Savoy dell' Songavazzo

Hello! Guest blogger here in the secret kitchen, on Sandra's invite, adding a meal I cooked for us a couple of days ago. I have named the dish after a small village in northern Italy that I have never visited. Basically, it's cabbage, sausage and mushrooms in a creamy sauce.

Ingredients:

Savoy cabbage (quite a lot of it - I used practically an entire small-ish cabbage)
Mushrooms
Carrots
Sausages (not strong-tasting ones if you want Sandra to enjoy it)
Pasta (I used fettucelle, and I recommend this - or other long, narrow pasta-types)

For the sauce:

Shallots
White wine
Creme fraiche
Parsley
Chicken stock
Curry powder
Salt and pepper (of course!)


How to make the sauce:

It's easy. Slice the shallots finely and fry them in butter. Then add two (or possibly three) glugs of wine, as well as some stock (chicken is specified above, but it could just as easily be another type of stock) and curry powder. Allow this to reduce until it is really quite reduced indeed and then sling in some creme fraiche. On reflection, creme fraiche made the sauce quite thick. I think I did also use some cream - and maybe cream would be better all round. Who knows? NOTE TO SELF: investigate this next time you make the meal.

How to make the other stuff:

Let's face it: if you are reading this blog, you are quite clearly either Sandra or myself, or some interloper who is a very sophisticated chef, probably with your own restaurant. As such, I propose not to waste any time describing the method for preparing pasta. The rest of the stuff is actually almost as easy - slice the cabbage into strips, cut the carrots into those little carroty sticks, slice the mushrooms and cut the sausage/s into chunks. None of this stuff takes all that long, so you can probably begin frying after you've started off the sauce. Put the mushrooms and carrots in first, adding the saussies shortly after so that they have plenty of time to get brown and crispy on the outside. The cabbage goes last because it ought to have a little bit of crunch left when it gets to the plate.

After making the meal, I wondered whether it would work well with bacon instead of sausage, or with leek / peas in addition to the cabbage - or, radically, even INSTEAD of the cabbage (remembering to change the name of the dish if you do choose this latter option).

If you're ANY good at cooking, the sauce, the fried stuff and the pasta will all be ready at exactly the same time. So pour the sauce over the fried stuff and serve it on top of the pasta and you are good to go. Mmmm-mm!

Indian-style roast salmon with fried potatoes and cucumber & coriander raita

Ingredients (for 2 people)

For the salmon
2 salmon fillets, skin on and scored
A dash of teriyaki sauce
A dash of soy sauce
A few different curry blends, or some ground cumin, ground coriander, garam masala
Few drops of sesame oil
Some fish sauce
Some tabasco sauce
Salt
Pepper
2 tsp honey

For the curry paste
Olive oil
1-2 chillies, finely sliced
3 cm of fresh ginger, grated
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 tbs of curry leaves
1 tsp of curry powder
Some salt, pepper, sugar
1 tbs of mustard seeds
1 tbs of sesame seeds
1 tin of creamed coconut milk

For the vegetable base
All different kinds of finely sliced vegetables, enough to fill the bottom of an oven dish, e.g.:
2 carrots
2 celery sticks
A quarter red cabbage/savoy cabbage
A handful of mangetout
2 leeks
1 unwaxed lemon or lime
Some salt and pepper

For the raita:
500 ml plain yoghurt
1 bunch of coriander, chopped with stalks and all
1 cucumber, grated
Some mint leaves, finely chopped
1 tsp of salt
1 tsp of pepper
1/2 tsp of icing sugar
Some raita seasoning (mustard seeds, dried herbs)

For the potatoes:
6-8 waxy potatoes
1 tbs of turmeric
Salt, pepper

How to marinate the salmon:
Marinate the salmon a few hours before cooking. Score the skin a couple of times, put the fillets into a sealable bag, add all the marinating sauces and spices except for the honey (be quite generous) and put the bag in the fridge.

How to make the raita:
Mix all the ingredients together. You can do this a few hours before dinner, so everything blends. Take out of the fridge half an hour before serving and adjust the seasoning.

How to make the curry paste:
Add olive oil to a frying pan. Add all the ingredients except the coconut milk and fry lightly for 3-4 minutes. Add the coconut milk and reduce by about half, stiring occasionally.

How to make the potatoes:
Peel the potatoes, half them lengthways and boil for 10-15 mins until almost cooked, drain and cut them into chunks. Heat up some oil in a frying pan and add the potatoes. Leave them for a few minutes to catch, add the spices, then fry until brown and crispy. They will turn a nice yellow from the turmeric.

How to roast the vegetables and salmon:
Heat up the fan oven to 180 degrees.

Place the vegetables in the oven dish. It's important to slice them as thinly as possible to allow them to cook as there is only a little amount of liquid in the dish. Season with salt and pepper. Sit the salmon fillets on top, skin side up. Drizzle the honey over the salmon and vegetables. Cut the lemon/lime into 6 chunks, squeeze the juice over everything and distribute the chunks over the vegetables. Drizzle the curry paste over the vegetables, it's ok if some ends up on the salmon. If the paste seems quite dry, add some extra white wine, or sake, to the pan. Now cover the dish with foil and put in the oven for 15 minutes. Remove the foil, check that there is some liquid with the vegetables (add some more if necessary), add some salt to the salmon skins and put back in the oven for another 15 mins until the salmon is cooked to your liking.

To serve:
Lift out the salmon with some of the vegetables and put on a plate. Add some of the potatoes and raita. Voila!