So apparently I like rösti. This is my fourth rösti recipe on this blog (Courgette and Apple Rösti with Chanterelles, Non-Traditional 6 Veg Rösti, and Cabbage and Sweet Potato Rösti). I like that once you free yourself from the need to keep it traditional, it can become such a versatile dish, using almost any veg you have in the fridge that needs to be used up. I like traditional rösti too, but all too often, it is just a pile of greasy potatoes, with not much else. Maybe cheese if you're lucky, but no veg, and so filling that that is your meal. Instead, making it at home, I've enjoyed playing around with it and making it a bit more veg heavy, and a bit more... different.
For this one, the veg on hand suggested a rösti to me, but I wanted to cook it in the leftover juices from honey and lime carrots (I hate wasting cooking juices! All that flavour down the drain!) Toying with it in the afternoon, I was trying to figure out how rösti, even non-traditional, went with lime. The idea of Thai curry flavours suggested itself to me, and I pushed it away. Once it had made that first appearance though, the idea kept coming back, and back again and again. Once there, I couldn't shake it, so I had to try it. And so that's what we had. Thai fusion rösti. I debated the cheese (I used leftover fondue, but regular mature cheese would work too!), and I debated a number of other elements, and this is what we wound up with. (The cooking juices I started with, despite being the spark, were minimal but are replaced with the lime and honey added a bit further down.) I would normally have included onions and garlic, but we were out of both.
Recipe
Cook time: approx. 50 minutes -- Portions: 6 -- Difficulty: Easy
Ingredients:
2 sweet potatoes, roughly chopped
2 large potatoes, roughly chopped
4 carrots, roughly chopped
1 bacon
1/2 cabbage, chopped
1 c peas
1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp pul biber
2 tbsp peanut oil
1/4 c dried coconut
Juice 1 lime
1 tsp honey
Salt and pepper to taste
1 c cheese / dead fondue
1 spring onion, chopped
1) Parboil potatoes, carrots and sweet potatoes until stabable with a fork. Run under cold water and the grate on the largest grater setting.
2) In a large pan or skillet, fry the bacon. When beginning to crisp, add the grated potato, carrot and sweet potato, and the cabbage. Stir in the other ingredients except the cheese and spring onion. Cook for 10 minutes.
3) Add the cheese, stir to combine and then pop in the oven at 180°C for about 20-30 minutes until the top is crisping and golden. Top with spring onion. Serve hot.
So this was an odd one, definitely interesting flavour combinations, but it worked. Surprisingly it was tasty, and hubby and I both found it at one under-cheesed and under-spiced. I can rarely be accused of being over-cautious in the kitchen but this time, that's what happened. I would up both the spicing and the cheese next time. I would also add onions and garlic, to be fried up with the bacon at the start. Beyond that though, the flavours themselves were great, and I think there will be a next time for this. I might play around with it further, but I am happy with how it worked out. It would also work as a vegetarian meal without the bacon, or even a vegan one without the cheese, although I certainly enjoyed both,
As a side note, if I continue to play around with traditional favourites like rösti too much more, they may take away my Swiss passport! I must watch it!