Eats #17: Garlic Anyone?
Ingredients: 600g waxy potatoes, goose fat, fresh rosemary, 5 bulbs garlic, sea salt, freshly ground black pepper.
Difficulty: 0.5/5
Rating: 1/5
Make the rosemary oil by bashing the rosemary and a little olive oil in a pestle and mortar.
Peel and chop the potatoes into cubes and add to a pan of cold salted water - bring to the boil and after a couple of minutes drain and allow to steam dry.
Meanwhile heat the goose fat in a baking tray and crush the garlic cloves (skins on). Once the potatoes are dry mix with the garlic and rosemary oil and add to the baking tray. Cook until golden and crispy and serve!
Review
I’ve had garlic and roasted rosemary potatoes before (from the supermarket) so I was looking forward to seeing if the home made version was any better.
Although the potatoes were crispy and golden I felt they were a little bland and greasy. I’m not sure if that’s because I forgot to drain them on kitchen towel, the goose fat wasn’t hot enough or that’s just the way they’re supposed to taste.
Despite being a little greasy they were tasty particularly the roasted garlic! If I attempt this recipe again I think I’ll stick to olive oil as I’m not sure the goose fat added anything to the flavour.
Not the best recipe to date but every week can’t be a triumph I guess!
Eats #15: Salty & Sweet
Ingredients: 6 leeks, 2 gloves garlic, small bunch fresh thyme, 1/2 glass wine, 1/4 pint chicken stock, 8 rashers smoked streaky bacon.
Note: I reduced the ingredients by half to serve 2 people.
Difficulty: 1/5
Rating: 1/5
Grease a baking dish with butter and cut the leeks (keeping back some of the green leaves) into approx 5cm pieces to fit the height of the dish.
Fry the sliced green leaves with the garlic and thyme in butter and olive oil until soft and use to line the base of your dish.
Stand the leeks upright in the dish and pour over the wine and chicken stock. Lay the rashers of bacon over the leeks until covered. Use some softened (with water) baking parchment and tinfoil to cover the leeks and cook for 1 hour.
Remove the tinfoil and baking parchment and cook for a further 20 minutes until the bacon is crisp and the leeks tender - serve!
Summary
This was an easy to cook recipe that was reasonably tasty (with a few tweaks) but lacked the pow or excitement of some of my previous recipes. In comparison to my cabbage and bacon recipe this was just a little disappointing.
The leeks were sweet and tender on the inside but a little tough and chewy on the outside. I’m not sure this was the fault of the recipe though as I decided not to remove the outer layers of the leeks (as I’d bought pre-cut and washed leeks) which was probably my mistake.
The bacon went really well with the leeks but again I think I overlapped the bacon too much so it didn’t crisp up as much as it probably should.
I do however think the sauce was tasty and delicious and would of been really nice finished off with some cream or crème fraiche.
If I try this recipe again (which isn’t likely) I’ll make sure I execute things differently.
Eats #7: Cauliflower Cover Up
Ingredients: head of cauliflower, sea salt, olive oil, knob of butter, 2 teaspoons cumin seeds, 2 teaspoons coriander seeds, 1-2 dried chillies, handful blanched almonds, lemon.
Difficulty: 1/5
Rating: 1/5
This weeks last weeks recipe was “Roasted cauliflower with cumin, coriander and almonds” (page 342, Cook with Jamie)
Remove the outer leaves of the cauliflower and cut into florets - pop into boiling salted water for a few minutes, drain and allow to steam dry.
Crush the cumin and coriander seeds in a pestle and mortar, add the chili, almonds and a pinch of salt. Heat a dry pan until hot and pour in the spice mixture and toast for a few minutes. Toss the cauliflower in olive oil and a knob of butter and add to the pan, fry until slightly golden and add the zest and juice of a lemon.
Roast in the oven for 15 minutes and you’re done.
Summary
What can I say about last weeks recipe… Not a lot to be honest! It was always going to be a challenge to make what’s essentially a boring vegetable exciting and this recipe failed to wow my taste buds.
The chili, lemon, cumin and coriander gave the cauliflower an extra dimension in terms of flavour but the combination was a little odd for my liking. The lemon was too tangy and dominated the other flavours and the almonds gave each mouthful a weird texture.
I have to admit that there were a couple of diversions from the recipe - I used fresh chili instead of dried and I could only find almond flakes instead of whole almonds but I don’t think either would of changed the outcome.
Perhaps nothing could make cauliflower exciting for me or perhaps the recipe just isn’t to my liking… one things for sure, I won’t be cooking this dish again in a hurry.
