Category: potatoes

Categories
potatoes product review sausages

sausages wrapped in potato spaghetti

I’m about two years late but I’m a convert to the spiralize bandwagon. I mentioned recently how I’ve got into spiralizing a courgette or carrot and then microwaving with salmon or chicken for a quick lunch. Also mixing courgetti with sweetcorn and pesto for a superfast dinner.

I’ve been roadtesting the Savisto spiralizer:

Which is a neat entry in the spiralizing market. It has three blades, for ribbons, thick spirals and thin spirals – pretty much all you’ll need. I’ve tested it on beetroot, carrot, apple and as you can see from this recipe, potato. It does a great job with all of them. It features four suction feet so it sticks firm to your countertop, and has darned sharp prongs to hold that veg in place. Due to those features it has no problem waffling through even really tough veg. You can watch the spirals cascade down to the counter, which puts me in mind of those old Play-Doh sets.

It’s kind of like potato murder #spiralized

A photo posted by Gary Fenn (@thebigspud) on

The whole thing pleasingly gets slung in the dishwasher for cleaning. If it has a downside, it’s storage. The blades slide nicely into the under compartment, but the whole thing has sticky-out bits that make it a bit of a pain to store. I can’t help thinking of Lakeland’s tremendous model which has storage designed up front. Other than that it’s a good, sturdy model that does the job.

So of course when I get on board the trendy, healthy craze what do I do? Deep fry it. Take a raw sausage, wrap it in potato and get frying! Serve with a spicy ketchup and it’d make a fun item at a buffet. I’ve listed the recipe for 4 sausages which takes about 1 potato, so it scales up really nicely.

What are your spiralizing favourites?

Print

sausages wrapped in potato spaghetti

Course Snack
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 6 minutes
Total Time 11 minutes
Servings 4 sausages
Author Gary @ BigSpud

Ingredients

  • 4 sausages
  • 1 baking potato e.g. Maris Piper, King Edward. Something starchy

Instructions

  • Preheat your fryer to 170C.
  • Spiralize the potato. You need to do this just before frying as the potato will start to oxidize and blacken in the air. Wrap the sausages as tightly with potato as you can.
  • Deep fry for six minutes to ensure the sausages are cooked through. Drain on kitchen roll and serve on skewers.
Categories
apples pork potatoes squash

pork fillet with butternut squashti

Mrs. Spud loves Autumn. The crisp mornings, cosy evenings, warm colours… she loves it. Me, I’m not so fussed. I see dark mornings, lights on earlier, long sleeves…

But one thing I do appreciate is the produce. As the bounty of Summer slows, the patient foods appear. The ones that take their time in the earth and develop deep, sumptuous flavours. This recipe is a celebration of those Autumnal flavours, sweet butternut squash, tumbling with sharp apple in a crisp rosti, topped with rich pork.

This is part of the Waitrose #AutumnWarmers campaign, celebrating these flavours. I’ve also selected produce from my corner of England, with Essex pork and Suffolk apples which are some of the best in the world. Check the Waitrose website for more details, including their competition.

The squash rosti – squashti! – is sweet and soft with a crisp skin, topped with delicious pork and drizzled with cider-rich pan juices.

I love a potato rosti and this is a great way to get more veg into your dinners.

Print

pork fillet with butternut squashti

Author Gary @ BigSpud

Ingredients

  • 500 g pork fillet

For the rosti:

  • 1 butternut squash deseeded and peeled
  • 1 baking potato peeled
  • 2 sharp apples cored and peeled
  • 1 teaspoon dried sage

For the gravy:

  • A large splash of cider
  • 400 ml chicken stock

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 170C. Get a frying pan over a medium heat.
  • Lay out a clean teatowel. Grate the squash, potato and apple together and spread out over the teatowel. Season generously and scatter over the sage. Gather up the teatowel and squeeze out as much liquid as you can into a sink. The more juice you get out, the crisper it will be. Add a dash of oil to the pan and tip the grated veg into the pan. Squish down into the pan with a spatula and continue to cook for five minutes. After five minutes add a couple of knobs of butter to the edges of the pan. Using a large plate and a dash of confidence flip the rosti out and over. Tidy up the edges with your spatula and transfer to the oven to cook for fifteen minutes.
  • While that cooks get on with the pork. Get another pan over a high heat. Slice the pork into medallions, season with salt and pepper and add a tablespoon of oil. Cook in the pan for 8 - 10 minutes, flipping often until the internal temperature of the pork reaches 65C. Put on a board to rest for five minutes.
  • Add the cider to the pan to deglaze, and when reduced to nearly nothing add the stock and bubble away for a couple of minutes until slightly reduced. Check the rosti is done with a sharp knife - there should be no resistance. Serve with the pork on top and spooned over gravy.

This post was sponsored by Waitrose.

 

Want more Autumnal inspiration? I recommend…

Kavey’s easy butternut squash soup 

Helen’s squash salad

Katie’s pumpkin traybake

Categories
chorizo food paprika pork potatoes

roast suckling pig with chorizo roasted potatoes

When I told Mrs. Spud to expect a delivery of suckling pig, she wasn’t best pleased.

“What, with the head and everything?”

I wasn’t sure what Grey’s Fine Foods were going to send me. But she needn’t be worried, as what turned up was a boned and rolled suckling pig joint. Perfect for the squeamish! I was a little relieved myself, not because I had to stare a pig in the face but whether it would fit in my oven. The meat they sent was a regular roasting joint size.

How best to treat this lovely bit of pork? A roast with Spanish flavours to bring out the sweetness and juiciness. The paprika here lends it a smoky aroma and fennel seeds are simply the best thing to have with any pork dish.

To make sure your pork – or any meat for that matter – is completely cooked without drying it out, you should use a meat thermometer. I’ve always advocated this. I was sent an ETI SuperFast Thermapen to try, one of the best in the business. You’ll see them being used on lots of cooking shows and I spotted them on Great British Bake Off recently.

It really is a deluxe model, with rotating screen (like your phone!) and instantly turns on when you extend the probe. At the time of writing it’s
£36 on Amazon.

But I wasn’t done yet. Here’s my classic roast potatoes recipe taken to the next level with chunks of crumbly chorizo. I’d usually add more oil or fats to the baking tray but the chorizo will leak out penty of lovely juices to carry on the cooking. Perfect! Best served with chicken gravy swirled through with a mild chilli sauce.

Print

roast suckling pig with chorizo roasted potatoes

Course Main Dish
Cuisine English
Author Gary @ BigSpud

Ingredients

  • 1.5 kg suckling pig joint boned and rolled
  • 1 tablespoon fennel seeds
  • 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
  • 1 teaspoon dried rosemary

For the roast potatoes:

  • 1 kg Maris Piper potatoes peeled and diced
  • 1 chorizo Sausage approx 150g broken into chunks
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 2 garlic cloves bashed
  • 1 red onion sliced

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 220C.
  • Using a pestle and mortar bash up the fennel, rosemary and paprika with a pinch of sea salt toa powder. Add a tablspoon of olive oil and smother all over the pork. Place into a baking tray and roast for 20 minutes at this temperature toget everything started, then turn the temperatrue down to 1670C.
  • Cook for another 40 - 50 mins until the centre of the pork is 65C.
  • For the potatoes,boil in salted water for 15 minutes. Drain really well and preheat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a heavy based baking tray. Roast for 20 minutes,then add the remaining ingredients. Cook for another 20 - 30 minutes until golden brown, tossing occasionally. Check for seasoning before serving.

Thanks to ETI for the Thermapen and Grey’s Fine Foods for the pork.

 

Categories
food potatoes

actifry roast potatoes

Before we start, here’s a video version of this Actifry roast potatoes recipe:

It seems obvious, but despite (a) owning a Tefal Actifry and (b) loving a roast potato it’s never occurred to me to make an Actifry roast potato. I tried it and what do you know – they’re really worth it!

Just rinse your potatoes to get rid of the excess starch, season and pop in the Actifry for 30 – 40 minutes and you’ll get excellent weekday roast potatoes.

Do you see what I wrote there? Excellent weekday roast potatoes. They’re not a patch on your Sunday best roast potatoes. Without the boiling and the intense temperatures, you won’t get the same glass-like crunch or pillowy middle. But an Actifry roast potato will tick the boxes if you’re looking for something to accompany your dinner. You’ll get a bit of a crunch on the outside and soft enough inside. Just like Actifry chips, they’re an excellent substitute and while I haven’t run the numbers they are certainly a lot healthier than regular roast potatoes.

You should choose a floury potato, just as you would for regular roasting. So here we’re talking Maris Piper, Maris Peer, King Edward etc. Why rinse them? The excess starch in the potatoes will prevent them browning before they’re ready. After this stage the choice of flavourings are up to you, though I really like garlic powder and coarse Maldon salt. Any woody dried herbs would work well here too: perhaps rosemary, oregano or thyme. It’s your call!

The only downside to this recipe is the capacity of your model Actifry will affect how many you can cook at once. Depending on how much you need you’ll only get 4 portions maximum in a regular size version.

So, how long should you heat roast potatoes in the Actifry? The cooking time will depend on the size and thickness of your potatoes, but a general rule of thumb is to cook them for 20-30 minutes.

Now, you may be wondering if an actifry can be used for other types of roasting. The answer is also yes! An actifry can be used to roast vegetables, meats, and bake stuff too. It’s a versatile appliance that can save you time and energy in the kitchen.

One common question is whether an ActiFry is the same as an air fryer. While both appliances use hot air to cook food, the ActiFry has a paddle that rotates the food, ensuring even cooking. This can be beneficial when cooking items like chips or roasted potatoes. However, if you’re looking for a more versatile appliance, an air fryer may be a better option.

Another question is whether you can put tin foil in a Tefal ActiFry. The answer is yes, you can. However, it’s important to ensure the foil is tightly secured around the food, as loose foil can get caught in the paddle and cause damage to the appliance.

Finally, does an ActiFry use less electricity than an oven? The answer is yes, it does. An ActiFry uses less energy than a conventional oven, making it an eco-friendly option for cooking meals.

Print

actifry roast potatoes

Course Side Dish
Cuisine English
Prep Time 45 minutes
Cook Time 4 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 30 minutes
Servings 4 people
Author Gary @ BigSpud

Ingredients

  • 750 g floury potatoes
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 teaspoon Seasonings of your choice I used garlic powder and a large pinch of Maldon sea salt

Instructions

  • Peel the potatoes and chop into golf-ball sized chunks. Keep them in cold water for at least 5 minutes.
  • Meanwhile, turn the Actifry on to get hot. After a minute or so, add the oil and let that get hot for a further minute. Drain the potatoes really well. Add the drained potatoes to the Actifry with the seasonings and allow to cook for at least 30 minutes. Test with a fork for doneness and cook for a further 5-10 minutes if necessary. This will change depending on how well you preheated your Actifry and how full your oven is.

Video

Want more Actifry roast potato goodness? Here’s Jo’s version

Or you could try Michelle’s curried cauliflower

Or for something completely different, here’s Jan’s sweet chilli chicken wings

Exit mobile version