Potatoes – Page 6 – Scandelights

Delia’s Shepherd’s pie with endive, walnut and stilton salad

Published on December 30, 2010 by HannaLeave a comment

When I invited my Swedish friends over for lunch I wanted to have an English theme, because it worked so well the year before when I had afternoon tea.

When the guests arrived I introduced them to mulled cider, dry English cider served warm with spices. Whole cloves, whole cinnamon, star anise, vanilla pod (or vanilla sugar) and a pinch of sugar makes the cider taste fantastic. I saw this on Jamie Oliver’s Christmas program last year and love it. We had some ginger biscuits and cheese twists with it.

For the actual lunch I chose to serve Shepherd’s pie which I hadn’t cooked before. I didn’t want to fail and trusted Delia, and her recipe was amazing. You find her recipe for four people here. As usual I guessed and didn’t follow the recipe completely. 🙂 I used 2 kg lamb mince which was enough for 13 people who nearly all had a second helping. I made a fresh simple salad to go with it with endives, stilton and walnuts. Really nice.

Delia’s Shepherd’s pie, serves 14-16

2 kg lamb mince

olive oil

3 onions, chopped

5 carrots, chopped

1/3 swede, diced

ground cinnamon

fresh thyme

parsley

plain flour

1 l beef stock

4 tbsp tomato paste

3,5 kg potatoes

a lot of butter

salt

pepper

grated cheese

1 large leek, sliced

Fry the onions until soft on medium heat, approx 5 mins. Then add the vegetables (not the leek) and fry for another 5 mins. Remove from pan. Fry the mince in the same frying pans (you need 2-3) in some more oil until it is brown. Add salt and pepper. Spread the cooked vegetables between the pans and add some flour, cinnamon, thyme, parsley and tomato paste. Add the stock and cover with lid for about 30 minutes. Stir occasionally. Season to taste.

Peel the potatoes and cut into small pieces. Cook until really soft, about 25 mins. Drain and wait a few minutes before you mash them. Add salt, pepper and lots of butter (no milk this time) and mash them with an electric whisk.

Divide the mince between 2 large dishes and flatten. Spread the mash on top. Scatter the leeks and grated cheese on top. Bake for about 25 mins in 200C until they’re nice and golden on top.

Endive salad with stilton and walnuts, serves 16

4 endives

a stilton wedge

2 large handfuls chopped walnuts

extra virgin olive oil

Wash the endives and remove the outer leaves. Cut off the base and scatter the leaves on a big platter. Crumble the cheese on top and scatter the walnut pieces. Drizzle olive oil on top.

Root vegetable gratin

Published on December 16, 2010 by Hanna1 Comment

When it is winter and cold, I use every possible excuse to eat hearty comforting food. The creamier the better! But, it’s not exactly healthy… So this is a slightly healthier version of potatoes au gratin. But instead of just potatoes I have added a lot of different root vegetable. Make this your own by adding what you like. I will probably try it with Jerusalem artichokes next, just because I love them. 🙂 And by using less cream (still cream though, it wouldn’t be the same without) and adding some milk and flour to thicken, this is a little bit better for you than the ordinary potatoes au gratin. Still not as healthy as something without cream and cheese, but it is winter and cold and we deserve this, don’t you think?! 😉

Root vegetable gratin, serves 4

2 potatoes

2 carrots

1/2 celeriac

1 small swede

1 parsnip

10 cm leek, sliced

1 tbsp plain flour

200 ml single cream

200 ml milk

1 clove garlic, pressed

salt & pepper

thyme

100 ml grated cheese

Peel the root vegetables and slice them. Put them in a pan, cover with water. Add some salt and bring to a boil. Cook the vegetables for about 5 mins. Drain. Grease an oven dish with butter and distribute the vegetables and leek. Mix milk, cream and flour and add the garlic. Add some salt, pepper and thyme (dried is fine). Pour the mixture over the vegetables so it almost cover. Scatter some grated cheese on top. Place in 200C oven for 45 minutes. Serve with meat.

Christmas dinner with friends, anchovies bake and brussel sprouts with bacon

Published on December 15, 2010 by Hanna1 Comment

On Saturday we had a little Christmas dinner among friends. It was David, Gaby, Ian, Anna and me and Christopher and we all contributed to the dinner by bringing different dishes, and the result was a great smorgasbord of Christmas food with an international touch.

Anna (who has a Russian mother and a Finnish father) served homemade blinis with smoked salmon, chives and creme fraiche as a starter. Wonderful!

For the first time I tried making meatballs in the oven and then fry them afterwards, and they were perfect. 🙂

Instead of a main course we had a buffet with different dishes; David and Gaby’s amazing ham, Anna’s Salad Olivier (Russian salad with boiled eggs, potatoes, carrots, beetroots, frankfurters, gherkins, grated apple and mayonnaise), roast potatoes, meatballs, anchovies bake, brussel sprouts with bacon, carrots in orange butter, green beans and a shallots and red wine gravy. Really nice! 🙂

Ham with wholegrain mustard from Daylesford organic.

Gaby made a lovely crumble with apple and blackberries for dessert. After that we had some Christmas sweets, the almond biscuits with cream and jam, clementines, tea, coffee and quite a lot of port.

Apple and blackberry crumble with custard

I woke up poorly the next day though. 😦 I hate having the flu, but it is difficult to avoid it this time of year… I really hope I will be feeling better towards the end of the week, because I’m flying home to see my family and friends on Friday.

Anchovies bake, serves 6

10 large potatoes

1-2 onions

1/2 packet anchovies with brine

300 ml cream

butter

bread crumbs

salt

white pepper

Grate the potatoes and the onions. Butter a regular dish and fill it halfway up with potatoes and onions. Cut the anchovies fillets in small pieces and scatter them on top. Put the rest of the potatoes and onions on top. Pour over the cream and the brine from the anchovies. Place a few dollops of butter around the dish, and sprinkle over some salt and white pepper. Lastly cover the dish with breadcrumbs. Bake in 200C for 45 mins to 1 hr. The potatoes should be soft and the top crispy.

Brussel sprouts with bacon

500 g brussel sprouts

8 slices of bacon

butter

grated nutmeg

salt

white pepper

chopped parsley

Trim the brussel sprouts (a really boring job, but it has to be done. Take the outer leaves off if they look manky and cut off the white bits). Boil them in salted water for 10 minutes or so. They should be softer but still quite firm.

Cut the bacon in pieces and fry them crispy in butter. Add the drained brussel sprouts, salt, pepper and grated nutmeg. Add the parsley and serve straight away.

Mini anchovies bake

Published on December 8, 2010 by Hanna19 Comments

One of my favourites for Christmas is this anchovies potato bake, in Sweden called Janssons frestelse (Jansson’s temptation). Even though it sounds like a weird combination, this is great together with homemade meatballs. It could be that I like this combo because this was the few things of the (Swedish) Christmas food I liked as a child. I didn’t like herring, browned cabbage, red cabbage, poached ling (a relative to cod) etc. I’ve grown up now, but still dislike the poached ling… 🙂

Anyway, try this if you want a Scando touch for Christmas this year. These are tried and tested on my English friends and co-workers and they approve. 🙂

...and after. It works really well to put the cake cases in a muffin tin to help them keep their shape.

Mini anchovies potato bake, about 15

6-8 potatoes depending on size, peeled and grated

1 onion, grated

300 ml double cream

1/2 tin ansjovis (incl the brine)

small knobs of butter

bread crumbs

Grate the potatoes and the onion and mix them together. Put the potato mixture half way up in paper cake cases (or even better: aluminium ones). Chop the anchovies finely and divide them between the cases. Fill the cases up with grated potato. Pour in 1/2 teaspoon of the brine in each case. Pour cream in to the cases to just about cover the potatoes. Put a tiny knob of butter on top of each cake case and sprinkle some bread crumbs on top. Bake in 200C for 20 minutes.

Can be served hot, lukewarm or even cold.

Short-cuts

Published on November 29, 2010 by Hanna5 Comments

I really like eating out at gourmet places where they have food I just can’t cook myself, and I dislike readymeals and want to cook everything from scratch as a principal. Sometimes though, I take shortcuts, and it is really nice to do so once in a while on a cold and dark November evening when you are just not in the mood to cook.

For this meal I used a readymade glaze (Newman’s own) and made some myself (reggae reggae sauce, worchestershire sauce, Heinz chilli sauce, English mustard, brown sugar, salt and black pepper) for the ribs. I used a Cajun spice blend for the potato wedges and I bought coleslaw and garlic bread readymade in M&S. And worst of all, I served a dipmix + creme fraiche with it. A Swedish dipmix called Holiday, that I really like with things like this, or crisps.

This is hardly called cooking, the oven does it for you, so this is what I did: Turn the oven on 200C. Put the rack of baby back ribs in a dish and brush the glaze on to it. Put it bone-side up and cook for 30 minutes. Wash potatoes but keep the skin on, cut into wedges and coat with olive oil and cajun spices, put underneath the meat in the oven. After 30 minutes, take out the ribs and turn the rack, brush on some more glaze. Put back in for 30 minutes. When 10 minutes is remaining, put the garlic bread in. Serve with coleslaw and dip/sauce. Done.

Swedish peasant food: stewed spinach, fried potatoes, eggs and frankfurters

Published on November 22, 2010 by Hanna2 Comments

My mother used to (and still does) distinguish weekday food from weekend food. On weeknights we used to have mostly peasant food like meatballs, sausages and mash, soups etc and on the weekends she would go all out with fillet of beef, seafood etc.

I take after her, I always make the weekends something extra, I definitely spend more money on meat for the weekends, but my weekday food can sometimes be quite different from my parents’. I use more pasta and make different kind of soups, whereas my dad would be happy with boiled potatoes five days a week. I need to mix it up a little and try new things. But sometimes I go back to the peasant food. Last week I made this stewed spinach served with lots of fried things; diced potatoes, eggs and frankfurters (it works with bacon too).

I have actually never made this before, or asked my mother for a recipe, but I was really happy that it tasted like my mother’s version. Yum!

Stewed spinach, fried potatoes, eggs and frankfurters, serves 2

4 large potatoes

butter

olive oil

salt

white pepper

sugar

flour

milk

nutmeg

frozen chopped spinach

eggs

frankfurters

Peel the potatoes and cut into small dices. Fry in plenty of butter and oilve oil on medium heat until they’re done. Season with salt, white pepper and 2 pinches of sugar (very important and the key to perfect fried potatoes). Make a roux of butter and flour, add milk (warm milk makes it quicker), stir the whole time and let it thicken. Season with nutmeg, salt and white pepper. Add as much frozen chopped spinach as you think is good (I used about 400 g for 750 ml milk). Let the spinach heat up. Fry eggs and frankfurters and serve with the potatoes and spinach-bechamel.

Sunday roast: pork belly

Published on November 17, 2010 by Hanna3 Comments

We’ve really gotten into Sunday roasts the last couple of weeks without really thinking about it, but it is lovely this time of year with a proper hearty meal consisting of meat, sauce and potatoes, when the weather is cold and miserable outside.

I usually focus on the meat and the roast potatoes (which I now rock), but still have to work on all the trimmings and the Yorkshire puds, which I have never tried to make yet.

This Sunday we had a lovely pork belly roast. I made it once before, but it was a bit dry that time. Much better this time around! 🙂

More recipes for Sunday roasts: roast chicken with thyme, venison steak, poussins with rosemary and lemon.

Pork belly roast, serves 2

800 g pork belly

salt

black pepper

olive oil

Pour some olive oil into a roasting dish. Cut small incisions into the fat unless the butcher/supermarket has done that for you. Rub salt and black pepper into the meat, especially on the cuts in the fat, but all around. Place in the roasting dish. Put the dish into the oven on 220C for 20-30 minutes to crisp up the crackling. Then lower the temperature to 175C and cook for another hour. Let the meat rest 10 minutes before you serve it.

Roast potatoes, serves 2

5-6 Maris piper potatoes

2-3 tbsp goose fat

salt & white pepper

Peel the potatoes and cut them i half or in three depending on the size. Put them in a pan and barely cover with cold water. Add some salt. Bring to a boil and let them cook for 5-10 minutes. Meanwhile, scoop out some goosefat onto a roasting tray, and put it in the oven to melt the fat. Drain the potatoes and place them on the hot tray. Make sure to push them aroud so that they are all coated with goose fat. Add salt and pepper. When the oven is turned down to 175C, place the potatoes higher up than the meat and cook for about an hour, until they are golden and crisp on the outside.

Serve with boiled carrot batons and a creamy gravy (make a roux of butter and flour, add milk and cream, meat juice or stock, some rowanberry jelly, colouring agent, salt and pepper).

Calamari and oven fries

Published on November 16, 2010 by Hanna1 Comment

You might suspect my latest hang-up is squid, and you might be right. 🙂 So far I have cooked squid in the seafood bake and for yummy sandwiches, and up next is of course calamari.

This is as far away from bad pub calamari; you know the ones that are all rubbery and difficult to chew and have soggy batter?! This is melt-in-your-mouth-soft squid in a light semolina and paprika coating, fried seconds before you munch them down with oven fries and aioli (or the lazy version: Hellman’s mayo and pressed garlic). Yum!

Calamari and oven fries, serves 2

a few potatoes

olive oil

persillade

salt and white pepper

4-5 squid tubes

3 tbsp semolina

2 tbsp corn flour

1,5 tsp paprika powder

a pinch of salt

neutral oil (vegetable oil/ground nut oil)

For serving:

lime and lemon wedges

aioli

Wash the potatoes and keep the skin on. Cut into fries. Pour some oilve oil into an ovenproof dish and throw in the potatoes. Sprinkle some persillade, salt and white pepper over the potatoes and push them around a bit so it spreads evenly. Bake in 200C for about 40 minutes. Push the potatoes around a few times during cooking.

Cut the squid into rings. Pour semolina, corn flour, paprika powder and salt in a large ziplock bag and shake it. Add the squid rings and shake so the rings get coated by the mixture. When the potatoes are cooked, start frying the calamari. Heat up 2 cm high of oil in a large pan. Check that it is hit enough by throwing in a small piece of bread. If it browns it is hot enough. Remove the bread and add a handful calamari. Beware of the oil splashing about. Fry until the calamaris are golden on both sides. Remove with a slotted spoon or tong, drain on some kitchen towel. Fry the remaining squid in a few batches. Serve immediately!

Crispy parmesan potatoes

Published on November 15, 2010 by Hanna1 Comment

I mentioned this potato dish already in this post, but forgot to take pictures of it. Now I have made it again and remembered the photos this time. 🙂

If you loooove the crispy top layer of potatoes au gratin, as much as I do, then this is definitely your thing. And it is really easy too!

Crispy parmesan potatoes, serves 2

5 medium potatoes (I used Maris Piper)

parmesan

butter

salt & white pepper

Peel the potatoes and slice them into 3mm broad slices. Grease a large roasting dish with butter. Put in one layer of potato slices. Grate over some parmesan, season with salt and pepper. Repeat with the ret of the slices. Scatter a few knobs of butter on the potatoes. Bake for about 40 mins in 200C. Serve with meat.

Venison steak with perfect roast potatoes and port sauce

Published on November 10, 2010 by Hanna3 Comments

Christopher’s birthday last year was on a Saturday, and the poor thing had to work all day, until 8pm. I felt very sorry for him, so I tried to make the most of it when he came home. After a trip to Borough Market I cooked up a feast consisting of Jerusalem artichoke soup with fried scallops, cream-baked pheasant with Hasselback potatoes and a nice cake with sponge, lemoncurd and elderflower cream.

Of course I had to try and top that this year, and I actually managed to do it. I don’t know why, but I appear to be in good cooking form around his birthday. This year he had the whole weekend off, and with a lunch and party planned for his birthday (Sunday), I cooked us a nice dinner on Saturday instead. As a starter we had yesterday’s post on mushroom toast, and as a maincourse we had a looovely venison steak with thyme and bacon (I found the recipe in a Swedish newspaper), perfect roast potatoes with cepes goose fat (you make cepes confit and use the goose fat that is left over – yum!) and a port sauce. Very good, if I may say so myself! We were both quiet during the meal apart from a few sighs of happiness. Chris said that the roast potatoes were the best he ever had. I curtsey. 🙂

We used the leftovers in lunch sandwiches the next day. Best sandwiches ever!

Venison steak with perfect roast potatoes and port sauce, serves 4

800 g – 1 kg venison steak

whole peppercorns

fresh thyme

2 bayleaves

10 slices streaky bacon

some olive oil

Maris Piper potatoes

goose fat

salt

white pepper

a knob of butter

sauce flour

200 ml cream

200 ml milk

2 tbsp port

1-2 tsp rowanberry jelly (or other jelly)

coloring agent

a splash concentrated game stock

the meat juices

salt

white pepper

Smash the peppercorns in a pestle and mortar and mix with fresh thyme leaves. Pat this into the meat and add salt. Cover the top of the steak with bacon slices, tuck the ends un underneath the meat. Place two bayleaves underneath the bacon. Pour some olive oil into a roasting dish and place the meat on it. Put a steak thermometer into the thickest part of the steak. Put the tray in 150C for 1,5 hours. The inside temperature of the meat should be 70C when you remove the steak from the oven. Cover the meat with tin foil and let it rest for 15-20 minutes before you slice it.

Meanwhile peel the potatoes and cut them in half if they’re large, boil them for a few minutes in salty water. Drain. Put quite a lot of goose fat onto another roasting treay, put it in the oven to melt. Add the potatoes and make sure they are coated with the fat. Sprinkle over some salt and pepper. Put the tray in the oven, below the venison. When the venison is cooked, move the potatoes up in the oven and raise the temperature to 200C and let them brown while the meat is resting.

Pour the meat juices through a sieve. Melt a knob of butter in a saucepan on low heat, add flour, whisk around and add, cream and milk. Add some of the meat juice. Bring to a boil while whisking and add port, jelly, stock, salt, white pepper and colouring agent. Taste and maybe add some more meat juice.

Serve with vegetables, i.e. broccoli.