Tag Archives: potatoes

Lentil and Potato Salad

23 Sunday Jun 2019

Posted by in Dinner, lentils, Salads, Uncategorized, Vegetables

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It is winter and some comfort food never goes amiss.   This recipe comes from Smitten Kitchen, my go to blog for tasty recipes.    I didn’t change it up too much – except for substituting Coriander for Parsley – the Coriander in the garden looked much, much too good not to use.     And I also paired the salad with another Smitten Kitchen recipe – Chicken Skewers with Dukkah – though took Deb’s suggestion of omitting the skewers.   Next time I think I would halve the dukkah and sub panko crumbs.  They were still tasty though – and great with aioli and a home-made chilli tomato chutney.    In fact the aioli and chutney go great with the salad too.

Lentil & Potato Salad

Serves between 4 and 6

2 large shallots, 1 halved, 1 finely diced,
4 sprigs of thyme
1 small bay leaf
1 cup dry small green lentils (smaller keep their shape better)
Salt and pepper
500g small potatoes
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar (my cupboard was bare, so used white wine vinegar with a splash of red wine that just happened to be open….)
1 to 2 garlic cloves, minced or smashed to a paste (your preference)
1 tablespoon smooth Dijon mustard
1/4 cup of olive oil
2 teaspoons capers, rinsed, drained and roughly chopped
2 tablespoons cornichons or other sour gherkins, roughly chopped
1 to 2 spring onions, thinly sliced
1/2 cup chopped coriander

Cook lentils: Pick over and rinse lentils. Place them in a small/medium saucepan with the halved shallot, thyme, bay leaf, some salt and 4 cups of water. Simmer the lentils over medium heat for 25 to 30 minutes, until firm-tender. Drain (discarding shallot, thyme and bay leaf) and keep warm.

Meanwhile, cook potatoes: Either boil or steam – until they are tender, but not too soft. Drain and keep warm.

Make the dressing: Place the chopped shallot and red wine vinegar in the bottom of a small bowl and let sit for 5 minutes. Whisk in minced garlic, dijon, a pinch of salt, a few grinds of black pepper and olive oil. Stir in chopped capers, cornichon and scallions.

Assemble salad: Slice potatoes into small chunks and place in serving bowl. Add lentils, dressing and all but 1 tablespoon coriander and combine. Adjust seasoning with additional salt and pepper if needed. Scatter salad with remaining coriander.

This can be a stand-alone lunch, maybe add a poached egg, or as a side.  Can be reheated – and keeps in fridge for up to 5 days. Enjoy!

Roasted Lemon Chicken Thighs & Veg

03 Sunday Sep 2017

Posted by in chicken, Dinner, Uncategorized, Vegetables

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Those of you who see most of my posts know that (a) I am mostly a weekend cook; (b) I love recipes that are quick and also one pan and (c) chicken is on the menu OFTEN!

Yesterday was one of those end of winter days; grey, constant drizzling rain, chilly and just generally no fun.  We felt like something simple but warming, and I definitely felt like something simple after spending most of the afternoon snoozing on the couch.

This recipe certainly fits the bill.   I found it on The Woks of Life.  Wow do I love that site.  I have bookmarked so many recipes to try.    Having gone to the supermarket prior to deciding what to cook I also had some vegetables other than just potato, so we also have parsnip and carrot in this dish.     Mostly I purchase skinless & boneless chicken thighs,  however for this recipe skin on, bone-in is much much better.  (Though I resisted the urge and left the skin on the side of the plate!).

Be assured ‘simple’ also means ‘tasty’.   It only takes a few minutes to put together but ends up being a pan of deliciousness and easily translated up or down in terms of catering numbers.  In fact you don’t really need to measure or weigh anything.

Recipe below is enough to feed 2.  I allowed 2 chicken thighs per person (with one leftover so I can have a chicken sandwich the next day).  The recipe this is inspired by allows 1 chicken thigh per person – which might be fine if you have other courses or just want a small amount.  (I’m afraid mostly neither of those things happen in our household).    If cooking for a large number of people you may need to use 2 pans.

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Lemon Chicken Thighs & Veg

ROASTED LEMON CHICKEN THIGHS & VEG

Serving Number:  2

Ingredients
  • 5 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
  • salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • ¼ cup olive oil
  • approximately 4 washed potatoes (I left the skin on), cut into 1″ chunks,  one parsnip and one carrot, peeled and cut into smallish chunks.
  • 1 lemon, sliced
  • 10 cloves garlic, peeled (or however many you want – though probably not a lot more)
  • ¼ cup chopped coriander
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees C and season the chicken thighs with salt and pepper. Heat the olive oil in a roasting pan set over two burners at medium high heat.
  2. Sear the chicken skin-side down in the roasting pan. After the chicken thighs have been searing for about 5-7 minutes, flip them over. Add the vegetables and stir them in the oil. Add the lemon slices and garlic cloves, tossing everything together so the vegetables and garlic are well-coated in olive oil.
  3. Transfer the chicken to the oven and cook for another 30 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through and the vegetables are tender.   At around 2/3 of the way through you may want to check the dish and pour off some of the juices if it looks like the vegetables are ‘swimming’.   (Don’t know what your experience is, but our chicken seems to have a lot of excess water which comes out in cooking.  Note to self: buy free-range organic chicken.)
  4. Remove from the oven and stir in the herbs. Serve.

We served this with a very simple leafy green salad with some chopped tomato and red capsicum –  sprinkled with raspberry vinegar and balsamic syrup.

Plus – I can’t help it, I love a bit of aioli with potato.   But we didn’t have any and it was 5 minutes until dinner was ready.  So I made the following:

1/4 cup mayonnaise (Mr MWCED and I prefer Best Foods)
1/4 cup Sour Cream
a dollop of pesto
a dollop of dijonaisse
salt & pepper to taste

Mix it all together.  (You could also ‘steal’ a clove or 2 of garlic from your roasting dish – they will be nicely mushy by now – and add – I definitely suggest you consider it).   Don’t be tempted to scoff it all  before you take the dinner out of the oven.

Hello Again! Another Galette…..

13 Monday Mar 2017

Posted by in Dinner, Vegetables

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Well it’s been a while between drinks, or more to the point, recipes.   Such a lot has happened since the last post. We have moved, Christmas and birthdays have been and long gone. Special friends have been to visit and are now home. Winter has turned into Spring, then Summer and it seems we are now getting into Autumn again.   The days of late dinners outside, salads galore, cold drinks seem to be waning.

And so it was on Sunday when I was faced with what to cook for dinner. It had been a dismal day, grey clouds and plenty of rain. My usual question around 4 o’clock “What to Cook? What to Cook?”.

Didn’t feel like meat, we had a chicken burger the night before (home-made) so it was going to be vege.   Put the ingredients into Google and POP, here is what came out. Didn’t need to do any surfing, I thought this was perfect. Of course there were a few wee changes – I’ll note them down through the recipe.   I have posted a galette recipe before, but they are so versatile, and anyway, you probably can’t be bothered trawling through the history.

Thanks to flourishingfoodie.com for the inspiration and the recipe.

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Here is my take:

CHEESY POTATO, CORN, AND ZUCCHINI GALETTE

serves 6

Pastry:  
2-1/4 cups all purpose flour I used half white and half wholemeal
½ cup grated parmesan cheese  
1 tsp salt  
1-1/2 sticks cold unsalted butter, cubed Equivalent to 126 grams of butter. I did not use unsalted (we never seem to have it when I want it!)  

I also subbed about 1/2 cup of sour cream for some of the butter
1 egg yolk  
1 tablespoon milk  
In a food processor, pulse the flour, Parmesan cheese, and salt. Add the cold butter, and pulse until crumbly. Add the egg yolk and pulse until combined. Slowly drizzle in the cold water and pulse until the mixture comes together. Add enough water so that the dough comes together and is not crumbly, but not sticky or wet. You may need to use more or less cold water. Do not exceed 1/2 cup.

Place the dough onto the counter and shape into a disk. Wrap in plastic and place in the fridge for 30 minutes or more.

  
   
Filling:  
1 tablespoon butter  
2 medium potatoes, peeled and chopped  
1 cup of corn I used corn straight from the husk, uncooked. If you use cooked I suggest you add this after cooking the veges.
2 small zucchinis, chopped Lucky for us these were straight out of the garden
7 white mushrooms We don’t eat mushrooms, so I left these out and subbed one small white onion, finely chopped
1 cup cheddar, grated  
Salt and pepper  
Preheat the oven to 350ºF.

Place 1 tbsp butter in a large frying pan, and heat on medium. Fry the potatoes, corn, zucchini, and mushrooms/onions until the potatoes are light brown and soft, approximately 20 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Remove the dough from the fridge and let it rest for 5 minutes.

Place the dough onto a piece of parchment paper. Lightly flour the surface of the paper and the dough. Roll out the dough into a 10-inch round circle, 1/4 inch thick. Place the filling in the middle of the circle. Sprinkle the grated cheese on top. Fold up the sides of the dough and press into the filling to secure. Lift the parchment paper + galette and place onto the baking sheet.
   
Egg Wash:  
1 egg yolk  
1 tablespoon milk  
In a small bowl, whisk the egg yolk and milk. Brush the galette pastry with the wash.

Place the baking sheet into the oven and bake for 20 minutes, or until the crust has turned golden brown.

Remove from the oven. Slice into 6th’s and serve warm. 
You can use sour cream and “hot Sauce” as garnishes.   Luckily for me Mr MWCED had earlier that day made some chilli jam so that was our preferred garnish, and very good it was too.

And on the side we had a green salad.

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