Easy to make, yet very tasty combination of flavours:
Brussel's chicory with chèvre, in cranberry sauce.
It's a recipe I created when I was still a vegetarian, and I still eat it regularily, because it's darn tasty.
It does not use any herbs or spices, except for some salt, and those spices used in the ready-made cranberry compote).
Yet it has a *very* rich flavour. The ingredient`s flavours all enhance / complement each other.
Here's how to make it. You can do it within an hour, once you get the hang of it.
Ingredients (per person):
300g potatoes
200g chèvre
500g Brussel's chicory
half a (250cl) pot of cranberry compote
1 egg
some flour
some breadcrumbs
some oil
some (baking) butter
some salt
1) Prepare the chèvre (Fench goat's cheese. You can either take the young fresh chèvre blanc, or the somewhat older and goatier variant. I personally prefer the young variant for this recipe. If they don't have chèvre in the USA, I think you can get close to it with Kunik cheese, although that's part cow, and not the real goaty experience. I suppose in the UK chévre should be commonly available in the supermarket, like here in Holland. If not, try Pantysgawn, your local goat cheese).
Make slices of about 5 cm thick of the goat's cheese. Bread them (that's the right verb, I hope) as follows: Set up 3 soup plates, one with whipped up egg, one with flour and one with breadcrumbs. Cover the cheese in egg, then in flour, again in egg, and lastly in breadcrumbs. make sure it's covered well, because it needs to be fried, and you don't want the cheese to start leaking through and burn.
The actual frying of the cheese takes only about 15 minutes, but you needed to do this first, because the breadcrumbed cheese needs to be put in the fridge (freezer is faster) for a while. 15 minutes in the freezer should do. Or an hour in the fridge.
2) Now that you cheese is chilling in the freeze, it's time to peel and cut the potatoes. Don't put them on the stove yet.
3) Prepare the Brussel's chicory by peeling off the outer leaves, until it looks fresh. If you got really fresh chicory that might not be nescessary. In any case, you don't want any brownish coloring in the tip of the leaves. Cut of a small slice of the stalk as well, to make it's ending fresh.
4) Put the potato parts on the stove, in a large frying pan, and start slowly stewing them in some oil, with a lid on the (big) frying pan. Do not forget to add some salt.
5) Steaming chicory takes only slightly shorter than boiling potatoes, so as soon as your potatoes are on the stove, you can put the chicory on the stove as well, and start steaming it. I prefer steaming over boiling, for chicory. If you have no steam basket add-on for your cooking pans, get one for 2 euros at your local store. If you insist, you can boil the chicory instead.
6) while the potatoes and chicory are cooking, you can prepare something to heat the cranberry compote either on the stove or in a microwave. I tend to buy ready made cranberry compote.
7) Once your chicory has been steaming for 15 minutes, put another frying pan on the stove with some oil and some butter, and heat that. Once it's really hot, put the breaded cheese in the pan, and burn it for a minute on both sides. Now turn down the stove to it's lowest, and put a lid on the pan. Turn the cheese about once every 2 minutes, gently. Be careful, don't break it's skin when turning it.
8] Once the lid is on youre cheese frying pan, take the lid off your potatoes, check with a fork, to see if they're close to overly cooked, and if so, turn up the stove below those to the max.
Turn them into nicely golden brown baked potatoes by regularily stirring (or throwing) them about.
9) Once the potatoes are done, your chicory should be good too, as well as the cheese. Heat the cranberry compote at the last moment, and serve dinner. The cranberry compote should be served on top of the chicory.
Bon Apetit
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Topic: Food Thread: Kitchen Chemistry (Read 577164 times)