Potatoes – you can do so much with them – boil them, roast them, bake them, mash them – even make cakes with them, both savoury and sweet! The ultimate comfort food – so in a week when the view from our garden got us thinking we were by the sea and the poor hens are paddling (I’ve just rescued 4 battery hens to join the clan from life in a shed but they may not be too sure about this mud business yet!) I thought I would give you some suggestions for something new to do with them.
Black Pudding and Cheese Hash Browns (this does make 4 but you can freeze them – impossible to half an egg white!)
- 500g potatoes 1 teasp chopped chives 1 teasp chopped parsley
- 1 egg white 4 slices black pudding 125g cheese
Boil potatoes in their skins till just soft. Grate them into a bowl and mix in the chopped herbs. Add a pinch of salt to the egg white, beat lightly with a fork to loosen and mix with the grated potato. Divide mixture into four. Pat out each one into a circle slight larger than the pudding. Put a slice of pudding in the middle topped with a slice of cheese. Fold and shape the potatoes over the stuffing so it is fully enclosed. Deep or shallow fry until golden. Top with a poached egg to serve.
Baked Potato with Smoked Haddock and Mustard
- 1 large baking potato 150g smoked haddock 100 ml double cream
- 1 tablespoon grain mustard chopped parsley
Put the smoked haddock in a shallow baking dish. Season the cream with mustard and parsley and a little salt and pepper and pour over the haddock. Bake in the same oven as the potato – about 20 mins. Break open the potato and scrape into a bowl and return the empty skins to the oven to crisp. Mash potato with the cream from the haddock. Flake the fish and stir into the creamed potato. Pile back into the skins and place briefly under the grill to brown.
Warm potato, spinach and parmesan salad
- 2500g waxy potatoes 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- juice of a lemon
- 1 heaped tablespoon Dijon mustard 6 tablespoons olive oil
- lump of parmesan 4 rashers streaky bacon
- 3 – 4 handfuls of spinach leaves
Lower the potatoes into boiling water and cook till tender. Drain and slice thickly. Whizz the vinegar, lemon juice and olive oil with 2 heaped tablespoons of grated parmesan. Fry the bacon till crisp and cut into small strips Put the spinach in a bowl and the warm potatoes and bacon and toss lightly in the dressing.
Home by the Sea last week!
Ailsa cooks for One 