Potato and Courgette Rösti

Potato and Courgette Rösti with sautéed Chard and peas, topped with a poached egg.

For the Rösti, grate a couple of potatoes and courgettes in to a bowl and liberally sprinkle with salt. Let it sit for 30 min, so the salt can draw out the moisture.

After half an hour, squeeze the potato mixture, getting out as much liquid as possible. Then season the dry (dryish) potatoes, I use mustard powder a bit of pepper and thinly sliced scallions.

In a hot pan, put a good chunk of butter and a little oil and when ready pour the mixture and press down. leave for about 5 minutes (depending on how thick it is) then flip and cook for another 5 minutes (use of a chopping board or plate to flip the Rösti makes light work of it)

Photo's to follow, and a couple more posts, I've had some difficulty getting in to the site recently.

Lentil Salad and Roast Beef

1 Cup of Puy Lentils
1 onion finely diced
1 carrot finely diced
1 Cup of Stock
mustard
salt and pepper
white wine vinegar
herbs (I used parsley and basil)

Cook the lentils in boiling water for about 15 minutes, until they're almost cooked (You can add things like onion and garlic to the water, but not salt or acid as they will toughen the skin of the lentil).

Drain the lentils, and in the pan I used to sear the beef, soften the carrot and onion, once done add a splash of the vinegar and let that evaporate off.

Add the lentils to the pan and toss through the vegetables, then add the stock and let it simmer and reduce down till there is almost no liquid left.

Take off the heat and pour the mixture to a bowl then add the herbs and mustard and stir through, season to taste, I always like to add a little extra vinegar at this stage too.

Hangover cure...

Potato Rosti fried in lots of butter, topped with a poached egg covered in rarebit sauce

Pork Belly... again

Tried a different method this time though, in a dutch oven...

First I made a dry spice rub by powdering mustard, coriander, cloves, bay leaves, black pepper and salt.


Then I sliced a couple of onions up to act as a trivet so the pork wouldn't be sitting directly on the pot (and also so I ended up with some tasty caramelised onion), then to the pot I put in a couple of good slugs of cider vinegar.

Placed the pork covered in the rub on top of the onions, lid on and in the oven at 130°C for 2.5 hours, then cranked up the heat to 220°C took the lid off the pot and cooked for another 30 minutes.

The results were very juicy melt in your mouth meat, with good crust.