Yesterday at the grocer I bought some Swiss chard thinking that it would go with the pot-roasted garlic chicken I made for dinner last night. I had forgotten that I already had a butter lettuce intended as the bird’s complement – for me, the combination of creamy soft green leaves and Dijon vinaigrette with garlicky chicken is heavenly. I did not use the Swiss chard.
This morning, with a banging headache and a serious appetite, I groggily ran through all of the possible breakfast combinations that could be produced by the contents of my fridge and cupboard. – I do this often, and it can be a tortuous affair as I tempt myself with an array of different dishes, unable to settle on just one. I stared into the fridge for some minutes.
Finally, an ancient potato and a couple of leaves from the bunch of Swiss chard solved it. I took one large potato of unknown vintage (>1 month) and peeled and diced it very finely, fried until sweet with a clove of garlic in a little oil, and some fresh shredded sage, then the chard towards the end, and finally a few blobs of very fine French goat’s cheese from the baker near me, and topped with a poached egg. I was thrilled with it. I only used a very small amount of goat’s cheese, which was well balanced out by the sweetness of the potato.
Ingredients:
1 large potato, peeled and very finely diced (½ centimetre cubes)
2 leaves Swiss chard, sliced up
3 leaves sage, finely sliced
1 garlic clove, peeled
a few dots of quite mild, fresh soft goat’s cheese
1 egg
How to make:
Heat up a tablespoon of rapeseed oil and add potatoes and the garlic clove to the pan. Cook on a medium heat, tossing regularly, and covering with a lid for a few minutes to steam potato and cook through. Add the chopped sage and sprinkle over some sea salt. Cook for 10-15 minutes, tossing regularly. Do not cook on too high a heat, you want the potatoes to be a bit crispy, but not too much – it is also important for them to be soft and sweet. Also you do now want the garlic clove to burn. When most of the way through cooking, add the chard stalks to potato and toss. Cook for a minute or two.
Put a pan on the heat with water in to poach egg. Add the chard leaves to the pan and stir. When poaching water is just just boiling gently break egg in and turn the heat down. Add goat’s cheese to potato and chard and turn heat off. When egg is cooked after a minute or so remove and drain. Plate up the potato, chard and cheese onto a warmed plate, and top off with the egg then season with salt and pepper.
Don’t eat the garlic unless you really want to..
Eaten with:
A hangover and a mug of tea.
Dinner Document 