Radishes, Recipes & Rudi

My good friend Bertus Basson made this one day when we were having lunch at Overture, I don’t normally eat a lot of potato but this pushed me over the edge. This is my own version.

Yield: 6

INGREDIENTS
1kg baby potatoes
2lt water
salt
4 sprigs thyme
1 bay leaves
1ea garlic clove crushed
50ml olive oil
½ tsp black pepper, freshly ground
100ml sour cream
3 tbsp chives chopped

METHOD

Boil potatoes with herbs in salted water until soft.
Remove from the heat strain and cool down to room temperature
Cut the top of each potato in a criss-cross with a sharp serrated knife.
Gently squeeze with your thumb and index fingers to push some of the inside of the
potato to the top.
Place onto a roasting tray and drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Roast in a preheated oven at 200°c for 8 – 10mins, just enough to crisp the
tops of the potatoes.
Serve with sour cream and chives.

I don’t even know what his whole name, I just know him as Ross but most days he is the bearded man. When I met Ross the first time, I only had his number and so it was saved under the “bearded man”.  With his beard and his basket he arrives for the second week in a row and allows us to select the pine rings that we want, and when you hold the carrot orange cap in your hand and smell the forest and the wet earth, you know autumn has arrived.
He won’t share his secret spots with any one, I don’t know what promises he makes other chefs or who gets preferential treatment or even first pickings but he always arrives with little treasures like chicken of the woods or porcini and every now and then Num Num’s.
So this morning we carefully removed all the greener older mushrooms from the basket and picked out our 2kg perfect palm sized mushroom for the menu. I am the happiest when the pine rings is in a risotto, makes it so earthy. But this time around I do not want to make a risotto, seems too predictable so I think a mushroom ravioli is the way to go. In a sage burnt butter with a good sprinkle of parmesan cheese. I am even considering a soup.
This is an incomplete recipe that only explains the filling, use it in little empanadas or pies. I like adding a little Jerusalem artichoke puree with filling reducing the cream cheese in the filling.
Recipe makes 28 pieces

200g Pasta dough
For the filling
300g pine ring mushrooms cut in ¼
50g chopped onion
1 clove garlic
50ml white wine
1 sprig thyme
1 bay leaf

2 tsp chopped parsley chopped
2 tsp cream cheese
2 tsp grated parmesan
Parmesan for serving

80g Butter
4 sprigs fresh sage
Black Pepper
Method
Method
Cut in ¼ and gently cooked with a little olive oil with onion and crushed garlic and thyme.
Season with salt and peppers, sauté until soft with out over browning, add wine and deglaze.
Cook until all liquid has evaporated, before removing add a squeeze of lemon.
Remove from heat and remove thyme and bay leaf allow to cool and chop very fine.
Add cream cheese and parmesan with parsley.
Set aside until ready to make parcels. Make ravioli with a tsp of filling and measuring 5cm x 5cm.
Once the ravioli parcels are made cook in salted water, take note that they cook very quickly. About 3 minutes.