Potato Bread

I've written about potato bread before (here), but that was almost a year ago and I was inspired to mention it again after baking some this weekend. Since last year, we have (on and off) had a pretty much continuous supply of potato bread, sometimes we use a little rye or spelt flour to give it more character, sometimes we bake it in different shapes. What stays the same is the sourdough like tang and the unbelievable toast it makes. Shop brought bread just doesn't cut it in comparison.


The idea of making bread yourself can often seem a daunting task. Whilst it does invariably take time, it's certainly not difficult and it is so satisfying to remove a delicious looking loaf of bread from the oven and the smell is incredible. I usually boil a couple of extra potatoes when I'm making mash or roast potatoes. If I have lots, then I cook enough to make 2 loaves as it freezes excellently.

Then all you do is reserve some of the starchy water the potatoes are cooked in and mash some potatoes into a large bowl containing, flour, salt, yoghurt and yeast; roll your sleeves up and get kneading. Let it rise in a warm place for an hour or two, punch out all the air and let it rise again before baking in a hot oven until golden and the bottom sounds hollow when tapped.

As long as your water isn't too hot (this will kill the yeast and stop it working), and you give it a good knead, there's not much that go wrong.

Also, check out these tips from baking god Dan Lepard.

Recipe.
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Smoked Mackerel, Radish and New Potato Salad

I was a bit stumped when the we got these radishes in the veg box, lovely and pink as they are. They taste a bit like turnip and add crunch and colour to a simple salad. But I wanted something new and exciting. I found an interesting one in my Abel and Cole Cookbook, a salad of new potatoes and radish with olives and feta, all good but several ingredients I din't have and had no intention of buying.

So, as usual, in between dozing off on my tube journey, I planned my dinner for the evening and thought of this. Crispy little slices of roast new potatoes, fresh, crunchy pink radish and parsley, flakes of smoked mackerel and zingy little capers. All doused in a lemony, mustardy, yoghurt dressing. If I do day so myself, the flavour combinations worked perfectly, capers and lemon are smoked mackerel's best friend. We happily gobbled it up for dinner.

Ingredients

Serves 4

750g new potatoes
3 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
4 tbsp capers
1 bunch parsley, chopped
1 lemon, juiced
300g radishes, quartered
400g smoked mackerel
200g greek yoghurt
2tsp english mustard

• Heat the oven to 200°C and heat a large roasting tray with the olive oil.
• Meanwhile clean the potatoes and slice into 1cm thick coins. Add to the baking tray, stir until well coated in the hot oil and season well.
• Roast for 30mins, stirring occasionally until golden and soft inside. Don't worry if the slices become a little stuck, use a spatula to scrape them off the bottom, this just creates more crispy bits. After 20mins place the mackerel fillets onto the potatoes in the oven to warm up.
• Meanwhile, add the english mustard and half the lemon juice to the yoghurt along with a pinch of salt and pepper and stir well.
• Once cooked, transfer the potato slices to a large bowl along with as much of the roasting oil as possible. Flake in the smoked mackerel and add the red onion, capers, parsley, radishes and the rest of the lemon juice.
• Dollop on the dressing and mix very gently, you don't want the salad to be completey covered.

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Vegetarian Shepherd's Pie

I guess you could call this more of a 'gardeners' pie' as naturally there is no lamb in it, either way given this was a random idea thrown together after work, its definitely as rich, filling and hearty as any meaty version and as delicious too.

Red lentils braised in red wine and tomatoes, topped with buttery mashed potatoes and grated cheese, and baked until bubbling and golden. I used plenty of carrots and even a little cabbage in the mash (I always seem to have leftover cabbage in my veg box) so as well as the lentils, this makes for virtuous eating in fitting with January Healthy Eating (surely we can stop that soon?)

This is a really basic recipe, perfect for varying with what you feel like, just googling this I found recipes using sweet potato mash, goats cheese topping and beans instead of lentils, so feel free to experiment. The only word of warning is to make sure you pack plenty of flavour into the lentil sauce as anyone who's cooked lentils and/or beans before knows, they do taste good, they just need a little extra care and attention to get there.

This is perfect cook ahead food to serve to large groups of people. You could even make double and freeze half, great for chucking in the oven after a busy day. Leftovers make perfect packed lunches too.

Ingredients

Serves 4 (with leftovers!)

2 onions, peeled and finely chopped
2 carrots, peeled and diced
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 bay leaves
200g red lentils
250ml red wine
1 can chopped tomatoes
1tsp stock powder (or ½ stock cube)
900g floury potatoes, peeled and cut into 5cm chunks
50g butter
200ml milk
100g strong cheddar, grated

• Heat a large casserole and add 2tbsp oil, fry onions and carrots gently for 5mins, add the garlic and bay leaves and fry for a few mins more.
• Tip in the lentils and stir well to coat in the oily, oniony juices.
• Pour in the red wine and allow it to bubble aways for about 3mins.
• Add the chopped tomatoes, fill the can with water to rinse it out and add this too.
• Add enough extra water so that lentils are covered in about 2cm water.
• Bring to the boil and simmer for 20-30mins until the lentils are cooked, top up with water if necessary, you want a fairly liquid sauce.
• Once the lentils are cooked , check the seasoning and add salt and pepper.
• Meanwhile boil the potatoes in plenty of boiling salted water until very soft, drain well and either push through a potato ricer or mash with a masher.
• Heat the milk and butter in a small saucepan and pour over the potatoes, add plenty of seasoning and beat until smooth with a wooden spoon.
• Spoon the lentil mixture into a large baking dish, top with the mashed potato.
• Sprinkle over the grated cheese and bake at 200C for 20mins until bubbling and golden.

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Beef, Mushroom and Guinness Stew

Another gem utilising my slow cooker. Inspired by this article by Nigel Slater we used cheap chunks of braising steak slow cooked with mushrooms, plenty of sweet onions and carrots and Guinness, to counteract the slight bitterness of the Guinness, I added a couple of tablespoons of prune jam that I had in the fridge, any other fruit jelly or sauce would work well, such as apple sauce, to give a rich and round flavoured stew.

Of course something this warming, with copious amounts of gravy cries out for a mash of some kind. As it is so rich, I'm thinking some kind of root mash would work well or colcannon. We had swede chips with ours, sweet and crispy they worked perfectly with the stew.

Ingredients

Serves 4

750kg stewing beef, cut into chunks
5tbsp flour
2 onions, finely chopped
2 carrots, finely chopped
2 cloves garlics, finely sliced
250g mushrooms, sliced in half
1 sprig thyme
1 can Guinness
150ml water
2tbsp redcurrant jelly or apple sauce
1 small bunch chopped parsley to serve

• Heat a large casserole on the hob.
• Meanwhile sprinkle the flour over the beef with plenty of seasoning, turn the beef and make sure its well covered.
• Add a little oil to the pan and fry the beef in batches until brown all over. Remove and set aside.
• Add a little more oil and fry the onions and carrots over a low heat for about 10mins. Add a splash of water to the pan and scrape the bottom to lift of any sediment.
• Add the thyme, bay leaves, mushrooms and beef to the casserole with the Guinness and water.
• Cover and cook in the oven at 170C for 2 hours until the beef in meltingly soft.
• Stir in the apple sauce and season to taste.
• Serve sprinkled with parsley.

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Steak with Colcannon Mash and Creamy mushroom Sauce

Yes, this was as outrageous as it sounds, not exactly in keeping with January healthy eating. but sometimes when its cold outside, you need something fortifying and creamy. All is not lost, there must be a good 2 portions of veg in the colcannon and mushroom sauce!

I've already written about steak, so has Jamie Oliver, it goes without saying that you need to start with good quality meat (preferably organic). Really, with something this simple and good, its all about starting with the right ingredients, proper butter, decent potatoes... I really think you can taste the difference with organic potatoes. I've given lots of variations on mash here, and the colcannon recipe is here, if you don't fancy a creamy mushroom sauce, you could try this port and mushroom sauce instead.


Creamy Mushroom Sauce

Ingredients

Serves 4

250g chestnut mushrooms, sliced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
squeeze lemon juice
1tsp grain mustard
1 small tub creme fraiche

• Heat a frying pan and tip in the mushrooms. I always dry fry mushrooms for a while first as they tend to eat up oil. Fry until beginning to brown.
• Add a knob of butter along with garlic and continue to fry until the mushrooms are cooked through.
• Add the mustard, lemon juice and creme fraiche. Warm through and season generously with lots of black pepper and a little salt.

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Parsnip and Potato Hash

I'm really getting into winter cooking and my current love affair is with parsnips, so sweet and tasty, roasted up with some paprika and chilli to balance the sweetness, there's not much better.

I made this hash for breakfast the other day, the parsnips were my effort to sneak in a few more vegetables but actually add something more interesting to your classic potatoes, I also think some sliced red pepper could work well here too. Top with baked beans and a fried egg on top and you're set up for the day...

Ingredients

Serves 4

6-8 rashers streaky bacon (optional)
1 onion, sliced
1 red pepper, deseeded and finely sliced
350g potatoes, peeled and cut into matchsticks
350g parsnips, peeled and cut into matchsticks
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 red chilli, finely chopped
2 cans baked beans
4 eggs

• Heat a large frying pan and cook the bacon until golden and crispy then remove.
• In the same pan, fry the onions in a little oil for a few mins, then throw in the potato, pepper and parsnip along with the chilli and garlic
• Cover, turn to low and cook for 15mins, stirring every so often to make sure nothing burns on the bottom.
• Meanwhile, heat the baked beans and fry the eggs.
• Once the potatoes and parsnips are cooked through, season well.
• Serve a mound of the hash with a spoonful of baked beans before topping with an egg.

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Venison Sausages with Mash and Mushroom Sauce

Mmm... this was a seriously decadent, rich and comforting dinner. We got some venison sausages with our veg box this week (they were on offer). Naturally we immediately thought of sausage and mash and I had a little braised red cabbage in the freezer. It was the wine and mushroom sauce (inspired by our Abel and Cole Cookbook) that really made this into something extra special even though it was cooked in the time it took to boil some spuds and grill the sausages.

Ingredients

Serves 4

20g dried mushrooms
250ml stock (chicken or beef)
50g butter
1 red onion, finely chopped
250g mushrooms (preferably a mix of wild and chestnut), sliced
250ml port or red wine
1tbsp cornflour

Make your sauce whilst the spuds are boiling anf you grill the sausages.

Cook the onions in the butter for 5 mins until soft
Turn up the heat and throw in the mushrooms, fry for 5 more mins until starting to turn golden.
Pour in the port and allow to bubble away for a few mins until most of the liquid has gone.
Mix the cornflour to a smooth paste with a little water and slowly stir into the pan. Add the stock, bring to the boil and cook a for another few minutes, stirring until the sauce thickens, add a little more stock or water if the sauce gets too thick.



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Mashed Potatoes

I can't believe I've not waxed lyrical about my love for mash before... it is possibly one of my favourite foods, I always defer to stodgy 'comfort' food and mashed potato is the ultimate, I could eat bowls and bowls. Given the proliferation of potatoes in my veg box recently, I've had plenty of excuse to make it, especially with a bit of sauteed cabbage thrown in to make it a bit 'healthier', any leftovers made into potato cakes. I must also admit to a love of mash with baked beans, but maybe that's just me.

Of course, when I think of mash, I think of The Big Bang and then I get hungry, asude from sausage and mash, working there gave me the idea for my current favourite: mustard mash, made with grainy mustard. They also did a fabulous mash made with pureed beetroot that turned it bright pink.

To make good mash, I think you need to start with good (organic) floury potatoes, boil them until really soft, otherwise you'll get lumps, then drain them really well, you can even leave them in the colander to steam for a bit to make sure all the moisture's gone. I push my potatoes through a ricer, but you can mash like mad. Meanwhile heat some milk, butter or cream; this step is essential as adding cold milk turns the mash gluey instead of smooth and creamy. Mixt the milk in with plenty of seasoning and bea like mad with a wooden spoon to get a creamy consitency. Other ideas for variations include:

Cheddar Cheese Mash: Add 175g grated strong cheddar and mix until melted in (you may want to go a little easier on the cream).

Spring Onion Mash: Finely slice a bunch of spring onions and warm with the cream before adding to the potatoes.

Garlic Mash: Boil a couple of cloves of garlic along with the potatoes, peel and squeeze the gooey insides into the mash.

Mustard Mash: Add 1-2tbsp grain mustard

Horseradish Mash: Add 2 tbsp fresh horseradish , ready grated horseradish from a jar, or creamed horseradish to give your mash a real kick.

Now, mash isn't confined to potatoes alone, swede, parsnip, squash, sweet potatoes all make fabulous mash and count as one of your 5-a-day, this article from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall in Last week's Weekend Guardian was brilliant, so many ideas, i'm currently dreaming of Parsnip, Leek and Potato Mash...

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Bacon and Cabbage soup

This is a hearty and healthy soup perfect for a chilly wintry day. Even better with lots of toasted potato bread slathered in buttered. I came up with this to use up yet more cabbage, along with various odds and ends in the vegetable basket.

The base is a simple vegetable soup, and here lies the beauty as you can use whatever vegetables you have to hand, we used leeks and potato, but carrot, parsnip or celery would all work equally well. Blend it up, add the finely chopped cabbage and simmer for about 5mins until soft. I then added some flagelot beans, just for added texture and to make it into more of a meal, of course leave these out if you like and you're still left with a delicious filling soup. A bit of salty crispy bacon at the end and you're done, optional too!

Ingredients

1 onion, chopped
3 leeks, sliced
25g butter
2 cloves glaric, sliced
500g floury potatoes peeled and cut into cubes
2 bay leaves
1l vegetable stock
½ green cabbage such as a savoy (about 200g), shredded finely
1 can flagelot beans, drained (or butter or cannellini beans), optional
8 rashers streaky bacon, cut into strips

• Sweat the onion and leeks in the butter over a low heat for 10mins until really soft.
• Add the garlic, bay leaves and potatoes, stir to coat in the buttery juices and pour in the hot vegetable stock.
• Simmer for about 15mins until the potatoes are completely soft.
• Remove the bay leaves and blend until smooth. Season to taste (easy on the salt!)
• Pile the cabbage in, stir and simmer for about 5mins until the cabage is soft.
• Meanwhile heat a frying pan unti very hot, fry the bacon until golden and crisp. Tip into the soup, with a smuch of the bacony juices as possible.
• Serve with lots of bread and butter.

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Breakfast Potato Cakes

This is the perfect way to use up leftover mash, although I would actually make extra so I could fry these up for breakfast the next day, mashed potato and baked beans is possibly one of my favourite combinations, so any excuse really... all you need to do is shape the mash into little cakes, dust in some flour and fry until golden and warmed through. you end up with little cakes of creamy mash inside a crispy fried shell, heat up some beans whilst you're frying and maybe poach an egg to sit atop the cakes, a perfect breakfast!


I actually made these from scratch, admittedly a bit of hassle for a Sunday morning, but I was already boiling up potatoes to make potato bread (and here's the perfect excuse to urge you to make this divine bread!) so it was no biggy, plus I always like to get ahead on Sunday and cook up big batches of food for the week...

Ingredients
Makes enough mash for dinner and breakfast the next day!

800g organic floury potatoes
1 small green cabbage (savoy cabbage or kale also work well)
50g butter
1 clove garlic, finely chopped.
125ml milk, preferably warmed through
flour for dusting

• Peel, the potatoes, cut into chunks and boil in salted water for about 20mins until very soft.
• Drain well and either push through a ricer or mash throughly.
• Add the milk and half the butter along with lots of salt and pepper.
• Now you need to beat furiously with a wooden spoon to get a really smooth mash. Cover and set aside.
• Meanwhile, half and quarter your cabbage, cut out the heart and slice as finely as possible.
• Boil or steam for about 5mins (this will depend on the type of cabbage used) until soft and drain.
• Heat the rest of the butter in a frying pan with a little oil until sizzling, add the garlic and the cabbage and fry for a few mins, season generously and stir the cabbage through the mash, making sure you get all the buttery juices in too.
• This is where you would eat it with anything that has a sauce to soak into the mash or some fish or maybe just on its own from a bowl.
• To make the cakes, coat your hands in flour and sprinkle some onto a plate.
• Take a small handful of mash, roll into a ball and flatten, dip both sides in the flour and place into a hot frying pan with a little oil, fry for a few mins on both sides until golden and warmed through.

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Jansen's Temptation

I saw this recipe in this month's Olive for a Swedish dish of potatoes and onions layered, covered with cream and anchovies and baked with a crunchy breadcrumb topping. How can you go wrong?

I ended up using this recipe from Hollow Legs and it was pretty good, although I'm not sure I was completely turned, possibly too many onions for me. We had it with a delightful salad of veg box ingredients as the cream makes it pretty rich.

It reminds me of a Jamie Oliver recipe that my friend Rose makes all the time, now that is a good fish bake. Read more...

Homemade Gnocchi

I had a fantastic weekend, generally cooking and eating lots of fabulous things. There's nothing like a bit of time to spend pottering in the kitchen, hence homemade gnocchi. I tried making this once at university with pumpkin I think, anyway it was a disaster, the high water content in the pumpkin just made gloopy blobs of the gnocchi and I've been put off a bit since then.

Anyway, I was browsing 101cookbooks.com, looking for a pesto recipe, when I came across the gnocchi recipe. I followed this recipe pretty loosely as to be honest, there was a lot of waffle to wade through. Either way, we ended up with delighful pillows of gnocchi that I decided to fry instead of boil, just because I've never done it before. The browned bits on the gnocchi went really well with the smokiness of the red pepper pesto we had with it. It was one of those dinners where you spend the whole time exclaiming about how GOOD it is. A success I think... so now I'm thinking that you could probably make loads of this and freeze half, then pop them straight in boiling water to cook (you know when gnocchi is cooked as it floats to the surface) and then try this Nigella recipe.

I didn't add anything to the gnocchi, which was fine as they were still amazing, but I thinking some extra flavourings could be pretty good, for next time, I have several ideas, one is to use cheese - mozzarella, ricotta, gorgonzola, or basil, spinach, mushrooms etc.

Ingredients

Serves 2

500g waxy potatoes
200g plain flour
1 egg, beaten
salt and pepper

Peel and dice the potatoes and boil in salted water until tender. Drain and push through a potato rice if you have one, if not make sure you mash them well to get rid of any lumps. Spread the fluffy potato out on a chopping board and allow to cool. Once cool add the egg, flour and plenty of seasoning. Carefully incorporate this into the potato, gradually bringing it in to form a dough, knead for a few minutes then cut into about 4 pieces. Roll these pieces out into long sausage shapes, about 1in thick, then cut into pieces about 1in long. To make the charactersitic gnocchi marks, use a fork to press on the top of the gnocchi, once done, place onto a floured plate.

To cook either boil for a few minutes in plenty of boiling water or fry gently for a few minutes on each side. Read more...

Big Mack Cakes

I've become mildly obsessed with reading other people's blogs (a list of my favourites to go up soon) and fantasising about 1. taking pictures as good as theirs and 2. being given my own book deal. I soon realised that I need to get a much flashier camera in order to take those kind of pictures, in the meantime, I'm getting increasingly frustrated with my own. So whilst I don't like this picture (bad lighting), I had to post it as these were the BEST THING EVER when we had them for tea last night.

These are not your run of the mill fishcakes. Firstly we used smoked mackerel, fast becoming my favourite omega 3/protein/fishy source, these add much more smoky flavour than the traditional smoked haddock and are obviously the sustainable choice. We also used organic potatoes from the veg box, I'm not always convinced that organic tastes better per se, but with potatoes you can really taste the difference, even against all these strong flavours. After a little research, I also decided to add some capers, chopped boiled egg and chives (mostly because we had them and no parsley). And there you have it, the ultimate fishcakes.

We just coated them in flour, but there's a nigella recipe where she coats them in flour, then egg, then crumbled ritz biscuits for crunchy coating. The joy with these is that you can then bake them in the oven. A bit labour intensive for me and the flour and fry method worked out just fine for us.

The other key component was a lemony creme fraiche sauce that we had alongside and worked really well. All I did was add some seasoning, lemon zest and the juice of ½ lemon to a pot of creme fraiche and set aside.

We had ours with salad, a particularly good one is pea, spinach and avocado or an astringent salad of baby gem lettuce, capers and chopped gherkin, both with a mustardy dressing.

Ingredients
250g smoked mackerel, flaked into large pieces
250g potatoes
2 free range eggs
50g butter
milk (for mashing)
2tbsp capers

Chop the potatoes and cook in plenty of boiling salted water until tender. Add the eggs to the pan for 8mins and remove. One the potatoes are cooked, drain and mash with the butter, adding a little milk to loosen if necessary. Peel and chop the boiled eggs and add to the mash along with the capers, ½ the lemon zest, chives and smoked mackerel. Stir together and taste, you may or may not want to add some lemon juice at this stage. Now divide the mixture into roughly 8 and shapes into cakes, roll in flour and set aside in the fridge for 30mins to firm up.

Meanwhile add the juice and zest of ½ lemon to the creme fraiche along with slat and pepper.

Heat some oil in a pan and fry the fish cakes on each side on a medium heat for 4-5 mins until warmed through and crispy on the outside.

Eat with salad and the creme fraiche sauce. Happy food dance optional. Read more...

Fish Pie

Loosely based on a recipe by Gordon Ramsey, this is seriously the best fish pie I've ever tasted. He makes it topped with puff pastry, but why miss a chance to use mashed potato? Use any combination of fish you like (see fish online), prawns or scallops would be a particularly decadent addition. some kind of salad with a mustardy dressing and maybe some capers goes well with this.

Fish Pie

Serves 6

1.5kg floury potatoes
100ml milk
50g butter
2 onions, finely chopped
250ml dry vermouth
375ml stock
½tsp english mustard
½ lemon, juiced
200g creme fraiche
400g trout fillet, cut into small pieces
600g white fish fillet (such as pollack, coley), cut into small pieces
1 samll bunch parsley chopped
handful basi leaves, shredded

Peel the potatoes and cook in boiling water until very soft. Mash the potatoes with the milk and butter and season well. Meanwhile, fry the onions in a little oil until softened. Add the vermouth and boil until reduced by half, add the stock and boil until reduced by half again. Add the creme fraiche, mustard and lemon juice, cook gently until thickened and season. Add the fish and herbs to the sauce, mix well and transfer to an ovenproof dish. Top with the mashed potato and cook at 180°C for 30mins until golden brown on top. Allow to stand for 5mins before serving.


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Sag Aloo

Having spent all week thinking about the saag panner that I had at Woodlands, I decided to try and make my own, the key was the saag part of the curry, it was a bright green, almost pureed sauce, brimming with flavour.

Seen as though I had some potatoes left to use up, I made sag aloo. I cooked the potatoes slowly in the onions and aromatic spice mixture, lifted them out and them cooked the spinach in the same pan, pureed it and then add the potatoes back in. All in all, I think this was a bit involved, so next time, I'd probably just chop the spinach really small to get the same texture. It was definitely good, just not as good as Woodlands...

Ingredients
2 onions, chopped finely
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1tbsp grated ginger
2tsp cumin seeds
2tsp gorund coriander
1tsp tumeric
2tsp garam masala
500g new potatoes, sliced into thick coins and cooked until soft
spinach, finely chopped
2tbsp yoghurt

Fry the onions, garlic and ginger slowly in sunflower oil until really soft, add the spices and fry for a few mins more. Add the potatoes and cook slowly for 5-10mins until the potatoes are really soft and have absorbed all the spices. Add the spinach and cook for 5mins more. Stir in the yoghurt and season to taste. Read more...

Smoky Baked Sardines and Potatoes

The inspiration for this came from this month's Observer Food Monthly, I'm not sure whether it was pleasant or not reading all those summer recipes in the rain, but they were delicious and I've cooked one already, so they must be good!

I set out to use mackerel, but the fishmonger only had sardines, so I thought I'd give them a go. Sardines are even higher on the sustainability scale than mackerel and another of your omega-3 rich oily fish.. (see Fish online). So, sardines in hand, I merged several recipes and came up with this fiery little dish, I have that amazing Spanish smoked paprika which added a lovely sweet depth and you can't go wrong with crsipy potatoes and slow cooked onions, a meal in itself. We had it with salad, but in retrospect this would probably also go really well with some good quality (homemade?) mayonnaise.

Smoky Baked Sardines and Potatoes

Ingredients
500g new potatoes, sliced into thick coins
3-4 sardine fillets, depending on the size
2 onions, sliced into rings
1tbsp paprika
olive oil
2 cloves garlic
1 bunch pasley, finely chopped
1tbsp white wine vinegar
½ lemon

Add the potatoes to a large roasting tray so that they're in one layer, drizzle over oil, sprinkle with salt and half the paprika. Roast in a hot oven for about 20mins until the potatoes are pretty much cooked through.

Meanwhile cook the onions sloowly in oil until very soft, add the rest of the paprika, garlic, vinegar and parsley along with a little extra oil and take off the heat. Lay the sardines over the potatoes, add the onion mixture and bake for a further 8-10mins until the fish is completely cooked through. When cooked, squeeze over a little lemon juice. Read more...

Potato, Onion and Goat's Cheese Tart

Mmmm this tart was delicious. In a bid to use my new heart shaped tin,we found this recipe on the BBC Good Food website, which I think is a lot better than the BBC food website, there's still the mine of recipes but you get great pictures, new and innovative recipes without the rubbish Ready Steady Cook recipes.


Seen as though we cheated and used ready made pastry, this recipe was super easy. Make sure you cook the potato and onion until they're really soft and caramelised. This tart is also really rich, so you only really need a salad to go with it or some simply cooked vegetables.

Recipe



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Spanish Omelette

I had a friend at school who's mum was Spanish and made THE best spanish omelette ever. Since then I've tried many times, unsuccessfully, to make anything as good. For some reason the potatoes were never soft enough, or it tasted too bland.

Anyway, in one of those 'what to eat' moments last night, we came up with spanish omelette and it actually turned out pretty good. Although, it has to be said, this wasn't entirely down to me...

The key I think is to slice the potato really thinly, and cook them really slowly in a genrous amount of oil until soft. Season the potatoes and the beaten eggs liberally. And, naturally have it with beans or ketchup.

Ingredients
1 onion, finely chopped
1 large baking potato, quartered lengthways and sliced thinly
4 eggs
a splash of milk

Fry the potatoes and onions slowly in a liberal glug of oil in a non stick pan for at least 20mins until soft. Season with salt and pepper. Meanwhile, whisk the eggs with the milk, season well. Pour the eggs over the potatoes, turn the heat down and cook for 10-15mins until it looks nearly set on top. Place a plate on top of the pan, turn over and slide the omelette (carefully!) back into the pan, cook for 5 mins more. Or, you can always do it the easy way and finish it under the grill once its nearly set.

Some variations include adding sliced mushrooms to the potato and onion; using leeks instead of onion and adding peas and crumbled feta with the egg; adding thinly sliced roasted pepper or chopped herbs such as parsley or chives with the eggs. Although maybe now I'm straying into fritatta territory... Read more...