Thicker slices or potato and onion when compared to the far thinner slices of potato when we cook a French gratin.
The addition of the sage and bay leaves and the two types of cheese just adds to the comfort.
Nothing revolutionary here, though as a side, you’re just going to make people very happy.
Ingredients
2 tbsp unsalted butter plus more for the baking dish 2 large white onions, thickly sliced Sea salt 8 large, fresh sage leaves 1 c heavy cream 1 c whole milk 2 fresh bay leaves 1 kg medium potatoes, peeled and sliced 1cm thick 170gm Italian Fontina, grated (I substituted Gruyère) 3/4 c freshly grated Grana Padano or Parmesan
Method
Butter a large baking dish and set it aside. Preheat the oven to 200c.
Melt the 2 tbsp butter in a medium pan over medium heat. When the butter is melted, add the onions, season with 1 tsp salt and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are wilted, about 10 minutes.
Add the sage leaves, let them sizzle for a minute, then add the cream, milk and bay leaves. Bring to a simmer and season with 1 tsp salt. Add the potatoes, and simmer just to combine, 3 – 4 minutes.
Add the cheeses to a medium bowl and toss to combine them. Transfer half of the potato-cream mixture to the baking dish and spread in an even layer. Sprinkle with half of the cheese mixture. Repeat with the remaining potatoes, then the cheese. Cover the baking dish with foil, and bake until it’s bubbly and the potatoes are tender, about 30 minutes. Uncover, and bake until the top is golden brown and crusty and the potatoes have absorbed the cream and are no longer soupy (it will thicken up more as it cools as well), about 30 minutes. Discard the sage and bay leaves. Let cool for 10 minutes before serving.
I absolutely love porchetta: stuffed, rolled and roasted pork belly.
What isn’t to love?
Unfortunately, Nat doesn’t share my love for pork belly and so when we cook really any form of pork belly, it’s a treat: probably how it should be anyway.
Anyway, it was my turn to cook a late, Italian lunch and I nominated that a pork chop be at the centre. And I managed to get my nomination over the line!
Then I found this recipe on the New York Times: thousands and thousands of five-star reviews, always a reliable omen.
An absolutely excellent cheat’s porchetta. 1-hat Italian sort of stuff.
The flavour of porchetta, essentially the ease of cooking a pork chop.
Such a classic porchetta filling.Stuff and rub those pockets!Ready to cook.25 or so minutes later, you’re ready to plate.
2 bone-in pork chops, 3cm – 4cm thick 1 tsp sea salt, plus a pinch 1 lemon 2 garlic cloves, minced 2 tbsp chopped rosemary Large pinch red pepper flakes 1/2 tsp fennel seeds, lightly crushed 2 tbsp chopped fennel fronds, more for garnish 2 tbsp olive oil
Method
Heat the oven to 180c. Pat the pork chops dry and using a very sharp paring knife, cut a large pocket into the fat-covered edge of the pork chop. Season chops all over with 1 tsp salt including inside the pockets.
Finely grate zest from the lemon and put in a small bowl. Cut lemon in half ready to juice over the cooked pork.
Using a mortar and pestle or the flat side of a knife, mash the garlic with a pinch of salt until you get a paste. Add to the bowl with the lemon zest and stir in the rosemary, pepper flakes, fennel seeds, 2 tbsp fennel fronds and 1 tbsp olive oil.
Divide the filling between the pork chops, filling the pockets and rubbing the rest on the outside.
Heat a large ovenproof skillet over a high heat and add 1 tbsp olive oil. Sear pork chops on one side for 5 minutes, or until golden brown. Gently turn over the chops and cook for a further 1 minute, and then transfer the skillet to the oven. Cook until the meat is just done, 5 – 10 minutes. Remove from the oven, tent with foil and let rest for 10 minutes before serving. Garnish with fennel fronds and a good squeeze of lemon juice.
This is an absolutely superb dish from The New York Times.
11,736 five stars and one more from me.
It is so simple. Caramelise the brussels sprouts and garlic in a completely set-and-forget manner. Transfer to the oven.
Add a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar and my word, you’re plating an absolutely brilliant side.
I can not overstate how good these are. As part of an amazing Italian lunch we had late one afternoon, we agreed that this was the winning dish.
And since when have brussels sprouts beaten a porschetta pork chop or a Lidia Bastianich potato and onion gratin?!
Must be good.
Ingredients
500gm brussels sprouts 4 – 6 tbsp extra virgin oil 5 cloves garlic, peeled Salt and pepper to taste 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
Method
Heat the oven to 200c. Trim the bottom of the brussels sprouts, and slice each in half, top to bottom. Heat oil in a cast iron pan (skillet) over medium-heat until it shimmers: put sprouts cut side down in one layer in pan. Put in garlic and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Cook, undisturbed, until sprouts begin to brown on bottom, and transfer to the oven. Roast, shaking pan every 5 minutes, until sprouts are quite brown and tender: about 10 – 20 minutes.
Taste and season as necessary. Stir in balsamic vinegar, and serve hot or warm.
Look, there is nothing special about the technique here.
A classic bruschetta is something you can do with your eyes closed. Arguably, you don’t even need this recipe to whip up an avocado bruschetta.
The reason for typing it?
We had a pile of avocados and as a starter for a casual at-home Italian lunch, I thought why not.
And why not indeed!
I’m not sure I’ll ever do a bruschetta that isn’t avocado again!
It is awesome.
Ingredients
1 baguette, sliced 1 1/2cm thick 1/4 c extra virgin olive oil, divided 2 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced in half 1 clove garlic, crushed 1 Roma tomato, diced 1 large avocado, peeled, seeded and diced 1 tbsp white balsamic vinegar 1/4 tsp sea salt 1/4 c sliced basil
Method
Preheat the oven to 180c. Place the bread slices on a baking tray and brush with a little olive oil. Toast until golden brown, and then rub the sliced garlic cloves over the warm toast.
In a small-medium bowl, gently combine 1 tbsp olive oil, the minced garlic, tomato, avocado, white balsamic, salt and basil. Season with more salt and/or vinegar if desired.
Nat loves paneer and I know I have said it before, though worth saying again: make your own.
The flavour and texture is completely superior to that of store-bought paneer and it’s a pretty simple process.
This particular Pushpesh Pant dish is absolutely moorish and we loved the texture of the crumbled paneer.
We always cook at least one vegetarian dish when we pull together an Indian banquet and this is one recipe I will be requesting again!
(Have halved the quantity of cloves and added a can of cherry tomatoes; and suggest you do to.)
Ingredients
1/2 tsp ground turmeric 1 tsp chilli powder 4 tbsp ghee 1 tsp cumin seeds 1 small onion, chopped 5 tsp ginger/garlic paste 1 medium tomato, chopped 1 can cherry tomatoes 1 1/2 c cooked chana dal 450gm paneer, mashed 2 green chillies, deseeded and cut into long strips 1 tsp coarsely ground black pepper 1 tsp ground green cardamom 1/2 tsp ground cloves 1 tsp ground nutmeg 1 tsp ground fenugreek
To garnish
1 x 4cm piece fresh ginger, peeled and julienned 4 tbsp chopped coriander leaves
Method
Put the turmeric and chilli powder in a small bowl, add 2 tbsp water and mix together.
Heat the ghee in a heavy-based pan over medium heat, add the cumin and stir-fry for about 1 minute, or until the seeds begin to splutter. Add the onion and fry for 5 minutes, or until it turns light golden. Add the ginger/garlic paste and stir-fry for 1 minute, or until the moisture has evaporated. Add the turmeric mixture and fry for a further 30 seconds, or until all the liquid has evaporated.
Add the tomatoes and fry for about 10 minutes. Now add the chana dal and stir-fry for about 2 minutes, or until the oil separates out. Add the mashed paneer and stir, then add the chillies and season with salt. Stir-fry for about 1 minute, before adding the ground spices. Stir, then remove from the heat and adjust the seasoning as necessary. Transfer to a serving dish and garnished with julienned ginger and chopped coriander.
Cooked over charcoal, the addition of the smokiness just completed what was otherwise a brilliant starter to a late Sunday Italian lunch.
The sherry vinegar and eschalot cuts through the heat and fat from the ‘nduja butter. A real triumph and one I will repeat the next time we do a slow afternoon over charcoal grilling.
Ingredients
75gm ‘nduja 75gm unsalted butter, softened 1/2 eschalot, finely chopped 2 tbsp sherry vinegar A small handful coriander, roughly chopped 6 large scallops in half shell
Method
Put the ‘nduja into a small cold frying pan and break it up with the back of spoon over a medium heat, until its fat has rendered and is fairly smooth. Cool then put in a bowl with the softened butter and mix really well. Chill for 5 minutes to firm slightly. Tip into baking paper, form into a sausage and twist the ends to tighten. Chill until firm.
In a small bowl, mix together the shallot, vinegar and coriander with a little seasoning.
Heat the grill or charcoal. Put the scallops in their shells onto a large baking dish, then put a thick slice of the ‘njuda butter on top of each. Grill for 5 minutes until the butter is bubbling and the scallops are lightly caramelised.
Serve with vinegar, herb and shallot mix spooned over the top.
For all the traditional curries and dosa we cook, we love our roadside and contemporary Indian.
Hankering for a mid-week BBQ, I nominated a leg of lamb though Nat insisted we do this remarkable Khan leg of lamb, a dish we picked up in India a few years ago.
So in keeping with the BBQ theme, we of course needed a salad and so enter this moorish Bombay Potato Salad from Jamie Oliver.
Another potato salad to rival this recent classic that has become a bit of our “everyone bring a salad” whenever we are invited over for a BBQ.
My only adjustment was the addition of a 1/4 cup of crème fraîche which in my opinion, added a lovely touch of creaminess.
Your call.
Either way, this is an excellent and equally simple salad and one that would jazz up any BBQ.
Ingredients
1.5kg salad potatoes Extra virgin olive oil 1 tsp cumin seeds 1 tbsp turmeric 1 red onion 1/4 c crème fraîche 1 lemon 2 tbsp mixed seeds (poppy, pumpkin, sesame etc) 1 bunch mixed herbs: parsley, mint and coriander 1 c, baby peas
Method
Preheat the oven to 190c. Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil.
Leaving the skins on, halve any larger potatoes, then place in the water for 8 – 10 minutes to parboil.
Drain, steam dry, then transfer to a roasting tray. Crush slightly with a fork, drizzle with oil, then sprinkle over the cumin seeds and turmeric. Season, toss to coat, and roast in the oven for at least 25 minutes, or until golden and crisp.
Peel, finely slice and place the onion in a shallow bowl, squeeze over the lemon juice and leave to soak for 15 minutes. Stir through the crème fraîche.
Toast the seeds in a dry pan and set aside. Pick and finely chop the herb leaves.
When the potatoes are ready, leave to cool a little, then transfer to a serving bowl. Add the onions, herbs, peas and a drizzle of oil. Toss to coat, then serve sprinkled with the toasted seeds.
The first Thomas Straker recipe I typed up a few weeks ago was extraordinary.
And no kidding, my traffic grew by a third almost overnight and the recipe became my second most viewed.
All of Thomas Straker’s recipes are contained in short-burst TikTok videos without the recipe. Totally viral and social content, though not very helpful regarding cooking.
For the second time, however, Nat was still determined.
Introducing this totally nuts, baked gnocchi with beef and pork ragù!
On account of going up to Newcastle – two hours north of Sydney – for a 40th Saturday night, Nat started the ragù Friday. Gnocchi and béchamel on our return.
A triumphant, late Sunday winter lunch?
You absolutely bet!
What absolute luxury. Total, last meal decadence.
A dish that you’d drive across town for. Honestly, a dish you just can’t stop smiling about.
In a world of food complexity and pretence (and I am plenty guilty of that), this is a swinging boulder from the other direction to smash it all to pieces.
The beginning of homemade gnocchi.Taking shape.Plunged in an ice bath, reserved and tossed with olive oil.The incredible ragù.Béchamel with mozzarella and parmesan. OMG. Combine the béchamel and ragù and two very good things have come together.More parmesan and we are ready to bake.
Ironically, as we were leaving Newcastle this morning, Nat spotted an institution – Don Beppino’s House of Lasagne – a restaurant we had a late-night meal at 12 years ago. Already with a few drinks under our belt, we had the best night: the sort of food I am typing up here with too much Chianti and too many laughs.
About as old-school as it gets.
This is what life is all about.
Ingredients
Ragù
Extra olive oil 1 carrot, unpeeled, chopped finely 1 onion, finely diced 1 stick celery, finely diced 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped 1 sprig rosemary 1 tsp Italian herbs 1/2 tsp dry oregano 500gm beef and pork mince 1 tbsp tomato paste Salt 1 tbsp sherry vinegar 3/4 c red wine 1 can cherry tomatoes 500ml chicken stock
Béchamel
2 tbsp butter 2 tbsp flour 1/4 c milk 1/2 mozzarella ball (175gm), chopped 1/4 c parmesan, grated Salt
Gnocchi
6 baking potatoes 1 1/2 c plain flour (plus more as you need it) 2 egg yolks 1 tsp salt Extra virgin olive oil
Pepper and extra parmesan to sprinkle before baking
Method
Start by making a sofrito: heat some oil in a heavy pan and softly sauté the carrot, onion, celery and garlic until very soft though not golden.
In a separate heavy pan, heat more oil over medium-high heat and fry the mince until browned. Add the tomato paste, salt and sherry vinegar and combine. Add the red wine, canned tomatoes and stock and bring to a boil, and then reduce the heat to a simmer adding the herbs. Cook for 30 minutes. Add the sofrito and combine, reducing the heat to low and cook for as long as you can. Taste and season and remove the rosemary sprig.
For the béchamel, in a saucepan, heat the butter over medium-low heat until bubbling. Whisk in the flour until well combined and then add the milk, whisking until combined. Increase the heat and add the mozzarella and then Parmesan, whisking until well combined and fully melted.
Slowly introduce the béchamel sauce to the ragù and stir to combine.
To make the gnocchi, bake the potatoes at 180c until cooked through. Remove the flesh when cool and rice/mash. Combine with the flour, egg and salt and knead until combined. Set aside for 5 minutes.
Heat a large pot of boiling water and separately, set up an ice water bowl to reserve the cooked gnocchi. Using a piping bag with no attachment, pipe long tubes of the combined potato mixture and then cut into 3cm gnocchi with a sharp knife.
Cook the gnocchi rapidly for a few minutes until they float. Immediately transfer to the ice water bowl and allow to cool completely. When cooled, quickly drain and toss with oil.
Heat an oven to 200c. Carefully combine the gnocchi with béchamel ragù mixture ensuring the gnocchi does not break up. Pour the gnocchi mixture into a baking pan; or several pans. Pepper, very liberally sprinkle over parmesan and bake until bubbling.
Vefa Alexiadou’s book ‘Greece – The Cookbook’ by publisher Phaidon is the sort of wonderful cooking tome you’d expect from one of the world’s best publishers of cookbooks.
The recipes are traditional and numerous. No doubt every dish would be marvellous.
Nat served these cheese balls as a starter before a long Greek, Sunday lunch.
And what a traditional treat.
Ricotta and mint is such a great savoury combination and here you have it in spades.
500gm anthotiro or ricotta cheese 1 – 2 eggs 4 tbsp all-purpose flour, plus extra for coating 4 tbsp finely chopped fresh mint 4 tbsp finely chopped fresh parsley Salt and pepper Vegetable oil, for deep frying*
Method
Place the cheese in a bowl and mash with a fork. Add the eggs, flour, mint and parsley, season with salt and pepper, and blend to a thick, pliable mixture. If it is soft and sticky, add more cheese.
Cover with plastic wrap and put the mixture in the refrigerator until required.
Heat the oil in a deep-fryer to 180c – 190c. Pinch off small pieces of the cheese mixture and roll between your palms to form balls the size of a small walnut. Coat with flour and fry in the hot oil, in batches if necessary, for 3 – 4 minutes or until golden all over. Drain well and serve immediately.
Nat and I landed from 10 nights in Japan this morning.
Talk about a foodie destination. My god: street-food, Egg-sandwiches at 7Eleven, Michelin Starred restaurants. It honestly doesn’t matter.
A six-seat mixology place floors up somewhere in Tokyo.Alain Ducasse’s restaurant Benoit in Kyoto. Holy moly.Lurra. Featured on Someone Feed Phil, a top 50 place to eat in the world. Staggering.A toasted egg sandwich infused with soy on the side of the road. Seriously, this place would be a pop up institution in Sydney. Here, they just asked us to wait with our sparkling sakes.
The Japanese care about food at every level, at every moment. From a broth at breakfast to tuna belly sashimi at the Tokyo Fish Markets, it literally doesn’t matter.
I kid you not, the fried chicken at the every-corner corner-store Lawsons is hands down better than the best KFC here in Sydney.
We even had an Indian meal in Kyoto in the smallest restaurant you could imagine (well, every restaurant in small) and wasn’t it a complete win on a level you’d almost never find in Sydney?! Cheap, cheerful, completely authentic – a total slam dunk.
You cannot go wrong no matter how much you might try.
But this isn’t a Japan post (which I will do) but a post because we are back and of course, drowning our sorrows with a wine, we return to a curry at the start of a cold, gloomy Sydney winter.
Nat wanted a tomato based curry and who was I to argue?
This relatively simple Ajoy Joshi number absolutely hits the note.
I added a little more Garam Marsala at the end, though do your thing.
Just make sure you slowly cook it down to reduce almost all the liquid.
A beautiful heat, wonderful spinach, just bloody lovely with a red on the couch ready to catch up on whatever Netflix we’ve missed.
(I have slightly adapted this recipe.)
Ingredients
1kg chicken thigh cut into 4cm pieces 1 tsp Garam Marsala 500gm baby spinach 3 mild green chilies, split lengthways 2 brown onions, roughly chopped 1/2 c vegetable oil 1/2 tsp salt 2 1/2 tbsp minced garlic 1 tsp crushed ginger 1/4 c full-fat yoghurt 1/2 tsp chilli powder 3 ripe tomatoes, finely chopped
Method
Marinate the chicken pieces in the Garam Marsala and set aside.
In a food processor, process the spinach and chillies until a paste forms. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.
Clean and dry the food processor and process the onions until finely ground. Set aside.
In a large, heavy-based frying pan, heat the oil. Add onions and salt and cook, uncovered, until lightly golden. Stir in garlic and ginger and cook until fragrant. Add the yoghurt and cook for 5 minutes further.
Raise heat to high, add the chicken and cook until browned. Stir in chilli powder and cook until all moisture evaporates and oil separates.
Stir in spinach purée and tomatoes. Cover, reduce heat and cook until the chicken is cooked through and tender. Uncover and if any liquid remains, cook over a medium heat until the liquid has evaporated. Serve immediately with rice. (And chutney is my strong recommendation!)
Robby Dog Cooks 