Sicilian Potato Salad

Hello everyone, a chair that I had sent away to have re-upholstered has just been delivered back to me. The chair belonged to my great grandmother and was passed from her to my grandmother's sister, Aunty Sheelah. When Aunty Sheelah died some years ago the chair came to me. I've wanted to have it re-done for years, as it was in a rather old lady-ish pink, so I'm very excited to have it all done! I have gone for more of a neutral look, using a linen fabric in a colour that might be described as a slighter darker shade of oatmeal. The possibilities for cushions to dress it up are endless! I will look forward to sitting in my chair at some stage during the weekend and continuing to devour an anthology of short stories by one of my favourite authors in the world (who has sadly departed this world), Carol Shields.

Now as regular readers know, I love my potatoes, and am firmly of the view that you never can have too many potato salad recipes. This week's one is from my favourite food writer, Matthew Evans. I found the recipe years ago in his column in Good Weekend magazine. He says that the dish originates in Palermo. It's certainly delicious and best served warm or at room temperature.

Have a happy week. Love from Jane xx

Sicilian potato salad

Serves 4-6

What you need:

• 1-2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 kg potatoes, preferably waxy, washed and/or peeled and cut into cubes
• 1 large Spanish onion, peeled and chopped
• 60g capers, preferably salted, soaked for 15 minutes and rinsed
• 150g green olives, rinsed well
• 3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
• 3 tablespoons caster sugar
• 1-2 teaspoons salt

What you do:

1. Heat enough oil in a frypan to fry the potatoes until nearly cooked through.
2. Add the onion and fry until it becomes translucent and the potatoes are fully cooked.
3. Add the capers and the olives.
4. Whisk the vinegar with the sugar and some salt and pour over the potatoes.
5. Simmer for a few seconds, then turn off the heat and allow the vinegar to soak into the potatoes.
6. Season to taste and serve in a pretty serving bowl.

Herb baked fish on saffron and tomato potatoes

Hello everyone, well, my annual Sydney Film Festival immersion finished on Saturday with three films. The absolute highlight of the Festival for me was the first one I saw that day, a documentary called Bill Cunningham New York http://billcunninghamnewyork.com/, which was an absolutely charming and fascinating film about this man who cycles around the city, documenting New York fashion, both on the street and at charity galas. It was funny and moving and visually captivating. If you saw the Valentino film last year, or The September Issue, it's a film in the vein of those ones. If it gets a general release, it's another one I highly recommend. The snippets with some obscure diplomat who has a wardrobe full of custom made suits in the most bizarre designs and fabrics is one of the most hilarious things I have ever seen.

This week's recipe is another dish combining two of my favourite things - fish and potato. It is from the June 2010 edition of delicious magazine. In it they use blue-eye. I substituted salmon as I am not huge on blue-eye, but I'm sure you could use whatever fish takes your fancy. I'm not convinced that the inclusion of the tomatoes adds anything so if you can't be bothered with the peeling and seeding, you won't lose anything by leaving them out. The potatoes work really well done this way - they are luscious!

Have a great week.

Love from Jane xx

Herb baked fish on saffron and tomato potatoes

Serves four

What you need:

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• 250g vine ripened tomatoes, peeled, quartered and seeds removed
• 900g floury potatoes (such as coliban), peeled and cut into 1cm slices
• 300ml vegetable stock
• A good pinch of saffron threads
• 50g unsalted butter, melted
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme leaves
• 1 teaspoon chopped flat leaf parsley leaves
• 4 x 200g thick fish fillets

What you do:

1. Preheat the oven to 220C.
2. Heat the oil in a deep frypan over a medium heat.
3. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, for one minute, then add tomato if using, and cook for two minutes until the tomato starts to soften.
4. Reduce the heat to low and add the potato slices, stock, saffron and 1/2 teaspoon of salt.
5. Simmer for 15 minutes or until the potato is almost tender.
6. Transfer the potatoes and tomatoes to a baking dish, with the liquid, and season.
7. Stir together the melted butter and chopped herbs, then coat the fish with the herb butter.
8. Place the fish on top of the potatoes and pour over any remaining herb butter.
9. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the fish is cooked to your liking and the potatoes are tender.
10. Spoon the potatoes into warmed bowls and carefully arrange the fish on top and serve.

Maple glazed roast potato and apple

Hello everyone, I've had a lovely week off work these last few days and seem to have spent a lot of time in the car driving all over Sydney running endless errands that have been piling up. One advantage is that on several occasions my trips took me close to specialty food shops that I have wanted to try but which aren't normally on my way anywhere. I was particularly fortunate to strike two specialty chocolate shops on one day. One was Adriano Zumbo's chocolate shop in Balmain, at which I had heard there was very good hot chocolate to be had. So I stopped there to sample it and it was really quite good. Not as good as Koko Black in Melbourne, but good enough to make me think about going back to try the various flavours of hot chocolate on offer. Then later that day I noticed a shop called "Christophe...Ses Chocolats", a chocolate maker, which is in a suburb called Russell Lea. On my way back I stopped in and bought a handful of chocolates and they were delicious! So nice and fresh and there were so many beautiful sounding flavours it was hard to choose! I think it will be a good thing to go back to work and remove myself from all these temptations.

This week's recipe is a great winter time dish and just luscious. The original recipe uses kumara, but being the potato lover that I am I substitute potato. You can use either or even both. It's from the Autumn/Winter edition of SOS and a very good dish to have in your cold weather repertoire.

Have a wonderful week. Love from Jane xxx

Maple glazed roast potato and apple

Serves six

What you need:

• 1.5kg potato and/or kumara, peeled and cut in chunks
• 2 large Granny Smith apples, cored and quartered
• 100g unsalted butter
• 180ml orange juice
• 125ml maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• Sea salt and cracked pepper

What you do:

1. Preheat the oven to 175C.
2. Place the potato and/or kumara and apple into an earthenware dish which will hold them snugly.
3. In a small saucepan over a medium heat, make a syrup with the butter, orange juice, maple syrup, ground cloves, salt and pepper.
4. Pour the syrup over the potato/kumara and apple.
5. Cover the dish with foil and roast in the centre of the oven for an hour, basting every 15 minutes.
6. Remove the foil and continue to cook for about a further 30 minutes, or until caramelised, basting as necessary.

Spicy potato tagine with olives

Hello everyone, I was prompted to share this particular recipe today following two different conversations this week. On Tuesday a friend was telling me about the tagine he'd made on the weekend and as soon as I arrived home I started searching through my cook books for some lovely tagine recipes I remembered cooking previously. I love a good tagine and they are so warming and comforting in winter. Then this morning I heard an interesting early morning discussion between Angela Catterns on local radio and a potato grower, who was setting up his stall at the Penrith markets. I think he reeled off the names of about ten different varieties of potatoes he had brought to market for sale and they all sounded very enticing.

Hence another recipe indulging my love of potatoes. This recipe is a different take on the usual tagine as there's no meat, so it works for vegetarians, as a side dish or just as a dish on its own for anyone who likes potatoes and olives! I found the recipe in Spectrum in the SMH and it says that it is adapted from Paula Wolfert's book, The Slow Mediterranean Kitchen.

Have a happy week. Love from Jane xx

Spicy Potato Tagine With Olives

Serves 4-6 when served with couscous or rice

Peel and thickly slice 900g of yellow fleshed potatoes and place them in a bowl of cold water. In a heavy saucepan (or well seasoned tagine), heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil and fry a finely chopped onion for 3-4 minutes, stirring. Add a chopped tomato, 1/4 teaspoon each of paprika, ground ginger and cumin, and 2 crushed garlic cloves. Stir for two minutes.

Add the drained potatoes, a bay leaf and a quarter of a lemon (whole). Toss, then add a handful each of chopped parsley and coriander (or you could substitute mint if like me you don't like coriander) and a couple of good pinches of salt. Toss, then add 5 saffron threads and 1 1/2 cups of hot water.

Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer until the potatoes are tender, about 40 to 50 minutes. Transfer the potatoes to a warm serving dish and discard the lemon. Add 24 pitted green olives to the liquid remaining in the cooking pot and boil until the juices have reduced to a thick sauce. Pour over the potatoes and garnish with half a preserved lemon, chopped.

Salmon, cabbage and potato

Hello everyone, I had dinner during the week with my friend Jan who lives in Potts Point and therefore is never short of a new fabulous place to entice me. We went to the Sardine Room, and really just the name was enough to get me there, conjuring up images of a glamorous, 1940s style bar. It's actually a little restaurant in Challis Street in Potts Point, specialising, of course, in seafood. I was intrigued when the owner made a point of telling us that several of the dishes were cooked in stock NOT cream, which could be a selling point to some, but not me. Bring on the cream I thought to myself. In any case, we both plumped for a risotto which had fennel and something else, I've actually forgotten already but it was some sort of seafood, and really very nice. But as I was quite stressed that evening, the highlights for me were the lovely glass of red and the luscious slice of chocolate and hazelnut tort with frangelico mascarpone - I definitely needed that combination to make me feel more settled!

Now this week's recipe comes from Jill Dupleix's book Take Three. As she doesn't actually title the recipes in the book I have just named it according to the three chief ingredients, which may not sound that exciting, but it's a very nice dish. It has caraway seeds, which I always think impart a magic touch.

Have a happy week. Love from Jane xxx

Salmon, cabbage and potato

Serves four

What you need:

• 4 x 200g fillets of fresh salmon
• 1/2 medium white cabbage, cored and finely shredded
• 10 small potatoes (baby kipflers are around at the moment and very good)
• Sea salt
• 1 tablespoon of butter
• 200ml white wine (or you can substitute verjuice)
• 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
• 2 teaspoons caraway seeds

What you do:

1. Cook the potatoes, (either peeled or unpeeled, whatever you prefer) in simmering, salted water for about 15 minutes or until tender.
2. Cook the cabbage in simmering, salted water for about 10 minutes - you want it to remain fairly crunchy - then drain well.
3. Melt the butter in a large frying pan, add the wine and bring to the boil.
4. Add the drained cabbage and toss well.
5. Place the salmon fillets on top, cover tightly, and cook over a gentle heat for about 10 minutes until the cabbage is tender and the salmon is cooked but still pink and moist in the middle.
6. Gently remove the salmon fillets and keep warm.
7. Add the vinegar and half the caraway seeds to the cabbage and toss well for a minute.
8. Arrange a heap of cabbage on four serving plates and top each with a salmon fillet.
9. Drain the potatoes, cut in half and tuck them around the salmon.
10. Sprinkle with the remaining caraway seeds and serve.

Patatas Bravas

I love potatoes. Have I ever mentioned that? I think they are one of my favourite foods, right up there with chocolate. I find myself indecently excited whenever potatoes are on the menu, and it takes all my willpower to not shout "Let's choose the potato dish" when out with friends and selecting a side to share. This week's recipe is a really yummy potato dish from one of my favourite recipe writers, Matthew Evans, from his book Weekend Fare. I could eat kilos of it (but I know where the kilos would come to rest).

Have a good week, love from Jane xx

Patatas Bravas

Serves 5-6 as as side dish

What you need:

• 1 egg yolk
• 2 teaspoons of a good vinegar - a Spanish sherry vinegar is ideal
• 1 clove of garlic, crushed
• 125 ml extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon tomato puree
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, or to taste (or ordinary pepper)
• 1/3 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika, preferably smoky Spanish paprika
• 1 kg good frying potatoes, washed well
• Olive oil for frying

What you do:

1. Beat the egg yolk, sherry and garlic, drizzling in the olive oil in a stream as you whisk, in the same way as you would make a mayonnaise (if you do indeed make your own mayonnaise).
2. Whisk in the tomato puree, pepper, salt and paprika and check the flavour. This sauce should be reasonably bold tasting.
3. Cut the potatoes into roughly 2-3 cm dice and fry in plenty of olive oil until cooked through and lightly browned.
4. Remove the potatoes from the pan and drain on a couple of paper towels.
5. Serve the potatoes warm with the sauce either on top, or served on the side as a dipping sauce.

Salmon and potato al forno

Hello everyone, I am shortly moving into the city for work, which has its pluses and minuses. The choices for lunch are definitely going to be an improvement on where I am now. Yesterday I was in town and went looking for a sandwich cafe of which I have heard many good things but never stumbled across before. It turned out to be down one of those dingy alleys which you would never explore unless you were on the hunt for something, and there was no signage to indicate the name of the place. Close questioning, and my lunch, proved I had found the right place. It is called Via Abercrombie and they do outstanding sandwiches! So this is one place I'll be visiting regularly.

This week's recipe comes from the August 2009 edition of delicious magazine. Funnily enough there were very few recipes in that issue that excited me, but this one caught my eye as its key ingredients are all favourites, and I was very, very happy with the result.

Have a great week. Love from Jane xx

Salmon and potato al forno

Serves four

What you need:

• 1 kg chat potatoes
• 1 large fennel bulb
• 1/2 bunch flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 25g cold butter, cut into small pieces
• Light olive oil
• 4 salmon fillets, with skin
• A few mint leaves, finely chopped
• A small handful of grated parmesan
• Grated zest of 1 lemon
• 1 lemon, cut into wedges, for serving

What you do:

1. Preheat the oven to 220C.
2. Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil.
3. Halve the potatoes lengthways and trim the fennel bulb, reserving the leafy fronds for garnishing later.
4. Cut the fennel bulb into 8 wedges, add these to the salted water with the potatoes and parboil for about 6 minutes.
5. Drain the vegetables in a colander and leave to steam dry for a minute.
6. Transfer to a large roasting pan and season well with salt and pepper.
7. Sprinkle over half the parsley and all of the garlic, dot with the butter and drizzle well with the olive oil.
8. Toss everything together in the pan so it is all mixed well and then shake out so that the vegetables sit in one layer.
9. Cook the vegetables in the oven for about 30 minutes, or until golden.
10. While the vegetables are roasting, score the skin on the fish.
11. Season the fish with salt and pepper and push the remaining parsley and the mint into the scores.
12. When the vegetables are golden, sprinkle the parmesan over the potatoes.
13. Lay the salmon, skin side up, on top of the vegetables.
14. Sprinkle over the lemon zest and drizzle with some olive oil.
15. Cook for a further 15 minutes in the oven.
16. Just before the dish comes out of the oven, chop the reserved fennel fronds.
17. Take the fish and vegetables out of the oven, sprinkle with the chopped fennel fronds and serve with wedges of lemon.

Giovanni's sausages with potatoes and rosemary

Hello everyone, I had a really delicious meal the other night. I have been dying to try out a tavola http://www.atavola.com.au/ restaurant in Darlinghurst and believe me, it was well worth the anticipation. It is a narrow restaurant with one of those great long communal tables in the front room, and then you proceed past a long, narrow kitchen and down some stairs into another room that has tables for smaller groups. The fit out is very cool with lots of interesting bits and pieces. Although in a gorgeous Italian restaurant like this I would usually always have the hand made pasta, having consumed an excellent dish of pasta the day before I tried the ocean trout served with a panzanella salad and it was delicious. Dessert, of course, was my main interest and I wasn't disappointed. We had a beautiful sort of chocolate pudding thing that was cooked to order (I'm a little fuzzy on what it actually was because the waiter had such a strong Italian accent I only understood about one word in every three) and it was served with the most beautiful (both to look at and to taste) raspberry icecream. MMMMM it was all good.

So, inspired by this Italian theme and the increasingly cold weather, today's recipe is a fabulous, I think Bill Granger, recipe that I found some years ago in delicous magazine. I adore sausages (and potatoes of course) so to me it's a fabulous combination. Kids really love this dish too.

Have a great week, love from Jane x

Giovanni’s sausages with potatoes and rosemary

Serves four

What you need:
· 6 thick pork sausages
· 800g kipfler potatoes, scrubbed and sliced
· 1 ½ teaspoons paprika
· 2 rosemary stalks
· 2 ½ tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (you may not use this much, it’s personal taste)
· ½ ciabatta loaf, crusts removed
· A handful of fresh basil leaves

What you do:
1. Preheat the oven to 200C.
2. Slice the sausages thickly and place in a large roasting pan.
3. Add the potatoes, paprika, rosemary, sea salt and pepper.
4. Drizzle with oil and toss gently.
5. Roast, stirring occasionally, for 50 to 60 minutes, until the potatoes are tender and the sausages golden brown.
6. Tear the ciabatta into bite sized pieces and add to the pan for the final 20 minutes of cooking.
7. Sprinkle with the basil and serve.

Crispy cumin and paprika wedges

Hello everyone, I had the joy of attending a class conducted by Alex Herbert of Bird Cow Fish http://www.birdcowfish.com.au/ this week. BCF is one of my favourite restaurants (yes, I know I have a long list) and I love Alex's approach to food. I made sure that I arrived in plenty of time so that I actually scored a seat in the front row which made it very easy to pepper Alex with questions. She started us off with a lovely little winter salad made with venison. I don't really eat meat outside the mainstream ones with which I grew up, so it was my first taste of venison. I don't think it's something I'd order in a restaurant but it worked well in the salad. Next up was roasted salt marinated duck with potato and apple galettes. Delicious. For me (you won't be surprised) dessert was the highlight - steamed ginger pudding served with creme anglaise. Mmmmm, I love puddings, especially steamed ones. It has really tempted me to buy a steamer although where I would store it I don't know. Alex had these two massive old steamers into which she was able to stack 35 puddings. It was a very delicious and fun demonstration.

And yesterday my beautiful Iranian volunteer, Sara, presented me with a dainty container of Iranian saffron, which her parents had brought with them when they arrived in Sydney during the week. She was stunned that I knew what it was and queried "Do you know how to use it?" I assured her that I do and use saffron regularly. Later in the day one of the IT boys came past, and he is also Iranian. I proudly showed him the saffron (and nougat) that Sara had given me. Same question! Same doubtful face! Clearly Australians haven't impressed with their use of saffron!!!

Today's recipe for potato wedges is just perfect for this cold time of year. You cook them in the oven so they are guilt free and just the most divine flavour. If I have nigella seeds handy sometimes I sprinkle them on as well. The recipe comes from Belinda Jeffery's Tried And True Recipes.

Have a lovely week. Love from Jane xx

Crispy cumin and paprika wedges

Says it serves four, I'll leave that to your judgement

What you need:

• 1 1/2 teaspoons cumin seeds
• 1 kg Desiree potatoes, peeled and sliced into generous wedges
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
• Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 1 - 1 1/2 teaspoons paprika

What you do:

1. Preheat the oven to 220C.
2. Line a large baking dish with foil and then a layer of baking paper. This will save on a really hard to clean dish later.
3. Sprinkle the cumin seeds into a small pan on top of the stove and warm them over a medium heat until they are fragrant. Do stir them constantly as they burn easily.
4. When the cumin seeds are ready, pour them into the baking dish and add the potato wedges.
5. Drizzle the oil over the potatoes and sprinkle them with the salt, pepper and paprika. Mix everything together so that the wedges are well coated.
6. Spread the wedges into a single layer and put in the oven.
7. Roast the wedges, turning once or twice, for 50 to 60 minutes, or until they are a lovely golden colour with crisp edges (of course you will need to try one or two to check).
8. Devour!

Spanish Minestrone

Hello everyone, I haven't been doing so much cooking this week as I have been quite immersed in the Sydney Film Festival. I managed to get to eight films overall and saw some really good ones. My most outstanding award goes to a film shot here in Sydney called Cedar Boys, which is about three young Lebanese men who get caught up in the drug trade. It is the most fascinating story and held the attention of the entire cinema right up to the end. It has gone straight to the top of my list of best films and I really recommend it - it's due for a general release on 30 June.

This week's recipe is another lovely warming soup that I made when winter was just starting to set in and I had some chorizo kicking around in the fridge. It comes from that wonderful book I always have to hand, 3 Ways With Stale Bread... by Ross Dobson, and is very yummy and filling.

Have a fabulous week. Love from Jane xx

Spanish Minestrone

Serves four

Heat a generous splash of olive oil in a saucepan and stir-fry 1 chopped onion with 1 finely cubed chorizo for a few minutes on a medium heat, to soften the onion and bring out all the spices in the sausage. Add 500ml chicken stock, 400g chopped tinned tomatoes, 400g tinned chickpeas (rinsed and drained) and one cubed potato.

Bring the soup to the boil and simmer for 15 minutes, until the potato is nicely soft. Stir through a handful of roughly chopped flat leaf parsley and serve topped with some crumbled feta or manchego cheese.

Potato and gruyere gratin

Hello everyone, last week I was having dinner at Young Alfred in Customs House with my American friend Chris and I commented to him that despite this being about my twentieth visit to YA, I had not yet persuaded any of my companions to choose the Surprise pizza on the menu (and I have certainly never been brave enough to try it myself). Chris being the courageous and daring person that he is promptly replied "Well, let's order it as a starter". Now up until then I hadn't realised that if you order it, although they won't tell you what is on it, you can declare any items you don't like and if by chance that day's surprise pizza does happen to be covered with your unfavourite ingredients the staff will steer you away from it. So we ordered it with the proviso no mushrooms (me) and no anchovies or mussels (Chris). Well, was I glad we took the plunge! It was beautiful. YA make the best pizza bases, they are very thin and crispy, and our surprise pizza had a lovely garlicky tomato sauce, thinly sliced ham, caramelised onion, goats curd and flat leaf parsley. I was so glad we did it! Now I'm going to order it whenever I go there! (Although who knows what the combination will be next time, I think it's whatever takes the chef''s fancy that day).

Now I know that I gave you a vegetable gratin dish last week and here is another one. This one is far more decadent and is an ode to my favourite vegetable, the potato. With a dish like this I tend to be quite generous with the quantities - if you think you need more cheese, for example, use more cheese. Or potato, or cream. Now that the evenings are getting cooler it's excusable to eat potatoes with cream.

Have a fabulous week. Love from Jane xx

Potato and gruyere gratin

Serves four as a side dish

What you need:

• 1 tablespoon butter
• 3 large potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
• Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
• 100g gruyere cheese, grated and divided into two portions
• 1 1/2 cups hot chicken stock
• 1 cup cream

What you do:

1. Preheat the oven to 200C.
2. Grease a medium sized baking dish with the butter.
3. Cover the base with the potato slices and season well, then sprinkle on some of the cheese.
4. Gradually build up layers of potato and cheese until you have used all of the potato slices and one of the portions of cheese.
5. Pour the hot stock over the potato and cheese and bake for 40 minutes.
6. About ten minutes before the potato is due to come out of the oven, gently warm the cream but don't allow it to boil.
7. Remove the potato from the oven and pour the warm cream over it.
8. Sprinkle on the other half of the cheese and bake for a further 20 minutes, or until the cheese topping is lightly browned.

Spanish Omelette

Hello everyone, those of us living in NSW are lucky enough to be having a long weekend. I love being at the start of this slightly extended break, thinking of all the things I am going to do. I have been planning to sell a whole lot of stuff on e-bay for a year now and am determined to get around to doing something about it this weekend. I keep putting it off because I think it's hard, but I'm sure once I start I'll get into it. The longer I put off starting the more time I have to find things around the house that I don't want so my e-bay pile is growing every week! Any opportunity to de-clutter is a good thing.

I am also hoping to do a bit of cooking this weekend of course. In a happy coincidence, when I was choosing recipes to cook over the next fortnight, one I selected was for some garlic chicken that I am going to do on the BBQ (I can't wait to get the barbie fired up again) and another was for a pomegranate salsa, which the author recommends serving with barbecued chicken. How good is that!

This week's recipe is from a Belinda Jeffery book, Tried And Trued Recipes, through which I am currently making my way. I like this book because she has arranged the recipes according to her favourite ingredients, so there are chapters on cheese, chicken, tomatoes, bread, chocolate and others. And every one I have cooked so far has been delicious, in fact one of them that I cooked a couple of months ago has become the best dish I think I have ever made! It's a beautiful saffron and cinnamon chicken casserole. Fortunately I had the foresight when I made it to do the full quantity which gave me a number of meals over the next weeks. Anyway, the recipe I'm giving you here is a simple Spanish omelette, just the thing for a light lunch or supper when you don't want something too big.

Have a fabulous week! Love from Jane xx

Spanish Omelette

Serves 3-4

What you need:

• 1 cup extra virgin olive oil (seems like a lot but it is used for flavouring the potatoes as well as cooking them and the excess oil is drained away)
• 750g potatoes, peeled and sliced to about 5mm thick
• 1 onion, thinly sliced
• 6 eggs
• Sea salt, to taste
• Small handful of chopped flat leaf parsley

What you do:

1. Heat the oil in a deep frypan over a medium heat.
2. Add the potatoes to the pan and cook them gently (you will probably have to do in batches).
3. Turn the potatoes regularly for 20 minutes or until they are cooked through (but not coloured or crisp). Don't worry if they break up a bit.
4. Half way through cooking the potatoes add the onion.
5. When the potatoes are cooked, gently move the mix to a sieve set over a mixing bowl and allow the oil to drain through. (You can save the oil to cook other savoury foods).
6. Whisk the eggs lightly in a large bowl, then add the salt and parsley.
7. Tip the drained potato and onion mix into the eggs and stir everything together.
8. Wipe out the pan and reheat a couple of tablespoons of the leftover oil over a medium heat until it is hot.
9. Pour in the omelette mixture, reduce the heat to low and spread out the potatoes evenly.
10. Stir with a fork for the first 30 seconds, then leave it to cook, shaking the pan occasionally to prevent the mixture sticking.
11. Cook the omelette gently until it's set and golden underneath.
12. Very carefully, flip the omelette onto a flat plate so it's cooked side up, then slide it back into the pan to cook the other side.
13. Continue to cook until the omelette is pale gold underneath and firm but still moist. It will take up to five minutes.
14. When the omelette is cooked, slide it onto a serving plate and allow to cool a little.

Layered potato and apple bake

Hello everyone, this is a very quick post today. I am helping out with a fundraiser tonight and earlier in the week I offered to wrap up the eight or ten prizes that had been donated. I planned to go up to where we are holding the event 15 minutes early. Apparently an avalanche of prizes has come in during the week so I'm now going up hours earlier to start wrapping and sticking! Who knows what I will find.

This week's recipe is absolutely luscious. It comes from the book "Growers Market" by the appropriately named Leanne Kitchen. I made it last Sunday afternoon when it was cold and miserable outside. It took no time at all to slice the different components, layer them in a deep baking dish and whack into the oven, and I was rewarded with a beautiful bake later that night. The apple in the dish gives it a lovely sweetness; it would go really with roast pork or pork chops.

Have a wonderful week, love from Jane xx

Layered potato and apple bake

Serves four

What you need:

• 3 large potatoes
• 3 green apples
• 1 onion
• 1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese (or if you had some other cheese in the fridge that melts well you could substitute)
• 1 cup thin cream (or thick cream if that is what you have in the fridge)
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

What you do:

1. Preheat the oven to 180.
2. Grease a large shallow baking dish.
3. Peel and thinly slice the onion.
4. Peel the potatoes and slice thinly.
5. Peel, halve and core the apples and slice thinly. (If you are not super quick at peeling and slicing, just drop the slices of potato and apple into a bowl of cold water and a little lemon juice as you work, to prevent them browning; drain and pat dry with paper towels before using).
6. Layer the potatoes, apple and onions in the baking dish, finishing with a layer of potatoes.
7. Sprinkle evenly with the cheese and then pour over the cream.
8. Sprinkle with nutmeg and black pepper to taste.
9. Bake for 45 minutes or until golden brown (make sure the potatoes are cooked through when pierced with a knife).
10. Remove from the oven and stand for five minutes before serving.

Pasta with fennel, ham and potatoes

Hello everyone, my friend Rob mentioned to me recently that he loves a good pasta. I was really happy that he said this because I adore pasta and eat it several times a week, so I have been very, very conscious of not putting up too many pasta dishes on this blog (and looking back I think I went to the other extreme). Anyway, I was pleased because I thought good, that's a good reason to go back and cook one of my favourite winter pasta dishes during the week and share the recipe with you.

The recipe comes from one of my most used and treasured cook books, which used to belong to my darling Dad, and he cooked lots of recipes out of it too. It's called "Trattoria Pasta" and it's by Loukie Werle. I haven't ever spotted it in a book shop but if you do ever see it I suggest you grab it - I have never had a failure out of it, and I have made three quarters of the dishes in it!

This is a great dish for winter as it's quite hearty. I love potatoes in pasta dishes as I find the combination very soothing. I usually substitute verjuice for white wine and did when I made this dish this week. Verjuice has the same effect in cooking as does white wine, but I prefer the flavour, I think it can really lift a dish. You can buy verjuice pretty well anywhere these days, certainly in delis and good green grocers that have deli items.

Have a fabulous week. Love from Jane xx

Pasta with fennel, ham and potatoes

Serves four

What you need:

• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 medium fennel bulb, finely sliced
• 185g ham (preferably in chunks rather than the usual thin slices)
• 2 medium waxy potatoes, boiled in their skin, and cut into cubes
• Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1/2 cup dry white wine (or verjuice)
• 500g pasta
• 3 tablespoons finely chopped flat leaf parsley
• 4 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese

What you do:

1. Put the water on to boil for the pasta.
2. Heat the oil over a medium heat and add the onion and fennel.
3. Cook until the onion is soft, stirring frequently, for about five minutes.
4. Add the ham and potatoes, season with salt and pepper, and cook for another five minutes, stirring frequently.
5. Add the wine or verjuice, cover and simmer for five minutes.
6. Meanwhile, cook the pasta.
7. Have a heated serving dish ready.
8. Drain the pasta, turn into the heated dish and add the ham and vegetables.
9. Sprinkle over the parsley and Parmesan.
10. Toss well and serve immediately.

Roasted potato with chunky macadamia and feta sauce

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:

1. Preheat the oven to 220C.


2. Line 1-2 large baking trays with foil, then baking paper.


3. 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.


4. Place the potato on the baking trays in a single layer and drizzle with extra oil. Toss to coat.


5. 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.


6. 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.


7. Add the feta and olive oil and mix again for about 15 seconds.


8. Stir in the lemon juice and adjust to your taste.


9. 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!