Smoky Cauliflower Potato Leek Tahini Casserole

Smoky Cauliflower Potato Leek Tahini Casserole

One smoky (smoked hack) or other hot smoked fish, even bacalao
One cauliflower
One kilo potatoes or more
One leek
One medium celeriac

Black pepper
Nutmeg (optional)
Shot medium sherry
1 ½ teaspoons salt
Few rosemary leaves
Three bay leaves
Six hazelnuts of butter (50g)
Four tablespoons olive oil


3 ½ tablespoons tahini
2 tablespoons joghurt
4 tablespoons water
Squeeze of lemon
8 tablespoons bio milk
Six garlic cloves

Peel and wash spuds, quarter
Peel and wash celeriac, julienne finger size
Separate cauliflower in florets and wash
Wash leek and dice loosely


One large pot boiling water, tablespoon salt.

Blanche or parboil the cauliflower first (4 min), then the leek (2 min), then the celeriac, adding the potato a few minutes later, boiling them to be just a little underdone.

In one large oven tray, add the cauliflower, leek, celeriac, potato as they come out of the water. In the meantime, you have poured some boiling water over your smoky (mine was frozen, smuggled in from England, and I use the shimofuri technique to freshen it up) and filleted and peeled it, adding to the vegetable mixture.

Drain the last of your veg, keeping the water for stock later.

Add your nuggets of butter, a very liberal grind of black pepper, olive oil, teaspoon of salt to the veg mix,  stir liberally, pop in the oven for five minutes.

Meanwhile beat together tahini, salt, cold water, then yogurt, then milk, dash of lemon juice, diced garlic to make a batter-like paste.

Stir again the veg mix, add your tahini.

Bake five-15 minutes, depending on how wet or crispy you desire.

Served with Arany Aszok Half Brown.

 

Relaxed Guinea Fowl

Relaxed Guinea Fowl

(Because all the guests have left, the pressure is off, and you just make it to the market after a blow out on Friday night.)

One Guinea Fowl approximately two kilos

One quince
One each small white, yellow and red onion
Outer leaves of fennel

Pickle juice
Sherry
Wine
Ham fat

Tablespoon Salt
Bay leave crushed
Smoked sweet Spanish paprika
Juniper berry
Currants/grapes from Selcuk
Four allspices
Two cloves
Eight black peppercorns
Six thin strips preserved lemon skin (in salt)
Teaspoon of salted tarragon

Clean guinea fowl--remove giblets, feet, head, neck, forewings
Cut guinea fowl in half lengthwise with v. sharp knife

Finely dice quince, onions and fennel and two tablespoons ham fat (leftover from the New Year ham). Sautee together for ten minutes, add water to keep from scorching, then reduce, put aside, make hole in the middle, add a tablespoon olive oil and add the spices that have been crushed finely in a mortar. Fry spices, then mix in and fry all together for another five minutes, plus the currants (a handful)

Preheat oven.

Rub pan with more ham fat. Place bird skin side down. Salt lightly. Then add the warm veggie quince on top, in the cavity.

Add water, splash of sherry, liberal splash of juice from homemade pickled peppers, two demitasse fragrant wine like Zinfendel (we used “village”’ wine), at least halfway covering birds.

Cover with foil and bake medium heat for 40 minutes, turn down and bake another hour and a half on low, checking occasionally to baste and top up liquid. Last half hour turn over birds (doesn’t matter if veggie spills out into liquid) so skin browns and crisps but don’t dry them out.

Served with ewe curd polenta/puliska (very nice with au jus on top) and carrot and endive salad (with lime, salt and Xerex vinegar).

Result: one v. juicy bird. Very light meal. Enough for four portions.

Lamb Meatball Sage Herb Noodles

Lamb Meatball Sage Herb Noodles

40 decagrams twice-ground lamb
2 shallots, diced fine
dash of salt
grind of nutmeg
grind of black pepper
pinch of fresh sage, cut fine
five saffron strands (fake, judging by the taste)
pine nuts (optional)

six small fresh parsley roots
bunch French parsley leaf (or maybe fenugreek leaf)
bunch of green spring onions
large twig of fresh sage
teaspoon salt
20 black pepper corns
two sticks dry rosemary
two bay leaves
knob of butter
three tablespoons olive oil
four cloves garlic
cup white wine
handful of spinach and sorrel
quality wide durum noodles--plain and spinach


In a mixing bowl: minced lamb; shallots, salt, nutmeg, dashes of black pepper, sage and saffron, pine nuts. Mix very lightly, form very lightly. Makes about 25 small meatballs (coin size).

In a large skillet, warm butter, add parsley roots, splash in white wine (Tuzko Traminer 2009) when necessary, add bay leaves, mortared pepper, rosemary, sage, salt, some of the olive oil, more wine, add more oil liberally, add meatballs careful that they don’t stick, add more wine to stop it, add garlic, chopped green onions, adjust flavor and simmer, adding sorrel and spinach at last minute before the pasta goes in.

In medium pot, salt water and bring to boil. Cook pasta al dente, and add to the meatball sauce. Simmer two minutes. Check lubrication, saltiness, etc.

Serve hot, with aforementioned Traminer, a sprinkle of Gran Padano, a grind out of the pepper grinder, and a salad of green onion tops, spinach and sorrel with pomegranate molasses and lemon olive oil dressing.

This was made for a quick early Tuesday night meal after a mission to Buda to buy a chair after 20 years of uncomfortable sitting.

Wild Plum, Dogberry, Visne Guinea Fowl

Wild Plum, Dogberry, Visne Guinea Fowl


1 guinea fowl, in this case a large one, over 2 kilos.
Clean up and cut the guinea fowl in half, placing in a large roasting pan, side down, with the giblets.
Two bunches sweet spring onion
Several sprigs tarragon
Several leaves lovage
1 tablespoon Ricard
2 glasses white wine
4 glasses water
1 cup of visne (cherry), destoned
2 cups of wild yellow-red plums, depitted
1 cup dried dogberry (zeresk)
1 cup leftover lamb gulyas broth or any broth if you have
2 teaspoons apple vinegar

Spice mix
3 juniper berries
2 piripiri
4 cloves
teaspoon kumasi cubab pepper
2 teaspoons black pepper
4 teaspoons coriander seed
4-5 teaspoon salt

Bake this mixture of spice, fruit and bird for at least three hours on medium high heat, covered with foil, turn and baste the bird occasionally, and top up with a bit of wine or water or both every half hour or so.

Served with yellow squash and new white potatoes panfried with cumin seed and fine chopped herbs (opal basil, green basil, tarragon, dill, parsley (mint and coriander would also be a nice addition, but none in market this day)).

Alternately, you can dry fry the yellow squash (no oil in Teflon till the end) add some croutons of dried bread and olive oil and rosemary and salt and garlic at the end. Very wicked.

The bird will be very astringent and tart but the juice will have penetrated the bird and made it so succulent!

Served with Maurus Tramini. Plate of Croatian cheese followed. Then out the door for Dunapark icecream.

Meal for six, with this large bird.