Boiled Potato Salad

It's Potluck week at I Heart Cooking Clubs. We can cook any recipes from any of the 19 chefs previously featured at IHCC. I've made Tessa Kiros's simple, easy and delicious potato side dish.

I always have potatoes in my pantry basket. We love potatoes, any way they are cooked. Baked, roast, boiled, braised, mashed, fried, these humble potatoes would be the first ones to disappear most of the time. 

My changes/substitutes :

~ replace the parsley with fresh coriander leaves

~ use only the juice from 1/4 lemon, instead of 1-1/2 lemons

This easy and simple potato salad makes a great dish to any meal. We had the salad with some fried chicken drumettes and broccoli. Yum!

Boiled Potato Salad
(Falling Cloudberries, Tessa Kiros)
serves 8 as a side dish

1 red onion, very thinly sliced

1 teaspoon salt

1.5kg waxy potatoes

3 tablespoons drained baby capers

30gm (1/2 cup) chopped parsley

juice of 1-1/2 lemons

100gm (bout 1/2 cup) good-quality black olives

125ml (1/2 cup) extra virgin olive oil

Put the onion in a small bowl and cover with cold water and the salt. Leave for 30 minutes or so (while you prepare the potatoes). The soaking is important and will give your onions a softer taste in the finished dish and make them ore digestible.

Scrub the potatoes and boil in salted water for about 20-25 minutes until they are cooked but not falling apart. Drain well, then peel them when they have cooled a little - it is easier to do this if they are still warm. Cut them into chunks the size that you would like to see in your salad bowl.

Rinse the onion and drain well, patting it dry with kitchen paper if necessary. Add to the potato with the remaining ingredients, seasoning with pepper and probably with a little extra salt. Mix through gently and serve warm or at room temperature. If you make this in advance, the potatoes will soak up some of the oil as they cool, so you will have less dressing. You could save a little of the oil and add it closer to the serving time, if more is needed.

This post is linked to :
I Heart Cooking Clubs (IHCC)
Cookbook Countdown #40

Chicken with Lentils and Rosemary

It's April Showers week at I Heart Cooking Clubs (IHCC), dishes to enjoy on rainy days. 

I made Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's, Chicken with Lentils and Rosemary. Accordingly to him, this is an easy one-pot supper for a cold night. Well, our cold nights here are usually our rainy nights, though not necessarily cold on rainy nights. Warm shower nights? 😄

I was reading through his recipe, and thought how easy it is! Cook in one pot! With only a few ingredients. How tasty can it be? 

To cook this dish, using an oven safe pot, saute sliced onion in some oil till softens, about 6 to 8 minutes, then add chopped garlic, rosemary, salt and pepper. Stir for a further 5 minutes or so, then stir in the red lentils and stock. Season the chicken pieces with some salt and pepper, then place them skin side up, on top of the  lentils mixture, and place the pot in the preheated oven, uncovered, for about 1 hour until the chicken is cooked through and the skin has browned.

I baked the dish for 1 hour 15 minutes, the last five minutes with the broiler on, just to brown the skin a little more. The chicken is moist, tender and so delicious ! The red lentils turned yellow upon cooking, became soft, mushy and so tasty. We had this dish with rice and some stir-fry french beans. We really enjoyed this dish! There were no leftovers!  So delicious! Yum! 

Coincidentally, it started to rain when we had this at dinner time. I did not see that coming, as it was blasting hot and humid the whole day! 

Chicken with Lentils and Rosemary
(River Cottage Light & Easy, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall)
serves 4
2 tablespoons rapeseed or olive oil
1 large onion, sliced
4 garlic cloves, chopped
leaves from 2 sprigs of rosemary
200gm red lentils, well rinsed
500ml chicken or veg stock
8 skin-on, bone-in, free-range chicken thighs, or 1 medium chicken, (about 1.75kg), 
    jointed into 6-8 pieces
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
flat-leaf parsely, chopped, to finish

Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4. Choose a flameproof casserole dish or a wide, ovenproof pan that will hold all the chicken pieces snugly but comfortably.

Put the casserole on a medium-low heat. Add the oil, then the onion and cook, stirring regularly, for 6-8 minutes until it begins to soften. Add the garlic, rosemary and some salt and pepper. Cook gently for a further 5 minutes, then stir in the lentils and stock.

Season the chicken thighs and place skin side up in the casserole. You want most of the chicken skin to remain exposed above the liquid in the dish so it can brown in the oven. Bring to a simmer on the hob, then transfer to the oven and bake, uncovered, for 1 hour. Check that the chicken is cooked through and the lentils are soft. If not, return to the oven for 10-15 minutes and test again. Skim off any excess fat from the surface.

Taste the lentilly liquor and add more salt or pepper if needed. Serve, scattered with chopped parsley, just as it is or with steamed broccoli or spring greens on the side.

This post is linked to :
I Heart Cooking Clubs (IHCC)
Cookbook Countdown #40

Salmon Burgers (Patties!)

This month's selection at Cook the Book Fridays where we are currently cooking from Everyday Dorie, is Salmon Burgers. 

Thanks to the feed-back from the lovely ladies at CtBF, that the salmon mixture was very soft, and the burger patty was not holding on to it's shape during frying, I've made some adjustments to the ingredients. The burger mix ingredients are ; chopped salmon fillets, Greek yoghurt, chopped herbs (of which I've used scallions, dill,  and cilantro), Dijon mustard, grainy mustard, capers, lemon zest, salt and pepper.  I've reduced the amount of sour cream (instead of Greek yoghurt as in the recipe), probably using only half the amount, I did not measure. Even then the mixture is still very soft. I added 2 tablespoons of cornflour to bind the mix together. The mix is then refrigerated for at least 2 hours. 

The salmon mix is then formed into burger patties. Even after chilling, it was still on the soft side, I find that it needed more cornflour to firm it up a little. So I've added 2 more tablespoons of cornflour to the mix. I formed them into smaller patties and fry them on both sides until brown. These patties hold their shape and did not fall apart.  I made the onion pickles and cucumber pickles as suggested by Dorie.  But instead of using the patties to make Salmon Burger Buns, we ate the patties as part of our meal with rice. 

This post is linked to :
Cook The Book Fridays (CtBF)
Cookbook Countdown #40

Sauteed Potatoes with Parsley and Garlic

After a twelve months break from cooking with the lovely ladies at I Heart Cooking Clubs (IHCC), I'm back, and hopefully I will be posting more often, as I have not been blogging as frequently as I used to. IHCC cooks with a selected chef every six months, but for this time round, there will not be any new chef selected. It is IHCC's ten years anniversary, and they are welcoming back all of the 19 chefs that were featured for the last ten years ; Nigella Lawson, Mark Bittman, Giada de Laurentiis, Jamie Oliver, Tessa Kiros, Rick Bayless, Madhur Jaffrey, Yotam Ottolenghi, Donna Hay, Nigel Slater, Diana Henry, Jacques Pepin, Ellie Krieger, Curtis Stone, Heidi Swanson, Hugh-Fearnley Whittingstall, Ina Garten, Eric Rupert, and Ruth Reichl. Pretty impressive list of chefs!

I've just received two new addition to my cookbooks (yay!) Essential Pepin by Jacques Pepin, and Provence To Pondicherry by Tessa Kiros. So many recipes I want to try! For a start, I made two easy recipes from Jacques Pepin, Sauteed Potatoes with Parsley and Garlic, and Romaine with Creamy Yoghurt Dressing.

 Sauteed Potatoes with Parsley and Garlic

Easy and quick, makes a nice side dish. Chopped potatoes are stir-fried in oil until cooked and brown all over. Parsley leaves (I've used fresh cilantro), and a few cloves of garlic are chopped together until finely minced. These are added to the cooked potatoes in the pan, tossing to combine and season with salt and black pepper. I could eat this on it's own!

Romaine with Creamy Yoghurt Dressing

I like this yoghurt dressing, it is light, creamy, cool and refreshing, just as Jacques Pepin says. I've used my own homemade yoghurt. Whisk the yoghurt together with white wine vinegar, salt, black pepper until combine, then whisk in the olive oil. Drizzle over the romaine and toss just before serving.

Both the Sauteed Potatoes and the Romaine are served alongside some Spicy Pork Sausages. 

Sauteed Potatoes with Parsley and Garlic

(Essential Pepin by Jacques Pepin)

3 large Red Bliss potatoes (18 ounces), peeled

3 tablespoons canola oil

3 garlic cloves

1/4 cup loosely packed fresh parsley leaves

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Cut the potatoes into 3/8-inch cubes. Put in a sieve and rinse well under cool water. Transfer to a bowl, add water to cover, and set aside until ready to cook.

Heat the oil in a large nonstick skillet. Drain the potatoes, pat dry with paper towels, and add to the hot oil. Saute over high heat for 12 to 14 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the potatoes are browned on all sides.

Meanwhile, chop the garlic and parsley together until finely minced.

Add the salt, pepper, and parsley mixture to the potatoes in the skillet, tossing to combine, Serve.

Romaine with Creamy Yoghurt Dressing

(Essential Pepin by Jacques Pepin)

Dressing

1 tablespoon white wine vinegar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

3 tablespoons plain yoghurt

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

8-10 ounces romaine lettuce, leaves cut lengthwise in half, torn into 1-1/2 to 2-inch pieces, washed, and dried (about 6 cups)

1 tablespoon chopped fresh herbs (tarragon, chives, and/or parsley)

Whisk together the vinegar, salt, pepper, and yoghurt in a bowl large enough to hold the lettuce. Whisk in the oil.

Add the lettuce to the dressing and toss until coated. Sprinkle on the fresh herbs and serve immediately.

This post is linked to I Heart Cooking Clubs (IHCC) and Cookbook Countdown #40