Gratin tombé

Today I decided to make a sweet root vegetable gratin of potato, pumpkin and sweet potato. Seemed like a simple enough idea...until I discovered that my sweet potato was one of those white yammy ones (SO inferior to the orange ones). Grrr!
Nevertheless, I soldiered on, lovingly applying thin slices of a third of a pumpkin, 1 red onion, 6 small potatoes, 1 sweet potato (imposter) and thyme to a baking dish. Then in a measuring jug I whisked up with a fork 200ml of milk and 200ml cream, 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard, 1 crushed garlic clove and a big handful of grated Parmesan, poured this over the top and sprinkled a layer of breadcrumbs over the top and a bit more Parmesan for good measure. Then I baked this at 180 for about 1-1 1/2 hours.

The thing about my personality sometimes is that while I can be quite meticulous in constructing a dish I can be equally careless when it comes to oven handling. I pull things out of our oven one-handed in the most precarious and dangerous fashion. Usually when I pick it up I know it's going to be fine, but sometimes I know I'm in trouble and I still don't stop...



Voila!

The 5-second rule prevails, plus it didn't even touch the floor anyway, so I scraped it up and re-baked it with a new breadcrumb layer. And it was delicious - creamy, earthy vegetables with hints of thyme and Mr Muscle.

Home sweet potato soup

My very dear friends Kristi and Paul have moved in around the corner from us. To celebrate, I'm cooking them a quick and easy soup - and would be quite happy to do so every night if meant cooking on their amazing stove!

What you need
4 sweet potatoes
1 pear
A handful of small brown or green lentils
A fistful of Coriander
1 brown onion chopped
Half a pack of feta, crumbled
1 stock cube or 1 tablespoon of bouillon
Salt
Pepper
A hand-held blender, or food processor

The do
Put the kettle on.
In a big pot, sweat the onions in a glug of olive oil. Add the lentils and sweet potato.
Fry for a few minutes then add boiled water until the sweet potato is just covered. Add stock. Slow boil with lid off until sweet potato and lentils are soft. Take off the heat and very carefully blitz with the hand-held blender until smooth adding milk or soy milk to get it to your preferred consistency. Put back on the stove for a few more minutes then serve in bowls. Garnish with copious amounts of feta and coriander.

Better than turkey

A long afternoon of farting into couch cushions is as much a part of Christmas as carol singing and mistletoe. So if you want to cut down on your emissions this year, do away with the traditional Nut Roast and try this festive recipe instead.
This roulade is for those who don't mind a little lacto-ovo action and it's a little complicated to make, but the vegetarian at your Christmas table will love you for it.
In past years, I have followed this ABC Delicious magazine recipe word for word. This year I’m feeling pretty confident and I’m going to add a few yule tide-esque trimmings of my own - and I’m trialling it before the big day next week so I don’t poison my boyfriend’s family.




LEEK AND SWEET POTATO ROULADE WITH CHESTNUT AND CRANBERRY STUFFING

Roulade
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 leek, finely chopped
60g butter
1/3 cup plain flour
300 ml soy milk (or cow's milk if you prefer it)
4 eggs, separated
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Sweet potato filling
500g sweet potatoes, peeled, chopped
15g butter
100ml light cream or 2 tablespoons Tofutti cream cheese
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
handful of roughly chopped walnuts

Chestnut cranberry stuffing
30g unsalted butter
1 brown onion, finely diced
1/4 cup dried cranberries
Port
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 cup fresh brown breadcrumbs
1/2 cup chopped and peeled whole roasted chestnuts (I used the vacuum-pack sealed Merchant Gourmet ones)
a child's handful of chopped fresh sage
a child's handful chopped flat leaf parsley
a few sprigs of thyme, with stalks removed

1. The night before, place cranberries in a bowl and cover with port - set aside.

2. Preheat oven to 180°C.

3. Grease and line a Swiss roll pan (I used one that was about 33x22 - but if you have one about 39x26 - it would be better)

4. To make roulade, heat the oil in a frying pan over low-medium heat.

5. Add the leek and cook gently for five minutes until soft.

6. In a saucepan, heat butter. When it has melted, add the flour and cook 1 - 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Add the milk, a little at a time, whisking until milk is combined and sauce has thickened. Remove from heat, beat in egg yolks one at a time, then season with salt and pepper.

7. In a clean bowl, beat egg whites until stiff. Add 1/4 of the egg whites to the mixture in the saucepan and mix lightly. Fold in leeks and cheddar until just combined then gently fold in remaining egg whites, being careful not to lose all the air you've put into the eggs.

8. Pour into the prepared Swiss roll pan and bake in oven for 20-25 minutes or until puffed and golden.

9. For the filling, steam or microwave sweet potato until tender. Drain and mash with butter, cream and nutmeg. Season to taste and set aside.

10. To make stuffing, melt butter in frying pan over medium heat. Add onion, cook for five minutes or until soft. Add garlic, cranberries and breadcrumbs and cook for further 3 - 4 minutes. Stir in herbs and season with salt and pepper.When roulade is cooked, place clean tea towel on the workbench and sprinkle with Parmesan. Turn the roulade out onto the tea towel and peel off baking paper. Allow to cool for 2 minutes, then spread the sweet potato over the roulade except for 2 inches across the far edge. Distribute walnuts evenly over the surface.

11. Sprinkle the stuffing over the sweet potato putting most of it on the edge closer to you, then (this bit is a little tricky...) using the edge of the tea towel, carefully roll up the roulade like a sushi roll, finishing with the seam down. This takes a little practice so don't worry if it cracks or isn't perfect - it's not worth razzing out over.

12. Using the tea towel and a spatula, carefully transfer it back onto the Swiss roll pan (you may need the help of a trusty assistant) and bake at 180 for about 15 minutes

13. Slice and serve warm with all the Christmas sides.

TIP: You can make this the day before. Wrap in tin foil and heat through when needed. You may want to make an extra one because in my experience, meat-eaters have finished this off leaving me without seconds.

Happy Christmas!!

Salad daze

The Tuesday back at work after Easter weekend was a bit of a struggle for me. For most of the day my brain was still curled up in bed and copious amounts of coffee would not wake it from it's slumber.
When I got home I was faced with a dilemma. I was lazy, starving and didn't want to eat anything bad.

So this is what I did.

Preheat oven on high.
Get some small sweet potatoes (big ones are fine too, but the small ones are softer and fluffier), cut into thick slices leaving the skin on. Place in baking tray and toss in some smoked paprika (for 4 potatoes I used a small teaspoon) and olive oil.



Bake at 150-180 until you can poke a fork in them, then crank it to 200 to char the outsides a little. Remove from oven and allow to cool slightly.


In a big bowl, throw in your favourite salad leaves, baby tomatoes, chopped avocado, chopped chives, sunflower seeds and some roasted pine nuts. Add the sweet potato whilst still warm. Drizzle with oil and squeeze some lemon over the salad.


This is the smoked paprika in a pretty tin that I used.