General Recipes

Meatloaf and Roast Potatoes

Aug 25, 2004

This was last night's menu:  

First, I washed the potatoes and chopped them into (very) roughly 1 inch cubes (didn't bother to peel - the peel is good for you!). Then I parboiled them until slightly soft, not fully cooked.  

For the meatloaf, I had only about half a pound (300 gm) of ground meat, and Ross invited a friend for dinner, so I had to stretch it. I mixed it with some of the left over dal from the other night, along with one egg and about 3/4 cup of breadcrumbs. Moulded it into a loaf and placed it into a large china baking dish, liberally greased with olive oil. Then I poured the potatoes in around the sides, added several cloves of garlic (chopped large), lots of salt, and more oil on top. I would normally have added rosemary sprigs for roast potatoes, but thought it might clash with the slightly Indian flavor of the meatloaf.  

Put that into the oven at 350F/175C for about an hour, occasionally turning the potatoes so they got crusty on several sides. The meatloaf got a little dry on the outside, remained moist and tasty inside. Served with a salad of fresh tomatoes and red onions, tossed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

What's in the Pot

Aug 29, 2004

This one's for Mica, who wanted to know what's in the pot. Friday night, it was pork loin (lonza). It was a smallish piece, because I had expected to cook it Thursday night for just me and Ross, but after making chutney all day, I was tired of being in the kitchen, so we went out for pizza instead. So I had the lonza to cook on Friday when Enrico came home. Procedure:

- In a casserole, sear on all sides in a bit of olive oil

- add chopped carrots, a couple of small onions, sear them as well

- add white wine (some ex-sparkling white that had been forgotten in the fridge, now flat but not yet vinegar) and a tsp or so of broth granules, pepper, and a couple of teaspoons of sweet chutney

- cover and cook about 40 minutes, til a meat thermometer shows nearly done, dollop with sweet tomato chutney (that's when I took the picture) and cook a little longer. Serve with mashed potatoes and its own gravy.

Italian Quiche

Sep 3, 2004

In Italy you can buy ready-made pasta sfoglia (layered pastry), which is something between a pie crust and puff pastry. It comes in frozen or refrigerated forms, the easiest kind is pre-rolled and cut into a circle, and already laid out on oven paper, so all you have to do is plop it into a pan and fill it.

Quiche is a good way to use up odds and ends of veggies and cheese. In this case, I sauteed a couple of shallots (scalogne) and some sliced zucchine, while mixing three eggs, some milk, a dash of salt and pepper, and some grated aged ricotta. Pour everything into the crust, bake in 175 C/350 F oven for about an hour.   Quiche is not an Italian dish, but there are many variations on torte salate (salted pies), typically with spinach and fresh ricotta.