Potato Salad with a lot of Difference...and chicken.

SERVES:4-5                           PREP TIME: 40-50 mins

Summer is well and truly upon us in the Southern Hemisphere and I find myself looking for further variations and inspiration for salads and cold meals. The idea for this came when I was at a friend's house and she was busily making a potato salad for Christmas with...ROAST POTATOES!

I have long struggled with the traditional boiled potato salad, which although my family loves it, the all too likely tendency for mine to go mushy really has put me off. Sometimes it would end up almost like cold mash with mayonnaise and a few other bits added in.

So the idea of roasting the potatoes struck me as a great way of keeping their structure intact as well as it being far less likely they would be overcooked.

I have played around with a number of variations of this recipe - in fact, it is probably nearly always different, although with some basic similarities. Last night's dinner was probably about the best I remember making this, so I thought I'd put it in writing.

By the way, this salad is best served fresh and still a little warm. It is ok the next day, but when it first made, has all the crunch of different ingredients and they haven't melded to the point they are starting to become indistinguishable.

There are three main parts: the roast veges & chicken, the dressing and the crunchy bits...and a few other uncooked bits... So maybe four parts! The great thing is that it is very easy to vary, depending on what you do or don't have. You can leave out the avocado, maybe add in some Kalamata olives, have the onion raw, replace the sweet potato with normal potato and so on. Sometimes I add a couple of cold hard boiled eggs chopped up as well. You can change the chicken for smoked salmon, too. And if you don't like walnuts, leave them out or replace them!

This is to serve 4, or maybe 5. I work it out on using about as much potato and sweet potato per person as you would eat normally....

ROAST VEGES:
2 large potatoes (I like Desiree or similar) cut into ~2cm squares (don't need to peel)
An equal amount of sweet potato cut into ~2cm squares (I do peel this)
1/2 red capsicum cut into 2cm squares
1 red onion sliced vertically
~1tbs olive oil
Salt

Heat oven to 200 deg C. Prepare veges and place on an oven tray (covered in baking paper if you desire). Drizzle and toss with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt as required.

CHICKEN:
Chicken breasts to around 400g weight
~10+ Thyme sprigs
~2-3 tsp lime or lemon juice
Cracked pepper

Place chicken on enough foil to wrap it in. Place thyme leaves around, drizzle with juice and a few grinds of pepper. Wrap it and put it on the tray with the veges, or separately if required. Put them all in the oven for around 30 mins, until the veges are crispy and the chicken is cooked. After they are cooked, stand to cool to room temperature or a bit warmer.

While they are cooking, prepare the rest.

DRESSING:
~1 1/2 tbs mayonnaise
~2-3 large tsp sour cream
1-2 tsp sweet chilli sauce (I use Fountains...sometimes I also use Nandos Peri Peri, medium, but probably need quite a bit less of this, unless you like it really spicy!)
1-2 tsp lime juice

Put this all in a small bowl and mix until well blended.

CRUNCHY STUFF:
1 Chorizo sausage cut in half and sliced thinly
2-3 tbs pepitos
1-2 tbs walnuts
2-3tsp olive oil

Using a small frypan or skillet on a med-med high temperature (about 7 or 8), put the oil and chorizo in (when frypan is heated). As soon as the chorizo is starting to brown, turn down to 4 or 5 and add the pepitos and nuts. Keep them moving and as soon as they are all starting to brown, remove them from the heat. If they are a bit oily, pop them out onto some paper towel on a plate to cool and drain. (Be careful they don't burn if you leave them in the frypan).

OTHER STUFF:
1 Avocado diced
1-2 Tomatoes diced (or 1/2 to 1 punnet mini tomatoes)
1 stick of celery
~70 g Feta cubed
Salad greens, lettuce or baby spinach leaves to serve
Parsley, Mint, or Coriander chopped finely (I used parsley and mint last night...my coriander has been a little strong lately) - about 1-2 tbs all up

When all the cooked ingredients are cool enough, dice the chicken as well and put all the ingredients (except the greens) in a large bowl. Mix well, then add the dressing and mix again (be careful not to destroy you avocado at this point!).

Serve in individual bowls on a layer of salad greens/lettuce/spinach and a glass or two of your favourite cider, outside...because food always tastes better outside.

 Enjoy!!

Not another foodie blog number 1 - Roasted Sweet Potato Soup with the lot

My adventures in food preparation began when I was quite young. The first baking I remember doing was as a Brownie Guide, to get my cooking badge. I think it was hedgehog. I remember having to bash a plastic bag of biscuits with a rolling pin to make the crumbs – this was before the days of food processors.

As I continued this journey into my teens I think I nearly drove my mother mad with my need for constant reassurance that ‘this’ was close enough to half a cup or ‘that’ was a dessert spoon full. It took me a long time to relax with my cooking and realise that there is often a little lee-way with those measurements.

Back in the seventies, though, the average family wasn’t that daring with food. Most new recipes in our household came out of the CWA (Country Women’s Association) cookbook or from friends. For my family, a real shift came when my older brother did ‘Home Economics’ at high school - must have been a progressive school, as this was generally ‘girls only’ territory. He came home with a recipe for Spaghetti Bolognese. It was such a change from the bland stews, watery curries, lamb chops and roasts that were our standard fare. Not to mention that it was from another culture! (Moving out of home it was actually my signature dish - the only thing I really cooked - for some time, but that is another story.)

Fast forward a few decades. More recently, I have realised that I can actually trust my own instinct in cooking. While I might use another recipe as a basis, I find that often I can’t find one that uses exactly what I would like and so I have been experimenting more. This blog, therefore, is not just to share my creations, but also to record them so that I can remember what the heck I did next time I want to make that recipe!

Down here in the southern hemisphere, we have quite abruptly (or so it seems) entered into soup season - otherwise known as Winter! As it gets colder, I suddenly find myself desiring warming comfort food. What is better than soup to satisfy this craving?

I decided to make some soup a few days back for my husband - he had just arrived back from Indonesia (at some 30°C) to home, which was sitting at about 8 degrees. However, I really wasn't in the mood for my stock standard soups, so went on the hunt for something different. I had a couple of sweet potatoes, and the idea of sweet potato soup was quite appealing, so I started my search. Although a couple of recipes sounded ok and had a few nice ingredients, they all sounded a little bland given the sweetness of the sweet potato. (One recipe actually roasted the potato in maple syrup!)

Anyway, failing to find a recipe that combined all that I wanted, I decided to put them together and make my own. And even my daughter loved it, so I thought it must be ok! (Although she did ask, a little sarcastically, I may say, whether it was dinner or dessert - it was that sweet. However, she finished it up likety split, so can't have been too bad.)

So here it is (makes about 4 serves as a meal, unless you have someone like my hubby who will eat as many serves as you allow him!):

ROASTED SWEET POTATO SOUP WITH THE LOT

Ingredients:

2 medium size sweet potatoes

1 large carrot

1 clove garlic

1 onion

1 large red chilli

olive oil/cold pressed coconut oil

1-2 teaspoons of turmeric powder

chicken/vege stock powder

1 cup of coconut milk

coriander leaves

2-4 (shortcut) rashers bacon (depending how much you want!)

Greek yoghurt

How to:

Peel and cut up the sweet potatoes and carrot into chunks (the smaller they are, the quicker they'll cook - probably about 5cm chunks). Toss them and the peeled garlic in a little olive oil and place on a baking tray (I use baking paper to save on scrubbing!) in the oven at about 200° C for about 20-30 mins. They should be just starting to caramelise, but not burn and be nice and soft.

While they are cooking, chop up the onion and chilli and cook in a heavy based saucepan (at least 2-3 litres) with about 1 tablespoon of oil (I used coconut here) over medium heat until the onion is clear and just starting to caramelise. (They only need rough chopping as it will all be processed later)

When the veges are roasted, add the turmeric (I used about 1 1/2 teaspoons) to the onions and lightly fry until fragrant. (I usually turn the heat down with spices to make sure they don’t burn.) Then add the roast veges and toss through. Don't let it catch at this point - you don't want to destroy the turmeric flavour.

Add to this mix about 3 cups of hot water (depending how thick you like your soup - you can always add more later) and 1 cup of coconut milk. I use the Ayam brand coconut milk powder (1 sachet), in which case you may need more water. Add in 1-2 teaspoons of stock powder as well (I use the Massel powder, which is quite concentrated). Bring it all up to the boil, and when you are sure the veges are cooked through (which is probably quite quickly), take it off the heat and blend thoroughly with a stick blender (or can use a food processor, but I guess you would need to cool it a bit before putting it in).

Reassess the consistency - here you can either add a little more water (and stock if you want), or boil it down if it is a bit runny. From experience, it is always better to add less water to start and add more if you need it.

Meantime, chop the bacon into smallish pieces and brown until crispy in a small frying pan. Roughly chop a handful of coriander leaves for garnish.

Serve soup in deep bowls with a sprinkling of coriander leaves, bacon pieces, a dollop or two of Greek yogurt (or sour cream) and some nice crusty bread.

Enjoy!

NOTE FOR THE UNWARY: Use turmeric powder with care - it stains anything and everything yellow. The advice I got when looking up how to get turmeric out of clothes was to use scissors!! 

If you would like to something completely different, why not head over to my other blog at www.ruthembery.com/blog?