Gratin of Cauliflower, Potatoes and Ham

This is simple, quick and filling weeknight meal. You can make it as rich or as lean as you want just by adjusting amount of cheese.

 Ingredients
2 baking potatoes, peeled
1/2 head of cauliflower
2 half inch slices of ham
Grated cheese

 Directions
Cut potatoes into 1” cubes and boil in lightly salted water until done, about 15 – 20 minutes. Cut up the cauliflower and ham and drop into pot with potatoes 10 minutes after potatoes start to boil.
When potatoes and cauliflower is cooked, drain and mix with cheese. Divide evenly in between ovenproof dishes that were buttered, top with extra cheese and broil until cheese starts to bubble. Serve with salad on side.

Just top with cheese and broil.

Mushroom and Vegetable Soup with Paprika

This goes under Comfort Food label, for sure. It is so substantial that I serve it with buttered rye bread as a supper. There is a nice mix of textures in this version of mushroom soup.

Yes, it does take some time to prepare because of all that chopping but it can be a lot faster if you have a small food processor or my favorite, the mini chopper. Just never put the machine on run or you will end up with a paste. Short pulses are all one needs.

When it comes to ingredients you can use pretty much any root vegetable that you have in your fridge. Here is what I have used and it tasted great.

Ingredients

1 Tbs. oil

1 Tbs. butter

3 shallots or 1/2 onion, finely chopped

2 cups sliced mushrooms

1 tsp. caraway seeds

1 Tbs. Hungarian paprika

3/4 cup carrots, finely chopped

3/4 cup celeriac, finely chopped

3/4 cup celery, finely chopped

2 Russet potatoes, cut into 1/4” cubes

2 Tbs. flour

6 cups chicken or beef stock, heated

1 bay leaf

1 tsp. marjoram

Salt and pepper to taste

Chopped parsley for garnish

In a heavy bottom pan or Dutch oven heat the oil and butter.

When the foam from butter subsides add shallots and sauté till light gold, about 10 minutes.

Add mushrooms and caraway seeds and cook on medium high heat until mushrooms are lightly caramelised.

Add carrots, celeriac and celery and sauté until vegetables are soft.

Off the heat, sprinkle paprika over mushrooms and shallots and stir till mushrooms are coated with paprika.

Add potatoes and mix with rest of the vegetables.

Return to heat and sprinkle flour on top of potatoes, mushrooms and vegetables and keep stirring until flour is cooked and reached paste consistency. The flour will form lumps with vegetables.

Pour in hot stock and mix until al flour lumps are mixed in and soup feels smooth.

Lower the heat to medium low, bring to simmer and cook for 20 minutes scraping the bottom of pot with wood or bamboo spatula (my choice) to prevent flour from burning.

Remove about 1 cup of mushrooms and vegetables with slotted spoon and set aside.

With an immersion blender finely chop or liquefy (your call) rest of the solids. Put back reserved mushrooms and veggies and bring back to simmer.

Add marjoram and taste for seasoning and adjust if necessary.

Cook for 5 more minutes.  

Serve in a bowls and garnish with parsley.

Serves 4 - 6

Week of Simple and Tasty Food

Monday

In one of last week’s supermarket flyers one item caught my attention: Real Parmigiano Regiano on sale at less then half price! Wow, got to have that, and lots of it!

Vacuum packed and ready for fridge.

Choice of the supper for that day had to have a Parmigiano in it, of course and since while back I made a big batch of spicy meatballs and tomato sauce and vacuum packed them, the meal was a breeze to prepare.

Wednesday

Russet Potato, Yukon Potato, Sweet Potato and Celeriac.

In the morning I started to crave for mashed potatoes. Not your regular, boring job but mashed root vegetables. I used Gold Yukon and Russet potatoes (baking and mashing potato variety), Sweet Potato and Celeriac. After mashing I added, as I always do, green peas. Served together with caramelized Vidalia onions and juicy pork chops made a really satisfying comfort food to match the lousy weather outside.

 Friday

In the morning it looked like we are going to have a nice grilling weather but as the dinner hour approached it turned cold and windy. The steak I wanted to grill had to be cooked inside. It turned out better then I expected! Tender and juicy and I served the steak on a bed of Napa cabbage and with fresh shitake, steamed asparagus, fresh tomatoes and roasted potatoes. Very, very nice indeed!

Saturday

Nice sunny day outside called for a light meal and since we didn’t have cooked salmon for a while I have decided on a good standby of Salmon Teriyaki with rice and cucumber salad. Foolproof and no fuss meal if you have teriyaki sauce on hand as I always do. We can have this meal every week and in summer we do, I think.

Grilling Season is at the door and I can’t wait. Last week I bought frozen sardines and I want to grill them first chance I get. The whole fish gets grilled with just a salt and pepper, squeezed lemon and fresh Italian bread or baguette with some greens on side and we will have a feast!

We love to eat in our sunroom and to see our garden. Soon, the flower beds will be full of flowers in bloom, starting with tulips and daffodils.

Pacific Cod Tempura

I know, it looks just like ordinary fried fish with potatoes and Tartar sauce, which it is but, since I used Panko instead of some sore bought regular stale bread crumbs, I have decided to call it Tempura. I call it tempura despite the fact that I did use the regular 3 layer method of seasoning with flour (flour, salt, chili powder, white pepper), egg wash and Panko and fried in 350 °F oil till golden brown on all sides. It wasn’t oily at all and as you can see on the picture, very, very crispy. I have served it with Tartar sauce made from scratch with mayonnaise, Dijon mustard, Wasabi and chopped capers, gherkins and pinch of sugar. On side I had boiled potatoes with caraway seeds.

Salted Cod with Potatoes, Tomatoes and Olives.

Patate e Baccalà

This is another comfort food. Again, this is not a dish you decide on in the afternoon for that night’s super. Salted cod takes time to soak and remove most of the salt. First day change water every 4 hours or so and next day after 36 hour soak rinse under running water and boil for 20 minutes. Rinse again, then remove all traces of bones and skin. Some bones will be very short. Regardless of how careful I was in removing the bones and then double checking I have always found 1 or 2 on my plate. This is very tasty meal and worth the extra effort.

Ingredients:

1 medium-large onion, thinly sliced

1 large clove garlic, thinly sliced

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 pound salt cod, weighed after it has soaked for 36 hours, and cut into
1/2-inch thick slices

3/4 pound red potatoes, cut into 1/4-inch thick slices

2 canned peeled plum tomatoes, with their interior juices

12 black olives, pitted and halved

1 tsp dried oregano

1/2 cup white wine

1 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

Directions:

§    Preheat oven to 350 °F.

§    In a 10-inch Dutch oven or stove-top proof ceramic baker, sauté the onion and the garlic in the olive oil until the onion is golden, about 10 minutes. Remove and reserve about half the onion and garlic mixture.

§    Place layer of salt cod over the onions remaining in the pan, then arrange sliced potato in a ring with potato slices overlapping. Spread around the reserved onion mixture in centre. Cut or crush the tomatoes directly into the pan and spread them in centre. Spread the olives over tomatoes and pour the wine over all, then drizzle with the additional tablespoon of olive oil.

§    Cover and bring to a simmer over medium heat, then place on middle rack in oven and bake for 45 minutes.

§    Let stand, covered, for 10 minutes, during which time the potatoes will become softer, absorbing some of the juices; the juices left in the pan, although reduced in volume, will become a rosy colored sauce. For maximum visual effect, bring the pan to the table undisturbed and serve, hot or warm, directly from the pan.

SERVES 4 TO 6

Loosely based on Sicilian classic.

Ham and Cheese Stuffed Pork Tenderloin Roll

I had half of pork tenderloin on hand and wasn’t so sure how am I going to cook it. It’s too cold outside to consider BBQ, schnitzel we had not long ago so I have settled on making a roll. I have used tenderloin before in Pork Tenderloin Roulade so the stuffing had to be different. After going through the fridge I came up with shallots, cremini mushrooms, celery and chopped ham that were sautéed and when cooled mixed with Mozzarella cheese and seasoned with Herbes de Provence, fresh chopped rosemary, chopped parsley, balsamic vinegar, white pepper and hot sauce and deglazed with 1/2 cup of dry Marsala. Tenderloin was cut lengthwise almost through, opened up and flattened with mallet between 2 sheets of plastic film. The whole process can be seen on this video from Food Wishes. I used different stuffing but process is exactly the same. Roll the meat, tie it up and roast at 375 °F for 30 minutes. I have roasted parboiled and quartered red potatoes in same pan and at the same time. The taste of this roll was incredible, it had a hint of game meat, like a rolled venison breast. The Herbes de Provence, rosemary, Marsala and Balsamic vinegar just shined through.

Potato Pancake with Broccoli and Curry

Yesterday I have received a fine shredding disk for my Cuisinart 11 cup Pro food processor (great for making pizza dough) and somehow got craving for latke. What a timing! I had baking potato so all I needed was egg and little flour. When I reached for egg carton I got glimpse of broccoli and decision was made. Since I always add little curry into my cream of broccoli soup I thought that it will go well in pancakes. Great decision! Since it is so quick to make now that I don’t have to grate by hand it is a weekly snack for sure.

To make 2 large or 4 smaller pancakes:

1 large russet baking potato, finely grated

1 egg, beaten

1/2 cup broccoli, chopped

2 Tbs. flour

1 tsp. Malaysian or Indian curry

Salt and pepper to taste

2 Tbs. olive oil

Preheat non-stick frying pan on medium high heat with oil.

Mix grated potato with salt, pepper and curry.

Add egg and broccoli and mix till well combined.

Mix in flour and combine.

Pour 1/2 cup of potato mixture into hot pan and spread about pencil thin.

When golden brown on bottom, about 5 minutes, turn over and crisp other side.

Repeat till done.

Serve as is or with yogurt or sour cream.

Potato Dumplings - Chlupaté knedlíky (Czech)

(Chlupaté knedlíky) Czech

Potato dumplings are somewhat similar to Gnocchi in that main ingredients are potato, flour and egg except these dumplings are made either with grated raw potatoes entirely or cooked and raw combined. Also, some use only flour as a binder while others use only farina (cream of wheat), then there are recipes that use both in all sorts of proportions. There are literally hundreds of recipes in Czech Republic for potato dumplings. Every region, city, village and family has their own. Actually, I think that same is true about any peasant dish in any culture. Since I’ve been making gnocchi for a while now and am comfortable with potato based dough I came up with my own version.

1 raw Russet potato, peeled and grated fine

1 Russet potato, “baked” in microwave (see Gnocchi recipe)

1 egg, beaten

1/3 c. farina (cream of wheat)

1/3 c. flour

1 tsp. baking powder

Salt and white pepper to taste

Peel and rice cooked potato in food mill. You can grate cooked potato using box grater or, to be more rustic put it in heavy plastic bag and smash it with heavy frying pan J.

Mix raw and cooked potatoes together with the beaten egg. Sift together farina, flour, salt, pepper and baking powder and fold in potato mixture. The dough should be stiff enough to form a small ball.

Bring salted water in a large pot to roiling boil. With soup spoon form balls little smaller then golf ball. When all dumplings are ready drop them gently into boiling water. Dumplings should loosely cover the bottom in one layer. When water comes back to boil lower the temperature to gentle boil. Release dumplings that stuck to bottom of a pot and boil for 15 minutes.

When done, remove with slotted spoon to preheated frying pan with some bacon fat or lard and coat lightly.

Sprinkle with dry toasted bread crumbs and serve.

Potato dumplings are traditionally served with sauerkraut and smoked meat.

Release dumplings that stuck to bottom

Once on surface boil for 15 minutes.

Drain and fry in bacon fat.

Pork Tenderloin Schnitzel with Potatoes

Another quick, no-pain meal. From prep to plating in under half an hour. For two of us I just peeled and cubed 1 Yukon Gold and 1 sweet potato and started boiling them while I halved Cremini mushrooms and sauté them in a bit of butter. Meanwhile I cut 4 slices from center part of pork tenderloin about 2” thick and pounded them to about 3/8” thickness for quick cooking. They were seasoned on both sides with salt, pepper and “Herbes de Provence”. Then they hit hot frying pan with grape oil, flipped over after 2 minutes and cooked another 2 minutes. Meal ready for plating. I could have done it with rice (more time) or even pasta like orzo, again, longer time to cook. This is very easy and tasty quick meal. It will come very handy on busy days.

Schnitzel and Potato Salad

Butterflied pork tenderloin cutlet with potato salad, lemon and pickle.

Tonight, I took a test run for North Bohemian traditional Christmas lunch: Schnitzel, potato salad and pickle accompanied by a beer or two. Tonight’s version didn’t include traditional veal cutlet but the substitute under blind taste test would be indistinguishable. I used butterflied and pounded pork tenderloin slices seasoned with fine sea salt, ground pepper and hot Hungarian paprika. Since I used only half of a small pork tenderloin all I got was two butterflied cutlets and two smaller pieces but it was more then enough for two of us. To add more substance to the meat I breaded the cutlets in egg wash and Panko bread crumbs and they came out absolutely perfect. Nice and crunchy on outside and, since the Panko coating provided virtual shell, the pork inside was steamed to tender perfection.

There really isn’t much of a recipe, it is that simple, just a process.

Cut the tenderloin about 1/2” thick almost through and then another 1/2” all the way. Repeat.

Spread flat, put in plastic bag and pound till about 3/16” thick. I prefer see through bag rather then traditional aluminum foil because I can see what I’m doing.

On one side sprinkle with salt, pepper and paprika and roll both sides of cutlet in flour. 

Dip in egg wash and then drench in Panko.

The pan and oil is right temperature.

Preheat large frying pan, pour in oil about 1/4” deep, let it get hot and drop as many pieces as will fit without crowding the pan. After 3 minutes start checking for color. When light gold, turn over and shallow fry till other side is done. 

Meanwhile, serve room temperature potato salad on preheated plate, cut slice of lemon and slice pickle into 3 slices and reserve. Plate cutlet next to salad, top with lemon and pickle and serve.

Potato Salad (Czech)

I just can’t imagine Czech Christmas, New Year’s Eve, Easter or Name Day without potato salad. Absolutely unimaginable. (Yes, Europeans celebrate Name Day and my "svátek" is on April 27th.) The salad is eaten as is, on open sandwiches (Chlebicky) as a spread, with schnitzel or with breaded and fried carp (traditional Christmas Eve dinner). Finely chopped potato salad is also stuffed into halves of tomatoes and eggs. Czech potato salad is truly symphony of textures and tastes. You have soft potatoes and peas, crunchy celery, pickles and onions and carrots and celeriac somewhere in between. Then you have sweet (carrots, peas, celeriac), sour (pickles) and acidic (mustard, onions). What a treat, it’s just too bad that it is so labor intensive. There is a lot of chopping involved and food processor would just make royal mess of all the food.

Ingredients
Potatoes, 5 baking
Carrots 2 – 3 carrots, finely chopped

Celeriac (celery root) half, finely chopped
Celery stalks – peeled and finely chopped
Onions (according to taste) – finely cut (see Tips)
Pickles (baby garlic kosher), 7-8 or more to your liking – finely chopped
Hard Boiled Eggs, finely chopped
Canned or frozen peas (1 cup)
Salt
Pepper
Mayonnaise

Dijon Mustard

Preparation
Cook unpeeled potatoes in unsalted water. Cook the carrots, celery root and parsley root until al dente, do not over cook. When done, peel the potatoes and chop. When rest of root vegetables are cool dice them and put them in large mixing bowl. Add chopped celery stalks, onions, peas and pickles. Finally, add boiled eggs finely cut or pressed through the slicer. Add salt, pepper, mustard and mayonnaise, taste and adjust seasoning if needed.
 Tips:

·        I cook my potatoes in microwave oven, it has a program for potatoes, but I remove them before program ends, otherwise they would be too soft.

·        I also cook my root veggies in microwave with just a tablespoon of water.

·        To remove acidity and harshness from raw onions I chop them, put them in colander and blanch them by pouring boiling water over them and then plunge them in cold water, let them sit in water for about 15 minutes, then drain and dry them before mixing them with rest of vegetables. It works great!

·        Don’t even think of using frozen carrots and other frozen vegetables except peas. Since you can’t buy fresh peas the frozen ones have better texture then can ones. Frozen veggies have no texture and are totally void of taste. It is an awful mush.

Try to chop all veggies into same size.

Potato salad chopped to spread like consistency and used on open sandwiches (Chlebicky) and halved tomato.

Pork Chops and Mashed Potatoes

This is a typical diner and truck stop fair done on a hot plate. Man, I would love to have one! Such a simple and utterly delicious meal if done right. As in many recipes, timing is everything. Also, this is pretty much cooking-by-feel because there are so many variables like size of pork chops, kind of cut, heat of the stove, etc. All times given are therefore approximate. For home kitchen it is a 2 burner meal; pot for potatoes and large frying pan for everything else.

2 Pork Chops, butt or shoulder

1 Onion, roughly chopped or cut in half and sliced

1T. oil

Butter, 1T.

Paprika, 1T.

2 t. Brown Sugar, to help caramelize pork

1 T. Salt

1-1/2 t. Black Pepper, freshly ground

1 Roma Tomato, sliced into 6 pieces

Cheese, 2 small slices of Provolone or Fontina

Worcestershire sauce, 1T.

Beer, 1/3 cup

Cornichons or Baby Garlic Pickles for garnish

2 Yukon Gold or Russet potatoes, peeled and cut

Milk, about ½ cup

Green Peas, 1/2 cup

Butter, 2 T.

Half an hour before cooking remove pork chops from fridge, place between 2 sheets of aluminum foil and pound with mallet or bottom of heavy pot to half inch thickness. Sprinkle with paprika, salt and pepper and sugar on both sides.

15 minutes before cooking chops start boiling potatoes.

When potatoes start boiling preheat large heavy skillet on medium-high heat with butter and oil and start caramelizing onions. When onions are translucent, about 2 minutes, push them on side and put pork chops down in center of skillet. Do not move them for 4 minutes but stir onions on side now and then. Turn chops over and move onions on top of chops to prevent burning. Cover and cook for 4 more minutes. Remove cover and place tomato slices around pork chops on one side and move onions from pork chops on the other side. Place cheese on top of chops sprinkle with Worcestershire sauce, pour in beer, cover turn heat on high and cook till cheese is melted, about 1 – 2 minutes.

While chops are cooking, mash potatoes with hot milk and butter till creamy and mix in peas. Or, just smash them, add butter and peas and mix.

Serve pork chops on preheated plate with tomato slices on top with mashed potatoes topped with onions. Pour sauce over potatoes and onions. Garnish plate with lengthwise sliced Cornichons or garlic pickles and serve.

Potato Gnocchi

(Pronounciation)

This recipe is the simplest, fastest and as foolproof as you can get. Main reason is because the Russet potatoes are “baked” in microwave. You can serve gnocchi as a starter or as a light meal.

To serve 3 as meal or 6 as starter.

2 Russet potatoes, washed and pierced in 4 places with tip of knife

2 egg yolks, lightly beaten

½ cup of flour plus more for dusting

Salt

Nutmeg, freshly ground

Place potatoes in microwave safe dish with paper towel on bottom and nuke for 4-½ minutes. Turn over and nuke 4 minutes more. Remove and cut in half, lengthwise, to release steam. As soon as they are cool enough to handle remove the skin, cut in smaller pieces and pres through potato ricer, food mill or as Chef John of Food Wishes does use spatula and strainer. Mix in egg yolk until well combined and then add pinch of nutmeg and start adding flour one tablespoon at a time till dough doesn’t feel tacky. This is very much cooking-by-feel. As Chef John says on his Blog:

“There is no such thing as an exact recipe for gnocchi. If you don’t like cooking by feel, and need exact measurements before attempting to cook something, this recipe is not for you. Potato sizes vary, the starch/water contents vary, how you cook it, and how much flour you add not only depends on the aforementioned factors, but also on the desired texture/density of the gnocchi.” Amen.

When dough feels right, roll it into a log and divide it into 8 parts. Roll each piece into a “snake” about ¾” in diameter and then cut into pieces about 1” long. Roll each piece over fork tines to create ridges for sauce.

Drop gnocchi into boiling water and when they float to top count 15 seconds and remove. You can drop them into a tomato sauce, pesto or frying pan with hot butter and olive oil. Sprinkle with Parmigianino cheese and serve.

Watch this great video.

  



To riced potatoes add egg yolks, salt and nutmeg and mix.

Mix the flour in tablespoon at a time.

Roll into a log and divide into equal smaller pieces...

then roll into snakes about 3/4" diameter.

Cut 1 inch long pieces...

and shape over fork tines.

Drop into boiling water and when they float to top let simmer for 15 seconds more.

Scoop gnocchi out, drop them into a hot tomato sauce and toss.

Grate Parmigianino on top and serve.