maltese roast potatoes

At the recent Tilda stir-fry rice event I had the fortune to chat with many bloggers I knew well and in passing. The following morning one of them pointed me towards a recipe on their site, Maltese roast potatoes. Did You Put Garlic? specialises in Maltese cuisine.

Now, these aren’t roast potatoes as this blog knows them – in fact they are extremely close to potatoes boulangere. It turns out they sprang into being for the same reason – the baker has the biggest, hottest (only?) oven in town, so everybody would cook their potatoes in his kitchen once the bread was done. This cross-pollination of ideas is not surprising given the French occupation of Malta throughout the 19th Century.

So the food itself? Lovely. Crisp-edged, slightly soft potatoes brimming with stock only with the unexpected yet entirely welcome tickle of Madras curry powder warming the mouth through at the end. Very nice. To top it off I poured nothing but the best into it: all the veg came from my garden, including my first crop of this year’s potatoes. They were all spoilt rotten.

Head on over to Mer’s site for the recipe.

And yes, I did put garlic.

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Maltese roast potatoes

Patata fil Forn is an old family recipe.

Course Side Dish

Author Gary @ BigSpud

Ingredients

• 1 large onion sliced into rings
• 4 large potatoes peeled and sliced, lengthways into 5mm rounds
• 4 garlic cloves thinly sliced
• 2 teaspoons powdered vegetable stock
• 2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon curry powder
• 2 tablespoons of oil

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 200 degrees celsius.
• Layer the base of a baking dish with a layer of half the onions, over this layer half the potatoes. Sprinkle with half the garlic, stock, pepper, curry powder and drizzle a tablespoon of oil over the top.
• Repeat with the second layer.
• Slowly pour in some water to just come up with the bottom layer of the potatoes (about 5 - 10 mm).
• Roast in the oven for about 45 minutes until the top layer is golden brown and most of the water has evaporated. Serve with your usual roast, stews, or even between a couple of slices of bread with your favourite chutney (great for when you have left overs!)