2-May-20: Starting to get itchy feet but clearly not able to go out yet 😕 So with lots of time on our hands, the weather still quite nice, it inspired me to just grab hold of the joy of cooking and presenting an “in house” experience to lift our spirits. So here’s my Saturday “fancy” for a bit of Happy Soul Food during lockdown…
All the quantities here are for approximately 2 people, with left overs for some of the dishes. I’ve broken this post in two two parts as quite substantial. This first part gives you the introduction and first two courses…
Part of going “fancy” is the fun of doing up the table and having it set just “so” to kick dinner off… and we started the evening with a magnificent King Valley Dal Zotto L’Immigrant Prosecco 😋
First entree… Chargrilled Zucchini
- Slice a small zucchini with a mandolin or similar and spray lightly with olive oil spray
- Grill on a griddle pan until just cooked (it cooks very quickly, so keep an eye on it).
- Place in a sealable container, splash some lemon infused olive oil over it and seal with the lid – allows the heat from the just cooked zucchini and oil to transfuse the flavour. If you don’t have lemon olive oil, just use EVOO, lemon rind and some lemon juice. Leave for at least an hr but can be kept for a couple of days like this.
- Char grill your slices of sour dough
- To put the dish together, place sour dough on plate, top with slices of marinated zucchini, sprinkle with goats cheeses (I used my favourite – Meredith Marinated Fetta), some sliced cherry tomato’s and finish with some fresh basil leaves, sprinkle of sea salt, black pepper and a drizzle of your best EVOO and serve !
I served this with an aged Rothbury Estate Hunter Valley Verdelho from our cellar – 2012. It was absolutely magnificent – not too strong for an aged white and so well balanced – it had cellared very well and complimented the lemony nature of the dish.
Onto second entrée… Smoked Trout Rostis
- For the sour mustard cream, mix together about 4-5 Tbs of light sour cream (Every little bit helps), 1 Tbs of French Dijon mustard, pinch of salt, about 1 Tbs lemon juice – then adjust to your own taste – this is another “make by feel” sauce…
- For the smoked trout – I used a small whole trout. You can often get them at the supermarket. Alternatively, you could use 2 half fillets already skinned and boned.
- If using a whole trout, chop off the head, then the skin should come off easily. Carefully pull out the back bone and attached rib bones – if you don’t get them all, pull out as many as you can and then flake the meat and put to one side
- Peel and slice an avo, ready to go…
- For the rostis, I used 2 med-large potatoes, peeled and cut into fine “straws”, again using a mandolin – you could also use a grater
- Rinse the spuds well and then dry them off with paper towel so as dry as possible. If you are not ready to cook the rostis, don’t do this step until you are – leave them in water
- Have the garnishes ready to go – some mignonette or “little Gem” lettuce leaves, 2-3 cherry tomatoes sliced and sliced green shallots
- To cook the rostis, I shallow fried:
- Have about .5cm of vegetable oil HOT in a fry pan but then reduce the flame to medium.
- My fry pan only had room for 2 at a time – I used 4 for the recipe here (2 each serve)
- Put a decent handful or Tbs sized chunk of grated potato int othe fry pan and FLATTEN with an egg flip
- Cook on both sides until golden and then drain on absorbent paper
- Once the 4 are done, sprinkle with a little sea salt and get ready to serve 😉
- To assemble:
- Place a lettuce leaf on one side of you plate, place some cream into it, top with the sliced cherry tomatoes
- Place a rosti on each plate, and top with trout, using most except a little bit to add to the garnish
- Place slices of avo on the plate as you like…
- Place another rosti on top, a big dollop of cream and garnish with the remaining trout
- Sprinkle the shallots over the plate and some cracked black pepper – whoila !
We finished off the Verdelho with this dish. Also, as a side note, don’t be afraid to paly around with it. If you want, you could serve it with more rosti and do 3 layers and so on… The crunchy, slightly saltiness of the rostis, go really well with the smoked trout and are complimented by the creamy avo and cream sauce. The little salad brings some light relief…. Happy Soul Food moment indeed…
Stay tuned for Part II…