Sunday Lunch

If you don’t have a mandolin in your kitchen then you are living like an animal. I was living like an animal until Saturday. What a great little tool! The first thing I did was to start looking for a good use for it. Pomme de terre Dauphinois is a fancy way to say potatoes au gratin which was the first thing I made with my new gadget. I'm always looking for new ways to make potatoes and this classic will now be part of my regular kitchen rotation. A lot of the stuff I make I never prepare again, either because it just isn’t that mouth-watering or it’s a total pain in the ass to make. These potatoes, or some version of them, are delicious and well worth the effort. Plus, they refrigerate well.

I also made tapenade with roasted red pepper and roasted garlic. I used cheapo canned olives because it was Sunday and that’s all I had on hand. Next time I will use my usual big morada olives and pit them myself. Tapenade is the easiest thing in the world to make and with good bread and a bit of wine you have a perfect appetizer.

For the main course I also made breaded pork loin cutlets which were heavenly. I’ll have to recreate this meal on video because I was almost crying it tasted so good. I had already made ratatouille which went splendidly with the pork and potatoes.

I looked on YouTube for my recipe and selected this excellent version by Keith Snow. Next time I will try a more French version like this one.