Lex Culinaria

Green Pea, Proscuitto & Dill Potato Salad

I love nothing more than a creamy savoury potato salad along side pretty much any summer barbeque (or grill, depending on your latitude). In any given 7 to 10 day time period all summer there will have been at least one potato salad made and eaten in my house. I usually make a big batch as I love to pick at little bowls of it constantly. I never really make it the same way twice - it really is a function of what is in my fridge at the moment. Although I think all my potato salads have a few things in common: potatoes, perfectly boiled eggs, some finely diced crunchy vegetable for texture (celery? Apple? jicama? bell pepper?), low fat mayonnaise and sour cream. The rest is negotiable.

This one was a recent hit at one of our weekend backyard barbeques. It's tangy (owning to the mustard and lemon), fresh tasting (thank you celery, dill and peas) and most importantly, savoury thanks to the crispy fried prosciutto. It's a big recipe though and will serve 8 to 10 as a side. Perfect for a weekend get together with friends.

• 2.5 pounds small red potatoes (try to choose a smooth fleshed variety that is good for boiling as opposed to baking)
• 7 eggs (at least a week old, better if they are two weeks old)
• 5 stalks of celery (slice each stalk 4 times lengthwise and then dice finely)
• 1/2 bunch green onions, chopped
• 3 Tablespoons chopped fresh dill
• 1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 1 Tablespoon American mustard
• 1 Tablespoon seeded mustard
• salt, pepper
• juice of one lemon
• 1/2 cup light mayonnaise
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/3 cup buttermilk
• 1 cup blanched and cooled green peas
• 6-8 slices prosciutto

Boil the potatoes with their skin on. Once they are cooked, immerse them in cold water for an hour to firm up. To boil your eggs perfectly place them in a medium sized pot of cold water, to which you've added 1 teaspoon of salt. Bring the pot to a boil. Put the lid on, and remove the pot from the heat. After 11 minutes remove the eggs to a bowl of cold water. Keep the eggs in the cold water for an hour, changing the water after the first 10 minutes and again after 25 minutes.

In the meantime, mix the remaining ingredients, other than the prosciutto, in a large mixing bowl to combine.

Over medium high heat, fry the prosciutto until nicely browned and crispy. Remove to a plate to cool.

Slice the potatoes in half if they are small, quarters if they are a little larger, or 1 cm thick rounds if they are fingerling or banana shaped.

Peel and slice the eggs.

Gently toss the potatoes and eggs with the other ingredients, taking care not to break them up too much. Crumble the prosciutto over the top and give the salad one more shallow stir. Keep refrigerated until you want to serve it.

Fresh ricotta, proscuitto and pea pappardelle

This light and intensely flavourful pasta is a great light springtime lunch or supper. We loved it so much I made a second batch the next day! It totally pays to take the time to make your own ricotta. It's totally easy and so much more delicate in taste and texture than the rubbery stuff you buy in the store. Trust me.

• 2 litres whole milk
• 500 ml buttermilk
• pappardelle pasta (enough for 4 servings - about half a large packet)
• 300 grams prosciutto
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil.
• 400 grams (about 1 + 3/4 cup) fresh green peas
• 2 cups roughly chopped watercress
• 1/3 cup coarse grated parmegiano reggiano
• salt, pepper

Combine milk and buttermilk in a large, heavy bottomed steel pot. Set over medium heat - no higher than 5. Allow to come to heat to about 100F. When it starts getting hot, watch it closely. It should look like it's rising, foaming and curdling a bit. Use a table knife to separate the foamy, curdly top. If you can see a watery yellowish fluid below and nice white curds at the top, you're done - depending on how fast your stove is and how cold your milk was, this could take from 10 to 25 minutes. Remove from the heat and use a large spoon to lade the curds into either a ricotta basket or a fine sieve. Allow this to drain and cool for at least an hour.

Meanwhile, boil your pasta in plenty of salted water.

Chop the prosciutto roughly and fry over medium high heat in a large frying pan. When it becomes crispy and very fragrant, add the peas. Cook and stir for 3 to 4 minutes, until the peas are bright green and cooked. Turn off the heat and add the oil, lemon juice and watercress.

Drain the pasta.

Add the ricotta to the frying pan and toss the drained pasta in too. Salt and pepper to taste. Toss with tongs and serve with Parmesan on top.

Buttermilk, orange and cardamom ice cream

There's something about the tang of this buttermilk and the fragrance of the oranges that reminds me of cheesecake. Because of the thick silkiness of the buttermilk, this ice cream is a rich-tasting and feeling without being super calorific. If you're less averse to sweeteners than you are to calories, you can substitute 1/2 cup Splenda for the 1/2 cup sugar.

• 250 ml whole milk
• finely grated rind of 2 oranges
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup vanilla sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1 Tablespoon orange liqueur (I make my own by stuffing a vodka bottle with lengths of fragrant orange rind...)
• 1 whole egg
• 600 ml buttermilk

combine all ingredients but the buttermilk in a medium saucepan. Use a heavy duty immersion blender to thoroughly blend everything. If you use a wimpy one, the egg won't get totally combined with the milk and you'll end up with lumpy custard. Heat over medium low heat stirring frequently, until it begins to thicken. Pour in the buttermilk and thoroughly blend again. Continue to heat for a few more minutes, blending at the end.

Pour into a metal bowl and apply cling film to the top of the mixture. Chill for at least 2 hours.

Process using a 1 to 1.5 litre ice cream machine.

Try not to eat it all at one go.

2 Litres of Buttermilk

It all started with my desire to make a buttermilk ice cream. The first home made ice cream of the season!

The only size carton that was available when we went shopping was the 2-litre. I wasn't sure what I would do with all of it, but I bought it anyway with vague promises to my husband of buttermilk scones and pancakes for breakfast.

I used it all up in record time though, so he never did get his pancakes.

But that's okay.

Because what he did get was:

• 1 litre buttermilk, orange and cardamom ice cream
• 1 litre dark chocolate and cinnamon ice cream
• 300 grams gorgeous soft ricotta (which got made into some amazing pasta)
• and a big ole bowl of crispy proscuitto, green pea and dill potato salad....

And that, my friends, is how you use up 2 litres of buttermilk in one afternoon.

recipes to follow shortly...

PS - if, like me, you can totally justify buying and using a kilo of proscuitto, check out the Italian Centre Shop on the South side. They have a little meat ends section where you can buy approximately 1-kilo pieces of proscuitto (unsliced) for $9.98/kilo! I just keep mine in the freezer and shave slices off with my super sharp Global knife whenever I need some, which is practically daily in my house. It's way easier to slice thinly if it's mostly frozen. I also sometimes buy their meat ends packs. For about 5 bucks you get enough random Italian deli meats to chop up for 3 amazing, meaty pizzas! Yum.

Internet is back, and so am I

We've been having an awful time with our internet connection. Apparently the culprit is our router which we use for our VOIP phone. It randomly (and frequently) decides to delete our IP address so we lose our connection. A lot. We have found the trick to fix it though, so now I have no excuse not to blog. Oh yeah, I also started maternity leave last Friday, so I have a bit of time on my hands waiting for Baby Cakes to show his sweet little face!

This pregnancy has been so exhausting, I really haven't been cooking much in the way of anything exciting. Most nights I'd get home from work and collapse in a heap. It's hard to maintain a food blog when you can't keep your eyes open long enough to do much more than order pizza or make toast, much less write about said pizza or toast.

Have I made up for it in spades since Friday though!