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Posts Tagged ‘Potato’

Shepherd’s Pie

Posted in Food, Lamb, tagged , , , , , , on 4 February 2018| 3 Comments »

Shepherds Pie

Everyone needs a good recipe for Shepherd’s pie; and here is ours.

Wine Suggestion: We usually fall for a red wine with a Shepherd’s pie and tonight it was a Château Farcies du Pech Pécharmant from our last travels in France.

Shepherd’s Pie – serves 4

  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 onion, finely chopped
  • 1 celery stick, finely chopped
  • 2 carrots, finely chopped
  • 2 garlic cloves, crushed
  • 500g lamb mince
  • 1 heaped tbsp plain flour
  • 400ml chicken stock
  • 1 tbsp tomato purée
  • 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 bouquet garni (use whatever herbs you have but a good mix is thyme, parsley and a bay leaf tied together with string)
  • 700g floury potatoes, peeled weight, cut into chunks
  • 2 tbsp butter
  • 2 tbsp full-fat milk

Heat 2 tbsp of the oil in a large casserole and fry the onion, celery and carrots for 5 minutes or until softened but not coloured. Add the garlic and cook for another minute, then scoop the vegetables out of the pot and set aside.

Heat the remaining tbsp of oil in the same pot and add the lamb mince. Break it up with a wooden spoon and stir until it is browned and no pink bits remain. Stir in the flour, then add the stock, tomato purée, Worcestershire sauce, and bouquet garni, and season to taste. Return the vegetables and bring to the boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook, uncovered for 90 minutes. The liquid should have almost completely evaporated. You can remove and discard the bouquet garni at this point.

Meanwhile, boil the potatoes in a large pan of salted water for 20-25 minutes or until completely tender. Drain well and return to the hot pan to dry out before adding the butter and milk and mashing well. Season and cover to keep warm while the meat cooks.

Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6.

Put the lamb into a ovenproof dish around 20 x 20cm. Top with the potato and fork it over. Cook in the top of the oven for 20 minutes or until golden brown and bubbling.

(Original recipe from Family Kitchen Cookbook by Caroline Bretherton, DK, 2013.)

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Potato & Leek Gratin

Posted in Food, tagged , , , , , , , , on 14 December 2015| Leave a Comment »

Potato & Leek Gratin

Seasonal comfort food for dark nights and lashing rain. This gratin would work as a side for roast lamb or chicken, or like we did, add a little ham make it a weekday meal.

Potato & Leek Gratin – serves 4

  • 125ml chicken or vegetable stock
  • carton double cream
  • 150ml milk
  • 1 clove of garlic, crushed
  • 1 bay leaf
  • a knob of butter
  • 800g potato, peeled and thinly sliced (use a mandolin if you have one)
  • 2 leeks, washed and thinly sliced
  • 175g good quality sliced ham, chopped (optional)
  • 85g cheddar, grated

Pour the stock, cream and milk into a small saucepan with the garlic and bay leaf and bring to the boil. Remove from the heat and leave to infuse.

Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4/. Butter a 2 litre gratin dish well. Mix the potatoes, leeks and ham together and put into the gratin dish in an even layer. Pour over the creamy stock and tuck in the bay leaf. Season and sprinkle the cheese over the top.

Loosely cover with foil, set on a baking tray and bake for 30 minutes. Test the potatoes with a knife – they should be just beginning to soften. Remove the foil and bake for another 35-45 minutes, spooning some of the stock mixture over every now and again until the potatoes are tender. Cool for 15 minutes or so before serving.

(Original recipe from BBC Good Food)

Wine suggestion: We had a bottle of Reyneke Organic Syrah from South Africa opened to try as they’ve been getting great press lately, and we love how they integrate their workers into the whole process, genuinely giving back and involving the community. We thought it might have been too big and rich for the gratin but they complimented each other really well.

Reyneke Organic Syrah

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Irish Potato Cakes

Posted in Food, Vegetarian, tagged , , , , , , , , on 6 April 2015| 2 Comments »

Potato cakes

We sorely miss potato farls which you can buy in every bakery in Belfast and are so delicious with bacon for breakfast or brunch. It was a delight to find such a good and easy recipe. You have to make these with hot potato so it’s fine to use leftover mash but make sure you re-heat it.

Potato cakes 

  • 450g potatoes, steamed and put through a mouli-légumes or potato ricer
  • 110-140g flour sieved with a tsp of sea salt
  • 45g unsalted butter

Work the ingredients together with your fingers, then roll out the dough lightly into thin circles with a very well floured rolling pin. Cut with a scone cutter into circles and fry in a little butter until browned.

Serve hot with more butter and some crispy bacon.

(Original recipe from Tamasin’s Kitchen Bible by Tamasin Day-Lewis, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2005.)

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Celeriac, Potato & Rosemary Gratin

Posted in Food, Side dish, tagged , , , , , , , , , on 2 February 2015| 4 Comments »

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This takes a dish we all love and gives it something special. As celeriac is in season, and very cheap at the moment, we’ve made this a lot recently and thoroughly enjoyed it each time. We haven’t tried it with the optional bacon yet but it tastes great without it.

Celeriac, potato & rosemary gratin – serves 4-6

  • 6 rashers bacon, chopped (optional)
  • 420ml double cream
  • 350ml milk
  • 2 garlic cloves, sliced
  • 1 tbsp rosemary, finely chopped
  • 1 red chilli, deseeded and sliced
  • 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
  • 1 celeriac (about 500g) peeled, quartered and thinly sliced
  • 500g potatoes, peeled and very thinly sliced (use a mandolin if you have one)

Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4.

If you are using the bacon, grill it until cooked and lightly browned, then set aside.

Bring cream, milk, garlic, rosemary, chilli and mustard to the  boil in a medium saucepan, then turn off.

Pour a little of the cream mixture into the bottom of a gratin dish. Arrange a layer of celeriac, scatter with bacon and season. Pour over a bit more cream and repeat the process, alternating layers of potato and celeriac, finishing with a potato layer. Cover with the rest of the cream mixture, then bake for 1 hr-1hr 15 mins or until golden and tender to the point of a knife. Leave to rest for 5 minutes before serving.

(Original recipe from BBC Good Food)

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Cauliflower & Potato Curry

Posted in Asian, Food, Healthy, Indian, Vegetarian, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on 26 May 2013| 2 Comments »

Another on a light theme: in calories again not flavour.

Cauliflower & Potato Curry – to serve 4

  • 2 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 1 large onion, chopped
  • large piece ginger, grated
  • 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
  • ½ tsp turmeric
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 tsp curry powder
  • tin chopped tomatoes, drained
  • ½ tsp sugar
  • 1 cauliflower, cut into florets
  • 2 potatoes, cut into chunks
  • 1 green chilli, halved lengthways
  • squeeze of lemon juice
  • handful coriander, roughly chopped, to serve
  • natural yogurt to serve

Heat the oil in a saucepan and cook the onion for about 10 minutes or until soft. Add the ginger, garlic, turmeric, cumin, and curry powder and cook for a further minute. Stir in the tomatoes and sugar. Add the cauliflower, potatoes, and split chilli along with some salt and pepper. Cover and cook gently for about half an hour or more, stirring occasionally until the vegetables are tender. You can add a drop of water if you need to but this is a dry curry.

When the vegetables are soft, add a squeeze of lemon juice and scatter with coriander. Serve with natural yogurt.

(Original recipe from BBC Good Food)

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Colcannon

Posted in Food, Potato, Side dish, Vegetarian, tagged , , , , , , , , on 10 December 2012| Leave a Comment »

Colcannon

A very Irish side dish but good enough to eat a big bowlful on its own. If you want to restrain yourselves a bit you could balance this with a nicely barbecued sausage. The diet starts after Christmas!

When seasoning make sure you use white pepper as it makes all the difference. The pink pepper mill in the photo is our “white pepper mill”.

Colcannon – to serve 6 as a side

  • 1kg potatoes, scrubbed (cut the bigger ones in half)
  • 100g butter
  • ½ a small Savoy cabbage, finely shredded
  • 150ml double cream

Put the potatoes into a large pan of water and bring to the boil. Simmer for 15-20 minutes or until a skewer goes through without resistance.

Heat about 25g of the butter in another saucepan and fry half the cabbage for about 5 minutes.

Drain the potatoes and peel while they are hot, then mash until smooth.

Heat the cream with the rest of the butter and, when almost boiling, beat into the potato. Add the cabbage to the potato, mix well and season (with salt and white pepper).

Heaven!

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Potato Soup with Parsley Pesto

Posted in Food, Soup, Vegetarian, tagged , , , , , , , on 31 October 2012| Leave a Comment »

This is a good soup for the dark nights. The parsley pesto will keep in the fridge for up to a month (put in a sterilised jar and cover with some olive oil) and makes a great pasta sauce.

Potato Soup with Parsley Pesto – to serve 6

  • 50g butter
  • 900g potatoes, peeled and chopped
  • 1 large onion, diced
  • 850ml chicken or vegetable stock
  • 225ml milk (or half milk and half cream if you have it)

For the parsley pesto: 

  • small bunch of parsley, leaves chopped
  • 25g freshly grated Parmesan
  • 25g pine nuts
  • 2 garlic cloves, crushed
  • 100ml extra virgin olive oil

Melt the butter in a heavy saucepan. Add the potatoes and onion, toss until well coated and season. Cover and sweat on a gentle heat for 10 minutes. Pour in the stock and cook until the vegetables are soft, about 15-20 minutes.

Put all of the pesto ingredients in a food processor and whizz until evenly chopped and smooth. Add the oil and a pinch of salt.

Liquidise the soup until smooth, then add the milk. Adjust the seasoning and serve with some parsley pesto drizzled over the top.

(Original recipe by Rachel Allen in BBC Good Food Magazine, October, 2006.)

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How to cook a Spanish Omelette

Posted in Food, Potato, Spanish, Vegetarian, tagged , , , , , on 18 June 2012| Leave a Comment »

We’ve made plenty of variations on Spanish potato omelettes or tortilla but it’s hard to know when the centre is cooked. We’ve also found grilling the surface under the grill much less daunting than trying to flip a semi-liquid pan full of hot ingredients! So we were relieved to read that Claudia Roden has had similar issues and this time followed the advice she got from a Spanish friend and recounts in her fabulous book The Food of Spain. The trick is to use a smaller non-stick pan and a slightly concave saucepan lid, larger than the pan, to catch the liquid when you turn the omelette upside down. It worked for us!

Tortilla de patatas – to serve 4

  • 250g new or waxy potatoes, peeled and cut in 1.5cm cubes
  • 300ml olive oil
  • 1 medium onion, sliced thin
  • salt
  • 6 large eggs
Dry the potatoes with some kitchen roll as soon as you dice them.

Heat the oil in a smallish non-stick frying pan that will hold all the ingredients over a medium heat and add the potatoes and onions. Cook and cook over a low heat for 20-30 minutes or until the potatoes are tender. Give them a gentle shake now and again and don’t let them colour. Drain in a colander and keep the oil which you can use again. Spread the potatoes out on kitchen roll and sprinkle lightly with salt.

Beat the eggs lightly and add a little salt. Add the potatoes and onions and gently mix together.

Pour 1 tbsp of your reserved oil back into the frying pan and heat until almost smoking. Pour in the egg mixture and turn the heat to low. Cook for 3-4 minutes until the eggs set at the bottom, shaking now and then with a circular motion to stop it sticking. Put a slightly concave lid larger than the pan on top and flip the pan over quickly to leave the omelette on the lid of the pan. Pour another tbsp of the reserved oil into the pan and gently slide the omelette back in, uncooked side down, and lower the heat. Cook for 2 minutes more until just set. Run a wooden spoon round the edge of the omelette to make it neat before turning out.

Serve warm or at room temperature.

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