Potato Roesti

This is one of our all time family favorites. I don't even look for other recipes anymore. These Roesti are crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside, flavored with Rosemary and Garlic - absolutely perfect. They are finished in the oven which saves you space on the stove and lets you clean up early. We had sauteed chanterelle mushrooms and a little green salad with them but you can serve them with a piece of meat or fish too.

Potato Roesti
(cook with Jamie)
serves 4

olive oil
a small knob of butter
600 g/1lb 6oz floury potatoes, peeled and cut into matchsticks
sea salt and freshly ground pepper
a few sprigs of fresh rosemary, leaves picked
6 cloves of garlic, peeled

Directions

Preheat the oven to 200 C/400 F. In an ovenproof non-stick frying pan, about 22cm/8 inches wide, heat a splash of olive oil. Add the butter and toss the potatoes in it with a pinch of salt and pepper, the rosemary leaves an the whole garlic cloves.

Fry on a medium heat for about 10 minutes, stirring all the while, until the potatoes start to soften a little.
Then place the pan in the oven and cook for about 25 minutes or until the potatoes are lightly golden, both on top and the bottom.

Take the pan out of the oven and cover it with a piece of damp greaseproof paper. Wrap your hand in a tea towel, or use a perfectly sized plate, and press down on the paper to flatten and compact your roesti.

Remove the greaseproof paper and place the pan back in the oven for 25 minutes. Cut into slices and serve.

Delicious

Only recently my husband brought  home two pieces of  cake from work that was prepared by his dear colleague Karen for Boss's day. It was her delicious Sour Cream Pound Cake which he  likes so much. She also told him that she really enjoys following my Blog and urged him to bring home the pieces for me to taste and to get my opinion. Karen, "from cook to cook", I can tell you that my husband is right: the cake is delicious!  The cake is so good that I want to give  all of you Karen's delicious pound cake recipe with a little "Thank You" to Karen for sharing it

Karen's Delicious Sour Cream Pound Cake
(adapted from Kraft Foods)

3 cups flour ¼ teaspoon baking soda 1 cup (2 sticks) butter 3 cups sugar (I used 1/3 less sugar and it is still delicious) 6 eggs 1 cup BREAKSTONE'S or KNUDSEN Sour Cream 2 Tbsp.vanilla Make It MIX flour and baking soda. Beat butter and sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy approx. 10 minutes. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. ADD flour mixture to sugar mixture, alternately in thirds with sour cream, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla; mix well. Pour into greased 10-inch tube or 12-cup fluted tube pan. BAKE at 325°F for 1 hour - 1 hour 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. Don't overbake or the cake will be dry. Cool in pan on wire rack 10 minutes. Remove from pan. Cool completely.

Preparation Times Prep: 15 Minutes Total Time: 1 Hour 35 Minutes

Creamy no Cream Cauliflower Soup

I love vegetables, but cauliflower is not really one of my favorites. I guess simply because I didn't find the right recipes yet. They all seem kind of boring to me. Not this one. I found it in Dorie Greenspan's new book: "Around my French Table" and I thought I have to try it. I was not disappointed. Onions and Celery are slowly roasted before you add the cauliflower. This brings out all the sugar of the veggies. Then you have to cook it for another 20 minutes with the cauliflower. There is no need to add any creme whatsoever and the result is a smooth and silky soup, full of delightful flavors. 

This soup is the perfect start for an elegant dinner. 

Creamy Cauliflower Soup 

(Dorie Greenspan: Around my French Table)
serves 4 

1 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp unsalted butter
2 Vidalia, Spanish, or large yellow onions (about ¾ pound) coarsely chopped
2 garlic cloves, split, germ removed and thinly sliced
3 celery stalks, trimmed and thinly sliced
2 thyme sprigs, leaves only
Salt and freshly ground white pepper
1 head cauliflower, leaves removed, broken into florets (discard the tough core)
5 cups chicken or vegetable broth

Optional toppings
Extra-virgin olive oil or walnut oil
Grated cheese
Crushed toasted walnuts
Crème fraîche or sour cream
Caviar
Shaved truffles

Put the olive oil and butter in a large Dutch oven or soup pot and warm over low heat. When the butter is melted, add the onions, garlic, celery, thyme, ½ teaspoon salt, and a few grinds of white pepper. Stir until all the ingredients glisten with oil and butter, then cover the pot and cook slowly, stirring often, for 20 minutes.

Toss the cauliflower into the pot and pour in the broth. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat so that the broth simmers gently, and cook, uncovered, for another 20 minutes, or until the cauliflower is very soft.

Puree the soup in batches in a blender or food processor; or use an immersion blender. This soup is best when it is very smooth, so if you think it needs it, push it through a strainer. (If you used a standard blender, this shouldn't be necessary.) Taste for salt and pepper; I like to pepper the soup generously.

Serve plain or garnished with the topping of your choice

Pici con ragu

When I asked my son what he wanted for dinner tonight, he picked "Pici con Ragu" from Jamie's Italy cookbook. I agreed, but honestly, I had no idea what I had  gotten myself into.
I had made pasta before, so I figured it wouldn't be too difficult.  Boy, was I wrong....

At least it was an easy start: the sauce rather classic, cooked by itself almost the whole afternoon and came out deliciously. The dough was prepared in a couple of minutes. I stored it in the fridge as recommended and decided to have an afternoon rest. My inner voice told me, though, that I should give myself enough time to practice rolling out of the Pici. So I started relatively early in the afternoon to roll out my first Pici, and I was so right!
The dough was easy to handle, but the skewer stuck to the dough and I couldn't get it out when I rolled them as thin as I wanted them to be . So I floured the stick, but then the dough didn't wrap around the pasta anymore...
Long story short, I rolled out the little pieces, divided them in half, rolled them almost to the length of the stick and then pressed the skewer into them to flatten them out a little.
It worked o.k. I know now why pasta comes in packages.
Still, the dish was scrumptious - empty plates across the table... Would I do it again? Only when I have plenty of time, really a lot....


Pici con Ragu
(Jamie's Italy)
serves 4

For the pici

455 g/1lb finely ground semolina flour
approx. 200ml /7floz water

for the ragu sauce

olive oil
1 red onion, peeled and finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
3 bay leaves
a sprig of fresh rosemary
500 g/1lb 2oz minced beef or veal
4 x 400 g tins of good quality plum tomaoes
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
a bloc of Parmesan cheese for grating

Place the flour in a bowl and, a little at a time, add just enough cold water to make a stiff dough. The drier the dough, the easier it will be when rolling it out later. Dust a clean work surface with flour and knead the pasta dough for 10 minutes or so until smooth and velvety. Wrap in clingfilm and refrigerate it until you are ready to use it.

Pull of a orange sized piece of dough and roll it with your hands into a long thin sausage shape on a very lightly four-dusted work surface. When it's about 2cm/ 1 inch thick, divide it into 3cm / 11/4 inch pieces so you end up with lots of little nuggets of dough.

Make sure the table or board is dry and free of flour, otherwise rolling will be difficult, and have a damp cloth nearby to moisten your hands. Take a 1mm thick 15cm/6 inch long wooden skewer, hold it at both ends and press it down lengthways into a piece of dough as if trying to cut it in half down the middle. When you've pushed the skewer in half-way, roll the dough gently round the stick using your fingertips.

You should end up with a very thin, sausage-shaped piece of pasta with the stick through the middle. When the pasta is rolled just thinner than a cigarette, stop rolling and gently pull it off, making sure you pull on the stick rather than the dough. Giving the stick a twist will also help. You should end up with a long thin hollow noodle. Repeat with the rest of the dough and lay all your pici on a tray, dusted with semolina flour, to dry out slightly before using.

When you have laid all the pieces out on a tray and dusted them with semolina flour, you can start to make the ragu sauce. Heat a saucepan  big enough to hold all the sauce ingredients, add a splash of olive oil and the chopped onion and garlic, and cook slowly for about 10 minutes until soft and lightly coloured. Add the bay leaves, the whole sprig of rosemary, the minced beef or veal and the tomatoes. Stir will and bring to the boil. Turn the heat down and simmer gently for 2hours with a lid on the pan.

If the sauce starts to stick at any point, add a splash of hot water and stir well. Season well with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Using a pair of tongs, fish out the bay leaves and rosemary sprig and discard them.

Cook the pici in a pan of boiling salted water for around 10 - 15 minutes until cooked through but still al dente. Drain and then stir them into the hot ragu sauce.Ad a good spash of olive oil, then taste and season again if necessary. Serve with lots of freshly grated Parmesan.

Mexican Lime Soup with Chicken

Lime juice, jalapeno pepper, Mexican Oregano  and Queso Fresco, a mild unaged white cheese, makes this soup very special. Even if you don't like Mexican Food, you should try this one. If you can't find Queso Fresco use a very mild Feta. 

MEXICAN LIME SOUP WITH CHICKEN
 Williams-Sonoma
(SERVES 4 - 6)


3 - 4 limes
2 bone-in, skin-on chicken breast halves, each about 10 oz. (315 g)
1 t kosher salt, plus more, to taste
1/2 tsp. freshly ground pepper, plus more, to taste
1 Tbs. Olive Oil
1 large onion, chopped
5 garlic cloves, minced
1 jalapeno chile, minced
3 cups (750ml) low-sodium chicken broth
1 1/2 tsp. dried Mexican oregano (or regular Oregano)
1 Avocado, pitted, peeled and diced
2 oz. (60 g) queso fresco or mild feta cheese, crumbled


Cut 1 lime into 4 to 6 wedges - set aside for serving. Juice as many of the remaining limes as needed to measure 1/4 cup (60ml).

Season the chicken with the 1 tsp.salt and 1/2 tsp. pepper,Ina large saucepan over medium heat, warm the olive oil. Add the chicken, skin side down, and cook until browned, about 5 minutes. Transfer the chicken to a plate. Add the onion to the pan and saute until translucent, about 4 minutes. Add the garlic and chili and saute until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the broth, 3 cups (750ml) water, the lime juice and oregano, then return the chicken to the pan.

Increase the heat to high and bring the liquid to a boil, skimming off any foam that rises to the surface. Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover partially and simmer until the chicken shows no sign of pink when pierced with a tip of a sharp knife near the bone, about 40 minutes.

Transfer the chicken to a carving board and let cool slightly. Meanwhile, keep the soup at a simmer. Remove and discard the skin and bones, and shred the chicken into bite-size pieces. Stir the chicken into the soup. Adjust the seasonings with salt and pepper.

Put the avocado, cheese and lime wedges in separate small bowls. Ladle the soup into warmed bowls and serve immediately. Pass the avocado, cheese and lime wedges.

Super Moist Carrot Cake

This carrot cake is incredibly good. It's moist and flavorful, you can taste the nuts and the spices and you will make it over and over again.

Carrot Cake

from Cook With Jamie

This carrot cake is an exceedingly good cake made all the more pleasing by the twist of lime mascarpone icing. It’s delicious, it works and it’s better than any other carrot cake I’ve tried. I would normally bake this in a square or round cake tin, but for the picture I used a lovely old loaf tin and it came out looking gorgeous.

Ingredients

• 250g unsalted butter, softened

• 250g light brown soft sugar

• 5 large eggs, preferably free-range or organic, separated

• zest and juice of 1 orange

• 170g self-raising flour, sifted

• 1 slightly heaped teaspoon baking powder

• 100g ground almonds

• 100g shelled walnuts, chopped, plus a handful for serving

• 1 heaped teaspoon ground cinnamon

• a pinch of ground cloves

• a pinch of ground nutmeg

• ½ teaspoon ground ginger

• 250g carrots, peeled and coarsely grated

sea salt

for the lime mascarpone icing:

• 100g mascarpone cheese

• 200g full-fat cream cheese

• 85g icing sugar, sifted

• zest and juice of 2 limes

a rather pleasing carrot cake 

dessert recipes | serves 8 - 10 

Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/gas 4. Grease and line a 22cm square cake tin or a round equivalent with greaseproof paper. Beat the butter and sugar together by hand or in a food processor until pale and fluffy. Beat in the egg yolks one by one, and add the orange zest and juice. Stir in the sifted flour and baking powder, and add the ground almonds, walnuts, spices and grated carrot and mix together well.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff, then gently fold them into the cake mix. Scoop the mixture into the prepared cake tin and cook in the preheated oven for about 50 minutes until golden and risen. You can check to see if the cake is cooked by poking a cocktail stick into it. Remove it after 5 seconds and it if comes out clean the cake is cooked; if slightly sticky it needs a bit longer, so put it back in the oven. Leave the cake to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn it out on to a rack and leave for at least an hour.

Mix all the icing ingredients together and spread generously over the top of the cake. Finish off with a sprinkling of chopped walnuts.

Whole Wheat Fettucini with Pumpkin Sauce

I had some leftover pumpkin and didn't want to make another bread or cake, so I came up with this easy sauce. Smooth and silky, it tasted great with whole wheat fettucini.

Pumpkin Sauce
(serves 4)


1 lb / 500 g pumpkin (I used Butternut Squash), diced
1/3 cup / 80 ml heavy cream
1/4 cup/ 125 ml chicken broth
2 oz / 50 g freshly grated parmesan
Pinch of salt
Pinch of sage
1/4 teaspoon dried chili or to taste
1/2 cup toasted walnuts to serve
1 lb / 500 g whole wheat fettucini


Cook the fettucini according to the package instruction.
Cook the pumpkin in a little water until soft.  Let it cool a little, than puree in a blender. Put back in the pot.
Add the rest of the ingredients and heat slowly. Stir until the parmesan has melted.
Serve the pasta with the sauce and scatter the walnuts and some parmesan over the dish.