
1.5Kg unsmoked streaky bacon in one piece complete with rind
A bottle of passable white wine
750ml fresh chicken stock
500g Puy lentils
15 shallots peeled but left whole
10 sticks of celery cut into batons
3 carrots peeled and cut into batons
2 dessertspoons of butter
A couple of bay leaves
A couple of springs of thyme
For the mustard sauce:
150ml double cream
A heaped dessertspoon of Dijon mustard
Cut the rind off the bacon and put it in your stew pot. You cook this with the rind because it adds flavour, you don’t eat it. Put the lump of bacon in, add the chicken stock and white wine then heat it up. Once it begins to simmer turn the heat down to the lowest setting where the surface just quivers. Simmer it for half an hour at this temperature.
Once this half hour is up add the lentils, shallots, celery, carrots, bay leaves and thyme, bring back to the boil then simmer at the lowest heat for another hour.
Then take the bacon out of the pot and slice it into thick slices. Stir the butter into the lentils and vegetables to add richness. Serve wonderful, rich and tasty slices pork with the delicious lentil and vegetable stew. The mustard sauce just needs the two ingredients mixing and people can help themselves to this.
