Cavolo Nero with Red Capsicum, Olives and Smoked Cheese Polenta

From Wild Garlic, Gooseberries … and Me, Denis Cotter, Collins, 2010.

I am always concerned when cooking polenta that it should come out flavoursome and not like a tasteless porridge. This recipe gave an excellent polenta result.

In a saucepan I brought to the boil 500ml water with a stock cube and then whipped in 100g polenta slowly. This was stirred and stirred until it had thickened somewhat and begun to leave the edges of the saucepan. The heat was now turned down to low and the polenta continued to be cooked for another 20 minutes, stirring every so often.

Meanwhile I sliced cavolo nero leaves, discarding the hard stem. I cut a red capsicum into small pieces. I sliced three or four black olives. I chopped a garlic cube. I chopped a red chilli finely. The cavolo nero went into a frying pan with a little oil and was cooked for a few minutes. Then in went all of the other ingredients to cook for another few minutes. Now a little water was added to the pan and a lid placed on to let it simmer for about a quarter of an hour.

The polenta was now ready to about 20g butter was added with 30g grated smoked cheese and a tablespoon chopped sage. This was all stirred in. It did not seem to need any addition of salt but a few gratings of black pepper were added.

A helping of polenta was placed on a serving dish and the vegetables added alongside with the liquid. A little extra virgin olive oil was sprinkled on and it was ready to eat.

This was bursting with the flavour. The smoky polenta went wonderfully with the bitter greens and the sweet capsicum. The juices had flavoured up and went well with the polenta. 

Taste: ✔✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔

Potato, Garlic Chives, Feta and Pine Nut Tart

From Wild Garlic, Gooseberries . . . and Me, Denis Cotter, Collins, 2007.

This recipe calls for wild garlic rather than garlic chives. Cotter, in this book, tells about the wild foods he likes and discusses the problem of wild garlic in that there are many items throughout Europe, North America and Africa that are called wild garlic. He settles for a couple that he knows in Britain. I wondered about the wild garlic and considered that garlic chives here in Australia may perhaps be one of the wild garlics and so decided to try his recipe but using garlic chives.

Firstly I had to make the pastry for the tart case. This was a simple flour and butter mix with a touch of cold water. While it was serving its half hour in the refrigerator I got onto dealing with the vegetables.

I got out the mandolin and sliced 500g potatoes. They went into salted boiling water for about 3 minutes, then a cold bath to cool them. They were then dried.

The garlic chives (about 150g) went into salted boiling water for 30 seconds. They were then cold bathed and squeezed to rid them of any surplus water. The chives were chopped roughly. They were mixed with 200g crumbled feta and 2 tablespoons pine nuts that had been lightly roasted.

The pastry case was part cooked until it was lightly brown. A layer of the chives mix now went in and was covered by a layer of potatoes. This was repeated twice more. Four eggs were beaten with 150ml cream and carefully poured into the tart, letting it seep through the potatoes. It looked as though it would not all fit but adding it slowly and giving it time to disperse though the filling it all did go in.

It was baked in a 180ºC oven for half an hour.

The result was a reasonably tasty potato pie. The garlic chives did not seem to be noticeable more than possibly an added savouriness. The grassiness of the raw chives had dissipated in the cooking. I’m not sure that there was any real benefit from using the chives and if I make this again I would substitute another ingredient, possibly spinach or just cooked onions.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔