Potato and Parsnip Brunch Stack

I think breakfast is quite an underrated meal in the UK. Our full English fry up pales in comparison to the French's hollandaise smothered eggs benedict, Mexico's spicey huevos rancheros or the USA's towering pancake stacks and giant mounds of potato and (insert any food stuff you can think of here) hash. It seems we just don't put as much effort in.

I do sympathise, I eat a banana or two for breakfast at work as I can't imagine cooking up and eating something substantial at 7:30am and on Saturdays I would rather have a bit of a lie in than get up early enough for the meal to be classed as breakfast. Sundays mornings though are made for pottering about in the kitchen and I feel the holidays are just the same. Maybe not on Christmas day itself as you'll be having a giant dinner later and a bit of toast will surfice until then, but on Boxing Day it's just lovely and will help to soften the blow of the big day being over.

I admit this is a bit of a labour intensive meal so may be suited more to brunch than breakfast. You will need several pans and there is a sauce involved as well as frying and poaching. You can find a nice easy hollandaise recipe here, but as it's the holidays I won't hold it against you if you use a jar or maybe even a packet!

Potato and Parsnip Brunch Stack
Serves 2

Ingredients
300g potato, preferably something waxy like a charlotte
1 medium sized parsnip
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tso garlic granules
1 egg

2 poached eggs (for a how to click here)
6 slices of bacon
hollandaise sauce

Method
Grate the potato and parsnip into a seive, squeeze out as much liquid as you can and then place into a bowl. Sprinkle over the pepper and garlic granules, then add the egg and mix until thoroughly combined.

Heat some oil in a frying pan to a medium low heat, then add the potato mixture in two halves shaping each into a flat round. Cook for about 5-6 minutes, turn over and cook for another 5-6 minutes until crispy and golden on both sides. Put the hash browns onto a plate and place under a low heated grill to keep warm.

Next cook the bacon and place under the grill with the hash browns, then poach your egg and whip up the hollandaise. Now to plate up.

Place a hash brown in the middle of the a plate, arrange 3 slices of bacon on top and then place on a poached egg. Pour over some hollandaise, season lightly and enjoy!

Oven Roasted Root Beer Barbecue Ribs with Roseanne Cash's Potato Salad

You'd think that choosing a recipe for this blog would be simple. Sometimes it is. Sometimes I just get inspiration from what's in season, a certain food craving, something mentioned in a book or film or even the weather, but at other times it can be a real toughy. This week took a little thinking, and it really brewed down to a combination of bad weather and carnivorous cravings.

So what could I make that would make me feel a little more summery? Barbecue food of course, and no-one takes it more seriously than our friends in the US. I decided to go with a US BBQ all star - ribs. Simple to get hold of I would have thought, but I thought wrong. I trawled round every butcher, every meat bearing market stall and every supermarket in Loughborough in my search for pork ribs, but to no avail. I found a solitary vacuumed package in a supermarket, but they weren't in a rack and looked pretty meatless.

And then once again, as happens quite often, mum came to the rescue. While complaining to her over the phone about my ribless search she had the bright idea of asking her butcher who definitely came through with the goods! She lives in Shepshed, a village on the outskirts of Loughborough. They have a wonderful butcher called G T Webster who provided me with some of the biggest racks of 'king ribs' that I had ever seen. Truly huge. I asked for two racks of 8 as I was expecting them to be no more than five inches tall. What I actually received were two racks of 6 that were more like two slabs of pork with a bit of bone in them! Wonderful!

I would definitely recommend this butcher, they are located in Shepshed Market Place (LE12 9RT). Whenever we go to my parents' for a barbecue they always have some lovely treats purchased from Webster's - sausages and pieces of chicken to grill along and sometimes some strips of belly pork. If you're in the area and are of meat eating tendencies do check them out!

In order to keep the meat as tender as possible you really need to cook it low and slow and covered over in foil so all the steam and flavour is sealed in. Some of the bones actually fell out of the ribs as I was cooking them, so you can see it is possible to get super tender meat using just your oven! The basting of the sauce onto the ribs at high heat is also very important, it caramelises with the pork fat and you get those delicious nearly black burnished parts that melt in your mouth.... Dreamy.

And to clarify, this potato salad recipe is not my own, it is from Roseanne Cash, Johnny Cash's daughter and musician in her own right. I think this has become my favourite cold potato dish now, I love love love anything will dill in it, and it's all the better as it slightly affiliated with Johnny Cash, the man in black whose music I love so dearly. I think it's only fitting that I put on the American Recordings while typing this out...

Oven Roasted Root Beer Barbecue Ribs with Roseanne Cash's Potato Salad
Serves 4 (with lots of potato salad!)

Root Beer Barbecue Ribs Ingredients
2 x 1kg racks of pork ribs

Dry Rub Ingredients
1 tbsp light muscovado sugar
1 tbsp smoked paprika
1 tbsp garlic granules
1 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground ginger

Root Beer Barbecue Sauce Ingredients
1 red onion, chopped into quarters
3 cloves of garlic, bruised with the back of your knife
1 x 330ml can root beer
2 tbsp cider vinegar
1 x 24g can tomato puree
1 tbsp maggi seasoning
1 tbsp worcester sauce
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp smoked paprika
1 tbsp light muscovado sugar
1 tsp garlic granules
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp white pepper

Root Beer Barbecue Ribs Method
Preheat the oven to 100 C / 225 F.

Mix together the spice rub ingredients and set to one side while you pat down your pork ribs with some kitchen roll to make sure they are nice and dry. Now take the spice rub and massage it into both sides of the racks making sure they are completely covered, even on the sides. Cover with cling film and put into the refrigerator for a few hours for the flavour to sink in - I left mine for about two hours, with the last half hour out of the fridge so it could come to room temperature before cooking.

Place the matured ribs onto a baking tray(s) and cover completely with foil, then cook in the preheated oven for four hours. While the meat is cooking make your barbecue sauce ready for basting after the four hours are up.

Root Beer Barbecue Sauce Method
Place the onion and garlic cloves into a non-stick saucepan and cook over medium heat until they slightly brown, then add the rest of the sauce ingredients starting with the liquids. Bring up to the boil, then lower the heat slightly and simmer with a lid on for about half an hour, stirring occasionally until you get a nice sauce consistency.

Remove from the heat and take out the onion and garlic cloves. There are not needed so just throw them away and leave the sauce to cool until the ribs are ready.

Root Beer Barbecue Ribs Method Continued
After the four hours are up, take the ribs out of the oven and remove the foil, then turn the oven heat up to 200 C / 400 F.

Next take some of the barbecue sauce and spread it evenly over the ribs, don't use it all as you want to do this basting method another two times. When both racks are nicely coated put them back into the hotter oven and cook for 10 minutes before removing and repeating the basting. Put back into the oven for another 10 minutes and then baste again, this time cooking for a further 15 minutes.

Take the racks out of the oven - they should be burnished but still a bit sticky. Let cool for a little while before cutting into individual ribs and serving (with lots of napkins).

Roseanne Cash's Potato Salad
(Slightly adapted from Smitten Kitchen)
Serves about 8 people, so you may want to halve the recipe

Potato Salad Ingredients
1 kg red skinned potatoes, cut into roughly 1.5 inch chunks
6 pickled cucumber sticks, roughly chopped
3 sticks of celery, chopped
1 small red onion, chopped small
4 eggs, hard boiled and roughly chopped
200g mayonnaise
1 tbsp dijon mustard
1.5 tbsp cider vinegar
2 tbsp dill, finely chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Potato Salad Method
Boil the potato in salted water until tender but not falling apart - about ten minutes - then drain and place in a large bowl. Allow to cool for ten minutes before adding all the other ingredients and mixing well but triyng not to break up the potatoes too much. .

Cover with cling film and leave to stand for an hour so the flavours can develop. Serve with the barbecue ribs and enjoy a taste of a gone too soon Summer!

Notes
I apologise that there is only one photo of the ribs and the potato salad, I appear to have chosen two recipes that are exceedingly difficult to photograph.

The potato salad recipe makes enough for at least 8 people whereas the ribs will serve 4, so you can either halve the recipe or refrigerate the leftovers to eat the next day like I did.

Full fat mayo tastes the best in the salad, but you can use light - the dill and mustard still give it lots of flavour. Please don't use extra light, that stuff tastes like jellied egg whites and has an awful texture.

Because I am slightly ridiculous, I didn't think the ribs and potato salad alone would be enough food so I also grilled us some lovely locally grown corn cobs on my George Foreman. I got them from Loughborough market and they were amazing but unnecessary!

Creamy Chicken and Fennel with Handmade Garlic Roasted Gnocchi

Fennel is a new obsession of mine, although to be honest I am yet to do anything more adventurous with it than roast it or use it in this very recipe. I love love love the fresh aniseedy taste, such an unusual flavour for a savoury dish but such a wonderful one that I have loved since first trying it back in February on Pete and I's first anniversary. It is that meal that this dish is loosely based around - a chicken breast stuffed with a mushroom duxelle and wrapped in parma ham, served with roasted sweet potatoes and a creamy white wine and fennel sauce.

We had gone to dinner at a Loughborough restaurant called Browns Lane which I have been going to under it's several different names for about the last ten years. It has always been amazing, and I suggest if you live in Charnwood you check it out one lunch or dinner time. I think it is very reasonably priced for the quality of food you are served and the decor is nice and simple, the eating area being on the first floor while there is a bar (that serves lovely cocktails) on the ground. I like it so much that as I have organised my work's Christmas party this year I have arranged for it to be there. This festive season will most definately be full of deliciousness!

Back to this recipe however, I am aware that quite a lot of people don't like fennel. If this is the case in your household then either replace it with just 50g of finely chopped celery or leave it out altogether. It will still taste heavenly. I'm pretty sure you'd have to try very hard to make garlic, cream and chicken taste bad. I'd like to think my recipes are more like blueprints for you to amend as you please - that's the real joy of cooking after all.

The little potatoey 'dumplings' are fab with this dish, soaking up the velvety sauce and acting like tiny little garlic breads! I know it seems like a lot of work to make the gnocchi them from scratch but it's not hard at all. Two ingredients! That's all! And a little kneading never hurt anyone, or gentle fork squashing! But I suppose if you really don't want to do it you could just use the store bought variety, just make your own next time OK?

Creamy Chicken and Fennel with Handmade Garlic Roasted Gnocchi
Serves 2 greedy, or 3 less greedy people as a main course

Garlic Roasted Gnocchi Ingredients
500g waxy potatoes, peeled and cut into roughly 2 inch chunks
200g good quality plain flour, preferably Italian 00
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp black pepper
2 fairly big cloves of garlic, crushed
2 tbsp olive oil

Creamy Chicken and Fennel Ingredients
1 tbsp olive oil
1 large red onion, sliced into short thin lengths
100g fennel, sliced into short thin lengths

10 fresh sage leaves
2 large chicken breasts, cut into fairly small chunks
3 tbsp white wine
1 chicken stock cube
70g chestnut mushrooms, cut into fairly small chunks
150ml double cream

Garlic Roasted Gnocchi Method
Preheat the oven to 200 C / 400 F.

Place the potatoes into a large pot of boiling water and cook until just tender - when you push a knife into one you want it to go in with very little give and for the potato to not fall apart - this took ten minutes for me. Remove from the heat and drain well, then either push through a potato ricer or mash until very very smooth - lumps will be very apparent in the gnocchi.

Leave them to cool for a few minutes and then add the flour, salt and pepper and mix together. When it is combined place it on to a floured surface and knead for a few minutes until it has come together well and has a more dough like consistency. Next divide the ball into four and roll each one into a long sausage shape that is about 2cm thick, before cutting into 2.5cm lengths and pressing a fork gently into each one to create four indents. Set these aside in a bowl while you bring a large pan of salty water to the boil.

Boil the gnocchi in batches being careful not to overcrowd the pan so they don't stick together. The gnocchi are cooked when they float to the surface of the water. Remove them from the pan and let dry out a little on some kitchen towel. When they have all been boiled and dried off place them in a deep sided baking tray and pour over the olive oil and crushed garlic, then mix gently so as not to break them up and put them in the oven to cook while you make the cremay chicken. They will take anywhere between 20-30 minutes depending on your oven heat - you want them golden and crispy, it helps to give them a stir every ten minutes or so.

Creamy Chicken and Fennel Method
Heat the olive oil in a large deep frying pan and then cook off the onion and fennel for a few minutes until they become slightly translucent, then add the sage leaves and cook for a further 3-4 minutes.

Next add the diced chicken and cook until it is coloured all over and no more raw pink meat is visible before adding the white wine and crumbling over the stock cube. Give everything a good stir and then add the chopped mushrooms. Let them soften for a minute or so before stirring them in and cooking for another 7 or 8 minutes until the chicken is cooked through - check by cutting a piece in half and making sure it is white all the way through. Now pour over the double cream and raise the heat slightly, cooking for another 5-10 minutes while stirring frequently so the sauce thickens a bit.

By now the gnocchi should be roasted so plate it up, then pour over the lovely creamy chicken concoction and enjoy!

Notes
I used red Rooster potatoes for this recipe as they are pretty waxy and have a lovely flavour. They're currently my favourite spud!

I think this recipe would also work really well with pork chunks instead of the chicken. Pork and sage is a great combination. Adding a little apple to the sauce would be lovely too I think.

Once again, I would not condone eating this regularly - so much starch and cream is really not good for you, but once in a while in moderation I'd say it's alright to treat yourself to something delicious and calorific! It's a very rich dish too, so I don't think I could eat it regularly if I tried!!!

Curried Potato and Onion Pasties

I always find Fathers Day a bit tricky. My dad is notoriously hard to buy for, but as he is a food lover like myself I did a little baking for him. He's from Birmingham, the curry capital of the UK, so I thought it only right to cook him up something lovely and aromatic and spicy, but it needed to be portable too.

Samosas were a little too obvious, and bhajis and pakoras tend to go a bit soggy after fried if you don't eat them straight away, so I decided to mess around with that most traditional of UK convenience foods - the pasty.

Of course the traditional pasty is made with minced meat, which I could easily have incorporated into these treats, but my dad and I both tend to enjoy vegetarian Indian dishes rather than those using meat - cauliflower curries, mutter paneer (peas and an Indian cheese in a mild aromatic sauce) and tarka dahl are some of our favourites along with Bombay aloo which is what the pasties are based on.

Believe me when I say that making your own curry powder blends is so so worth it. It really isn't a big hassle and you make up lots of different flavour combinations with just a few staple spices - cumin seeds, ground coriander, turmeric, ginger, garlic and cayenne pepper.

Bash together as many or as few as you wish in a pessel and mortar and add to curries with some stock and any meat or vegetable combinations you fancy to make a delicious quick meal.

I wrapped these beauties in greaseproof paper and tied them up with some nice ribbon to give as my Fathers Day gift and it seems that they went down a storm.

Curried Potato and Onion Pasties
Makes 8

Pastry Ingredients
500g plain flour
2 tsp ground turmeric
250g cold butter, cut into small cubes
150ml cold water

1 small egg, beaten, to glaze the pasties before cooking

Curried Potato and Onion Ingredients
900g white potatoes, peeled and cut into 1cm cubes
1 tbsp olive oil
250g white onions, roughly chopped
1 tbsp maldon salt
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp garlic granules or 1 large clove of garlic, minced
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
3 tbsp fresh coriander, finely chopped

Pastry Method
Place the cubed cold butter, flour and turmeric into a bowl and rub together with your finger tips. When well combined add in the cold water and mix quickly with a knife until it comes together. Give it a quick knead with your hands until thoroughly combined, then wrap in cling film and place in the fridge while you make the filling.

Filling Method
Place the cubed potatoes into a large pan of boiling water, bring back to the boil, then cover and boil for 4-5 minutes. Drain and set aside.

Put all the salt and spices into a pessel and mortar and grind them together until you get a nice smooth powder. Fry with the onions in the olive oil for 5 or so minutes until soft and fragrant.

Add the par-boiled potatoes and cook on medium for a further 10 minutes. Take off the heat and leave to cool completely.

Putting The Pasties Together
Preheat the oven to 200 C / 400 F.

Take the pastry out of the fridge and divide into 8 equal portions. Roll each one out until it about 5mm thick and cut into a roughly 6.5" circle, I used a small side bowl as a template.

Place about 2 tbsp of the cold potato and onion mixture into the centre of the pastry circle, then brush a little of the beaten egg around the edges. Fold the two sides together and squash the edges together with a fork leaving a pretty indent in the dough. Place on a baking sheet and brush all over with more of the egg mixture so they come out nice and shiny.

Cook for 20-25 minutes until golden brown and shiny, then remove from the oven and either eat straight away or leave them to cool before wrapping or eating cold.

Notes
These taste even better dipped into some cool minty raita you can find a recipe here or you can buy some good premade ones from the chilled section in most supermarkets.

You can eat the potato and onion filling on it's own or use it as a side dish - I really like it wrapped in lettuce leaves with some natural yoghurt.