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Perfect Mashed Potatoes..

This is a big favourite with my kids. It’s also stores well, so consider making double and storing half in the fridge in tupperware for 24 – 72 hours without any loss of flavour.

Ingredients

300g of unpeeled potato per person
Salt & pepper to taste
Slug of fresh cream per person
Knob of butter per person
Grated whole nutmeg.

Peel the potatoes and slice into 1cm slices (no “dicing” or smaller pieces), and plunge into boiling salted water. If there is more water than potatoes, pour off the excess water and cover with a lid.

Basically we now cook the potatoes “to death” – but it’s important to keep and eye on the water. If it becomes cloudy from the potatoes, we’ve gone too far. What we’re waiting for is for the slices to break down and be ready to mush with a fork.

When the potatoes are ready, turn off the heat and drain the water away. (If your’re making something requiring gravy – save the water) Return the pan to the heat. The residual heat will cause a lot of steam. The steam helps remove excess water.

Mash the potatoes with a fork and add a knob of butter

With a fork, start mashing. If you find any hard bits with the fork, remove them. This is why we don’t use a “masher” which is a bit like a bulldozer. When we have a “fork mashed” mash, add the knob of butter and a little salt to taste. To be honest, the simple potato + butter taste is a perfectly aceptable mash if you’re trying to keep it simple.

To make the mash “perfect”, stir in some fresh cream to taste and about 1/4 of a whole nutmeg per person grated into the mash. Now, using a egg whisk, whisk the mash to blend and make the mash more “creamed”.

HOLDING POINT

The mash can be re-warmed from this moment for at least 2 hours from fresh, or 72 hours if kept chilled.

Celery, Courgette and warm salad leaves with feta

This is definitely a “leftovers” recipe but OMG it works! Feta is a great “store cupboard” ingredient (although it lives in the fridge), it has a 3 month shelf life. If you open a packet, store the leftovers in a tupperware box with the liquid to keep for another 7 days. Or, rub it with flour and fry in olive oil to totally change the flavour and use it up…

Ingredients

1 x Courgette
 3 x sticks of celery
 100g feta cheese
 Leftover rocket/salad leaves.
 50g fresh dill
 1 tablespoon olive oil.
 Salt & Pepper to taste.

Gently fry the courgette and celery until they are soft. When they are ready, crumb the feta cheese over the vegetables. Stir into them and remove from heat. If you’re adding those “leftover” salad leaves (which take on a new life warm) now is the time to stir them into the mix. Add the fresh dill and we’re ready to serve!
Note : the only truly “essential” elements here are the feta and the dill. Swap the courgette for cucumbers, swap the rocket for lettuce, or mixed leaves etc. Personally, I really like celery softened like this but this is very much a moveable feast.

Credits/Sources.
“Food from Plenty” by Diana Henry

Roasted "tatties"

This is my favourite “slow” way of roasting potatoes. At Christmas, I use melted duck fat instead of Olive oil for the frying, but the olive oil isn’t in any way second rate and imparts it’s own flavour to the dish.

Ingredients

Potatoes (100g unpeeled per person)

Salt

Olive Oil (or Duck Fat) for frying

Knob of butter

Fresh Thyme (optional).

First of all, we need to peel and cut the potatoes into roughly equal sized pieces. Peel using a sharp potato peeler (WMF sell the best design in the world). Then cut smaller potatoes in half, bigger ones into 3 equal sized piece.

Try and get all of the potatoes into equal sized bits

Boil some water in a saucepan, when it reaches boling point, add some  (good measure of) salt and plunge your potatoes into it. There will probably be too much water in the pan (which means your potatoes will taste LESS of potato and MORE of water. Pour away until the potatoes are just covered by the boiling salted water.

Cover with a lid (or a plate or some tin foil) so you help the potatoes cook through at say 70% of max heat and leave for around 10 minutes. Check to see if the potatoes (particularly the cut ones) still show “rings” or are in fact cooked through.

When the potatoes are cooked, drain the water. If you are planning to make gravy, keep this in a bowl to add to the gravy later.

Now pour one dessert spoon of flour (or mashed potato powder if you have this) over the potatoes and in the same saucepan, shake vigourously. You’re mission “Jim, should you decide to accept it” is to bash the edges of the potatoes so that you are making mash on the outside of boiled potato.

Some potatoes I beat up previously...

These are now ready to be transferred in to the boiling oil. If you’re doing a dinner party etc, you can now store for about 12 hours ONLY IF you add some lemon juice to the boiling water previously. Otherwise “browning” will set in. Personally, I prefer to hold when cooked.

Next we retrieve “ye olde trusty 20cm deep frying pan” and fill to about 2cm with olive oil (or, if it’s Christmas, Duck Fat), when it’s cooked but not burnt, we add a smidgeon of potato to see if the oil “fries” or just “soaks” the sample.

Fry "cut side" down without moving until you flip them upside.

When ready, add the potatoes in batches of 4/5 cut-side down into the fat. DO NOT MOVE until the underside is nicely toasted, then flip over to and brown the other side.

Note : if you move them regularly (or if the oil is not hot enough), your oil will soak into the potatoes (nasty) and they won’t achieve the crispy edges we want.

When they are done  both sides, remove to an oven-proof tray or dish and when all of them are present and correct, cover with foil and add to the oven for at least 1 hour covered in foil. This will “cook through” what’s left and they will achieve true potato perfection = crispy shells and “mash” inside.

Those jaggedy bits will make the "crunch" we want!

Next, we leave in the oven for at least 1 hour. If your “primary target” ie, bird or joint, needs more time, simply remove (still  covered in foil) after 1 hours and await “crisping time”.

When we are kinda getting ready to serve, add The fresh Thyme (I used Bay leaves as an alternative in the photos), a knob of butter. Using an upturned ladle (or any blunt instrument) give your “tatties” a bash. We’re trying to expand the remaining area for cooking and we also achieve a nice “pebble” shape. (credit for this : Jamie Oliver)

Time to bash those tatties again!

Now cook again for 15 minutes in a very hot oven (ie, when you are pre-heating ready for yorkshire puds), then remove and leave uncovered for 15 minutes max.

Patatas a lo pobre -(Poor man's potatoes)

This is a great side dish. It’s also a halfway stage in making Tortilla (Spanish Omlette) It’s great with steaks, fish, roasts  etc  One of it’s best features is you can make it a couple of hours in advance and then just return to the pan to warm through at the last moment, without affecting the taste.

500ml of top quality olive oil** 

350g of sliced and salted potatoes (approx 3 medium sized)

1 x 20cm diameter fring pan with high sides

Serves : 2 as a side dish.*

* You can use a bigger pan if you’re making double the recipe. Bigger pans also mean using even more olive oil though, so I prefer to make 2 batches in a smaller one.

Peel the potatoes and cut them into slices of 0.5cm thick. Lay them down on a board and prinkle them with salt. Then, turn them over and sprinkle them again with salt. Don’t worry about the huge salt content since most of this salt won’t make it into the final dish.

Put the oil (yes all of it!) into the frying pan and heat up, taking care not to overheat it. We’re after a medium heat, trying always not to burn the olive oil, ie we want it to remain dark and gloopy, not liquid and smoking.

When the oil is hot, slip one piece of potato in gently. The piece should bubble but not ferociously. Too hot and you’ll be making chips! Very carefully, put the remaining potatoes into the pan and allow to bubble away. What’s happening is we are boiling the potatoes in oil, so the water from the potatoes will escape as steam and the flavour will be more concentrated.

When the potatoes are cooked (ie: no “rings” visible in the slices and they have a waxy appearance, carefully pour the boiling hot oil into a bowl/jug (where you can store it for use again). Use a spatula or spoon to gently press down on the potatoes and try to pour off even more oil.  This is the

HOLDING POINT

so, leave them in the pan until needed. Just before serving you can warm through for a couple of minutes.

Purists would tell you that the potatoes are now ready. However, I like to fry mine off a little more without all the oil to caramelise/crisp up the edges. This gives (I think) more texture and flavour, but it’s up to you…

turn up the heat under the pan containing the potatoes to about 80% of max and crisp up the potato slices. When they are done one side turn over and repeat. Notice the colour change in the image at the top of the page. Enjoy!

Tortilla de patata (Potato omlette)

This dish, in addition to being eaten at home, is one I regularly make when travelling. It can be made the night before and cut into chunks and put into a tupperware box with some cocktail sticks to make the ultimate in-flight snack. Also, I’m surprised at how long it’s taken me to document this recipe, guess it’s a case of “technique” over contents..

It’s essential to have a proper pan to make your tortilla. Personally I prefer mine to be slightly moist on the inside, so that requires a smaller, deeper pan than your average frying pan. The one in the image below is 20cm in diameter and 6cm deep.

Also important is the quality of the eggs – definitely a case of organic or the best you can buy. Then (unfortunately) there is the olive oil. In the images below you can see an olive oil that is really thick and gloopy and costs 4 euros per litre, something of the same quality in the UK costs around 12 – 14 pounds. The oil can be used for other dishes when the tortilla is made, so I often make my Italian Fried Chicken to go with this just to use up the oil.

Finally, before we get cracking there is the “with or without onion” dilemma. Personally I prefer it with onion however, each to his own. Simply omit onion from the instructions below.

Ingredients 6 x medium organic eggs, beaten in a large (25cm+) bowl. 

500ml of top quality olive oil** 

350g of sliced and salted potatoes (approx 3 medium sized)

 1/2 an onion (optional) chopped coarsely. 350g potatoes cut into slices (see below) 

1 x 20cm diameter fring pan with high sides

1 x 23cm (or larger) dinner plate

First place 2 tablespoons of olive oil into the pan and gently fry the chopped onion, we are aiming for soft, translucenct bits. We don’t want to burn the onion since this will impair the flavour. While the onions are frying off, peel the potatoes and cut into slices approx 0.5cm in depth. Lay these out on a board and liberally sprinkle them with salt. Then, turn them over and sprinkle them again with salt. Don’t worry about the huge salt content since most of this salt won’t make it into the final dish.

Cut the potatoes into 1/2 cm slices and sprinkle with salt both sides

When the onions are done, remove them from the frying pan and add them to the beaten egg in the bowl. Now put the remaining oil (yes all of it!) into the frying pan and heat up, taking care not to overheat it. We’re after a medium heat, trying always not to burn the olive oil, ie we want it to remain dark and gloopy, not liquid and smoking.

When the oil is hot, slip one piece of potato in gently. The piece should bubble but not ferociously. Too hot and you’ll be making chips! Very carefully, put the remaining potatoes into the pan and allow to bubble away. What’s happening is we are boiling the potatoes in oil, so the water from the potatoes will escape as steam and the flavour will be more concentrated.

Gently fry the potatoes submerged in the olive oil

Incidentally, at this stage we’re making another Spanish dish called “Patatas a lo Pobre” which means “Poor peoples potatoes”. There is a link here to make this without the egg element. Keep an eye on the potatoes while they are frying. You should see them slowly change colour and texture from the outside in, taking on a kind of waxy texture. Until they are like this all the way through, we’re not done. When they are ready, carefully drain the oil into a container where we can use it later. This oil has no flavour from the potatoes and can be used for frying other food so don’t waste it.

(optional stage)

Purists would tell you that the potatoes are now ready for the egg. However, I like to fry mine off a little more without all the oil to caramelise/crisp up the edges. This gives (I think) more texture and flavour to the tortilla but it’s up to you…     Here goes Turn up the heat under the pan containing the potatoes to about 80% of max and crisp up the potato slices. When they are done one side turn over and repeat. Notice the colour change in this image.

Note the texture if we crisp up a little before we make the omlette

(end of optional stage)

Now put the potatoes into the egg mixture and give it all a good stir. Add a good sprinkling of salt (trust me!). Gently mash the potato into the egg mix about 25%, ie we don’t want it to become mash potatoes but we do want some of the egg mixed into the potato.

Now for the fun part : we have to make the tortilla. Put a spoonful of the olive oil back into the frying pan and bring the heat up to maximum.

As soon as it starts smoking empty the oil back into the storage container.

Now pour the egg/onion/potato mixture into the pan and lower the temperature to 4 or 40% of maximum. Make sure that the potato is evenly spread around in the pan and then LEAVE ALONE watching carefully for about 5 minutes. You’re looking for “chimney holes” to appear in the tortilla, ie : escapes of steam from the mixture. The tortilla should still be raw on the side facing us. If the edges appear to be cooking through we’re more than done –  Get your dinner plate out ready for the flipping!

Ready for flipping

Place the dinner plate over the frying pan and hold handle with one hand, plate with the other. Now flip the pan over, the tortilla should flop out onto the plate.

One side down, one to go!

Put it down for a second. make sure the frying pan is clean, ie no remains of egg from the tortilla. If required, clean with a paper towel, add a little olive oil and raise the temperature. As soon as the oil starts to smoke, slip the tortilla from the dinner plate back into the pan and lower the temperature to 4/40% again. You should only need a few moments on the other side. The tortilla shouldn’t be completely cooked inside (unless you like it that way) in any case it will continue “cooking” itself anyway while the residual heat dissapates.

Incidentally if from the flipping you have any residue raw egg on the upper side of the tortilla simply use a clean plate and flip it once more for a few seconds to clean it up. The tortilla should look like this :

Ready to eat!

Before you dive in, the tortilla will improve if allowed to rest for about 30 minutes before eating,. If you’re making for a picnic or to store etc, then after 20 minutes or so cover with foil or place in tupperware to prevent it drying out. This can be cut into chunks, it’s great with mayo and crunchy bread or you can go on and put it in a tomate frito and slowly cook it (covered) for another 30 minutes to make it totally divine.

Finally, although I like my tortilla “sloppy”, I appreciate that not everyone does. If when you cut a slice, yours is too wet inside, simply return the tortilla to the pan for a minute extra on each side or 1 minute in the microwave will do the job. To be honest, it’s harder to undercook it than overcook it. Enjoy.