It doesn’t get more traditional than cauliflower cheese. And no, New York Times, it’s NOT cauliflower and cheese. No, no, no.

I used yellow cauliflower, so now I’ve had white, green and yellow. Next up, purple.

1. trim off leaves, steam the whole head for about 15mins till tender
2. cut into florets, arrange in a single layer in oven dish
3. make a roux from 2oz butter, 3tbsp flour
4. add about 3/4 pint milk (I used a mixture of cream and milk) slowly, stirring constantly until just bubbling
5. add 4oz shredded cheese
6. pour sauce over cauliflower, season
7. bake at 200°C for 30-40mins until golden brown

This is from simply recipes though to be honest it’s a standard braising recipe that I’ve used time and time again. The 2 new things are: short ribs, which I’ve never done before and reducing the sauce till it’s very thick.

1. brown ribs (no oil needed, it’s already fat enough), remove from pan
2. remove excess oil, sweat mirepoix until soft
3. add 1 bottle wine, reduce to 1/3 original volume and almost syrupy
4. return ribs to pan, add chicken stock until ribs are almost covered — recipe says veal or beef stock, neither of which I have
5. braise at 180°C for 3hrs until meat is falling off bones
6. leave overnight — normally it’d be in the fridge, I did one better and left it on my balcony with its 4” of snow
7. remove fat layer (there’s a lot of it), reheat making sure ribs are well glazed

about 2/3 loaf of sourdough bread, cut into cubes
half a punnet mushroom, roughly diced
about 12 stalks asparagus, cut to 1” lengths
2 eggs
500ml mixture of milk and vegetable (or chicken if non-vegetarian) stock, about 2:1 ratio

grease the bottom of an oven dish with butter, spread over the bread cubes
add the vegetables
mix the eggs, milk and stock together, pour over bread and vegetables, season
stand for 5-10mins for the liquid to be absorbed, pressing the bread with a spoon if necessary
bake at 200°C for 1 hr until golden brown
stand in dish for 10-15mins before seving

The idea is always the same: brown the protein, add vegetables, add liquid and cook slowly for 2-3hrs until the meat is tender. Serve over some sort of carb that can mop up the sauce.

I saw oxtail and I was so excited. It’s been a long time. I braised it with a bottle of guinness and several ice cubes of chicken stock. The vegetables were standard mirepoix plus canned tomato. I let the finished product sit in the fridge overnight so the extra fat can solidify to be scraped off.

This was served over potato and turnip mash.

 

This is a recipe from Donna Hay’s A New Cook. I’ve been looking for ways to use the beets I bought at the farmers market earlier this week. The beet greens recipe based on one from Elise Bauer.

• marinade chicken in balsamic vinegar, garlic rub, s&p
• scrub beets, keeping skin on, add olive oil, salt and bake at 180°C for around 40mins until soft enough for a knife to run through
• about 15mins before the beets are cooked, brown chicken in a pan and add to the beet pan to finish in oven
• wash beet greens thoroughly, remove tough stalks and chop roughly
• dice 2 slices of bacon, fry in hot pan
• add beet greens to bacon, add water, cover and simmer for 10mins until soft; season with worcester sauce and a little sugar
• when everything is ready, peel beets, cut into wedges and serve

The second time I tried it I made it with yellow beets, and added a couple of slices of fried green tomatoes. Served with red wine. On the left Old Moon old vine zinfandel and on the right a petite syrah/syrah/cab/merlot/zin blend called SNAFU.

This was really delicious using vegetables I have in the fridge. The scallops were frozen, in a perfect world I’d get fresh ones. Wash the scallop, driy them over paper towels and pan-fry them in olive oil. Just s&p as seasoning. It only takes a few minutes to get them medium — do NOT cook them completely.

In another pan, cook the rigatoni. When done, drain and add spinach which will cook in the heat of the pasta and pan.

Remove the scallops and quickly toss some yellow pepper pieces into the pan. Throw the pasta and spinach in with the peppers to remove the residue at the bottom of the pan. Add a teaspoon of red pesto for flavour.

Arrange the scallops on top of the pasta and veg, add a little black pepper to finish. I suppose a real chef will drizzle over some olive oil but i didn’t do that.

Marinade pork chop with olive oil, rosemary and seasoning. Bake with sliced apples, basting regularly, until done. Serve on a bed of baby spinach.

This is a Donna Hay recipe (though I don’t understand why she doesn’t take advantage of the internet and post some of her recipes on her website). Very simple and easy to make.

marinade chicken in balsamic vinegar, garlic, olive oil and pepper
place on grill
add limes to grill halfway through
serve on a bed of salad, i used a red salad of carrot, tomato, yellow pepper and sweetcorn

I had the leftovers cold today, as a grilled chicken salad and it was just as good.

This is a New York Times recipe, a great way of combining the special (asparagus) with the mundane (eggs). It really is very simple and surprisingly, very delicious. The recipe calls for cheese, which should work wonders. Of course I don’t like cheese in my pasta so there.

Timing is important, so all the ingredients are ready at the same time.

put water to boil and cook spaghetti
in a frying pan heat olive oil and add 2 cloves of garlic, crush the garlic to infuse the flavour into the oil
when garlic is beginning to brown, remove and toss in chopped asparagus, fry quickly
drain pasta, reserve a little cooking water
toss asparagus with pasta and the reserved liquid
crack an egg into the frying pan and fry quickly until the whites are just set
plate pasta and put egg on top
when ready to eat break the egg, allowing the yolk to run into the warm pasta which will cook the egg

Fried rice traditionally is a way of using up leftovers so there’s a lot of flexibility about what goes into it.

cook the rice the day before or in the morning and let cool
dice chicken, cook and set aside
in a hot frying pan or wok, sauté mange tout beans until just tender
add beaten eggs and lightly scramble
add rice, add a splash of water if too dry
return chicken to pan and heat through
season with soy sauce, salt and a touch of sugar

I had a whole mozzarella ball in my fridge so I thought I’d try this Jamie recipe for a simple baked pasta dish. I made the sauce yesterday and the rest of the dish today.

for the sauce
sweat 3 cloves of garlic and half an onion until soft
add a can of chopped tomatoes and a can of water
add seasoning — the recipe calls for chili which I usually don’t have, nor do i use often; but I did add a dash of tabasco, some worcestershire sauce and Italian seasoning
simmer until the sauce thickens
blitz slightly, just enough to break the tomato pieces but not so that the sauce ends up being a paste

for the dish
cook pasta according to package instructions
drain and toss with half the sauce
arrange half the pasta at the bottom of an oven dish
spread over half the remaining sauce
slice up the mozzarella and arrange over the sauce
add the rest of the pasta, the rest of the sauce and the last pieces of cheese
bake at 200°C for 20mins

There’s supposed to be liberal amounts of parmesan sprinkled in with the mozzarella but I, um, don’t like parmesan. Yes, really.

This recipe is adapted from orangette who adapted it from the absolutely fantastic casa moro cookbook. I actually have the first moro cookbook, and it looks like I should get the second one too.

Pumpkin and squashes are high on my favourites list. Creamy soup, roasted as side dishes or as a substitute for mashed potato, there’s nothing that beats the chill of winter than a warming, welcoming squash dish. The tahini adds a touch of arabia to the proceedings, and lifts it up beyond just a warm pumpkin salad.

for the salad Cut squash into 8 lengths, keeping the skin on
Dice 3-4 carrots to small, easy to cook pieces (or parboil them first)
Season with olive oil, minced garlic, salt & pepper and mixed spice — the recipe calls for allspice but I didn’t have that
Roast at 200° for 25mins until soft
At the last 5mins or so chuck in a can of drained chickpeas to warm them up

for the tahini dressing Whisk together 2tbsp tahini, 2tbsp lemon juice, finely minced garlic and sea salt
Add water to dilute
Add extra virgin oilve oil and whisk to a thick consistency
Season to taste
I found it too lemony so I added a few drops of sesame oil and a small pinch of sugar

assembly After removing vegetables from the oven, cool a little
Toss everything in tahini dressing and serve

It’s funny, when I lived in Switzerland I never made rösti from scratch. I guess it’s because it was so easy with the packaged stuff, just empty into a pan and fry up. And lots of flavours too!

When I left, my friends gave me a couple of Swiss cookbooks, one of which is Cooking in Switzerland by Marianne Kaltenbach. There on page 66 is a recipe for traditional rösti.

Parboil potatoes until partially tender, then cool and leave overnight
Peel and grate coarsely
Heat a knob of butter in a heavy frying pan and add the potatoes
Season with salt & pepper
Squash with a wooden spoon then sprinkle about 1 tbsp milk on top
Cover the pan and lower the heat
After about 20-25mins a crust would form and the rösti can move about in the pan
Carefully turn out onto a plate

What better to serve with traditional rösti than traditional brätwurst? Of course, I’m missing the zwiebelsauce, but um, I never eat the onions anyway.

Holy smokes, this all taste exactly of Switzerland.