Roasted Potato Salad with Black Olive & Roasted Garlic Gremolata

This week at I Heart Cooking Clubs we're Serving Up Salads with Nigel Slater.  This is the kind of theme which is right up my alley, given that I like to eat salads pretty much all year round.  This time of year, in the New Zealand winter, my salads take on a more substantial bent and usually comprise some kind of root vegetable, or pulses and grains of some description.

In Tender, Vol. I, I came across Nigel's recipe for Roasted potato salad with garlic and rosemary - new potatoes are roasted with garlic and rosemary then tossed, while still warm, in a mustardy vinaigrette.    It was sounding pretty good to me, but I felt it wanted a little "something else".  And then I remembered this recipe for Herbed Crispy Smashed Taters that I had seen ages ago on my friend Toby's blog, Plate Fodder.  Toby combined smashed potatoes with herbs, garlic, black olives and lemon before roasting them, and this was exactly the inspiration I was looking for.  And, by the by, if you haven't checked out Toby's blog before you are in for a treat - Toby's writing is witty and entertaining, sprinkled from time to time with family stories, and most of all his food is stuff that you totally want to eat.

Roasted Potato Salad with Black Olive & Roasted Garlic Gremolata Recipe
Inspired by recipes from Nigel Slater, Tender Vol. I
and Toby at Plate Fodder
Click here for a printable copy of this recipe

8x whole baby potatoes (I used baby Red Jackets), washed & unpeeled
1x medium-sized sweet potato, washed, unpeeled & cut into quarters
1x head of garlic, cloves separated but unpeeled
2x stalks of fresh rosemary
olive oil
flaky sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
8x black Kalamata olives
zest of 1/2 a lemon

for dressing:
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon whole grain mustard
5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Preheat oven to 220 degrees C (425 degrees F).

Place potatoes and sweet potato into a medium sized pot, cover with cold water, place over high heat and bring to the boil.  Boil steadily for 5 minutes.  Remove from heat and drain.

Line a baking tray with non-stick baking paper.  As soon as potatoes are cool enough to handle, place them on the baking sheet and flatten with the heel of your hand.   Pull the leaves off one rosemary stalk, and strew them over the potatoes, along with the garlic clove.  Drizzle liberally with olive oil, and season generously with flaky sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Place the tray of potatoes in the preheated oven, and cook for 20 minutes.  After 20 minutes remove the garlic cloves from the tray and set aside, and turn the potatoes over.  Return to the oven for a further 20 minutes.

Meanwhile prepare the gremolata.  Deseed the olives and chop finely.  Place in a small bowl.  Add the leaves from the remaining stalk of rosemary, and the lemon zest.  Squeeze a couple of now soft garlic cloves into the mixture and stir/mash to combine everything well.

Make the dressing by putting all the ingredients into a small jar and shaking until well combined.

Remove cooked, golden potatoes from the oven, place in a serving bowl, and drizzle liberally with the dressing - do this while the potatoes are still hot and they will really soak up the dressing.  Sprinkle the gremolata over the top, and set aside to cool slightly - this is best served warm.

Note:  You probably noticed that we cooked a whole head of garlic, but only used a couple of cloves here - the rest were saved to go into the gravy for the roast chicken which was the perfect accompaniment to this hearty salad.

If you would like to get to know Nigel Slater a little better, and to see what everyone else has cooked up this week, then do go and visit my friends at I Heart Cooking Clubs and check out the links ...

... or check out Tender, Vol. 1 and Nigel's many other great titles available from Amazon USA, Amazon UK, or Fishpond NZ.

I'll also be sharing this post this week at See Ya In the Gumbo hosted by the delightful Michelle at Ms. enPlace, at Weekend Cooking hosted by Beth Fish Reads, and at Foodie Fridays hosted by Designs by Gollum.

         

Sweet Potato Galettes

This has been a week of surprises.

First of all I discovered how incredibly easy it is to make your own sour cream.  Simply add the juice of one lemon to one cup of cream.  Stir and you will feel it begin to thicken slightly almost immediately.  Leave out on your kitchen bench for three or four hours, giving it a bit of a stir from time to time.  It will become noticeably thicker during that time.  Now line a sieve with a clean piece of muslin.  Pour the cream into the cloth-lined sieve and set over a small bowl.  Put into the fridge overnight.  The next morning you will be rewarded with beautiful thick, tangy sour cream.

Speaking of rewards, my second surprise this week came in the form of a rolling pin.  Ever since losing my rolling pin in the Christchurch earthquake, I've been making doing with a wine bottle.  Now a wine bottle does a passable job, but it does have its limitations.  For example, you can't use a wine bottle as a substitute meat tenderiser to bash the bejeezus out of a chicken breast, or to smash up a bag of cookies for a cheesecake base.  I am a huge fan of Joseph Joseph kitchen gadgets - I love the range of gorgeously stylish products, that work every bit as well as they look.  I'm so enamoured of the "form meets functionality" of their products, that I have several items in my kitchen cupboards, and have for ages been coveting the adjustable rolling pin.  So it was a wonderful surprise when I was gifted this rolling pin as a reward for my efforts at work.  (For the record, although we sell these products in my workplace, no-one is paying me to tell you this - I'm sharing this with you solely because I absolutely love these products).  Oh, and by the way, for the benefit of my New Zealand readers, you can buy Joseph Joseph products at Stevens Homewares.

You'd think that two surprises in one week would be enough.  But no, surprise number three came in the form of these Sweet Potato Galettes from, you guessed it Yotam Ottolenghi.  Of course I should not have been surprised - I know well enough by now, and you will too if you've been visiting here for a while, that Ottolenghi is capable of taking a few seemingly unsurprising ingredients and turning them into a flavour and texture explosion which is so much greater than you might expect.

At I Heart Cooking Clubs this week we're sharing A Little Bit of Sunshine with Ottolenghi dishes in sunny hues of orange and yellow.  These gorgeous galettes seemed to fit the bill perfectly.

As usual, I've added a little bit of a personal twist to the recipe.  Flaky puff pastry is smeared with sour cream, which was homemade.  Also, remembering how well the hit of lime worked with sweet potatoes in this recipe, I couldn't resist adding some freshly grated lime zest.  I also subbed in some blue cheese instead of goat's cheese, and replaced pumpkin seeds with walnuts.

The end result is a sensation - full-on flavour, and fantastic contrasting textures.  Crisp, flaky, buttery pastry, smothered in tangy sour cream, given a bit of extra zip with a hit of lime;  softness and sweetness of the potatoes meets creamy, salty blue cheese, and crunchy walnuts;  all topped off with a bit of heat from chilli and garlic and a touch of freshness in the parsley.  Now, who wouldn't find that surprising?

Sweet Potato Galettes Recipe

Adapted from a recipe by Yotam Ottolenghi & Sami Tamimi

from Ottolenghi: The Cookbook

Makes 4

Vegetarian

Click here for a printable copy of this recipe

2x medium sweet potatoes

250g puff pastry (I used store bought)

1x free-range egg, lightly beaten

sour cream

grated zest of 1x lime

blue cheese, crumbled

walnuts, coarsely chopped

1x red chilli, finely chopped (remove seeds if desired)

1 tablespoon olive oil

1x clove garlic, finely chopped

handful freshly chopped flat-leaf parsley

flaky sea salt & freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 200 degrees C (400 degrees F).

Bake potatoes in their jackets until they soften, but are still firm in the centre - about 35 minutes.

Meanwhile, roll pastry out on a lightly floured surface to about 2mm (1/16 inch) thick.  Cut into four rectangles, approximately 7cm x 14 cm (3 in x 6 in), and prick them all over with a fork.  Place the pastry rectangles on a parchment-lined baking sheet, and rest in the fridge for about half an hour.

Once sweet potatoes are cool enough to handle, remove skins and cut into 3mm (1/8 in) thick slices.

Remove pastry from the fridge, and brush lightly with the beaten egg.  Place a spoonful of sour cream on each piece of pastry, and spread leaving a small border on all edges.  Sprinkle a little grated lime zest over each one.  Arrange sweet potato slices over the top, keeping the border clear.  Season with flaky sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.  Sprinkle a little blue cheese, walnuts and chilli over the top of each one.

Bake in the oven until the pastry is golden and cooked through - about 20 to 25 minutes.

Meanwhile, mix together olive oil, parsley and garlic, and brush pastries with the mixture as soon as they come out of the oven.

Serve warm or at room temperature.

Two of these per person, accompanied by a simple salad, make a delicious light meal, or serve one per person as an appetiser.  And if you're lucky enough to be enjoying some real sunshine and summer weather where you live, these would make sensational picnic food.

If you would like to get to know Yotam Ottolenghi a little better, then do go and visit my friends at I Heart Cooking Clubs and see what they've all cooked up ...

... or check out Ottolenghi: The Cookbook and Ottolenghi's other great titles available from Amazon USA, Amazon UK or Fishpond NZ.

         

I will also be sharing this post at See Ya In the Gumbo hosted by the delightful Michelle at Ms. enPlace.

Scallops with Sweet Potato, Spinach & Vanilla Saffron Sauce Recipe

Here is a recipe which is totally unlike any of the usual fare that you might usually find on my blog, but in exploring the use of vanilla for a "Make it with ... Mondays" entry I wanted to try and use this ingredient in a more savoury application.  I had once seen Jamie Oliver on TV preparing fish with vanilla, and the idea of that combination was intriguing to me.  I set about searching in books and on the internet for recipes with fish and vanilla and didn't manage to turn up anything that was particularly appealing.

Then in an old issue (number 118 to be precise) of Cuisine magazine I came across this recipe for Hapuku with Spinach, Kumara & Saffron Vanilla Butter Sauce.  This was in fact a recipe from Swell restaurant, Waikanae Beach, which had been requested by a reader.  I really liked the idea of this recipe, but some of the steps and techniques involved were a bit "cheffy" for me - let's not forget I am the master of the one-pot-wonder, so I did make several changes to turn this into really a very simple dish.  Furthermore, since I was eating on my own, I decided to splash out on some beautiful scallops instead of the fish.  Using the original recipe as my inspiration, this is what I did to turn this into a beautiful dinner for one.

Scallops with Sweet Potato, Spinach & Vanilla Saffron Sauce Recipe

Inspired by recipe in Issue 118 of Cuisine Magazine

One generous serving (or two small serves)

Click here for a printable copy of this recipe

12 scallops

juice of 1/2 lemon

1 vanilla bean *(reserve 1/2 for sauce)

olive oil

1 medium-sized, orange-fleshed sweet potato

olive oil

flaky sea salt

freshly ground black pepper

2-3 large handfuls baby spinach leaves

butter

flaky sea salt

freshly ground black pepper

For the sauce:

1/2 cup fish or chicken stock

1/2 cup white wine

2 cloves garlic, peeled (not chopped)

2 bay leaves

pinch saffron threads

1/2 vanilla bean *(see above)

1-1/2 teaspoons cream

2-3 tablespoons butter

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C (390 degrees F).  Peel the sweet potato and cut into smallish cubes.  Line a roasting pan with a sheet of parchment paper, add the sweet potato, drizzle liberally with olive oil, sprinkle over some flaky sea salt and freshly ground pepper, and toss well to make sure all the sweet potato is well coated.  Roast in the preheated oven for about 25 minutes until golden and crispy.

Meanwhile, put the lemon juice into a shallow bowl.  Cut the vanilla bean in half lengthwise and set one half aside to use for the sauce.  Scrape the black seeds out of the other half and add them, along with the scraped out bean pod, to the lemon juice.  Add a generous drizzle of olive oil, stir to combine, and add scallops to the mixture.  Leave to marinate for a few minutes while you prepare the sauce.

Put stock and wine into a small saucepan with the whole garlic cloves and bay leaves, set over high heat and allow to reduce by half.  Scrape the seeds out of the reserved 1/2 vanilla bean, and add the seeds and pod to the pan, along with the saffron strands.  Reduce down to about 1-1/2 tablespoons.  Set aside to infuse while you prepare to cook the spinach and scallops.

Set a non-stick pan over high heat, add the scallops to the hot pan and sear on both sides.  These take just a moment or two on each side and care should be taken not to over-cook or they will be rubbery.

In a separate pan, heat a generous knob of butter, add the spinach leaves, sprinkle with flaky sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, and cook until just wilted - again just a moment or two.

While the spinach and scallops are cooking, finish the sauce.  Strain the sauce into another small pan (discarding the vanilla bean, bay leaves and garlic clove), and add the cream.  Bring to a simmer, then add in the butter a teaspoonful at a time, whisking constantly so that each addition is fully emulsified.

To serve, place the roasted sweet potato on a serving plate, and top with the wilted spinach.

Arrange the seared scallops over the top, and drizzle generously with the sauce.

As I said before, this is definitely not the kind of thing that I normally make - it's a rare thing indeed for a sauce to be made in my house - but I will definitely make it again.  It was utterly delicious, and made a really special treat for "just me", or would be a beautiful dish to serve company for a special occasion.  I found that the scallops didn't really pick up that much flavour from the vanilla in their little marinade, even though you can see plenty of the little black seeds on the flesh of the scallops cooking in the pan.  It may be that I had a little too much lemon juice in the marinade which dominated a little, and I would reduce that next time (maybe even leave it out altogether).  The flavour of the vanilla did definitely come through in the sauce though - not strongly, but certainly unmistakably there - subtle and tantalising. The sauce had a beautiful savouriness to it and is certainly a sauce that I would make again - it would make a beautiful accompaniment to a piece of fish and also worked extremely well with the spinach and sweet potato.

This post is my contribution to Make it with ... Mondays challenge vanilla - the linky is open until Monday 24 January, so keep your vanilla posts coming, and don't forget to check out this week's special ingredient which is quinoa.

I'm also submitting this post to Magazine Mondays and the Hearth & Soul blog hop and to Food on Friday: Scallops, hosted by Carole at Carole's Chatter.

Roasted Pepper & Sweet Potato Pasta - Quick & Easy # 7

Today I have a wonderful pasta dish to share with you - one of those serendipitous discoveries that comes about when an unplanned fridge/pantry raid to come up with a meal without having to run out to the supermarket yields unexpectedly good results.

I had only myself to feed and thought it might be a good opportunity to get creative with a few leftovers.  A scramble around in the fridge unearthed half a yellow pepper, one orange pepper, one lonely little bocconcini, a piece of feta and some olives.  I also discovered a sweet potato, and about three packets of varying pasta shapes, each with just a handful of pasta left in them.

First of all preheat the oven to about 220 degrees C (425 degrees F), and set a large pot of water over high heat to boil.

Peel the sweet potato and cut into chunks.  Core and deseed the peppers and cut into thick slices.  Put both the sweet potato and peppers into a roasting pan, drizzle with a little olive oil, sprinkle with some flaky sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.  Cook in the preheated oven until the vegetables have softened and are starting to brown and caramelise - about 20 minutes.

Add pasta to liberally salted boiling water and cook until al dente.

Drain pasta and put into a warmed serving bowl.  Crumble cheese over the pasta and toss through.  Add the hot vegetables, a good handful of olives.  Drizzle liberally with extra virgin olive oil (the best you can lay your hands on) and add a drizzle of pomegranate molasses.  Season with flaky sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Toss everything together well, and serve immediately.

This was one of the best pasta dishes I've had for ages - I loved the combination of the caramelised peppers and sweet potato with the sweet tartness of the pomegranate molasses, spiked with the saltiness of the feta and olives - I thought this was a winner.  I will definitely be wanting to make this again, and now that I've shared it with you I'll be able to do that.  You see, so often I create something in the kitchen, without keeping any record of it, and then some months later when I want to make it again I can't remember what I did.  Do you do that?

I'm also submitting this post to Presto Pasta Nights, which is being hosted this week by Ruth at Once Upon a Feast - you will be able to see a full round-up of all the submissions there on Friday 3 December.   In the meantime, visit Denise at Oh Taste n See on Saturday 27 November to see a round-up of last week's entries.  I'm looking forward to checking out a whole lot of new pasta dishes.

Sweet Potato, Spinach & Chorizo Salad - Quick & Easy # 1

This is the first in a series of quick and easy meal ideas that I plan to bring to you - not strict recipes, as such, but more a suggestion of ingredients you can put together in whatever quantities or proportions suits your palate, your pantry or your wallet. Things that don't rely on precise quantities, that will serve more as a springboard for you to tweek and put your own spin on.

Now, if you've been following this blog for a while, then you know that one of my great loves is the "big bowl" salad - a salad which is substantial and which serves as a meal rather than a side dish.  You might be interested in this earlier post, in which I talk about what I consider to be the essential elements of a good salad.  The "framework" if you like that enables you to build great salads out of whatever takes your fancy.

It being winter here right now, this certainly isn't the time for light and leafy salads;  something altogether more substantial is called for, and I often like some "warm" ingredients in my winter salads.

So for this salad you will need:  some day-old bread - cut into chunks (I used ciabatta);  chorizo sausage - thinly sliced;  olives (I used a mixture of green and black);  sweet potato (I used an orange fleshed one) - cut into cubes;  spinach;  olive oil;  balsamic vinegar;  maple syrup;  and salt and pepper.

Begin by heating a little olive oil in a skillet over high heat, then toss the bread chunks in the hot oil and fry until the bread has soaked up all the oil and is golden brown on all sides and crispy.  Remove bread from pan, put into your salad serving bowl, sprinkle over some flakey sea salt, and toss well.

Return the pan to the heat and now fry the chorizo.  If necessary you could add a little more olive oil to the pan, but bear in mind that the chorizo will render quite a bit of fat of its own.  Keep tossing the chorizo around in the pan until it is nice and brown on both sides, and when it is nearly done add the olives to the pan for the last couple of minutes to warm through.  Then tip the entire contents of the pan, including all the pan juices, over the bread in the salad bowl.  Toss everything together well.

 

Add a little more oil to the skillet, and return pan to heat. Once the oil is hot, add the cubed sweet potato to the oil, sprinkle over some flakey sea salt and cracked black pepper, and toss from time to time, until the sweet potato is fork tender and golden brown all over.

At this stage, pour a generous drizzle of balsamic vinegar into the pan to deglaze, and then add some maple syrup. Allow everything to bubble up around the sweet potato, and keep tossing it around until all the pieces are well glazed. Then tip the entire contents of the pan over the other ingredients already in the salad bowl.

Now add some spinach leaves to the bowl, sprinkle with a little more flakey sea salt, and toss everthing together well. The spinach leaves should end up lightly coated with all the olive oil, chorizo fat, balsamic and maple syrup that you cooked the other ingredients in, but if you feel it needs a little more dressing, then drizzle over a little more olive oil or balsamic vinegar. Season to taste.

Click here for a printable copy.
I'm also submitting this post to the Two for Tuesdays blog hop.