Don’t you just love it? You are at work, you have a recipe in mind, you know that you have all the ingredients at home and in this case it was a head of broccoli, I needed to use for a simple but tasty gratin. I also wanted to use Michael Finnegan’s new cheese from Slane in County Meath called Boyne Valley Bán; a goat’s cheese tomme he has been experimenting for a while… I love it! Anyhow, I made it back home to the house at 6:30pm, only to realise that the broccoli in question had turned completely yellow, it was actually warm, the whole top shelf of the fridge had been bathed by the light bulb of the once cold appliance. I thought: ” Great! What now? A new fridge?”. The culprit was in fact one of my cats, “Shaky Leo”, a charming young black panther who suffers from “C.H” ( Cerebellar Hypoplasia) which causes him a lack of full control of his movements and some great “Free Styling” moves… In one of his “Parcour”, my little friend ended up opening the fridge slightly… All day… Good bye broccoli…
I am well used of Plan “B’s” and thankfully, residing in the much cooler basket at the bottom was a beautiful courgette. That will do instead! I brain stormed a quick check list…
- 4 medium organic potatoes
- 1 medium organic courgette
- 5 spring onions
- 40 cl of raw organic fresh cream
- 250 g of Boyne Valley Bán ( or a semi hard goat’s cheese)
- 1 happy egg
- salt and pepper
- a good pinch of cumin seeds
Thankfully, I didn’t forget the cheese!
And a little closer…
I peeled and boiled the potatoes until just a bit under cooked. I drained and dried them ( back in the pot on a dry heat for just a few seconds). In a baking tray, I placed the cooked potatoes evenly adding the thickish slices of courgettes and the sliced spring onions on top. I beat the cream with an egg, salt and pepper and poured the mix over…
I Placed rectangles of the cheese to cover the best part of the dish. Before putting in the oven, sprinkled the cumin seeds evenly…
I baked in a hot oven (200 c) for 25-30 minutes and served it with green leaves with, olive oil and lemon…
Keep Well and Eat Happy
Slán Tamall
Franck
Hungry Breton 
Adorable the kitty! Adorable the gratin … who needs brocolli anyway – courgette have my vote every time 🙂
Hear, hear! 😀 ( thank you!)
He’s really one lucky cat!
Plan B looks so very tasty… 🙂
Yes… THEY are very lucky! 😀 Thank you, it work really well 🙂
We had a cat like that once, though our explanation was that he’d found and eaten sometimes stash in the flat… nice recipe, though I can see I would find it hard not throw strips of smoky bacon in there as well.
Oh yes, that would work too! Merci! 😉
No culinary expertise here; I would probably throw bacon into just about everything, given the chance!
I have lost my lip for meat, but bacon, yeah… A tough one! 😉
Yeah, my son (who converted to vegetarian recently) found bacon the hardest loss
Although it must have been disappointing, you definitely made the best of an annoying situation. I love courgette and cheese, and the look of those crisp brown edges. (We recently got a new fridge and I’m really excited by how COLD it is. And that it doesn’t drip everywhere. And that the door doesn’t fall off)
🙂 Yes, a door not falling off a fridge is pretty cool, quite literally… Thank you!