Tagged: potatoes

Aug 01

cookbook challenge 2011: 15th fortnight, european

When it came to a European recipe, I headed straight for the Greek and Italian cookbooks. That was until, Tim pointed out to me that I was looking up Mediterranean food! As much as I initially tried to protest this; I knew he was right and just because they are in the EU doesn’t mean they are producing   European cuisine. So back to the bookshelf I went!  Considering that I don’t eat a lot of meat euro food largely leaves me with side dishes and pastries and given that I didn’t have a two spare days to play with, the pastries were kind of out of the question. So I present a yummy little side dish for two.

Potato Gratin, as seen in FOOD, COOK, EAT

serves 2

 

1 tablespoon oil

1 onion finely sliced

1 garlic clove, crushed

2 large or 4 small floury potatoes

4 tablespoons Gruyere cheese, grated

a pinch of ground nutmeg

80ml (1/3 cup) milk

90ml (1/3 cup) cream

 

Put oven on to 170C (325F). Heat the oil in a frying pan over a low heat and add the onion. Stir to coat the onions in oil, then leave to cook until they are completely soft and translucent but not brown. You may need to stir them occasionally to stop them browning in patches. Add the garlic and cook for a minute, then turn off the heat.

Thinly slice the potatoes using a sharp knife, making the slices even so they cook at the same rate. Butter two small ovenproof dishes. Equally dividing the ingredients, layer the potatoes, onions and garlic, grated cheese and nutmeg in the dishes, seasoning as you go. Finished with a layer of potatoes and some cheese. Mix together the milk and cram and divide between the two dishes.

Cover the dishes with foil and back for 10 minutes then take off the foil and bake for 40 minutes, or until the potatoes are completely cooked. Test by pushing a sharp  knife through the layers to see if the potato still feels hard. If it does continue cooking. Leave to stand for a few minutes before serving so that the sauce soaks into the potatoes.

 

I could only find one decent sized ramekin in my cupboard (pretty sure the other one got broken in the move), so I went for a single dish that would still serve two. I used desiree potatoes, as I wanted them to hold their shape a little bit better. It tasted great and was super easy. Sorry for the shit photos, I promise to get the real camera out next time.

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Apr 24

cookbook challenge 2011: 8th fortnight, eggs

Hola! It’s egg time! With this theme I knew what I was looking for in my cookbooks straight away. Which meant far less umming and arrhhing then normal. So it was straight to the Spanish cookbooks for this one. I’ve had the home cooked torillas a couple of times before at a friend, Irene’s place. Irene has a Spanish background and makes the tortilla as a side dish to her amazing paella’s. I’m pretty sure that she uses her Dad’s recipe to make it.  It’s always tasty, so I very much inspired to give it a crack.

 

Tortilla De Patatas as found in the Movida cookbook

serves tapas 12, entree 6, main 4

1kg floury potatoes

1brown onion, finely diced

2 garlic clove, very finely chopped

about 1 litre/4 cups olive oil

8 eggs

sea salt flakes

60ml olive oil, extra

 

Cut the potatoes into paper thin slices using a mandolin or a very sharp knife and then cut into 1cm squares.

In a large heavy-based frying pan confit* the potato onion and garlic. To do this, cover them with the olive oil and heat over high heat until the oil just starts to warm then reduce the heat to low-medium and cooked for 30-35 minutes. You should only be able to see very fine bubbles occasionally – it should not be rapidly bubbling. The idea is to soften the potatoes but not turn them into little chips. As the potato cooks, use the back of a large spoon to break  them up into smaller pieces. After 30-35 minutes try a piece, it should be very soft to touch.

When done, put the potato mixture into a chinos or fine sieve and drain the oil. The oil can be used another three or four times to confit other dishes in this book.

Meanwhile in a large bowl gentle whisk the eggs until smooth and mix in 1 teaspoon of salt. Reserve 185ml of the egg mixture in a separate bowl. Add the potato mixture to the egg mix in the bowl and briefly mix. Season with sea salt flakes to taste. Heat the extra olive oil in a 28cm non-stick frying pan over medium-high heat. Pour in the egg and potato mixture. As the mixture starts to thicken shake the pan in a circular motion- the edges should start to round. Using a wooden spatula, start shaping the mixture into a thick disc that is rounded at the edges like a flat Frisbee. After 1 minute cover the frying pan with a plate or round flat tray, and quickly flip the plate and the pan so the tortilla is on the place. Gently slide the tortilla back into the pan, uncooked-side down, and reduce the heat to low-medium. Smooth out any imperfection in the cooked surface of the tortilla by pouring over a little of the reserved beaten egg and smoothing it in with a wooden spoon. Cover and cook for 2 minutes, Flip the tortilla again and repeat the smoothing process with some of the remaining beaten eggs on the freshly exposed side. Cover and cook for a further 2 minutes. Repeat the process and then cover and cook for 2 minutes.

Flip the tortilla , pour on any remaining egg mix, smooth, cover and cooked for 1 minute, Slip and cook covered for a further minute.

When done the tortilla should not be completely firm and should have a little wobble in it when you gentle shake the pan. Remove from the heat and keep in the pan in a warm place for 5 minutes.This allows the residual heat to set the remaining uncooked eggs without the interior becoming rubbery. Serve at room temperature.

 

*Confit is a process of cooking in oil under 100C (200 F). It is it hotter than that the water in the food boils and evaporates as steam, which forms bubbles to escape.

 

So I had no problems with chopping everything, I even managed the whole confit process without a hitch. It was the flipping that got me. I think I used a pan that was a little too large. Consequently I didn’t have a plat big enough to do the flipping (why do you always notice this after you’ve put the mixture into the pan!), so I had to get a platter to do it. Man! It was heavy! I had to call in for back up. Needless to say the flipping process was not crash hot. Some of the mixture stuck to the bottom too, just to further complicate things. So I flipped the mixture onto the platter and then washed the pan. After heating it again with a fresh batch of oil I transfer the mixture back to the pan. At which point, I managed to break the omelette in half. %$@#en brilliant! I patched it up as best I could with the reserved egg mix, and pieced it back together after much swearing. I managed only one further flip as the whole process was seeming a bit dangerous by this point.

Unforgivably the crack in the middle was not all that repairable it turn out so hence no gorgeous full omelette shot. Your have to settle for the 1 of the 4 neat slices I was able to recover. To serve I made some garlic and chilli mushrooms and some green beans. Anyways if you decide to have a crack at this one I hope you manage to learn from my mistakes. Size of pan and plate are imperative! Ole!

 

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Feb 21

cookbook challenge 2011: 4th fortnight, love

Love, love, love. For this fortnights theme, I recreated the very first meal my boyfriend cooked for me. It was the first time I met his Mum too. I very nervously picked out something to wear, got in my car and drove to the other side of town. It was the first and only time I’ve used the front door at his parents house. Anyways so this mean consisted of a tomato fish curry and cumin potatoes. There was also Nasu Dengaku but Tim told me recently that was only because he thought the fish curry might be too hot for his Mum to eat. So I decided to leave that bit out and stick with the dishes that he chose for me.

“Tomato Fish Curry” as found in the Asian Cooking Companion, cookbook

Serves 2

2 tablespoons vegatable oil

1 onion, finely sliced

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 teaspoon peeled and grated fresh ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground tumeric

1 teaspoon ground cumin

2 teaspoon ground coriander

2 teaspoon garam masala

1/2 teaspoon chili powder

500g white fish fillets, cut into 2 inch cubes

400g  canned chopped tomatoes

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspooon sugar

2 tablespoons fresh coriander leaves

lemon wedges for serving

 

To make spice mixture: In a wok or large frying pan, heat oil over medium heat and stir-fry remaining ingredients until fragrant, 1-2 minutes.

Add fish, tomatoes with their juice, sat and sugar to the spice mixture in the wok. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer, stirrung occasionally, unitl fish is opaque throughout, 8-10 minutes.

Remove from heat and spoon into serving bowls. Sprinkle with coriander. Serve with lemon wedges and steamed basmati rice.

 

 

“Cumin-Flavoured Potatoes” as found in the Asian Cooking Companion, cookbook

Serves 8-10

1kg uniformly sized desiree or pontiac potatoes, or about 7 medium

salt as needed

2 1/2 tablespoons cold water

1 teaspoon ground tumeric

1/2 teaspoon chili powder

1/4 cup vegetable oil and melted unsalted butter combined

4 teaspoon cumin seeds

4 teaspoons ground coriander

2 teaspoons finely grated fresh ginger

1/3 cup chopped fresh coriander

juice of 1/2 lemon

 

Place potatoes and large pinch salt in a saucepan with enough cold water to cover. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook, partially covered, until potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes. Drain potatoes and let cool for 15 minutes. Peel potatoes and cut into 4cm cubes. Set aside. In a small bowl, combined cold water, turmeric and chili powder, and set aside.

In a large, heavy saucepan, heat oil and butter mixture over medium-low heat. Add cumin seeds and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 30 seconds; take care not to burn the seeds. Reduce heat to low and add water and turmeric mixture. Cook, stirring, for 30 seconds. Add potatoes and salt to taste, and toss gently until heated through, about 1 minute. Add coriander and toss for 30 seconds. Add ginger and coriander and toss to combine. Drizzle with lemon juice and serve.

 

So the end result huh!? Firstly a couple of variations! I like greens, and this meal seemed to be lacking in them so I added green beans to the curry. For the white fish I selected baby gummy shark and only used about 400g in the end. When I was buying the ingredients I was convinced that I had fresh ginger at home so I didn’t buy any when I was out. Turns out there was none at home. So I had to use powdered ginger in both dishes boo! I also wasn’t able to harvest enough coriander from the veggie patch, so I was also lacking in that area too. Regardless of these short comings – both dishes taste great. I skipped making any rice as the potatoes seemed to have that covered. My love gave me 8 and 1/2 for my work. I guess some more fresh ingredients would have got me over the line!

 

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