the nomblr

until tonight, somehow i forgot that potatoes are one of the cheapest yet most filling and mega tasty foods to stock up on.

potato gratin
modified from a recipe sent by jason / serves 6

• 1.5kg / 3 lbs potatoes, peeled
• 2 large onions, sliced
• 3/4 cup pouring cream (i used raw cream. ohhh boy.)
• 3/4 cup milk
• pinch of dried thyme
• 3 cloves garlic, sliced
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

preheat oven to 180ºC / 350ºC. place the potatoes in a large saucepan, cover with water and bring to the boil.

cook for 5 minutes, then drain the potatoes and return them to the saucepan.

place the saucepan over a low heat and warm the potatoes for 1-2 minutes, shaking the pan occasionally to evaporate any excess moisture. slice the potatoes into 5 mm / 1/4” slices.

butter an oven proof dish and arrange the potatoes, overlapping slices as you go. scatter onions over the potatoes and season with salt and pepper. repeat until the last layer is potato.

mix the cream, milk and thyme together and pour over the potatoes. scatter with garlic slices and season. depending on your pan, you may need to add more cream and milk; it should reach the halfway mark in the dish.

cover with foil. bake on the preheated oven for 40 - 50 minutes or until bubbling. remove the foil and cook for a further 10 minutes or until the potatoes have browned a little.

after several soup making sessions and putting down the order for the weekly vegetable drop box, i decided that a stick blender was going to be pretty helpful for epic soup making sessions. so lisa picked up a relatively cheap one from target, and it’s been sitting in our kitchen for the last few weeks, still in the box.

until today. i made a smoothie, because i wasn’t going to wait for a whole pot of water to boil and for vegetables to release their deliciousness. plus i had a severely battered banana in my messenger bag that needed to be taken care of.

so i threw in:

• 3 big spoonfuls of greek yogurt
• the battered banana, which i froze last night
• a few blackberries. for colour, of course
• half of a mexican mango. why not?
• milk

and wooooo!

these things are fun. to the point where i may have a smoothie everyday, just so i can macerate the hell out of some fruit.

best enjoyed in a tall ceramic tiki glass, stolen from the jerks at the tonga room.

the first few weeks living in SF involved the painful task of throwing out food because it would go off before i had a chance to eat it.

especially vegetables. there are days where i’ll eat a whole pound of asparagus in one meal because i’m paranoid about wasting it. so this week i decided to cook all of the asparagus, have some for lunch, and keep the rest in the fridge. pre-cooking vegetables that only take a few minutes to cook seems pretty silly to me — but it’s that or eat it all. or let it rot and throw it out.

the immediate pay off: being able to make a pants-down awesome frittata with the asparagus the following morning, along with some ham that i was starting have ham-overload nightmares about.

this is modified from an alton brown recipe that feeds 6. mine feeds two and is more of a omelette-frittata — thinner and not as heavy as a fritatta. an omelettata, if you’d like.

you can use almost anything leftover (even pasta) as your filler — or fresh ingredients, or a combination of both. just make sure it doesn’t get super watery before you add the eggs.

omelettata
feeds 2

• 2 eggs
• parmesan cheese (to taste)
• dash of milk
• salt and pepper
• tablespoon of raw butter
• a few spears of leftover sautéed asparagus, chopped
• decent pile of shaved ham, rolled up and sliced

preheat the grill (or broiler) to low.

beat the eggs with the cheese, milk — season with salt and pepper.

heat a small oven-safe frying pan and melt the butter. add the asparagus and ham, saute for a few minutes until heated through and any excess liquid has evaporated.

pour in the eggs and give it a quick stir with a wooden spoon. cook without stirring (unless you want scrambled eggs) until the top is beginning to set.

place the pan in the oven and grill for 3 minutes or until the top is lightly browned and is slightly puffy. remove the omelettata immediately from the pan, cut into quarters, and serve.