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.

Garden

Basil Mint


Chard (Golden, Red and White), Spinach (+another big planter full of spinach)


Parsley (continental), Marigolds, Thyme, Chives, Thai Basil, Basil, Chilli


Oregano, Corriander, Basil, Marigolds, Parsley (continental)

Hydrocolloid - part 2

Well finally got my sample of N-Zorbit M, so will be fun experimenting with it. (original post here)

Dinner last night was a tasty falling apart belly of pork very simply prepared.

Seasoned and browned the belly on the stove, then set aside while some onions softened in the same pan (dutch oven), added in a couple spoons of fennel seed and sauteed a little longer to release the aroma.

Finally placed the pork back in the pot, with about a cup of cider. Put the lid on and in to an oven at 140°C for a few hours.

I was left with pork wonderfully soft and falling apart, and a ready made cider-onion gravy.

Chips and Gravy = Yum!

Who ever invented the idea of having french fries and gravy is a complete genius. And the ultimate expression of this combination of foods has to be poutine, french fries topped with cheese curds and lavishly drenched in rich gravy.

Asparagus and Eggs tonight

This is from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, a super simple and tasty way to enjoy asparagus [original] [River Cottage Spring]

Ingredients
2 large eggs, at room temperature
A dozen slim stems of asparagus, any woody ends trimmed
A knob of unsalted butter
A few drops of cider vinegar
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. Bring a pan of water to the boil. Carefully lower in the eggs, then simmer them for exactly 4 minutes. Steam the asparagus over the top of the boiling eggs, or cook in a separate pan in boiling water for a couple of minutes. The asparagus should be tender but not soft and floppy.
2. Transfer the eggs to egg cups. Cut the top off each egg and take them to the table with the asparagus. Drop a nut of butter, a few drops of cider vinegar and some salt and pepper into the hot yolk (alternatively, just sprinkle some salt and pepper on the plate), stir with a bit of asparagus, dip and eat.

Artichokes

Before I cooked my first artichoke, they fell in to the hard much easier to avoid category. But nothing could be further from the truth, they are easy to prep and just as simple to cook.

To prep the artichoke make sure you have a lemon half handy and a bowl of cold water with lemon juice in it (this stops it oxidizing and turning brown). Trim the tough outer leaves off near the stem, wiping the cut surfaces with the lemon half, then trim the stem down so it's about 2cm long (or all the way off if it's particularly thin), wipe all cuts with the lemon. Place the artichoke in the bowl of water until ready to cook.

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a simmer (with a squeeze of lemon). Place the artichokes in the pot and cook for 15-30 minutes. When they're done an outer leaf should pull easily away from the base.

Now the fun part, eating! First melt some butter (seasoned with whatever you like. Garlic, anchovy, lemon etc). Then pull off a leaf and dip it in the butter and scrape the flesh off the inside of the leaf. Once you've worked your way through all of the leaves, you'll get down to the choke (soft fuzzy center of the flower) scrape it out with a spoon and discard. Then you'll be left with the soft tasty heart.

Silverbeet (chard)

We have a good bunch of Silverbeet growing in our pots at home (Ruby & Yellow Chard), along with a several varieties of spinach.

With a big bunch of leaves I trimmed the steams of and roughly chopped the leaves into large pieces, and sliced up the stems. In a frying pan sautéed some chopped bacon until it had rendered all it's fat out and started to go crispy. Then I added some sliced onions and let them soften and slowly caramelise in the oh so good bacon fat. Next the stems get thrown in and left to soften slightly and finally the leaves which take no time at all to wilt down.

Dish up in a bowl and devour. The salt from the bacon combats the bitter from the Chard, very tasty snack.