Argentinian Potato Pie

Well, I wrote this and finished this recipe start of May, why I did not publish it, I do not know. In the last few days, when it was certain that Germany was playing Argentina in the World Cup for the coveted Trophy, I decided in honour of Argentina, I would put it up, whether they would win or  loose.

Today they lost, but they were formidable opponents. As the French say, "chapeau"! This is for Argentina!

There is an interesting story attached to this recipe. A recipe which has been in the family for 32 years and every so often, when simple delicious food is called for, I think of this particular pie.

I got the recipe from an Argentinian called Jorge. We met him and his friend Wym in Lisbon on the Munipal camp site. They had pitched their tent beside ours. We shared some wine and before they left, they invited us to visit them in Den Haag, Holland, where Wym, a Dutchman, taught Piano and Jorge worked as a hairdresser. A year later, we did what we called the Grand Tour d'Europe, and visited Wym and Jorge in Den Haag. It turned out that Jorge was not only an exceptional swimmer and diver, he taught our gang how to dive, but also a great cook.

The following is a family recipe from Jorge. I hope you enjoy it as much as we still do.

Ingredients 

1 kg potatoes 

3 to 4 hardboiled eggs

150 g cooked ham

150 g grated cheddar or Emmenthal cheese

Some grated Parmesan cheese

50g butter

Enough milk to cream the potatoes

Salt, pepper and freshly grated nutmeg to taste

Method

1. Peel and boil the potatoes

2. In the meantime prepare the eggs, ham and cheese.

3. In an ovenproof dish cover the bottom with creamed potatoes

4. Layer the eggs, ham and top with the cheese

5. Finish with a layer of creamed potatoes

6. Sprinkle the Parmesan cheese on top.

Bake the pie for approx. 30min at 175 C.

Serve with any salad of your choice , although a simple green lettuce salad with the basic Vinaigrette suits the pie best ( my humble opinion)

The finished result!

Old reliables baked a different way

Another month is gone and I have not written another blog, what I have done though is experimenting with some old reliables, preparing and baking  them in a new tasty way.
We eat quite a lot of dishes which do not contain any meat, although we are not Vegetarians, simply because we like vegetables.

The two recipes I am sharing with you, I have tried out in the last weeks and they are simply a twist on old reliables! like the humble potato.

Potatoes are underrated and have been given a bad time by some "diets" as being the culprit of piling on the pounds. Nothing is further from the truth. One of the best balanced meal is the simple baked potato with cottage cheese. The following recipe is a more "up market" version of this and it tastes absolutely delicious

New potato bake

Ingredients.

Take 2 medium potatoes per Person

Cheese Mixture

1 pot of cottage cheese

100 ml single cream

3 eggs ( as free range as you can get)

50 g finely grated Parmesan cheese

Some fresh thyme and/or oregano

Some salt and pepper

Some grated Parmesan to put over the potatoes

A dozen approx. of cherry tomatoes

Method 

1. Peel the potatoes and cut the top into a fan. Do not cut the potato through.

2. Put potatoes into a  greased oven dish and sprinkle lightly with some olive oil.

3. Put potatoes into oven and bake at 175 C for approx. 20 tp 25 min, depending on your oven.

4. During that time prepare the cheese mixture,  put all the ingredients into a bowl and mix thoroughly 

5. Take the potatoes out of the oven and pour the cheese mixture slowly into the tin, being careful not to pour it over the potatoes. 

6. Place the tomatoes between the potatoes and sprinkle the potatoes with the grated Parmesan .

7. Then put the dish back into the oven and bake for a further 20 to 25 minutes. If the top looks too brown, reduce the heat and bake until the mixture is set.

Serve with a green Salad. I use a cream dressing with Parmesan to compliment the potatoes.

( 3 Tbsp oil, 1 Tbsp cider or white wine vinegar, salt, pepper, 1/3 cup of single cream, 1 clove of garlic, 2 Tbsp finely grated Parmesan )

Note: this recipe for the dressing can be used also for  Caesar Salad.

If you are cooking for a larger crowd you can add to the above the following Ratatouille .

Ratatouille with a difference

Usually the vegetables for the Ratatouille are quickly fried and then put into an ovenproof dish and baked for approx. 30 min. This recipe is different in that you prepare a base of onions and tomato puree and then layer the vegetables in an ovenproof dish on top of it. See the pictures. The amount and type of vegetables is up to your own personal choice. I like to use aubergine, gourgette, red and/or yellow pepper and mushrooms.

These are the ingredients


Fry the inions lightly in a little oil and put a tablespoon of tomato puree in and mix thoroughly around add the crushed garlic

This is the base for the Ratatouille


Layer the base of an ovenproof dish with the onion mix and layer the vegetables, which are cut into thick slices, upright on top of the onion. Sprinkle with olive oil, black pepper and some salt. 

 

Arrange some cherry tomatoes and some Mozzarella slices on top.
Bake for approx. 30 to 40 min depending on your oven at 175C

Serve with crusty bread or as accompaniment to the above potato pie. It tastes equally delicious with any grilled meat or roasts.

Crunchy Winter Salads

The wind is howling outside and it is more the weather for a wholesome stew, than for a salad. Yet it is especially important in the winter to eat fresh fruit and vegetables in order to get our supply of vitamins and minerals.
 It is far more healthy for your body and soul to make a colourful salad out of what the winter has to offer us, than to swallow a few vitamin tablets.
The first salad uses red cabbage, apples, nuts and raisins. The second salad is based on cooked beet root and has a few more ingredients, which you can change to your own taste.
You might ask, why two red salads? I think nature is wonderful in supplying us with very colourful winter vegetables to cheer us up. Besides the red, look at the dark green of the Kale or of the wonderful marble colouring of the Brussels Sprouts, both make an excellent addition to  any winter salad. Just blanch them for a minute and cool down immediately in ice water before using.

Red Cabbage Salad

Ingredients 

1/2 head or a small head of red cabbage shredded

2 ripe apples, a winter variety, like cox orange, diced

50 to 75 g roasted walnuts or hazel nuts, chopped

50 g raisins or sultanas soaked in cider or white wine over night* ( if you haven't any cider, you can use apple juice or any fruit juice

A vinegar dressing made with a good Balsamic Vinegar ( see salads)

* freeze in leftover wine or cider in a ice cube freezer bag and you have at hand small quantities when you may need .

Method

Simply mix all the ingredients

together.

Serve salad on its own with cold meats and cheeses,

or as a side salad with fried/grilled pork chops, Roast Pork, actually with most Pork dishes







Beet Root Salad

Ingredients

2 to 3 cooked Beet Root, cubed
1 juicy apple, cut
25-50 g cashew nuts ( depending how crunchy you want the salad to be)
2 pickled cucumbers ( optional)
2 hard boiled eggs*
1 small gourgette, cut into small strips ( optional)

1 fresh Fennel roasted with a little oil and salt and pepper ( the fennel takes about 15 min. depending on your oven at 175C)

1 cream vinegar and oil dressing ( basically the normal vinaigrette with about 3 Tbsp fresh cream)

Leave the fennel cool down before chopping and adding to the rest of the salad

*Boiling eggs, a simple thing to do you might say,
but......
to achieve the nicely boiled egg as on the picture
you simply bring the eggs to the boil and then you turn of the cooker. Leave the eggs in the hot water
for approx. 20 minutes, cool down and chop


Method

As you see from the pictures, it is very easy to prepare the salad.
Chop all the ingredients, add the dressing and adjust the seasoning.
Depending on the size of the Beet Root you might want to add a little more salt.
If you don't use pickled cucumbers, you might want to add a little more vinegar.

This salad is a well balanced meal and does not need any extras, but any nice crunchy fresh bread would go very well indeed with it.

Note

Both salads can be prepared well in advance, as a matter of fact, they benefit from a few hours resting.

Good intentions

January is the months of good intentions, and the media is full of good advice to change your eating, drinking and exercising habits to a more healthier one.

No or little alcohol, less meat, more fruit and vegetables, regular exercises etc, etc.  Every year I totally ignored all these well meant 'healthy change your life efforts". Well this new year , due to circumstances so totally out of my control, forced me to change my eating and drinking habits, not because I had this sudden insight, but because I had no other choice. 

The interesting bit about it, I am actually enjoying it . So I thought I share  some of the small things I added or changed to my new and hopefully lasting eating habits .

Sweet Potato with Avocado Dip and Cottage Cheese

We all know or should know, that a healthy balance of protein, fat and carbohydrates should be our daily intake. 

Funnily enough, our parents and grandparents did the right thing without any help of health gurus.

They only used and ate what was in season; only used regional produce, had three meals a day, according to the  motto :

breakfast like an emperor , lunch like a king and eat in the evening like a beggar. Looking at old photos you see that obesity was a problem they did not have.

So what have I changed?
Porridge for breakfast ( the real McCoy, made with organics oatflakes) in the microwave, done in a minute or two, or the tradional way, soak the night before, ( put some blueberries in and some honey or maple syrup and you have a meal fit for an emperor),
I try to have the main meal at lunchtime now, eat fruit for snacks and eat little meat, I haven't eaten red meat for a month ( mind you slowly the thought of a nice steak is starting to appeal again!)
I rediscovered the Baked Potato. Yes, a big potato baked in the jacket and eaten with a big blob of good low fat cottage cheese. The mix of carbohydrates, protein and little fat gives you a perfect balanced meal.
To add variety instead of the humble potato, I use Sweet Potato.
Not to get bored with just cottage cheese, I tried a new new combination of avocado and chickpeas and I liked it!
Here is the recipe for the new dip.


Creamy Avocado/Chickpea Dip

Ingredients

1 ripe Avocado
1/2 tin of chickpeas
1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 clove of garlic, crushed (optional)
2 Tbsp low fat yoghurt
salt, pepper to taste 
a little tabasco or chilly flakes

Method 

1. Scoop the inside of the avocado in to a bowl and add the lemon juice and garlic.
2. Add the chick peas and yoghurt and with a blender purėe to a  smooth paste.
3. Add salt ( go easy), pepper as much as you like and the tabasco ( go gently).

Serve with baked potato, baked sweet potato or use a dip with fresh vegegtables or fresh crunchy bread.

What I like about this dip is that you use the chick peas to add protein, but unlike for Hummus you don't need Tahini.

Little Tip: Pepper and Chili activates your digestive system due to Capsaicin. Good if you want get rid of a pound o two!

Coming Next: Crunchy Winter Salad

Grand Bird, The Turkey with a difference

In our family we only eat Roast Turkey at Christmas. It is our family tradtion.

My way of roasting the turkey is a little different to the tradtional Irish way. I have found that most of the time the turkey meat was too dry. I had to find a way to change that.
I do not stuff my bird with the tradtional stuffing. If you roast the turkey until the stuffing is cooked, the breast will be dry and overcooked. If you do like stuffing, bake it seperately.
I line the the inside of the turkey with  majoram  and fill it with oranges.  But before I put the turkey in the oven, I layer the whole bird with streaky bacon, that does not only add moisture and fat, but also enhances the taste of the turkey gravy.
I do have problems finding dried Majoram in the shops here, so I grow my own. If you cannot get Majoram you can also substitute it with Oregano and or Thyme

Ingredients

1 free range turkey (weight depends on your size of family)
salt and pepper
1/2 dried Majoram
3 to 4 oranges
1 large pack of streaky bacon
water

The finished result

Method

Remove the giblets. ( use the liver to make Pâté, if you like,  and the rest to make stock for the gravy, if you wish)

Season the inside of the turkey with salt and pepper and Majoram or Oregano and/or Thyme

Cut the oranges into halves or quarters and fill the turkey with it. Depending of the size of the turkey you might need one more or less. Fill the front of the turkey, where the neck is, with half an orange.

Cover the whole turkey with the slices of streaky bacon.

Put the turkey into the roasting tin with the breast up.

Pour approx 1/2 l water into the roasting tin.

Start roasting at 175C for approx 11/2 hr. Once the bacon if browned take them off and with the help of somebody turn the turkey upside down, aka breast down.

After another hour turn the turkey around again and finish roasting. Use the water, which you replenish every so often, to baste the turkey, regularly

Cover the legs with tin foil to stop them from drying out too much.

The usual time for roasting are 20 minutes per pound at a medium temperature. I prefer to up the heat a bit and shorten the roasting time. 

You can use a meat thermometer to check if the bird is cooked.

In the end you know your oven and can adjust the time to suit your needs.

When the turkey is cooked. Set aside, cover with tin foil to keep warm.

For the gravy

Scrape all the bits from the roasting tin with the water. Pour through a sieve. Thicken the gravy with flour, make a paste from flour and water. (1 Tablespoon flour to 4-5 Tablespoons of water)

Pour the flour mixture into the gravy and cook for 2 min. Adjust the seasoning.

The end result should be a succulent roast turkey. Enjoy!

Baked Ham

It has been a while since I have put up a new recipe and now I can't wait much longer, as I would like you to have it before Easter. I originally had intended to publish it before Christmas, but somehow I did not manage to do so.
The recipe for the Baked Ham I earned fair and square many years ago. We were on holidays in Kerry and  I got it from a friend after I had cooked an 8, yes 8, course meal for him and his wife. You say a lot of work for one recipe, but I say, it was worth it.
Since then the Baked Ham is our family favourite for Christmas and all other occasions!
As with all meats, do get your ham from a source, you can rely that it has been properly cured.
For best results in making the sauce use mustard powder, if you can't get it then adjust the amount of mustard accordingly.
Best cabbage throughout the year is the York cabbage for this dinner, but you might have your own preferences.

Baked Ham and Cabbage with a Mustard Honey Sauce for 4-6 people

Ingredients

For boiling the ham

2-3lb ham (or piece of bacon)

2 carrots chopped roughly

1 medium/large onion chopped roughly

1 leek chopped roughly

Leaves of celery or lovage (optional)

Dozen black peppercorns

Bay leaf

For the sauce

1/3 cup (30g) of mustard powder

1 cup (180g) of unbleached, unrefined granulated sugar (preferably organic)

1/2 cup (100ml) of peach syrup (drain from can of peaches and serve peaches as accompaniment to meal)

Head of York or Spring cabbage

Remaining peach syrup

Butter for cooking

Potatoes

Method:

1. Put ham in large saucepan with enough cold water to cover ham

1. Bring to the boil and boil for 15 minutes

1. Discard water and replace with cold water again. This is to remove the saltiness of the ham. If cooking a large ham (e.g. for Christmas) you should steep the ham in water overnight if possible

1. Add all ingredients above for ‘boiling the ham’ into water

1. Bring to the boil and simmer at low heat for 1.5hrs

1. About hour and half into cooking the ham, scrub potatoes and put on the boil to cook (should take about 30 minutes)

1. Wash and chop cabbage and blanch in saucepan boiling water for 2-3 minutes.

1. Put knobs of butter in ovenproof dish and transfer drained cabbage into dish and cover with tinfoil

1. Bake for 25-30 mins at 175˚C depending on amount of cabbage and size of dish

1. Once cabbage is in oven, prepare sauce by mixing all ingredients together. 

1. Put ham in oven dish and cover with sauce and bake for 20-25mins at 175˚C

1. Baste ham with sauce half way through. If sauce is too thick add extra peach syrup

1. Take ham and cabbage out of oven. Drain sauce into gravy boat and serve as accompaniment

1. Serve ham, baked cabbage and potatoes with peaches

1. Serve with a Chardonnay (Macon-Village is best), Frascati or Pinot Grigio, or an Alsace Riesling

Big Bird - Goose

Until I came  to Ireland I only ever had a goose for Christmas. As a matter of fact, the smell of a roasting goose is one of my first "smell" memories. My grandmother used to keep geese and when we  visited her in our holidays, summer or autumn, it was our job to bring them to the little pond near her house (this was in East Germany). Around the feast day of St. Martin (11.Nov.) the first geese would  end up on the table, in honour of St.Martin. Seemingly he was warned by geese and thus could flee from whomever.
I never forget the smell wafting through the house when grandmother slowly roasted the goose stuffed with apples and majoram. I still roast my goose the way she taught me .

Once a goose got me into bad trouble, I was six going on to seven. We were going back to West Germany on the train and as a going away present grandmother had given us a goose, plucked and oven ready. At the border we had to leave the train and the customs officers would check all suitcases. They were looking especially for food, as there was a food shortage in the Fifties in East Germany and you were not allowed to take any out.

The customs official opened my mother's case, prodded here, prodded there, then he went to the corner where mother had put the dirty wash. "No need to check there, Sir", I offered quickly, " there is only a goose in there". I do not wish to know what mother would have liked to do with me that very instant. He looked at me,  looked at my mother, and while closing the case, he said,"Well, then there is no need to look there", and with that he let us go. Needless to say that this was the last goose which was smuggled between the East and the West by us.

Anyway here is how to roast successfully a goose.

Ingredients

1 goose, approx 4kg

salt and pepper

500g apples (approx)

2 Tbsp dried Majoram

400 ml chicken stock

some water approx 375ml

1Tbsp flour

Method

Heat  the oven to 175C or 375 F 

Season the goose with salt and pepper in the inside (make sure you have removed the giblets)

Fill the goose with the majoram and the apples, which are cut into quarters, secure the end with a cocktail stick or two (or not, I just stick more apple in)

Lay the goose with the breast side down on the roasting tin. Pour approx 125 ml water in the tin.

Turn the goose around after about 11/2 hrs. add 250 ml of water. Keep basting the goose at regular intervals.

The goose needs about 3hrs roasting time. About 15 min. before the end turn the oven to 225 C or 425F. Take the goose out of the roasting tin, keep warm.

Making the gravy

With the chicken stock, boil up the juice in the roasting tin, pour through a sieve. If the liquid has too much fat remove it with a spoon.

Thicken the liquid with the flour, which has been made into a  paste by adding some water. Pour into the liquid stirring continuously. Should you by any chance have some lumps. simply pour through a sieve and remove same lumps. Bring to the boil for a minute or two. Adjust the seasoning.

Ready to carve!

Serve the goose with roast potaoes and (tradionationally) red cabbage. Needless to say you can use any vegetable you like.