Category: potatoes

Categories
food onion potatoes

potatoes boulangere

I always grin when I remember this potato side-dish. When I’m a little bored of jackets, chips or mash, this heart-warming bowl of crisp and moist does it for me every time. The trick is, as with many of these dishes, awesome stock. I’ve recently seen James Martin do a cracking version of this, placing a roast chicken on a rack above the potatoes, dripping hot chicken grease over the potatoes… next time for sure!

(Allegedly, the name comes from provincial French towns, where the baker had the only oven in town. Once the morning’s bread was done, the villagers would trot up to use the leftover heat. Though why this is the only dish bearing the ‘baker’ name I don’t know…)

Potatoes boulangere:

2 baking potatoes, thinly sliced

1 onion, thinly sliced

1 teaspoon dried sage or small handful chopped fresh sage

2 bay leaves

Enough chicken stock to cover

  1. Pre-heat an oven to 180°C. Grease a shallow baking dish and place bay leaves on the bottom. Layer potatoes on top thinly. Add a layer of onion and season generously.
  2. Top with sage then repeat potatoes, onion and seasoning. When full, pour over stock – just enough to cover. Put in the oven.
  3. After half an hour, the stock should have thickened slightly and reduced a bit. Brush the exposed potato slices with melted butter and put back in the oven for another 15 minutes or so, until the potatoes are tender.
Categories
almonds chorizo food pork potatoes tomato

albondigas with patatas bravas

Tapas excites me. There, I said it. What other eating style allows you to order half a dozen dishes each and survey them like a greedy child? A dizzying array of little terracotta pots sit before you, deep with spice, wine and aroma.

I had a craving for this the other day so boshed together a couple of tapas style dishes, a meaty, sweet meatball dish and some pokey, chewy patatas bravas.

Albondigas in almond sauce:

500g pork mince

½ nutmeg, grated

Parsley, roughly chopped

½ teaspoon paprika

Lemon zest, grated

Flour

1 onion, diced

3 garlic cloves, minced

Chicken stock

2 tablespoons ground almonds

  1. Combine the mince, nutmeg, paprika, lemon and half the parsley in a bowl. Wet your hands and form into small meatballs, about the size of a ping-pong ball. If you have time leave in the fridge for half an hour to firm up.
  2. Roll the meatballs in a dusting of flour, and fry in butter until lightly browned all over and put to one side.
  3. In the same pan fry the onion and garlic. When softened add the chicken stock and simmer briskly to reduce and thicken. Add the almonds and stir well.
  4. Reduce the heat, add the meatballs back to the pan and continue to cook for a further ten minutes. Serve with parsley.

Patatas bravas:

1 large potato, diced

1 chorizo sausage, diced

1 tin tomatoes

  1. Preheat the oven to 200°C. In a large baking tray add the chorizo and potato and cook for twenty minutes. At this point the chorizo will start to leak it’s peppery juice, so toss everything together well to coat.
  2. Add the tomatoes and continue to cook for another twenty minutes until the potatoes are tender. Check for seasoning and garnish with parsley.
Categories
food lamb onion potatoes

nigel haworth’s lancashire hotpot

I have a “go to” Lancashire hot pot recipe that I like very much, cribbed from Rick Stein some years ago. It’s very tasty, but like many others I was bowled over with Nigel Haworth on the Great British Menu this year, who blew the competition away with his hot pot. (One word or two? I just don’t know. His recipe is here.

I’ve simplified it slightly for home cookery – cut down on the varieties of lamb and reduced it down to just the neck fillet. I also used a jar of pickled cabbage – I can’t better those results. No herbs either, which is a big surprise. I also worried about the lack of liquid in the meal so bunged together an easy gravy of roast vegetables deglazed with lamb stock.

It was very tasty, and I can see why it was such a winner. Rich, gamey lamb, sweet onions with a crunchy potato topping – what’s not to like? My only slight concern was that the recipe isn’t clear about when to use a new pan for frying off the different parts. I browned the lamb in the same pan as it eventually baked in, and it caught round the edges, making it black and sticky. These bits were nice but a touch over. Doing it again I’d use two pans for frying lamb and onions, then put the part cooked elements back into a separate casserole dish for baking. Starting off from cold it will have less chance to blacken. That said, it’s delightful. Pair it with pickled cabbage for a tart contrast.

Nigel Haworth’s Lancashire Hotpot:

500g lamb neck fillet

1 tablespoon flour, seasoned

1 large onion, sliced

25g butter

1 large potato, sliced into 2mm rounds

Preheat the oven to 160C.

  1. Toss the lamb in seasoned flour and fry in a pan to brown all over.
  2. Fry the onions in butter and a large pinch of salt until softened.
  3. Toss the potato slices in a little olive oil with salt and pepper until well coated.
  4. Lay the lamb in a casserole dish, put the onions on that and top with the potato slices. Bake in the oven for 2 hours.
  5. After 2 hours, brush the potato top with melted butter and bake in the oven uncovered for a further 30 mins or until the potato is golden brown. Serve with pickled cabbage.
Categories
food gammon potatoes

gammon with champ

Not terribly sophisticated but you can’t beat a piece of gammon. I rubbed the steaks first in a little fennel and black pepper before griddling both sides. This gave the outside of the meat a lovely charred finish, with the perfume of fennel and spike of pepper lingering amid the meaty saltiness.

When it comes to mash I prefer to bake – you don’t get any of that wateriness and I find you need to add less other stuff to take away from the potato flavour. A little charred spring onion added to it and hey presto – it’s champ.

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