Roast potatoes medley

Often wondered about how else you could use left overs roast potatoes in a really tasty and original way… Well, here is one to try at home. Tastes good too!

Get a piece of baguette to clean the plate with...

Dinner for 2

Ingredients (from scratch):

For the potatoes:

·         200grs baby potatoes – Or salad potatoes
·         2tbsp vegetable oil
·         Salt and black pepper

For the tahini “sauce”:

·         1 medium onion, finely chopped
·         3 garlic cloves finely chopped
·         2 tablespoons of rapeseed oil
·         2 tablespoons of tahini paste
·         1 tablespoon of mustard paste
·         ½ knor vegetable stock cube melted in 150ml of warm water
·         1 small bunch of fresh parsley

For the roast potatoes (if you haven’t got let overs)

Take a bag of 200grs salad potatoes, rinse them and cut each one in half. Place them on the oven tray face down with 2table spoons of vegetable oil, salt & pepper. Put the potatoes in the preheated oven at 180C for 30 minutes. The skin should be crispy and the potatoes slightly firm.

In the meantime, prepare the tahini base of the medley:

Chop the onion into really fine pieces, heat 2 tablespoons of rapeseed oil in a saucepan, brown the onions, don’t let them burn. Now add the garlic, tahini paste and the mustard. Stir for 2 minutes then add a glass of water and leave to simmer gently for 5 minutes uncovered. Stir from time to time so it doesn’t stick.

Now, add the potatoes and do not forget to scrape the bottom of the oven tray (more flavour there) and add it to the mix. Stir well and poor in 150ml of stock. Cover and leave on medium heat for 15 minutes. What we are looking for is the sauce to stick to the potatoes. Taste and adjust the seasoning.

Now take the pan off the heat and add the chopped parsley. Mix well and serve immediately.

Bon Appétit

Note: This dish was created from some leftover potatoes from dinner the day before. Any leftover roast vegetables could be used in this way. Do not worry if you normally roast your potatoes with other vegetables. No need to separate them, just chuck it all in the “sauce” and enjoy!

Roasted butternut squash, spinach & a tahini sauce plus potato rosti

Make it crispy!

Ingredients for 2:

All the ingredients for the dish

·         1 onion

·         1 potato

·         ½ of a small butternut squash

·         1 red sweet pepper

·         50ml of rapeseed oil

·         2 tablespoons of tahini paste (sesame seeds paste)

·         2 tablespoons of mild sugar free mustard

·         8 cubes of frozen spinach leaves defrosted.

·         Salt & pepper

·         3 Brazil nuts

·         3 garlic cloves

 

METHOD:

Roast the butternut squash:
Cut the butternut squash into quarters (with or without the skin) and place in an oven proof dish. Season the butternut with salt, black pepper and a splash of oil. Roast in the oven for 40 minutes at 200C. Once cooked and browned, switch off the oven and leave the dish inside to keep warm.



Frying the rostis

For the potato rostis:  While the squash is in the oven, peel and grate the potato then squeeze the water out of it.  Season with salt and coarse black pepper (there is no need to shape the rostis’).  Heat a non-stick pan and add a dash of rapeseed oil. Deposit a hand full of the grated potato mixture in the pan then flatten with a spatula. Cook each side of the rosti for 2 minutes until golden brown. Then remove and place on a kitchen towel. Repeat until all the rostis’ are done.

For the Spinach: If using frozen spinach cubes, defrost them and squeeze out the water. Chop 1 half of the onion and the 3 garlic cloves, fry them with the 3 finely chopped Brazil nuts until they are brown. Once this is done, add the spinach. Stir with a sponged spatula whilst separating the leaves. Add a bit of salt and pepper then stir again, and add 4 tablespoons of water. Cover and simmer for 2 minutes. That is done

For the sauce: Chop the other half of onion into really fine pieces. Heat 2 tablespoons of rapeseed oil in a pan, brown the onions, don’t let them burn. Now add the tahini paste and the mustard. Stir for 2 minutes then add a glass of water and leave to simmer gently for 5 minutes uncovered. Stir from time to time so it doesn’t stick. The sauce is ready.

Serving suggestion

Now all you need to do is serve before it gets cold. The dish is best served with the sauce on the side.

 Voila!

Stuffed onion (“Olivier") with parsnips chips

So, my friend came to work the other day, pulls out this massive onion from her bag and say… look! I brought this for you!

I took the onion and It was the most perfect onion I have ever seen; the colour, the shape… I proceeded to make and exposé to my colleagues about the onion for the rest of the week. I displayed it on my desk and everyone passing by asked me why I had this onion on my desk… we had by now named it “Olivier”. Unless you can see beyond the fact that it was an onion, you’d know why “Olivier” was on my desk. I thought about exhibiting it in the London National gallery but the urge to cook something special with it was much stronger! So here it is:

Stuffed “Olivier” with parsnips chips and tahini sauce.

Ingredients:

Olive oil

“Olivier” the onion

Fresh parsley

 5 Brazil nuts

1 table spoon of flour

3 garlic cloves

1 carrot

10 soya meat balls

3 parsnips

1 vegetable stock cube.

1 table spoon of Tahini and mustard paste.

Ready to be stuffed!

Start by hollowing the onion leaving at least 3 layers for the shell.  In a hot frying pan with olive oil, brown the extremities of the onion shell and leave aside.

Prepare the stuffing:

Boil some water and pour over the soya meat balls with a pinch of salt. Leave to soften for 10 minutes, then squeeze out the water and cut finely.

The soya meat is a bit like a sponge and need a lot of seasoning. So, after cutting it finely, fry it for 3 minutes in Olive oil and chopped onion. Set aside.

Roast and grate the brazil nuts, peel and grate the carrot, finely chop the parsley, chop onion and garlic.

Now in a hollow dish mix all the above with the flour and 3 table spoons of water, a bit of salt and pepper, half a crushed vegetable stock cube and the fired soya meat.

Olivier halves ready for the oven

Scoop the mélange into the onions halves, put them in an oven dish and drizzle olive oil on the top. Cover the dish with aluminium and put in the oven at 175C for 1hr.

The aluminium will help produce the steam needed in to cook through the mince. Remove the aluminium after 30 minutes and leave the onion to finish cooking and browning for the other 30 minutes.

For the tahini sauce.

In a frying pan, add a table spoon of olive oil, add a hand full of onion and brown. Add the tahini paste and mustard paste with half a glass of water. Leave to cook for about 5 the time for the water to dry and you can no longer smell the mustard on it own or taste the bitterness of the tahini.

For the parsnip:

Peel, cut and fry like regular potatoes chips… (simples!)

All is ready to serve.

Here it is... Stuffed "Olivier with parsnips chips & Tahini sauce". Enjoy!