SUMMER // Recipe for four
Norm’s potatoes, onions and cheese
Norm and Robyn have been growing their potato crop in Robertson, about 700 metres above sea level, since the 1970s so I thought it was about time Norm had a pototo dish named after him. We like to think of Robertson, with some of the highest rainfall figures in the country, as the potato-growing capital of Australia. You can use any small heirloom potatoes here, whatever is local to you. The fat hen buds are in the dish because they grow wild throughout Norm’s fields.
FRESH CHEESE
500 ml (17 fl oz) full-cream cow’s milk (unpasteurised, if possible, or lightly pasteurised)
130 ml (4½ fl oz) cream
5 g (1/8 oz) rennet
3 g (1/8 oz) salt
Put the milk and cream in a pan and heat to 32°C (90°F). Remove from the heat and stir in the rennet and salt. Pour into twelve 100 ml (3½ fl oz) dariole moulds or plastic containers, filling to about 1 cm (½ in) from the top.
Put the moulds in a baking tray and fill the tray with warm water. Cook the cheese in a 38°C (100°F) oven for 4 hours.
Leave to cool in the tray. Line a perforated tray with a clean cloth and put another tray underneath. Pour the set curds onto the tray and keep the whey that collects underneath for using in another recipe, such as the spent vegetables.
POTATOES
4 red heirloom potatoes (we use local cranberry reds)
4 white heirloom potatoes (we use local Dutch creams)
500 g (1 lb 2 oz) duck fat
1 tablespoon salt
2 sage stems
Preheat the oven to 78°C (172°F). Peel the potatoes and place in the duck fat; add the salt and sage stems. Roast in the oven for 3 hours. Leave in the duck fat until ready to use.
ONIONS
4 small red onions, unpeeled
4 small white onions, unpeeled
30 ml (1 fl oz) toasted garlic oil
2 teaspoons elderflower vinegar
Slice the onions through the centre. Put the onions, cut side down, in a hot dry frying pan and allow to burn. Remove the pan from the heat and cover with an upturned bowl. Leave the onions to sweat for 30 minutes and then peel the layers apart.
Use the inner shells on the plate and keep the outer shells for the onion juices, right.
ONION JUICES
200 g (7 oz) outer shells of cooked onions (left)
2 garlic cloves
40 g (1½ oz) honey
2 teaspoons salt
80 g (23/4 oz) any puffed grains, such as barley, amaranth, rye
4 g (1/8 oz) xanthan gum
Put the onion shells, garlic, honey, salt and 300 ml (10½ fl oz) water in a saucepan, cover and steep over low heat for 2 hours. Strain the liquid into a clean pan, add the puffed grains and steep for a further 1 hour. Strain and whisk in the xanthan to thicken.