Month: February 2011

Categories
potatoes

jean christophe novelli’s roast potatoes

jean christophe novelli's roast potatoes

You manage to get some up-close-and-personal time with a skilled and famous chef. You’re spending relaxed time in his company after watching the man cook food for you in his whites. He’s poured forth detail on his family life growing up and told you of the bittersweet feeling as he approaches a milestone birthday.

Jean-Christophe Novelli is being nothing less than his charming self. He’s opened his heart and his kitchen to you. So what do you ask him?

“What your recipe for perfect roast potatoes?”

How could I miss that opportunity? I admit I was a little surprised by his method. But I can’t ignore a new technique for roast potatoes!

It throws a lot of what I usually do out of the window. It’s very simple though: mix with seasonings, a quick flash-fry on the hob, then straight in the oven with no fat. Weird.

I was cooking a lovely sage butter-smeared roast chicken this weekend so I tried them (alongside a batch of regular roasties in case they disappointed!). And they were pretty good. Crunchy, tasty, and very potatoey – leaving the skins on and not diluting in water retains the potato flavour strongly. And very healthy, given there is no fat involved at all, and because the skins stay on many nutrients are kept there.

But make no mistake, while interesting and useful to know they are not classic roast potatoes to put alongside my Sunday lunch.

Jean-Christophe Novelli’s roast potatoes:

1 potato per person, diced to about 2cm pieces (skins left on)

A couple of fat cloves of garlic, squashed

A couple of rosemary sprigs

  1. Pop the oven on to 220°C. Get your sturdiest baking tray on the hob heating up to very hot.
  2. Toss the potatoes with the garlic and rosemary, adding some salt and pepper (you could add pretty much any seasoning you want here; curry powder, cumin, paprika etc.). Chuck them in the baking tray and get shaking and stirring. You’re looking to build up a slight crust on the outside which will make them kinda non-stick, as well as getting the cooking started quickly.
  3. After 5 minutes of shaking and tossing, transfer the baking tray to the hot oven and bake for 45 minutes or until tender. Shake regularly to free any crusty bits.
Categories
chicken lime noodles peanut butter

chicken skewers, satay sauce and noodle salad

This recipe is adapted from one of Jamie’s 30-Minute Meals. If you’ve browsed around this blog in the last couple of months, you’ll have noticed that I’ve gone through quite a lot of them, and they’ve all been pretty fantastic. This is the first one that felt like a lot of fuss for okay results. I’m sure it could be simplified to a more straight-forward stir fry style recipe. I’ll be back with this one.

Chicken skewers, satay sauce and noodle salad (serves 2):

For the satay sauce:

½ a bunch of fresh coriander

A few slices of red chilli

1 clove garlic

3 tablespoons crunchy peanut butter

1 tablespoon tahini

Soy sauce

2cm ginger

Zest and juice of 1 lime

For the chicken:

2 chicken breasts, diced

Runny honey

For the noodles:

1 nest per person

50g unsalted cashews

½ red onion

½ bunch fresh coriander

Soy sauce

1 lime

1 teaspoon sesame oil

1 teaspoon fish suace

1 teaspoon honey

1 teaspoon sesame seeds

To serve:

More fresh coriander

2 little gem lettuces, shredded

  1. Get a grill on screaming hot. Whizz together all the satay sauce ingredients in a food processor. Taste and check – more lime? More soy?
  2. Skewer the chicken breasts and baste with half the satay sauce. Drizzle with olive oil and pop under the grill for 10 minutes on each side, or until golden and cooked through. When you stop to turn them over, drizzle over the honey.
  3. Put the noodles in a bowl, pour boiling water over and cover for 5 minutes. Bash the cashew nuts to pieces and add to a frying pan and heat gently – make sure they don’t burn.
  4. Peel the red onion and pulse with coriander. Mix with the soy, lime juice, sesame oil and fish sauce. Taste and check for seasoning. By this time the noodles are probably ready drain, wash them under cold water and toss with the red onion salad.
  5. Back to the cashews, adding honey and sesame seeds to coat. Once golden, tip into the bowl with noodles and combine well.
  6. Serve the skewers on top of the noodle salad with lettuce, more coriander and the remaining satay to dip.
Categories
bread celeriac olives parmesan parsley peppers

stuffed focaccia

OK, OK, so it’s not a focaccia. But the idea’s there. It’s actually a boule de campagne but serving the same purpose. Reminds me a lot of a muffuleta. (Obviously the sandwich in the pic is missing it’s lid). It’s a stunning feast from Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals.

I bloomin’ love sandwiches like this, every mouthful’s different. A deli in a bap! The remoulade is tangy and fun too, I’d recommend that alongside some barbecued meat on its own.

Jamie also served this with some mozzarella dressed with pesto and followed it with a grapefruit granita, but the two parts here are brill as they are.

Stuffed focaccia (serves 4):

For the focaccia:

1 large boule de campagne

450g jar of peppers

1 teaspoon capers, drained

Handful of sun-dried tomatoes

Handful mixed olives

A few cherry tomatoes, halved

3 or 4 cornichons

Small bunch of parsley

Half a lemon

Sprinkle of parmesan

For the remoulade:

600g celeriac

1 pear

Handful of parsley

1 teaspoon French mustard

1 teaspoon wholegrain mustard

2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

  1. Get your food processor out and whack in the coarse grater. Peel and quarter the celeriac, then pass this, the pear and the parsley through the grater (you may have to do it in stages if the bowl fills up). Mix together the mustards and vinegar with some extra virgin olive oil and pour this all over the grated veg. Taste for seasoning and leave to marry together while you make your sandwich.
  2. Pop the bread in a low oven just to gently warm through and get a lovely crust while you prepare the filling. Pop all the ingredients on a large chopping board and run through the lot several times with your longest knife. Keep going until everything is roughly thumb-sized – any bigger and it lollops out of the bap while you’re eating. Squeeze over a lemon and pour over a little extra virgin olive oil, and spread the filling over your warmed loaf. Grate over some parmesan and serve with the remoulade.
Categories
egg fennel

cheddar frittata with zingy balsamic rocket salad

Just a quick, cheap and cheerful dinner. A simple and humble cheddar frittata with leftover spaghetti, plus a punchy salad on the side (gleefully stolen from Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals). The dressing is dynamite, really sweetly acidic with a lemony punch.

Cheddar frittata with zingy balsamic rocket salad (serves 2):

For the frittata:

4 eggs

100g cheddar

150g spaghetti

½ teaspoon smoked paprika

For the salad:

2 slices pancetta

1 clove garlic

1 tablespoon fennel seeds

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

½ a lemon

  1. Cook the spaghetti according to the packet instructions. Drain and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking once it’s done. Get the grill on hot and a frying pan over a medium heat.
  2. Whisk the eggs briskly in a large bowl, with salt, pepper and the paprika. Stir in the cheese and add to a large frying pan. After a minute or so add the spaghetti.
  3. Cook for 4 to 5 minutes until the egg has set around the sides, then transfer to under the grill until the top has browned and set in the middle.
  4. While the omelette cooks get the pancetta into an empty frying pan and the squashed, unpeeled clove of garlic. Once the pancetta’s cooked on one side flip over and add the fennel seeds. Push everything to one side of the pan and tip it slightly. All the fat should run to this side, into which you should add the balsamic vinegar and a twist of pepper. After a minute add the squeezed lemon then pour the lot on to the salad leaves.
  5. Toss the salad well and serve with a wedge of frittata.
Exit mobile version