Category: Blue Cheese

Frankfurter Roka

Hello friends, I’m shaking things up today with a vintage recipe from Good Housekeeping’s Cooking for Today. Firstly, this is just the tip of the iceberg. This was a 13-part weekly magazine.  The recipe for Frankfurter Roka comes from issue #2. I have a few of these, which I intend to cook from this year, so we will definitely be hearing more from this mag in the coming months!  

Moving on, I’m channelling my inner Beatles and “Hey Jude”-ing a vintage recipe for Frankfurter Roka. Meaning, my aim is to “Take a sad song and make it better.” Just substitute “song” for “salad” and we’re there!

The Original Recipe for Frankfurter Roka

Here is a picture of the old and the new!

Frankfurter Roka collage (1)

My Changes To The Original and Why

The original recipe promised a vibrant salad brimming with flavours I adore: tangy blue cheese, briny olives, and earthy potatoes. However, there were two ingredient that simply had to go.  First up was the frankfurters. The mere thought of them makes me gag.   Consequently, I had a delicious replacement in mind: finely sliced, pan-fried chorizo, adding a delightful smoky depth to the dish. 

Whilst canned potatoes don’t give me the same visceral reaction, I would never willingly eat them!  So, out with the convenience, in with the fresh! I opted to boil some lovely new potatoes and then pan-fry them in the aromatic oil left behind from the chorizo.

Now, the dressing presented its own challenge. The original recipe called for Kraft Roka Blue Cheese Dressing, a product sadly unavailable in Australia. No worries! I decided to channel my inner Nigella Lawson and whip up her “Universally Useful Blue Cheese Dressing.” While I skipped the HP sauce (personal preference!), I added a touch more Worcestershire sauce for an extra kick.

Finally, I decided to serve the Frankfurter Roka in large lettuce leaves. Consequently, everyone can choose their favourite bits and the amount of dressing they prefer. Furthermore, these could then be wrapped up and eaten using your hands, similarly to how you would in a Vietnamese restaurant when you get to wrap your spring rolls in lettuce and herbs.  This makes for a fun shared plate to eat with family or friends!   Here’s my updated recipe!

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Frankfurter Roka, Updated

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My take on a vintage salad.  These amounts will serve 2 people as a light meal.  

Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 chorizo sausage
  • 46 new potatoes, peeled and cut into a 1cm dice
  • 1 Serve of Nigella Lawson’s Universally Useful Blue Cheese Dressing, or if it is available in your country, some Kraft Roka Blue Cheese Dressing
  • 12 stuffed olives
  •  A pile of large lettuce leaves to serve – Cos / Romaine or Iceberg are ideal

Instructions

  • Boil the potatoes in salted water until they are just tender (about 10 minutes)  Drain.
  • Slice the chorizo and place in a frying pan.  You do not need to heat the pan or add any oil.  Cook the chorizo over medium heat until they are nicely browned.  
  • Remove the chorizo slices from the pan.  Add the potatoes.  Fry the potatoes in the oil left by the chorizo until they are golden and crisp.
  • Place your lettuce leaves on a serving platter. 
  • Mix the chorizo, potatoes and olives, sprinkle with the parsley. 
  • Serve the blue cheese dressing on the side.

To eat, load your lettuce leaves with the chorizo and potato mix.  Pour as much or as little of the blue cheese dressing as you desire over the top.

Enjoy! 

 

I loved my updated version of Frankfurter Roka!  I hope that you will also think that I’ve taken a sad salad and made it better…better…better…

Have a great week!

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Spice It Up – August 2004

Hello friends! Welcome to Twenty Years Ago Today! For a spicy twist this month, I turned to the August 2004 issue of Delicious magazine for recipe ideas.  While the month wasn’t perfect, one dish stood out as a clear highlight and is easily one of my top ten of the year.  But, before we get there, let’s take a little look at what was making the charts pop culture-wise back in August 2004!

Apple and Blackberry pie (1)

 

Pop Culture – August 2004

So, for the first week of August 2004 and, also for the first time in what seems like eleventy billion years, The Da Vinci Code was NOT  the number one selling book.  That honour went to R for Ricochet by Sue Grafton.  Now, I have never read any of this series.  Is anyone out there a fan?  I love a good mystery / thriller.  Please let me know if you think this series might be good for me!  However, before we get too excited about the demise of The Da Vinci Code, it went back to number one for the rest of August. 

Collateral was the best-selling film of August 2004 but Garden State, which was a film we covered in my film club was #10.  Leave, (Get Out) by JoJo was the number 1 song.  I do not remember this song or the singer at all!!!  Does anyone? 

In the absence of any memory of JoJo, let’s pop the soundtrack for Garden State onto Spotify and get cooking!

 

The Spice It Up Menu – August 2004

Menu August 2004

Gado Gado

Spices used – garlic, ginger etc in the Satay sauce, chilli

I adore Gado Gado. It’s the perfect balance of health and indulgence, combining the virtue of steamed vegetables with the decadence of a spicy satay sauce. Unfortunately, despite searching through multiple supermarkets, I couldn’t find the tofu puffs I typically include. To compensate for the protein, I added some eggs.  I ate this as a main dish so wanted to make it a substantial meal.  

I also took some liberties with the vegetables, using ingredients I preferred or had readily available instead of strictly adhering to the recipe.”

Gado Gado

Gado-Gado Recipe

 

AA August - Easy Gado Gado (1)

 

Lamb Chops with Bay, Paprika and Chickpeas

Spice used: Paprika

The Jamie Oliver recipe was…alright. While it wasn’t a favorite, it was certainly edible. I’m not likely to make it again, but it was passable.

The biggest issue was the excessive amount of chili. As someone who enjoys spicy food, that’s a rare complaint for me. The chili completely overwhelmed the other flavors.

Another minor annoyance was the recipe’s use of the term “chops” while actually calling for “cutlets.” For those unfamiliar with lamb, cutlets are significantly more expensive than traditional chops. I used loin chops for my version because I had some in my freezer.

Lamb Chops with Bay, Paprika and Chickpeas

Lamb Chops with Bay, Paprika and Chickpeas Recipe

August  2004- Lamb Chops

Apple and Blackberry Pie

Spices used: Cinnamon and Cloves

This. Was .Divine.

Unfortunately, my photos were not.  Please don’t judge this on the photo or my really bad lattice work because the pie really truly was AMAZING!!!!  This is a top ten dish if ever there was one! There is a version with Rhubarb mentioned which I will also be trying ASAP!

Apple and Blackberry pie 3

Apple and Blackberry Pie 2

 

Apple and Blackberry Pie Recipe

AA August - Apple and Blackberry Pie2 (2)

Cinnamon Tea and Recipe

Spice Used:  Cinnamon

Delicious Magazine also contained a recipe for Cinnamon Tea.  I only ever really drink herbal tea, so this was not for me.  Howeever, as the name suggests, it does contain a spice so if you are a tea drinker and maybe wanted something to sip on  while eating your pie, here is the recipe. 

AA August - Cinnamon Tea

 

My Nigella Moment  – Leek and Gorgonzola Tarts

For first-time readers, this refers to the moment at the end of Nigella Lawson’s cooking shows when she sneaks back to the fridge to have another bite of something delicious.  In these Twenty Years Ago posts, it is something contained in the magazine that does not fit with the overall menu theme but I’m sneaking it in because it is too good not to share. 

I love leek and gorgonzola anything as it reminds me of a pizzeria I used to go to with my work mates a few years ago that did an amazing leek and gorgonzola pizza! I didn’t think these were as good as the pizza but that could also be nostalgia talking.  They were quite nice in their own right! 

Leek and Gorgonzola Tart

Leek and Gorgonzola Tarts Recipe

Leek and Gorgonzola Tarts

I hope you have enjoyed this trip back to August 2004.   Have a great week! 

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The Return of the Australian Vegetable Cookbook

Hello friends, today I am revisiting a book I first wrote about in 2012 – The Australian Vegetable Cookbook. I am taste-testing two recipes from that book – a Cornish Leek Pie and a Roquefort Wedge Salad. The book contains a lovely line drawing and a brief history of each vegetable. So, without further preamble let’s get to the recipes!

Cornish Leek Pie3

Cornish Leek Pie

I was dubious as to how authentic the Cornish Leek Pie would be.  However, I found a few references to a Leeky / Likky Pie which dates from 1865 and is remarkably similar!

I layered boiled leeks and bacon into a pie dish and covered with pastry.  Now, I made a mistake here as the recipe quite clearly says to season the layers with salt and pepper.  I thought the bacon would be salty enough which turned out to be true so I didn’t add salt.  But I totally forgot about the pepper.  But by the time I remembered the pepper, the pie was already in the oven. 

 

Cornish Leek Pie2

Then, the recipe itself got weird.  After cooking for a while, I needed to make a hole in the pastry top and pour in a mixture of cream and parsley. I have never added ingredients to a pie in this way before!  But it did allow me to add the missing pepper in with the cream and parsley.   I thought it would be really hard to cut a hole in the pastry once it was baked so I did this before it went into the oven.  

Cornish Leek Pie4

The recipe which I have linked above adds eggs and cream to the bacon and leek mix which I think would be a lot more sensible.  This would have thickened up on cooking to form a quiche-like filling.  As it was the cream did nothing except make everything a bit wet! It also kept bubbling up out of the hole in the pastry and made a bit of a mess. 

Cornish Leek Pie

There was nothing wrong with the cornish leek pie.  It was just not something I would make, in the format given in the Australian Vegetable Cookbook.  Full marks for the illustrations though!  They are beautiful!  

Cornish Leek Pie – The Recipe

Leek Pie Recipe w frame

Roquefort Lettuce Wedges

The night after I made the Cornish Leek Pie I made the Roquefort Lettuce Wedge from the same book. 

The roquefort dressing was sooo good!  But overall this dish lacked something.  I served it on a gorgeous plate I bought when I was in Darwin earlier this year to try to fancy it up a bit.  Plate 10/10.  Dish…kind of meh…I would defintely make this again,  However, I would add some bacon or croutons or some chives to the salad (or all three) just to make it a bit more interesting!

Roquefort Lettuce Wedge 6

 

They say you can’t step in the same river twice and, to be honest I was disappointed with my revisiting of The Australian Vegetable Cookbook.  There was nothing wrong with either recipe but they were also not amazing.  One or two more ingredients to each one might have brought a bit more flavour or texture or just some va va voom to the dish.  

oquefort Lettuce Wedge 1

Whether this was due to bad recipe choices on my behalf or a comment on the state of vegetable dishes in the 1970s remains to be determined.  There are still a number of recipes I have flagged as “to be cooked”. so I may well have another crack at it in the future.  Just not for a little while!

Roquefort Lettuce Wedge – The Recipe

Lettuce wedge recipe (1)

Roquefort Lettuce Wedge 4

I hope your cooking adventures this week fare a little better!  Have a great week!

 

Stilton and Leek Soufflé – Hercule Poirot’s Christmas

Hello food lover and crime readers!   Welcome to a festive edition of Dining with The Dame.  Today’s menu contains a Stilton and Leek Soufflé inspired by Agatha Christie’s 1938 novel Hercule Poirot’s Christmas.  It makes me wonder – of all the people who received this book as a Christmas present that year, who would have guessed that within 12 months the world would be plunged into a second and terrible world war? Ok, sorry, that was not a very festive way to start this post.  But really despite being set at Christmas, this is not an overly festive novel!

Before we move into that, let’s briefly talk about the wonderful combination that is leek and blue cheese.  I first came across this many years ago at a pizza restaurant not far from my work.  They had a lunch deal which was two slices of pizza and a drink for a very small amount.  My favourite slice of pizza was a leek and gorgonzola.  I ordered it every week for years!

Leek and Stilton Soufflé

I realised the minute I took the soufflés out of the oven that I had left my copy of Hercule Poirot’s Christmas upstairs.  There was no going to get it, the soufflés were falling by the second!

Hercule Poirot’s Christmas – The Plot

Simeon Lee is a very rich old man.  And, like many rich old men, he is what they might have called back in Agatha Christie’s day, an old curmudgeon.  I can think of a few more modern descriptions but, it’s Christmas so we’re keeping it clean!  He’s angry at his family primarily as none of his sons have given him a grandson to carry on the family name.  He is also somewhat of a braggart and likes to talk about all his sexual conquests and how he likely has many sons “on the other side of the blanket”.  Which is gross, partly because he speaks at length about this to his granddaughter and no one, not even a formally estranged adult granddaughter needs to hear that grandpa was a f*ckboy!  Also, because cheating on your wife and knocking up numerous women is not cool.  He also has some uncut diamonds in his safe which he likes to fondle whilst he reminisces about his younger days in South Africa,  Think Monty Burns crossed with Gollum and maybe a Bond villain and you have my interpretation of Simeon Lee.

He gets his though, as on Christmas Eve, not long after calling his family together to announce that he is changing his will, Simeon Lee has his throat cut.  However the murder takes place in a locked room.  And the diamonds are gone!

Who is the guilty culprit?

  • Harry, the prodigal son.  Did he return just to do his father in?
  • David, the son who has always resented the way Simeon ill treated his mother.
  • George, the pompous son scared his father was going to reduce his allowance.
  • Alfred, the son who has remained steadfastly by Simeon’s side, jealous because his father favours Harry
  • Pilar Estravados, Simeon’s granddaughter, recently arrived from Spain.
  • Stephen Farr, the son of Simeon’s former business partner, come to England from South Africa
  • Horbury, Simeon’s possibly shifty valet.
  • All in all, we have many people who potentially Simeon Lee dead.
  • And a  second murder attempt
  • And way too much blood!

Good thing we also have Poirot on hand to discover who did it and to explain the significance of a bit of rubber and a small wooden item found on the floor near Simeon’s body!

 

Leek and Stilton Soufle 2

Hercule Poirot’s Christmas – The Covers

Hercule Poirot's Christmas Collage

We have some absolutely cracking covers here, and a fair number of them from non-English speaking countries, which is something I love!  My favorite is the pulp fiction cover from I’m going to say the 1950’s  which I have shown below in full.  Just take a closer look at the lady in red.  Yes, I know all our eyes are drawn to her cleavage but the expression on her face is  not even remotely congruent with the sight before her!  “Pffftttt…another dead body just in time to ruin the holidays” she seems to be saying.  “And by the way, have you seen my breasts?  They’re real and they’re spectaular”

The Recipe – Stilton and Leek Soufflé

You might be wondering why I chose a stilton and leek and soufflé for this post.  I was thinking I could make some sort of pun on Simeon Lee and Stilton Leek.  The more I tried, the more laboured it became until I trashed it.  Sometimes, as per Kenny Rogers, “you gotta  know when to fold ’em”.

Good lord, who knew wen starting this we were going to get a Seinfeld quote and a Kenny lyric?

Here’s the recipe.  It is from a  1992 book by the Australian Women’s Weekly called Brunches and Lunches.

As mentioned, I love the combo of leek and blue cheese.  However, if you are not a lover of blue, you could sub in a cheese of your choice!

Stilton and Leek Soufflé

Tresilian went round with the soufflé.  It struck him, now that hi interest in the ladies’ toiletries and his misgivings over Walter’s deficiencies were a thing of the past, that everyone was very silent tonight.  At least, not exactly silent:  Mr Harry was talking enough for twenty – no not Mr Harry, the South African gentleman.  And the others were talking too, but only, as it were, in spasms.  There was something a little – queer about them.

Agatha Christie – Hercule Poirot’s Christmas

 

Stilton and Leek Souffles

Links to The Christieverse

Colonel Johnson refers to “that Cartwright case” when conversing with Poirot.  This is reference to Three Act Tragedy.

 

Stilton and Leek Souffles2

Other Food & Drinks Mentioned in Hercule Poirot’s Christmas

  • Coffee
  • Hock    I was not familiar with this name for Riesling but I feel this would work very well with the souffle!
  • Claret
  • Pear

January’s read will be the final novella in the Murder in the Mews Collection – Dead Man’s Mirror.  And if anyone can get the pun on Simeon Lee and Stilton and Leek to work, please let me know!

 

Berry Salad with Blue Cheese Croutons

Today’s recipe for Berry Salad with Blue Cheese Croutons is inspired by a recipe from the December 2001 / January 2002 edition of Super Food Ideas.   Which makes it twenty years old this month!

Berry And Blue Cheese SaladWe are currently sweltering in a hot summer so this salad hits the spot perfectly. And, without tooting my own trumpet too much, can we just stop and take a moment to reflect on how pretty this salad is?

It’s almost too pretty to eat.  But only almost.  Because it’s also delicious

Before we jump into the recipe, let’s take a look at what else was hot in Dec/Jan 2002 with the seasonal eating guide.

What’s Peaking in January – Fruit

Apricots

Why not make some apricot and rhubarb frangipane tarts?

Bananas

Banana Breakfast Cream is a great way to start your day!

Banana CreamBlueberries

Get your Scottish on with some Rhubarb and Blueberry Cranachan

Breakfast Cranachan2Grapefruit

And if you don’t like eating fruit, why not drink it.  This Navigator cocktail has gin, limoncello and pink grapefruit juice…yum!

What’s Peaking in January – Vegetables

Asparagus

Why eat normal sandwiches when you can have these cute as a button Easter Lily Sandwiches?

Easter Lily Sandwiches2

Mushrooms

The vol au vent is, for me, the archetypical retro food.  Why not check out my mushroom vol au vents from way back in 2012?

Retro Food For Modern Times – Holiday Wrap Up

Potato

Step back in time to Pieathalon3 when Ruth sent me a Lemon Potato Pie!

Sweetcorn

Another cookalong resulted in this Cowboy Caviar.  It was delicious.  Thanks Greg for organising our Cowboy Day Cookalong!

Ok, so now onto the main feature!

Berry Salad with Blue Cheese Croutons – The Recipe

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Berry Salad with Blue Cheese Croutons

A delcious and gorgeous salad, perfect for summer days.

Ingredients

Scale

For The Croutons

  • 1 baguette sliced into 1cm slices
  • 50g creamy blue cheese (I used Gorgonzola dolce)

For The Salad

  • 100g rocket (arugula)
  • 1 cup berries (I used raspberries and strawberries)
  • 2 carrots, cut into thin ribbons
  • 1/8 red cabbage, finely sliced
  • 1/4 cup walnuts, toasted

For The Dressing

  • 1 tbsp raspberries
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
  • 2 tsp Dijon mustard
  • 1/2 tsp sugar
  • Salt and Pepper to taste

Instructions

For The Croutons

  1. Spread each round of bread lightly with the cheese.
  2. Bake in a moderate oven (180C) for 5-10 minutes until crisp.
  3. Allow to cool.

For The Dressing

  1. Puree the raspberries.
  2. Whisk in the oil, vinegar, sugar and seasonings.

For The Salad

  1. Place the rocket leaves in a bowl.
  2. Add the berries, carrots, red cabbage and walnuts.
  3. Toss to combine.
  4. Top with the blue cheese croutons.
  5. Drizzle with the dressing just before serving.

Notes

  • The original recipe contained spinach and asparagus. I didn’t have either when I made this so I subbed in the carrot and red cabbage. Go your own way on this!

I was back to work this week which was a shock to the system!

 

 

Berry And Blue Cheese Salad2

 

I’ll be back ,mid-week with another cheese heavy post.

In the meantime, have a great week!