Mash? Smashed it!

Apologies for the cheesy title but I'm kind of excited by my discovery this evening.  Mash can be nice!!  Good - even tasty!!!  I have always disliked mash; there's no texture, there's no taste, all too often it's too watery and just insipid and all round uninspiring.  To me it has always been the lowest form of cooked potato to eat.
However - as I mentioned I have had something of a epiphany.  I was making mash to top the Chaps cottage pie with (heroic meat cooking by the faint hearted I reckon) and I played around with it a bit and found - The Perfect Mash.
(Imagine a little musical 'ahh ah aaahhh' at this point if you will.)

Do you want to know the first secret?  Do you??

Don't boil the potatoes.

Ahaa - boiling them just introduces water into a; by necessity, floury potato.  It's floury nature means it will soak it up = rubbish mash.
A note here - you need a decent spud too, if that's not too much of an obvious thing to say.  Mine were local Desiree's bought complete with the dirt on from the local grocers.  A good spud should taste nice already, even before we add the magic.
So - if we're not boiling the spuds what are we doing with them?  Some people advocate baking them which is fine if you already have the oven on for something else, but if all you want is a bowl of mash it seems a bit long winded to me.  So - I microwaved them.  Scrub clean then prick the skins well with a fork - they'll explode if you don't!  I had two monsters - over 600g between them.  Microwave for 5 mins, turn over, cook for another 5 and prong with the fork to test if they're done.  If not give them another couple of mins.
Once they're cooked slice open in half to help the steam out.
With a fork to steady the spud (they are hot!) scoop the innards out with a spoon into a bowl.  Roughly mash with the fork.
Add 2 big spoons (about tablespoons) of Greek yoghurt and 2 of horseradish sauce.  Some salt and pepper and a small knob of butter.  Mix in well but endeavour to keep some texture to the mash.
Taste.
Marvel.

I have a lot of catching up to do on a lifetime of spurned mash...

Roast Spudato Experiment

Having had a 'discussion' [ie - not quite an argument] recently about the best way to roast potatoes - in particular concentrating on the oil used; I decided to hold a little totally-non-scientific and arbritrary test as I was making roasties last night. [Yep - we missed the traditional Sunday slot - so?] As my roasts just consist of spuds, veg, yorkshires and gravy the quality of the roast spuds is important. I've always used olive oil and sea salt after my mother [I believe she got this habit from Nigel Slater] but in the aforementioned discussion was being told in no uncertain terms that this was all wrong because of the boil/heat points of relative oils. Well no-one likes being told they're doing it all wrong - especially when it's Ma's recipe so I thought I'd test this out. I cooked 2 dishes of roast spuds - 1 in EVOO and 1 in Vegetable oil. Both were otherwise done in my regular style:

Put kettle on.

Put oven on to preheat to Gas 6.

Put oil in ceramic baking dish and put in oven to heat up.

Wash and chop spuds. Leave skins on. Parboil for 5 mins and drain.

Return to pan and shake about to fluff up edges.

Spoon into dishes with hot oil being careful of splashes.

Grind sea salt over and stir round well with a spoon.

Roast for 1.5 hours, stirring every 20-30 mins.

Here's the final result. On the left are the veg oil, on the right the EVOO. Chap thought initially that the veg oil ones looked crispier but I don't see much in it myself. I know I definitely preferred the flavour of the EVOO potatoes. Chap said on initial tasting the veg oil ones then on second try couldn't discern a difference.

Verdict - doesn't make a lot of difference but I prefer the taste of the EVOO ones so will continue cooking them with it.

Conclusion - my friend's talking rot - or at least as far as roasties are concerned!! :-D

Poor pun part 2, or 'Souper Sunday - The Return!'

The second soup I made is a good one to use up veg and cheese languishing in the fridge. The recipe is here, and incidentally the man behind that site wrote the very useful 'Vegetable Growing Month by Month' which I can thoroughly recommend along with this soup recipe from his wife.

Leek, Spud & Stilton Soup

2 small onions

2 fat cloves garlic

2 big leeks

EVOO

1 large potato

Bouquet Garni

0.5 pint buttermilk [put 1tbsp lemon juice in glass and fill to half pint with milk then let stand for a few mins]

1.5 pints veg stock

4 oz stilton - crumbled

S+P

Put EVOO in big pan and put on low-med heat. 1-2 tbsps-ish.

Chop onions and crush and chop garlic and add to pan.

Chop leeks - washing free of grit as necessary, and add.

Cook for a few minutes to soften. 5-10 should do it nicely.

Peel spud if wanted - I actually did this time rather than have bits of skin in the soup. Chop into smallish chunks and add to pot.

Add Bouquet Garni [recipe said bay leaves but I was out] and a good grind of black pepper.

Add milk / buttermilk and bring to boil.

Add veg stock and return to boil.

Simmer covered for 15 mins until potatoes and veg soft.

Add cheese and stir in.

Blend in batches, unless your FP is huge!

Taste and add salt if necessary.

A winner - as previously mentioned on yesterdays post I've made this before. I love leek and potato soup - it's one of my faves and the addition of stilton here gives it a nice flavour without being overpowering. Thick and creamy whilst only actually having half a pint of milk in [mine's semi-skimmed] this is pretty healthy. A good winter soup you could add extra stock or make with just stock and no milk as a lighter option for summer. It's very good chilled too - as I discovered when taking from fridge to bowl to microwave for lunch at work. Yum!

Pic of both soups - as you can see the Iranian Barley one turned out pretty thick rather than 'soup' like. More stew consistency but in the winter that's no bad thing.

Time frugal cooking - spudato wedges

An easy standby to knock up then bang in the oven. Ok - it's about an hour from start to finish so Jamie's 30 Minute Meals this aint but unlike his where you spend the entire 30 minutes cooking; [personally I'm skeptical; and a little tired of him telling me to "get your 30 minute meal head on" - ok Jamie, just get the brand tattooed on your forhead why don't you then you wouldn't have to keep mentioning it. Also - perhaps think that some of us may watch more than one episode therefore can remember from one to the next to get ourselves ready] this is more like 5-10 prep then walk away - wedges FTW time wise!! [Sorry - bit of a sidetrack mini-rant there.]

It's incredibly simple so I feel a bit of a fraud calling this a 'recipe' - more like a base plan or blueprint to then adapt at will. Much like a lot of my 'cooking' [making it up as you go along]. :-D

Potato Wedges

Spuds

EVOO

S+P

Seasonings / herbs / spices to your taste

Put oven on to preheat - Gas 6. [In case you hadn't noticed there's a handy link to a conversion chart on the right bar.]

Wash spuds. Do not peel. There's enough ways to waste our life time out there already [eg ironing] let's not let peeling veg be one of them.

Chop into 6-10 wedges depending on spud size. I generally look at spud stood on 'end' and chop it half down through the longest axis. Then lay each half flat and slice into wedges. See pic.

Wow - realised this really is me teaching y'all how to suck eggs. Just slice your spud into wedges - you know how to do that.

In a bowl large enough to take all the spuds with room for stirring about splosh some EVOO -amount dep's on amount of spuds you're doing.

Add S+P and your choice of seasonings. I used seasoned salt, cayenne and some ground coriander but this would work with most spice combos or herbs and a sprinkling of lemon juice; either fresh or bottled. Any flavours you like the taste of basically. I like the cayenne for a little warming kick, especially this time of year!

Spread out on a baking sheet/tray - try and get in a single layer, then chuck in the oven. Full cooking time will vary depending on your wedge size and how crispy you like your spuds but you're looking at 40 mins plus. Turn approx half way though. It's not the end of the world if you don't though!

I'm afraid we scarfed these all up before it occurred to me to take a pic but if you've never seen a potato wedge before; well frankly - get making some!! Easy, time frugal as you can be getting on doing other things whilst they cook, and cost frugal too.

And remember: "Time is an illusion, lunchtime doubly so." Douglas Adams

Rosti Rapido

I've been meaning to try my hand at a veg rosti of some kind for a while, to the extent where I have a small collection of recipes gathering in the file.

Having tried this though I realise they really don't need a recipe, just a little common sense and something to bind the ingredients together with. Basically if you have a grater, an egg and some miscellaneous veg then you're off.

Quick and simple to knock up, this is how I made mine:

Rosti Rapido

1 reg - half a large carrot - grated

1 small potato - grated

Grated cheddar cheese

S+P

1 egg

1 tbsp cornflour

1 tsp dried mixed herbs / what you fancy

Little oil for frying

Place frying pan on to heat up, with a little oil in.

Grate carrot and potato onto clean tea towel. Squeeze as much moisture out as possible. Place in bowl. [Note - your towel will no longer be anywhere near clean and you will marvel at the amount of 'orange' that came out of the carrots then you may think, like me 'bugger - I wish I hadn't used a white one'.]

Add grated cheese and mix to distribute evenly.

Mix in herbs, pepper and a little salt, bearing in mind the cheese adds salt.

Mix cornflour through.

Beat egg and add, mixing really well.

Pour into pan, flattening out to make a round cake - or you could make about 4 individual ones. Place lid on pan - this will help reflect some of the heat downwards to cook the top. [Also true of omelettes.]

Fry for a few minutes until underside looks done when gently lifted with a spatula.

Turn - I utilised the 'plate on top of pan and flip over then slide back in' method.

Cook until done on bottom and whole way through. Mine had perhaps 10 minutes cooking time total. You want the potato cooked as this starts off raw in this recipe.

Enjoy with a green salad and a dollop of mayo.

I can see me making this quite a few times in the future - truly quick but satisfying food, not too bad for you depending on the cheese levels and can be made with most veg - whatever you have lying around. Yay for the Rosti Rapido sez I!

A Crisp Experiment #2; otherwise known as a Ruth Crisp-based Ploughmans

Thought I'd give the homemade crisps another go as I had the pan on again for the end of the bag of prawn crackers and it seemed prudent to use the oil at the same time.

I made a bigger batch this time and this taught me that it's a bit of a faff to be honest. They're good, almost on a par with Kettle chips or Burts (almost!) but for the time expended slicing and patting dry and the fact that they come out with more oil on than I'd ideally like to be consuming I'm not sure I'd bother often.

[Stupidly I only remembered the microwave suggestion made in the comments last time I tried this half way through frying this lot. Perhaps that's a healthier option although I'm not sure whether it's any less labour intensive.]
I used the 'slice' side of my grater for these, sprinkled them with black pepper and *seasoned salt and plated them up with some chunks of mature chedder, marinated artichoke hearts and runner bean chutney as a crisp-based ploughmans - very nice if very unhealthy!

*Seasoned salt = salt plus handy spices. Nice although it's not sea salt or anything. Another of those random things that lurk in my cupboard waiting for their time to come. As Tarantino might say - 'every dog has it's day' and, I guess, every salt must have it's concomitant victual. Doesn't have quite the same ring though does it? ;-D

A Crisp Experiment

Crisps are my downfall, I admit it. Not for me the craving for chocolate, or cake, or sweets - I'm a savoury girl and I love my crisps. Generally ready salted or sea salt and black pepper. *drool* I am addicted. I try and stay away from them, I really do. They're terribly bad for you; full of fat and salt and calories. Also they're actually worse for your teeth to eat in the middle of the day than sweets are! (Thank you QI for that bit of doom and gloom.) The starch in the potato adheres to your teeth potentially causing more damage than a bagful of humbugs. Pah!

Anyway, I was heating some oil for prawn crackers on Saturday (yes - another highly unhealthy snack) and I thought to myself 'I wonder if I could do crisps like this?' I grabbed a small spudato (just an ickle one as this was an experimental type of party), sliced it as thin as I could, patted the moisture off on kitchen towel and chucked into the hot fat. Left them until mostly golden (I was a little impatient), hauled them out and sprinkled with sea salt. YUM!!!! The slighlty thicker ones were a bit chip tasting but I reckon this could be the way forwards. The future of the Ruth / Crisp symbiosis no less. Not health wise evidently but if it can save me 60p out of the machine at work I'll be a happy frugal crisp munching bunny. Now there's an image. :-D

Ruth's random take on Dauphinoise

Inspired by luscious images of various potato combos yesterday I went home determined to make a delish dish for dinner. Armed with my freebie pot of cheese spread I perused a couple of dauphinoise recipes and came up with my own version. What follows is the recipe as I made it, followed by amendments if I was doing it again. Not half bad in the end though!

Ruth's Dauphinoise-stylee spuds

Spuds - approx 400g (mine were Romano)
1 small onion / half a larger one

2 cloves garlic

150ml dbl cream

100ml milk

100g dairylea cheese spread

0.5 tsp dried basil

0.25 tsp grated nutmeg

Hard cheese - I used Cornish Yarg - whatever's your fave

Sea salt + freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven Gas 5 / 190c.

Parboil spuds 10 mins until just softening. Drain and rinse in cold water to cool down.

Finely chop onion. Finely chop and crush garlic. Put both in pan with the milk, cream and black pepper. Gently warm and stir in the cheese spread to melt it through. Bring to a gentle simmer for 5 mins to soften the onion. Keep a close eye on it to ensure it doesn't boil over!

Remove from heat and stir in basil and nutmeg. [I forgot to do this so sprinkled them over the dish after pouring the cream in!]

Slice potatoes thinly - approx 3-5mm. Butter your oven dish - to be honest I forgot to do this and I'm not sure how much difference it actually makes. Stand slices in dish on edge, building up row by row. Season with S + P. Carefully pour the cream over, leaving space in the top of the dish for bubbling in the oven. [This is the point at which I remembered the basil and nutmeg and hastily sprinkled them over the top instead.]

Grate cheese over and bake in oven 30ish mins. As previously mentioned I used Cornish Yarg, a lovely cheese with a softer flavour than the mature cheddar which was the other choice in my fridge. It's wrapped in nettle leaves too!

Now I found I had too much sauce so would make it more like a total liquid content of 150ml next time. You could just use 150ml of straight double cream but I think that would be too rich and cloying with all the cheese spread added so I'll try 100ml dbl cream + 50 ml milk next time.

I'd also reduce the amount of onion - using half a small onion or perhaps just 1-2 shallots.

I also found my potatoes were very slightly less cooked than I like after 30 mins so would add another 5-10 mins to the cooking time.

Anyway - I found it tasty, filling and rather comforting on a chilly evening with enough left for another 2 portions. If you try it let me know what you think - enjoy!

Homeward bound (I wish I was)

Well I will be shortly. I have a hankering for potato and cheese in some combination - probably something to do with me drooling at some of the ideas on the Daily Spud's Paddy's Day Food Parade. I wonder - could one make Pan Haggerty with Dairylea? Or is that really just a little too heinous an idea? Lol :D Probably sacrilegious. Pan Haggerty's also Northern and not Irish. Maybe I'll do some sort of layered spud and onion and cheese sauce...ah - that would be a dauphinoise then - hey - it's Irish if I say it is! Probably will be the way I do things. What ho - I'll let you know how it turns out.
Maybe seeing WM tonight for a brief pintage - maybe...