Super lean but still full of flavour - Potato and Leek Gratin With Dill and White Wine

 One of the few things I miss of Sweden is dill, one of the freshest herb that I know and I don't mean fresh as in new but fresh flavour wise. The taste of dill is something I closely associate with Swedish summer, days and nights filled with light and small new potatoes. I realize that I have a bit of a fixation on new potatoes, growing up with a mother who always grew her own potatoes so that she could eat the delikatessen new potatoes every year does leave signs; I can see her now, bending over the potato rows with her strong and big hands stuck into the soil, and then how she triumphantly held up a handful of small, dirty potatoes as if she had found gold!

Yes yes yes, potatoes but what has that to do with dill? Well, throwing some dill  into the water when you boil potatoes is a great way to make them taste even better but you find dill in many other dishes as well. But, and this is one of my few buts about Italy, I never managed to find dill in all these years I have been living here. I don't mind that much really, it is always good to have something to indulge in when I go back to Sweden but I was very happy when Neva, one of the food stylists I work with gave me a large bunch of dill to bring home from Milan.

I have been thinking about this super lean potato gratin for some time now, using stock and white wine instead of milk and cream, and planning to do it when I had some more time to spend in the kitchen - guess if the dill I got went straight into it or not? The ingredients in this dish are few and I suspect that you have already most of them at home. You can use another herb or no herb at all if you cannot find dill but do try to find some. 

I used quite a lot of stock and wine so the first portion of the gratin I ate as a soup, not a bad idea at all actually and I think I will experiment a bit further on making soup in the oven, keep your eyes open.

POTATO AND LEEK GRATIN WITH DILL AND WHITE WINE

4 servings

1 kg/2,2 lb potatoes

1 leek

4-5 tbsp finely chopped fresh dill or some other herb

450 ml/ 1,9 cup light stock 

300 ml/ 1,25 cup white wine

salt 

extra-virgin olive oil

   Peel the potatoes, trim the leek and slice them thinly.  Heat up stock and white wine.

   Grease an oven-proof form and start filling it with layers, first a layer of potato slices, then leek and to finish a sprinkle of chopped dill. Go on like this until the form is filled.

   Pour stock and wine over the potatoes until almost covered (if you want a dryer version, pour just until half of the potatoes are covered and bake under cover for the first 15 minutes) and bake in a pre-heated oven (200°C/390°F) for 25-30 minutes or until the potatoes are soft and golden on top.

Colour and comfort - Orange Bread Pudding With Honey and Sesame Seeds

 Picking oranges from the tree to then eat them straight away is a pleasure that have only befallen me a few times in my life but every winter I can at least pick and choose from oranges to buy and in this period, I really enjoy this as much as I can. So much so that in a month or so I will long for apples and pears. But now I am completely indulging myself with citrus fruits of different kinds and I try to make different dishes with them, just to vary a little. This bread pudding is quick to make (do I ever post anything else? At least lately?) and it is full of orange flavour, honey sweetness, sesame seeds crispiness and all the comfort that bread brings you.

 
ORANGE BREAD PUDDING WITH HONEY AND SESAME SEEDS
4 servings

6-8 slices of bread, 1-1,5 cm/ 0,4-o,6 inch thick. I used white bread
freshly squeezed orange juice, enough to soak the bread in + 6 tbsp
2-3 tbsp runny honey
sesame seeds, you decide how much
butter for the ramekins

   Cut off the crust from the slices and then divide them in two or three.

   Pour the orange juice into a dish and dip the bread quickly in it, don't let them soak to much but they need to be well imbibed.

   Butter four portion ramekins and arrange the bread in vertical layers leaning on each other. Spoon some of the honey over each of them, then add 1,5 tbsp orange juice to the ramekins and sprinkle each with sesame seeds.

   Bake in a pre-heated oven (175°C/350°F) for 10-15 minutes or until golden and serve tepid.

Links on Sunday and a few flowers too

Yet another installment in my Links on Sunday series, today I have done a completely free selection of links that I find interesting or beautiful, no theme at all.

This is the kind of creativity I like, take the time to read how each and everyone works.

You already know I love street art, anything to make ugly beautiful or to draw attention to serious topics.

I have downloaded every single podcast and am enjoying them enormously! I absolutely recommend this program!

Don't strain your neck while looking at these photos.

Mind boggling!

This is a sort of inverted Dear Photograph if you remember that link!

The length and variety of this list definitely opens new horizons...