Hello everyone, I was vastly relieved to be discharged from jury duty this week, particularly when I saw the sandwiches that are served. Actually, to be honest, they weren't quite as bad as I had imagined as you could identify some of the fillings, and fresh fruit was also provided. But the six week case for which I had initially been called somehow became a twelve week case, so it's a good thing I was in the group that was sent home.
One of my most favourite recipe writers is Belinda Jeffery. I have all three of her cook books and have been to a great cooking class she did last year. Last night I made this roasted potato salad, which is a slightly modified version of a recipe she wrote in the September 2007 edition of delicious magazine. Belinda did hers with kumara, but I substituted potato as I adore potato and will eat it any which way. I was lucky enough to grow up in a household with a Mum that cooked beautiful dinners for us every night and she had a million ways with potatoes. It must be the Irish in us.
Have a lovely week! Love from Jane x
Roasted potato with chunky macadamia and feta sauce
Serves 8 as a side dish
What you need:
- About 2.4 kg potatos (Desiree are great for roasting), cut into chunks
- 200ml olive oil, plus extra for coating (I have to say that I usually halve the quantity of oil given in recipes and I did for this one too. It's up to you.)
- 1/2 cup roughly chopped flat leaf parsley, plus small extra leaves to garnish
- 2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
- 1 cup (150g) macadamias (either salted or unsalted, again up to your taste)
- 1 tablespoon smoked paprika (or ordinary, whatever you have to hand)
- 100g feta, crumbled
- 1 -2 tablespoons lemon juice
What you do:
- Preheat the oven to 220C.
- Line 1-2 large baking trays with foil, then baking paper.
- Just before you put the potato in the oven, toast the macadamias gently, either in the oven or under the grill. Do what I do and roast the whole packet, then you have lovely toasted nuts to eat with yoghurt or on porridge or cereal. Store them in the fridge.
- Place the potato on the baking trays in a single layer and drizzle with extra oil. Toss to coat.
- Roast the potato for about 45 to 50 minutes, turning once or twice if you think of it, until the potatoes look golden and crispy around the edges.
- Meanwhile, pulse the parsley, garlic, macadamias and paprika in a food processor or a Bamix if you are doing a small quantity, to make a coarse paste.
- Add the feta and olive oil and mix again for about 15 seconds.
- Stir in the lemon juice and adjust to your taste.
- Place the cooked potato chunks in a bowl and pour over the sauce. You can garnish with the extra sprigs of parsley if you are keen to impress!
