Last Night's Dinner 27

Saganaki with a Beetroot and Red Cabbage Salad and Fried Potatoes

Hi everyone. This is a post contains recipes below the paywall for my paid subscribers, but there is plenty to read - including methods and a recipe above it - so I hope you all get something out of it.

Before I get onto recipes, a quick update on the WMF pressure cookers I wrote very negatively about here.

I am pleased to report that the newest model - and the new handle which is now available as a replacement for the last model - seems to be working just fine. I have tested it rigorously - almost daily - for over 3 months, and in that time it hasn’t stuck once. Considering the last model started sticking almost immediately - which is what I have heard has happened to everyone else too - I am hoping they have solved the problem.

This does not help those of you who have the last model. But as it is faulty - and I assume a by now well known fault - I would strongly recommend getting in touch with WMF and asking for a replacement. I bought my newest replacement which I am still a bit annoyed about - I am of the opinion they should have been recalled.

This is what the new handle looks like - you can see that when it is at pressure, it has an extra little gauge which pops up in the middle of the larger one. I’m not sure why it is necessary, but it works.

Now, onto last night’s dinner, which was going to be a very quick one as I didn’t much feel like cooking (the virus everyone else has had, which has a very ebb/flow MO). But then I started to feel better during and assembled a couple of other things too.

It was made up of leftovers/batch cooking.

I had:

A few steamed new potatoes (small, steamed in a basket, 4 mins HP, FPR)

Some cooked beetroot (medium), cooked in a splash of water, 5 mins, NPR. I steamed the stems in a basket on top)

A half portion of tomato sauce (recipe below)

Adam wanted fried potatoes, so I threw them into a frying pan with olive oil, dried oregano and fresh rosemary and left them to cook while I did everything else.

Then I used the beetroot as the basis for a salad with red cabbage and used the tomato sauce to make a very quick saganaki.

Here is the tomato sauce recipe, it is based on the one in Modern Pressure Cooking. It is the one I am most likely to make in summer. In winter I’m more likely to use red wine in place of the white and add finely chopped carrot too.

This is a longer to prep version, but you can also make a no prep one which is very similar to the tomato soup recipe I posted last week.

I mention the potential need to reduce the sauce after cooking. This should only be necessary if you have used particularly watery fresh tomatoes. Use dense, plum tomatoes if you can to avoid this issue.

3 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, finely chopped

1 stick celery, finely chopped

3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 tsp dried oregano

1 large sprig thyme, or 1/2 tsp dried

100ml white wine

2 x 400g tins chopped tomatoes, or 1kg fresh, cored and pureed

A pinch of ground cinnamon

1 sprig basil or tarragon

Heat your pressure cooker and add the oil. Add the onion and celery. Saute for a few minutes if you have time - it is not essential, the main reason we do this is to reduce the water content. Add the garlic and herbs, followed by the wine. Bring to the boil for a minute, then add the tomatoes. Season with plenty of salt and pepper and sprinkle in the cinnamon. Lay the basil or tarragon on top - it will infuse the sauce with a little flavour - not too much.

Close the lid and bring up to high pressure. Cook for 5 minutes, then leave to drop pressure naturally. If you have used fresh tomatoes with a particularly high water content, you might want to simmer for a few minutes to reduce the sauce. Remove the basi/tarragon before serving.

Quick Saganaki

Saganaki is one of my favourite things to eat in Greece - I love how it often comes out sizzling with feta melted practically to a fondue. And actually, the fried potatoes Adam asked for were perfect for dipping into it.

I’m extremely careful about the kind of prawns I eat/buy these days and from everything I’ve read, the North Atlantic cold water prawns are some of the safest, sustainability wise. I buy them unshelled, and use the heads and shells to make stock - a surprisingly good one too, but also ready shelled to add to dishes like this. If you buy them frozen, make sure you defrost them thoroughly first in a sieve, because the amount of sauce they will give out otherwise has the potential to flood your tomato sauce.

1 tbsp olive oil

1/2 fennel bulb, very finely chopped

A pinch of fennel seeds (be very careful, they can make a dish too sweet)

1/2 tsp chilli flakes

1/2 portion of tomato sauce

1 tbsp ouzo or similar (optional)

1 block of feta (around 200g)

zest from 1/2 lemon.

200g cooked peeled prawns

A few sprigs any of parsley, dill, tarragon, finely chopped