The ultimate comfort food

When the alarms rings at 7 am I am already awake. Not wide awake but my dear old kitty friend Gizmo usually thinks that 6 am is a perfectly fine time to wake up and get fed. So around 6-ish she starts walking over my head, all the while miauwing loudly. She is getting a little deaf at the age of 19 so she doesn’t hear her own voice anymore… Annoying to say the least. So she wakes me up but I refuse to get out of bed before the alarm goes so I stubbornly ignore her, but it’s pretty obvious that any real sleep is not an option anymore.

Outside it is still dark and I can hear the wind howling around the house, telling me that I should stay in bed, but unfortunately duty calls so a little past 7 (snooze button!!) I swing my legs over the edge and go and feed a screaming cat (who then eats one tiny bit and follows me into the kitchen, so she can annoy me a little bit more. Typical start of my day… )

Italian sausage stew

The wind and rain keep it up the entire day and it is one of the first autumn days that is grey, dreary and mostly very wet. It’s a good thing that I do not suffer from autumn depressions but I can see how it easily would effect people that are more prone to weather changes. Me, I love autumn. I think I can safely say that I’m a season-girl. I love all seasons. I am not even sure I would like to live in a country where the sun always shines. That would be boring now wouldn’t it? Autumn is such a wonderful and comforting season. The season to snuggle up indoors, while the rain pounds on the roof, warming your hands around a mug of hot chocolate (preferably with whipped cream ofcourse) and gorgeous glorious stews.

Needless to say on that very first very real autumn day, my mind immediately went to stews. I had recently bought a bag of puy lentils (more lentil recipes here, here and here) so I figured I should make something with them and searching on the BBC Good Food site (my favorite recipe site) I quickly found the recipe for this delicious stew. The ultimate comfort food! We had it with baked potatoes but I think it might even be better with a nice potato mash. O or a potato/celeriac mash… Hmm, gotta try that next time!

Yummy puy lentils

Stew with sausage and lentils

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Serves:	2
Prep time:	10 minutes
Cook time:	50 minutes
Total time:	1 hour
Meal type:	Main Dish
Misc:	Serve Hot
Region:	Worldwide
Website:	BBC Good Food

Ingredients

• 3 large baking potatoes
• olive oil
• 4 pork sausages
• 1 onion (chopped)
• 1 garlic clove (crushed)
• 1 pinch chili flakes
• 2 carrots (diced finely)
• 2 sticks celery (cut into small dice)
• 4 sprigs rosemary (needles only and chopped finely)
• 1 tin canned tomatoes (400 gr)
• 300ml white wine (Using chicken stock is also fine)
• 3 tablespoons puy lentils

Directions

Heat the oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. Cut the potatoes into 2cm chunks, toss in olive oil then spread out on a non-stick baking tray. roast for 40 minutes until crisp and golden, turning a couple of times during cooking.

Meanwhile, cook the whole sausages in a little more olive oil in a large pan until browned all over. Take the sausages out of the pan then add the onions and garlic and cook until softened.

Add the chilli (if using) carrot and celery, then cook for 5 minutes. add 2/3 of the rosemary, all of the tomatoes, wine or stock and lentils. Slice each sausage diagonally into 4 thick chunks then add back to the pan. Simmer with a lid almost covering for about 30 minutes, or until the lentils are tender.

When the potatoes are cooked, toss with some sea salt and the rest of the rosemary, then serve with the stew.

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Warm potatoe salad with bacon and blue cheese

Ahum…. I am slightly embarrased now… I always tell people to make sure that they put their iso back to whatever the original setting was or what you want it to be. In any case to check what your iso is before you start taking photos! As it turns out… I have forgotten myself and the setting was still on iso 800. And the worst thing is that I just discover that, after having taken all the photos and after I have eaten the entire dish! Haha… not a real disaster ofcourse, but still on the slightly stupid side…

I am feeling a little bit under the weather right now and I just hope that it doesn’t become worse. I have quite a busy weekend with lots of fun stuff and our cooking course will start this saturday as well. I would hate to be doing that with a running nose and feeling terrible at the same time. But getting the supply for lunch today was already very tiring… You know that feeling when you don’t show any outside symptoms of a cold yet, but your head feels like it is filled with little cottonballs and everything you do makes you extremely tired? Kind of how I feel right now!

So one more reason to have a  healthy lunch, so I wanted to make a recipe I had seen in the good food earlier, featuring potatoes, blue cheese (love, love, love blue cheese) and bacon. I couldn’t find some of the ingredients (such as fresh spinach and watercress) so I substituted those. In the recipe further below you will find my version of the salad.

Warm potatoesalad with bacon and blue cheese

I chose country potatoes (don’t ask me for any other name, as I honestly don’t know) but they looked good and they tasted delicious. It’s quite a healthy and filling dish and would also make for a very nice light dinner. Now the tastes are quite salty due to the bacon and the cheese and also the dressing, so make sure not to use too much salt on the potatoes when roasting. The Lamb’s lettuce that I use was delicious!

Here is the recipe!

Warm new potatoe salad with bacon and blue cheese

Warm potatoe salad with lamb's lettuce

serves 4*prep 10 mins*cook 40 mins

500g nice potatoes, halved. I left the skin on but if you like your potatoes without skin, then you can remove it

2 tbsp olive oil

2 red onions, each sliced into 6 wedges

4 rashers smoked back bacon, trimmed and cut into large pieces

140 g mushrooms, sliced

1 tbsp whole grain mustard

1 tbsp red wine vinegar

100 g lamb’s lettuce

85 g creamy blue cheese (I used castello blue)

1. Heat oven to 220. Place the potatoes in a roasting tin, then rub with 1 tbsp of oil and a sprinkling of salt. Roast for 20 mins, then add the onion wedges to the tin, giving everything a good shake. Roast for 20 minutes more untill the potatoes have turned a deep golden brown and the onions have caramelised and softened. Leave to cool slightly.

2. Heat a non-stick frying pan. Dry-fry the bacon until crisp. Add the sliced mushrooms, then fry for 5 mins more untill they have softened.

3. Meanwhile, make the dressing. Whish the mustard, vinegar and remaining 1 tbsp oil with a splash of water. Place potatoes, onions, bacon and mushrooms in a large bowl with the salad leaves, pour over the dressing, then toss well. Divide between 4 plates then crumble over the blue cheese

By the way; if you love cheese then visit the blog of the Cheesewench and have a look around. It’s great fun!

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Delicious potato dish with prosciutto and creamcheese

See in the title where it says “young” potatoe? Well.., let’s just say that if you are planning on replicating this recipe, then make sure that you pick young potatoes and not just any old potatoe you have lying around in the house..:)
It’s been a while since I have tried out some new recipes so I figured today would be a good day to try something new. I always like trying out new recipes when there is no one else around but me. At least no one else can complain, other then me!
As I mentioned I used the wrong potatoes and also the wrong ham. Unfortunately I live in an area where you can’t really buy a lot of things that do not fall within the normal cooking guidelines. So everytime I want a specific vegetable, meat or basically almost anything other then regular cabbage, meatloaf and potatoes I would need to go to another shopping area, which is just not always convenient to do.
I have found a fantastic supply of all things that I would want to use at some point in time, but it is in Amsterdam. Without any traffic, that would mean at least half an hour to go there, which would not be too bad if I could do it once a week, but the problem with Amsterdam is the horrendous amount of traffic jams… Anyway, I just have to find a good source of fresh produce!! Mission for the next month!
Over to the recipe; it is not a lot of work other then the fact it needs to cook and then stay in the oven for about 30 minutes, but during that time you can do other stuff, so I don’t mind! Again; using the right kind of potatoe would be a bonus. This recipe if from the delicious and Jill Dupleix. She recommends using Jersey Royale as potatoe, which unfortunately is almost impossible to find in Holland, so if you’re Dutch try another potatoe and let me know if you find a good one!!

Young potatoes with herbal cream cheese and prosciutto

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Recipe type: Sidedish, main

Author: Jill Duplex

Prep time: 20 mins

Cook time: 30 mins

Total time: 50 mins

Serves: 4

Do make sure to use young potatoes and not any old potatoes you have lying around. You will notice the difference; I promise!

Ingredients

• 12 young potatoes, leave the skin on
• Oil for greasing the baking tray
• 2,5 tbsp olive oil extra vierge
• 1 large clove of garlic, pureed
• 2 tbsp finely chopped flat leaf parsley
• 1 tbsp finely chopped thyme leaves
• 1 tbsp finely chopped fresh basil leaves
• 150g creme fraiche, ricotta or creamcheese
• 12 slices of Italian prosciuttoham
• 85g watercress

Instructions

1. Boil the potatoes for 15 min. in boiling water with plenty of salt. Leave them to drain well and cool them down slightly.
2. Preheat the oven to 240 degrees C. Divide the potatoes over a lightly oiled baking tray or cover with baking paper. Press each potato flat with a spoon or other tool. Sprinkle with olive oil and add salt and pepper.
3. Bake the potatoes for about 20-30 minutes or untill crispy and golden brown. Leave to cool for about 10-15 minutes.
4. Whisk the garlic, herbs and creme fraiche (or ricotta or creamcheese) together in a bowl and put a spoonfull on top of each potato. Put a slice of prosiutto on top and serve the potatoes on a bit of watercress.

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2.1.4

 

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