Lauraine Jacobs
Cream of Potato and Watercress Soup
A delicious soup made as a puree, sophisticated and suitable for a first course at a dinner party. The flavour is dependent on the stock, so ensure your stock is rich and tasty. When I was a small child, my mother used to entertain often, when she served a soup like this, she’d accompany it with thin slices of toast made by lightly buttering slices of white bread on each side and baking them in the oven until golden brown (about 10 minutes). We used to sneak around and pinch a couple of slices before the party....
Cream of Potato and Watercress Soup
A delicious soup made as a puree, sophisticated and suitable for a first course at a dinner party. The flavour is dependent on the stock, so ensure your stock is rich and tasty. When I was a small child, my mother used to entertain often, when she served a soup like this, she’d accompany it with thin slices of toast made by lightly buttering slices of white bread on each side and baking them in the oven until golden brown (about 10 minutes). We used to sneak around and pinch a couple of slices before the party....
Crisp Roasted Vegetables
To get really crisp roasted veges, parboil the potatoes and kumara before they go in the oven. You can prepare and parboil the vegetables ahead of time, and do not have the oven too hot as the sweeter vegetables like kumara will burn.
Crunchy Green Salad with Slivers of Fresh Celery, Pecans, Parmesan and Lemon Vinaigrette
In San Francisco there is a stunning restaurant, Zuni Café, where the food tasted so good we chose to eat there two days in a row. This entrée is inspired by a similar entrée salad I had there. The original was made with escarole, a crunchy-leafed green that is similar to our iceberg lettuce, but that’s hard to find in New Zealand. Here I have substituted cos lettuce to provide that fresh, crisp texture, and dressed the salad with a distinctively lemony vinaigrette.
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Cumin-crusted Scotch fillet of Pork with Spinach, Red Peppers and Crispy Crackling
Pork cooked with this delicious stuffing makes a very festive dish and would be perfect for a Christmas dinner when you want a change from turkey. You can cook it ahead and serve at room temperature – but be sure to serve the crackling warm.
