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Hassleback Potatoes

Hassleback Potatoes

The humble spud is one of the regular low cost Carbohydrate sources we use. Pasta and Rice are regulars too. But eventually you can get a bit fed up with Roasted, boiled, chipped, mashed etc. So which not mix it up a bit? Hassleback Potatoes with Cheese melted over them?

According to Taste Magazine - “ Hasselbacking is a cooking method in which potatoes or other items are sliced not-quite-all-the-way through in thin, even layers, which can be stuffed or topped with additional flavourings. It’s a way of creating more surface area for flavours and creating additional texture. As a technique, it’s nothing new. The most widely circulated origin story is that hasselbackspotatis were first served in the 1950s at the Hasselbacken Restaurant and Hotel in Stockholm “ - I’m not sure if this is true or not, but it’s a nice story….

Our version:-

Ingredients:-

1 large Potato each
Salt & Pepper
1 generous slice of Cheddar Cheese each
Oil

Method:-

(1) With a sharp knife cut the Potato through about 90% of it’s depth, leaving enough uncut so that it will still hold together.
(2) Rub well with Salt and freshly ground Black Pepper.
(3) Drizzle with Oil.
(4) Place in a preheated oven at 180c with a roast if that’s what they are to accompany for 30 minutes.
(5) After 30 minutes lay the Cheese over the Potato and put back in the oven for a further 30 minutes or so. You want the Cheese to have melted into the cuts, bubbled and browned slightly on the skin.

We like to have 3 vegetables when we’re having a “Dinner” dinner, so a bit of flash fried Kale and some herb glazed Carrots did the trick.

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Slow Cooker Cassoulet

Apparently - “The history of cassoulet is a history of Languedoc. One legend places the birth of cassoulet during the siege of Castelnaudary by the Black Prince, Edward the Prince of Wales, in 1355. The besieged townspeople gathered their remaining food to create a big stew cooked in a cauldron.”

Well at this time of the month this seems more than appropriate for us. It’s certainly not going to be traditional – but by definition it is a Bean Stew with leftovers!

Ingredients:-

75g of each Rosecoco, Mung and Black Eyed Beans
1 large Onion, roughly cut into 8
2 Clove of Garlic, sliced
2 Stock Cubes
1 Tin Chopped Tomatoes
4 Rashers of Bacon
2 tsp dried Thyme
2 tsp Chilli Flakes
2 tsp Mixed Herbs
8 Inch fresh Fennel stem, cut into 1” lengths
Dried Porcine Mushrooms
2 Pork loin steak, cut into chunks
Salt & Pepper

Method:-

(1) Soak your Beans over night in lots of water.
(2) Drain and rinse the Beans and transfer with fresh salted water to a large pan.
(3) Cut the Bacon into good sized strips and fry until crispy. Set aside.
(4) Bring the Beans to the boil and then simmer for 20 minutes.
(5) Dissolve the Stock cubes in a pint of boiling water.
(6) Add all the ingredients except your bean to your slow cooker.
(7) Drain the Beans and add to the slow cooker. Top up with sufficient hot water for everything to be covered.
(8) Cook on high for 4 hours, stirring gently on occasions.
(9) Taste and add Salt & Pepper to taste.
(10) Reduce the heat to low and continue to cook for a further 4 hours.

Served with a few fresh herbs over the top to brighten it up and some warm home made Ciabatta this was well worth the time. Ingredients wise it probably cost us less than £3 in total and there are at least 6 hearty portions.

 

Potato Salad

Clearly you can buy Tatty Salad for next to nothing in a pot. But we’re not like that! During “Lock-Down” we’re spending more and more time in the kitchen, it occupies our time and we’re not couching in front of the TV all day.

Ingredients:-

Potatoes pealed quartered, boiled and drained
Mayo
Pickled Gherkins, finely chopped
Spring Onion
Squeeze of Lemon
Black Pepper
Fresh home grown Chives to dress

Method:-

(1) Let you Potatoes cool to room temperature.
(2) Mix all the dressing ingredients.
(3) Dress the Potatoes.
(4) Sprinkle with chopped Chives.
(5) Enjoy as a side.

The Gherkins and Lemon juice really lift a plain old Tatty salad to a different level and made it well worth tinkering with.

Saturday Night Fake-Away

Obviously we can’t get a takeaway and to be fair we wouldn’t if we could. So we thought we’d have a pop at the old chippy favourite – Battered Sausages. Actually we had far too much batter so we battered our chips as well!

Ingredients for the batter:-

Rice Flour
Corn Flour
Plain Flour (Gluten free in our case)
Gram Flour
Turmeric
Salt
2 Eggs for Egg wash

Method:-

(1) Beat your Eggs in a bowl for the Egg wash.
(2) Add plain Flour to a bowl.
(3) Mix the other ingredients with enough water to make a stiff batter.
(4) Cook and cool your Sausages in the oven.
(5) Heat the fryer to 180c.
(6) Roll the sausage in flour, Egg wash and Flour again.
(7) Dunk in the Batter trying to cover evenly and fry a couple at a time until golden brown.

Perhaps not the most elegant dish we’ve ever cooked. But tasty! Lots of Salt, Vinegar, Totam & Brown Sauce - Sorted!

Pickled Chive Heads

I’m a member of various Pickling and Fermenting groups. I saw this quick recipe and thought why not? There are loads of Chive Heads in the local Edible Garden and folk generally just pull them of to keep the plant producing leaves. The recipe suggested throwing the heads away once the pickling has finished and just using to infused Vinegar. We’ll not be doing that, they will be used to brighten up meals!

Ingredients:-

2 handfuls of Chive Heads.
Spirit Vinegar
A screw top jar!

Method:-

(1) Push as many Chive heads as you can into your Jar without crushing them.
(2) Fill the Jar with Vinegar.
(3) Seal and put aside for 7 to 10 days.

The Vinegar will turn a light red and the Chive flavour will infuse. 

Ciabatons – (Ciabatta Baton Mini Pizzas)

We’re finding Gluten free self raising Flour almost impossible to get hold of now. So we experimented with plain GF flour and Baking Powder from the local Polish shop. To be fair I take responsibility for the fact that I got the quantities wrong and my Ciabatta didn’t rise as well as I had hoped. But we sliced it and popped it in the freezer. We had some Tomato Puree which needed using up and a bit of Chorizo loitering in the fridge. So Sue created these extremely tasty mini Pizza  thingies!

As far as the recipe goes I’ll pretend we can get Self Raising Flour, hopefully the present shortage is a temporary thing.

Ingredients for the Ciabatta:-

240g Self raising Gluten free flour
½ tsp Salt
The chopped leaves from 2 sprigs of fresh Rosemary
240ml Milk
2 Cloves of Garlic, minced
4tbsp Mayonnaise

Method:-

(1) Mix all the ingredients to a batter sort of consistency.
(2) Preheat the oven to 200c.
(3) Pour into a Bread Tin and cook for 30 minutes or until it golden brown.
(4) Tip out onto a cooling rack.

Ingredients for the topping:-

Chorizo very finely chopped
Tomato Puree
½ tin of chopped Tomatoes
Onion finely chopped
Minced fresh Garlic
Mixed Herbs
Grated Cheese
Fresh Parsley

Method:-

(1) Slice the Ciabatta to about 1cm think.
(2) Fry the Onion and Garlic gently.
(3) Add all the other ingredients except the Cheese and simmer for at least half a hour.
(4) Spread what is now a spicy Pizza sauce of the Ciabatta.
(5) Sprinkle with grated Cheese and grill until the Cheese has melted.
(6) Sprinkle with fresh Parsley.

 

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