The Daily Spud » Pie

Spud Sunday: The Why Of Cookbooks

Daily Spud — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 21:50:00 +0000

So why, exactly, do we buy cookbooks?

The simplistic answer, of course, is that we buy them for the recipes, but in reality, it’s almost never that simple.

We may buy a cookbook because we’ve seen the corresponding series on TV. We may have come to like or, even better, to trust the chef-author based on past cookbooks, through a blog or by way of an associated food business. We may want to try our hand at a particular cuisine or we may want to learn the basics. We may be dedicated followers of foodie fashion or we may just like the pictures, and there’s no doubt but that good photography and styling helps to sell.

Increasingly, photography in cookbooks is used, not only to show what the food should, in theory, look like but also to convey a representation of the lifestyle associated with eating that food. Whether we are subsequently disappointed when our dishes (or our lifestyle) do not turn out “like in the pictures” is another matter entirely. And while it can be helpful to see what a dish may look like at the end of our endeavours, some of my most trusted and well-used cookbooks (take a bow, Madhur Jaffrey) have little in the way of glossy pictures and are no less loved by me for that.

In the end, while the pictures are nice, it is the words that count. My favourite cookbooks are the ones that are worth reading not just for the recipes. Give me Elizabeth David’s English Bread and Yeast Cookery and an armchair and I will curl up happily. Nigella Lawson and Nigel Slater I like as much for their writing as for the style of their recipes. It’s important too, though, that the recipes work.

The Pieminister Cookbook

All of which brings me, somewhat circuitously, to the new Pieminister cookbook. Now, I have to admit that I wasn’t especially familiar with Pieminister, it being a UK-based pie-making enterprise without any permanent outlets here in Ireland. Still, when I was asked if I’d like a review copy of their new book, I took a look at the previews online, decided I liked the look of it (I mean, who doesn’t love pies, eh?), and said yes.

It’s a nicely produced book with (yes) plenty of attractive pictures, cute illustrations and seasonally arranged pie recipes, both savoury and sweet, as well as words to the wise on pie crusts, on tipples to match your pies and other pie lore. What made me smile was the wordplay at work in the recipes, from the fish pie named ‘Pietantic’ and the crumble of mulled wine and plum called ‘Plumble’ to the triangular ‘Chilli Pie-angles’. Puns aside, though, would the recipes work? The proof of the pudding, it seems, would be in the pie.

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

Potato, Cheese and Mushroom Pie

Having looked through the Pieminister book, it was almost inevitable that I would choose to make their cheese and potato pie. A simple recipe, with lots of sliced potato, flavoursome cheese, mushrooms and cream all under a puff pastry hood. In other words, there was a lot to like, in both potato and pie terms, so I got to it.

Shockingly for me, though, I found that the amount of potato in the original recipe was too much relative to the rest of the ingredients. The mixture lacked moisture and turned out to be quite a dry pie, so in my adaptation below, I have reduced the quantity of potato by a third and added more liquid. And though the original recipe recommended floury potatoes, really, I would suggest that waxy potatoes, which are not as dry and which retain their shape and bite, are better for this.

I have also reduced the amount of pastry, as I only needed around half of the original quantity specified. I added thyme, rosemary and some extra parsley simply because I felt like it, used onion instead of shallots because that’s what I had to hand and used some dried porcini mushrooms because they were lying about in the cupboard. If you don’t have dried mushrooms, you can simply use some extra fresh mushrooms and substitute vegetable stock or water for the mushroom soaking liquid. For the cheese part, there are lots of great Irish cheeses to choose from and I went with a good vintage cheddar for this. I’ve also modified the steps a little to something that made a bit more sense to me having worked through the recipe – one which, truth be told, needed a bit of work to make it work but worked out in the end.

You’ll need:

250g puff pastry
25g dried porcini mushrooms
500ml water
1kg potatoes, preferably a waxy variety
salt
50g butter, divided
400g mixed fresh mushrooms (field, oyster, chestnut), halved or quartered if large
1 medium onion, about 175g, thinly sliced
5 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp fresh thyme leaves
1 tsp finely chopped rosemary needles
100ml cream
200g cheese (fontina, gruyère, taleggio or vintage cheddar), chopped into approx. 1cm cubes
4 tblsp chopped flat leaf parsley
freshly ground black pepper to taste
squeeze of lemon juice (optional)
beaten egg for glazing (optional)

You’ll also need:

A large frying pan, a large saucepan and an ovenproof dish (mine was about 28cm x 21cm x 5cm deep)

The Steps:

If you’re using frozen puff pastry, remove it from the freezer in advance, so that it has enough time to defrost properly.
Soak the porcini mushrooms in about 500ml water and set aside.
Preheat your oven to 180C.
Scrub the potatoes and, leaving them unpeeled, cut into slices about 0.5cm thick and rinse well under cold water.
Bring a pan of about 1.5l water to the boil, add 2 tsp salt and the potato slices. Return to the boil, then simmer gently, covered, for 6-8 minutes or until just fork tender. Drain well and then cover with a tea-towel to absorb excess steam.
Meanwhile, place a large frying pan over a medium heat. Add about half of the butter and, when melted, add the fresh mushrooms. Fry, without stirring too much, until they have released their juices and have started to brown, 10-12 minutes.
Remove the mushrooms from the pan, add the other half of the butter and, when melted, add the sliced onion. Fry for around 7 or 8 minutes or until well softened.
Add the chopped garlic, thyme and rosemary to the onions and stir and fry for another minute or so.
Add the porcini mushrooms and their soaking liquid to the onions. Allow this to come to the boil and then simmer for about 5 minutes. Add the cream and simmer for a minute more.
Remove from the heat and add the fried mushrooms, cheese and parsley along with black pepper to taste. Check for salt and add more if it needs it (but remember that the cheese will add some saltiness too). Add a squeeze or two of lemon juice to taste.
Add the cheese, onion and mushroom mix to the cooked potato slices and stir to combine. Check seasoning again before pouring the contents into your ovenproof dish.
Top the dish with a sheet of puff pastry and trim to the edges of the dish. Cut a small opening in the centre of the pastry to allow steam to escape. Brush the pastry with beaten egg if you like and place in the oven for around 25-30 minutes, until the pastry is nicely golden. Dish this up along with salads or perhaps as a side-dish to some pork.

The Variations:

If you wanted to make this even more substantial, you could, say, add some cooked ham to the pie just before baking

The Results:

Serves around 4 people

Spud Sunday: Waste Watching

Daily Spud — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 14:23:24 +0000

Four pounds of cheese.

No, despite my near addiction to all things dairy, I am not actually referring to the amount of cheese that I am likely to consume in a single sitting. What that weighty amount of dairy goodness does represent is the amount of cheese thrown out by the average American over the course of a year, according to an article in the July, 2011 issue of National Geographic, entitled How to Feed A Growing Planet. That article, in turn, inspired my friend Jenni to start the Four Pounds of Cheese project – an experiment where participants would document, for a week, just what it was they were wasting, food-wise. Having been brought up to the tune of my mother’s “waste not, want not” mantra, I am programmed to abhor waste. That doesn’t mean that I’m not capable of wasting food with the best of them. It does, however, mean that I’ll feel dreadfully guilty when I do. Needless, to remark, I was keen to join in.

Last Monday, the week of waste watching began and it didn’t get off to a great start.

I ate out for lunch and the salmon I ordered was served in the classic Irish manner, meaning it came with two kinds of potato (mashed and roasted, in this case). Despite a valiant effort, I didn’t manage to clear my plate, so, to my shame, the very first thing I managed to waste were some of those selfsame spuds. And then I did what I suspect many of us do: I ordered dessert anyway. Different compartment, right? Surprise, surprise, I couldn’t finish that either. Sheesh. Waste 1, Spud 0.

Too many potatoes, even for me

Tuesday, for a while, looked like it might go the same way. In a clear case of trying to do too many things at once, I managed to burn what would otherwise have been a perfectly good batch of biscotti. After much cursing, followed by a bout of mature consideration, I decided that, though not my best work, they were still ok to eat. Waste 0, Spud 1.

My batting average for the rest of the week did improve greatly, but only because the exercise forced me to do more forward planning in terms of my food purchases, especially anything perishable. I am often guilty of buying the equivalent of my own bodyweight in fruit and vegetables, some of which are inevitably past their best before they get used, if they get used at all.

I also thought twice about other items that might more usually get thrown down the sink, so I found myself using milk that had soured to make scones, saving vegetable cooking liquid for stock and freezing the undrunk remains of a bottle of red to use for sauces. I also took to exploring the far reaches of my cupboards to see what might lurk therein. Thank goodness for the long shelf life of dried beans and pulses, because several not-quite-empty bags of lentils made for large batch of dinner-time dal.

All in all, then, not a great deal went to waste over the course of the week, so bully for me. I am, however, acutely aware of the fact that I’ll have wasted my time if I don’t try to keep it up.

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

Cheesy Cauliflower Pie

Don’t panic, this recipe does not contain four pounds of cheese – four ounces, more like – but I wanted to include it, as it’s really a template for a pie to which you could add whatever cheese and vegetables you have on hand.

It’s based on a recipe I found in Eveleen Coyle’s Irish Potato Cookbook and it was the potato crust that caught my eye. No pastry here, but a crust composed of grated potato, grated onion and egg – an excellent gluten-free alternative for any savoury pie.

I have jazzed the original recipe up by roasting the cauliflower and adding gorgonzola and walnuts, though vary it with whatever vegetables and cheese you have around.

You’ll need:

1 potato crust (see recipe below) or use a shortcrust pastry lining, baked blind for about 10-15 minutes before filling
500g cauliflower, washed and separated into small florets
1 tblsp olive oil
50g walnuts
butter for frying
1 small onion, about 100g, finely chopped
pinch of salt
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp fresh thyme leaves
50g mature cheddar, grated
50g gorgonzola
4 large eggs
100ml milk
freshly ground black pepper
3 tblsp grated parmesan

You’ll also need:

A 24cm round ovenproof dish, about 4cm deep, and a couple of baking trays (mine were about 20cm x 30cm)

The Steps:

Preheat your oven to 200C, prepare and bake the potato crust as below.
While the potato crust is baking, toss the cauliflower florets with the olive oil, spread them out on a baking tray, place in the oven and roast for about 15 minutes, until starting to soften and char very slightly.
Spread the walnuts out on another baking tray and place in the oven for 5 minutes to lightly toast. Remove and chop roughly.
Once the pie crust, cauliflower and walnuts are done, turn the oven down to 180C.
Place a small frying pan over a medium heat and, when hot, add about a teaspoon of butter. When the butter has melted, add the chopped onion and a pinch of salt. Stir and fry for about 5 minutes or until translucent. Add the chopped garlic and thyme, stir and fry for about a minute more, then remove from the heat.
To assemble the pie, add the grated cheddar to the baked crust, followed by the cauliflower, fried onions and chopped walnuts. Crumble over the gorgonzola. Beat together the eggs and milk and pour over the vegetables and cheese. Add a few twists of black pepper and sprinkle over the grated parmesan.
Return to the oven for about 25 minutes or until the eggs are set. If the edges of the crust are browning too much, cover with foil while cooking.
Slice and serve warm with a green salad and perhaps a glass of wine.

The Variations:

Really, you can vary the filling freely according to the vegetables and cheese that you have on hand.

The Results:

Pie for 4-6 people

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

Savoury Potato Crust

You’ll need:

500g grated raw potato, preferably a floury variety
175g grated onion
1 tsp salt
1 egg, beaten
olive oil for brushing the pie dish and crust

You’ll also need:

This amount is enough to line an ovenproof dish, about 24cm round and 4cm deep

The Steps:

Preheat your oven to 200C
Using a clean tea-towel, squeeze as much liquid from the grated potatoes as you can and mix with the grated onion, salt and beaten egg.
Brush your pie-dish generously with olive oil and spread the potato mixture over the base and along the sides of the dish.
Bake for about 15 minutes or until the surface of the potato crust had dried out and is starting to turn lightly golden. Remove from the oven, brush the crust with olive oil and return to the oven for another 15 minutes or so, until browned, then fill as desired.

The Variations:

Depending on the type of filling you want to use, you might like to add some herbs or spices to the crust or perhaps omit the onion and add some extra grated potato instead.

The Results:

One 24cm pie crust

Spud Sunday: Trendy As Pie

Daily Spud — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 13:47:56 +0000

I have seen the future. It is wrapped in pastry and answers to the name of pie.

That, among other things, is the word on the net.

Spuds, it seems, are also on the trendspotter’s radar.

Spuds are in, pie is in: that can only mean one thing...

The combination of rising wheat prices and interest in South American food will equal increased interest in different types of potatoes for our carb of choice.

So said Catherine Phipps (who writes for the Guardian Word of Mouth blog), in English Mum’s recent post on foodie predictions for 2011.

Others writing in the Guardian also think interest in different types of potato is on the up, if a recent article urging the prospective potato grower to consider a number of “sophisticated” French varieties is anything to go by. If you are at all curious as to what I think about the use of sophisticated as a descriptor for potatoes, or any other vegetable for that matter, may I point you to Ernie Whalley’s well-aimed riposte to the Guardian article, and simply say “what he said”.

The fact is, however, that we are likely to be subjected to more of this “sophisticated” guff in future, rather than less. As this New York Times article reports, “Vegetables, you see, are newly and increasingly fashionable”. The same NYT article makes mention of “boutique brassicas”, the sort which one would, no doubt, serve with sophisticated spuds (and thus the battle for America’s Next Top Vegetable begins…). While I am all for raising the profile of lowly vegetables (as anyone who reads this blog will know), I do prefer it when they are served without the lifestyle marketing glaze. And if they should arrive on my plate in pie form, why that’s even better.

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

Creamy Potato Pie

I have been meaning to make a potato pie like this for quite a while, not because of any perceived or anticipated trendiness (or sophistication, for that matter), but because I had recently read recipes from both Richard Olney in Simple French Food and Simon Hopkinson in The Vegetarian Option for just this type of preparation. It seemed like a fine thing to do.

Now, while there are many possible interpretations of potato pie – and I certainly wouldn’t want to restrict myself to just one kind – the pie I’m talking about here involves potato slices, coated in a cream sauce and wrapped in a pastry case.

For the pastry, I just used sheets of pre-made puff pastry, though you can use shortcrust pastry or whatever it is you prefer for a savoury pie crust. I’ve added some dill, lemon, olives and capers for flavouring (not to mention using some of the liquid from the jar of capers), but you can really change that to suit your mood, not to mention your available herbs and whatnot, and you can, of course, make the pie cheesy if you like. It’s probably the kind of thing that will be slightly different each time I make it.

You’ll need:

approx. 300g puff pastry (or use shortcrust)
approx 600g potatoes (about 3 medium-sized), preferably waxy
salt
125ml milk
125ml cream
1 clove garlic, crushed
0.5 tsp dijon mustard
1 tblsp vinegary liquid from a jar of capers
0.25 tsp lemon zest
freshly ground black pepper
1 tblsp capers
2 tblsp sliced green olives, preferably brined
3 spring onions, finely sliced (optional)
1 tblsp chopped dill leaves
1 tblsp chopped flat leaf parsley
a little beaten egg for glazing (optional)

You’ll also need:

An ovenproof pie dish – a 24cm round dish, about 3 cm deep, would do the trick

The Steps:

If you’re using pastry that has been frozen, make sure that it’s fully thawed out. If you’re making your own pastry, well off you go and make it.
Scrub the potatoes. Bring a pot of approx. 1.5l water to the boil, add 2 tsp salt and the potatoes. Bring back to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer, covered, until just cooked through, about 25 to 40 minutes, depending on size. Drain, cover the pot with a tea-towel and set aside to cool.
Meanwhile, add the milk and cream to a small heavy saucepan and place over a medium heat. Warm the liquid just until it starts to form a few bubbles around the edges and remove from the heat.
Add the crushed garlic, mustard, caper liquid, lemon zest, a pinch of salt and a few twists of black pepper to the milk and cream, stir to mix and leave to cool.
When you’re ready to put the pie together, preheat the oven to 200C.
Peel the potatoes and cut into slices around 0.5cm thick.
Roll out slightly more than half of the pastry and use it to line your pie dish.
Add a layer of potato slices to the pie and scatter over the capers, olives, spring onions (if using), dill and parsley. Top with the remaining potato slices and pour over the milk and cream mixture – it should come almost up to the level of the second potato layer.
Brush the edge of the pastry with some beaten egg or milk or just dab with some of milk and cream mixture.
Roll out the remaining pastry and use to top the pie. Crimp together the edges, brush the top with beaten egg or milk if you like, and poke a few holes in the pastry lid using a fork or small knife.
Bake for about 30 minutes, until the pastry is nicely golden, and serve sliced and warm, either on its own or with a green salad or perhaps a piece of fish.

The Variations:

You can add as much or as little to this as you like. Richard Olney’s potato tart is filled with potatoes, cream and little else. Simon Hopkinson’s version adds beaufort cheese, garlic and thyme to that base. You can also make this richer by replacing some or all of the milk with additional cream or lighten it by doing the opposite.

The Results:

Pie for 4-6 takers

Fishful Thinking

Daily Spud — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 11:28:24 +0000

Frankly, I blame the fish pie.

For the delay, I mean.

It’s been almost 2 months since I met Natasha, she of 5 Star Foodie, and her daughter Hannah for lunch.

It’s been so long, in fact, that Bentley’s, where we ate, is no more, having morphed into the Cliff Town House. And while I am more than happy to see an outpost of the Cliff House Hotel come to Dublin, this does mean that the Bentley’s menu is gone from our shores.

Which brings me back to the fish pie.

Bentley’s creamy, mashed potatoey fish pie.

The restaurant’s signature dish and the one that I had to have when I met Natasha, despite the fact that it was the middle of (an admittedly Irish) summer.

And it was good. Heavy and rich but very good.

The fish pie in question

So I got it into my head that I should make some kind of Bentley’s inspired fish pie to accompany this post. Except that, until last weekend, we were experiencing anything but fish pie weather. Not that I was complaining about that, you understand, but now that the weather has started turning, I find that fish pie and five star foodie lunches have bubbled right back up to the top of the menu.

And, my, what a lovely lunch it was. Though the fish pie was good, the company was even better.

And before the pie, there was the lobster bisque

Natasha was as delightful as I had imagined, but it was her daughter Hannah who stole the show. Despite being all of 6 years old, she has experienced her fair share of fine dining, both at restaurant tables and in her mother’s kitchen. Based on her forthright opinions on all we ate, she could certainly challenge her mother for the 5 Star Foodie title and could probably give most restaurant critics a good run for their money.

During the meal, she asked if Bentley’s had a Michelin star, ‘cos it was “kinda fancy.” I explained that it had the involvement of a well known, Michelin star kind of chef, if not an actual Michelin star. And I realised that this was most definitely not the kind of conversation I was used to having with 6 year olds of my acquaintance.

And so, a couple of months later, as I pondered my fish pie, I couldn’t help but wonder if it would pass muster with Hannah. That seal of approval would, I feel, be worth more than any Michelin star.

My lemon posset dessert but, more importantly, my charming 5 star companions

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

Fish-A-Leekie Pie

As you might expect, this pie takes its lead from the recipe for Bentley’s fish pie, which is included in Richard Corrigan’s fine book, The Clatter of Forks and Spoons. I’ve used a similar creamy white wine and thyme sauce and a mix of smoked and unsmoked fish, as does the Bentley’s pie, though I’ve added leeks and capers and swapped the mashed potato for a topping of potato slices.

While I might mourn the departure of Bentley’s and its fish pie from Dublin, having this in my repertoire will ease the pain considerably.

For the sauce:

50g butter
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 medium leeks, white and light green parts finely sliced (about 200g)
0.5 tsp fresh thyme leaves
75ml white wine
50g plain flour
500ml milk
0.75 tsp salt or to taste
freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp English mustard (Colman’s)
1 tblsp capers, rinsed and drained
4-5 tblsp chopped flat leaf parsley, loosely packed
1.5 tblsp lemon juice
1 tsp malt vinegar

For the rest of the pie:

300-350g potato (about 2 medium sized spuds – preferably waxy as they will hold their shape better)
250g smoked haddock (or other smoked white fish)
250g salmon fillet
1 tblsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tblsp freshly grated parmesan

You’ll also need:

An ovenproof dish – mine was 20cm x 20cm x 5cm deep – plus a processor or blender for blending the sauce (an immersion blender is handiest).

The Sauce Steps:

Place a large, heavy saucepan over a medium heat and, when hot, add the butter.
Once the butter has melted, add the garlic, leeks and thyme and cook over a medium-low heat for about 5 minutes or until the leeks have started to soften.
Add the white wine and cook for another 4-5 minutes.
Add the flour and stir quickly until combined, then very gradually start adding the milk, stirring vigorously all the time. Continue until all of the milk has been incorporated. Don’t worry too much about lumps as you can blend the sauce later.
Bring the sauce to a simmer and cook for about 5 minutes.
Add the salt, black pepper, mustard, capers, parsley, lemon juice and vinegar and stir to combine.
Remove from the heat and blend briefly (though don’t worry about making the sauce completely homogenous). Taste and check seasoning, adding more mustard or lemon juice if you think it needs it.
Cover and set aside to cool while you prepare the rest of the pie.

The Rest:

Preheat the oven to 180C
Scrub the potatoes and, leaving the skins on, cut into approx. 0.5cm slices.
In a saucepan, bring about 1l of water to the boil, add 1 tsp salt and the potato slices.
Bring back to a simmer and simmer gently, covered, for 5-6 minutes or until the potato slices are just starting to become tender.
Remove the potatoes from the heat, drain and leave to sit for about 5 minutes, covered with a tea-towel to absorb the steam.
Cut the smoked haddock and salmon into approx. 1cm cubes.
Spoon some of the previously prepared sauce onto your ovenproof dish, add the fish pieces and spoon over the remaining sauce.
Top with a layer of overlapping potato slices. Drizzle over the olive oil and sprinkle with the parmesan.
Bake for about 30 minutes – the potatoes should have crisped up around the edges. Serve with some salad and the rest of that bottle of white wine you had to open for the sauce.

The Variations:

If smoked fish is not your thing, you can certainly replace the smoked fish with with any unsmoked white fish. You can also top the pie with mashed potato or a pastry crust instead of the potato slices if you like.

The Results:

Serves 2-3 pie-eaters

Spud Sunday: Stinky Spud

Daily Spud — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 23:55:15 +0000

So what’s a bit of garlic breath between friends?

Notwithstanding the fact that I’m sure I reeked of garlic after lunch yesterday, nobody seemed to mind. Or, if they did, at least they didn’t let on. They’re a generally polite and friendly crowd, food bloggers. And, of course, they had been eating lovely garlic-laden food too.

Psst, there be garlic in that there hummus

The venue was Levant, a Lebanese restaurant in London and the occasion was Food Blogger Connect. I am still recovering from the whirlwind but worthwhile trip over and back to the UK yesterday for the event, though I can at least confirm that I don’t smell so much of garlic anymore. I can also vouch for the fact that, next time I haul ass over to London for this, I’m staying. Well, for a few days at least. I say next time, because the appetite for FBC round two is there, of that I’m sure.

Lola's mini-cupcakes were (phew!) garlic-free

It had all come about because Bethany from Dirty Kitchen Secrets, Jamie from Life’s a Feast, Mowie from Mowielicious and Hilda from Saffron and Blueberry witnessed the buzz around this year’s plethora of US-based food blogger events, took matters into their own hands and organised an event of their own. Good on them I say. Food bloggers on this side of the Atlantic are just as interested in meeting, eating and having a chat about the art and craft of bloggery. They also, it has to be said, like receiving food-filled goody bags.

And so it came to pass. A great big sharable spread of Lebanese food, followed by presentations from people with information and thoughts to share: Meeta from What’s For Lunch Honey and Kang from London Eater with their own particular angles on picturing your food, Jamie from Life’s a Feast and Jeanne from Cook Sister on the written word and Kang again on ~~social networking~~ life in the internet fish tank. A lot to pack into one afternoon and certainly scope to do more next time. It was interesting to hear other bloggers’ perspectives on these matters, of course, but, more than that, it was a joy simply to meet the people there and, in the case of Jamie, greet someone I’d never physically met before like an old friend.

There were many more bloggers and otherwise interested parties there besides, only a fraction of whom I got to talk to. ‘Twas a pleasure to meet Paul from Get Me Cooking, Alessio from Recipe Taster, Mowie from Mowielicious, Bethany from Dirty Kitchen Secrets, Ozoz from Kitchen Butterfly, Katrina from Around the World in 80 Markets, Christina from The Thorngrove Table, Greedy Diva and a host of Sarahs – Food For Think, Maison Cupcake and Meals With Sarah among them.

So many bloggers to meet, so little time. As Arnold Schwarzenegger might say, “I’ll be back”.

P.S. if you are so inclined, you can still throw a vote my way in the blogger category of the Entertainment.ie Annual Awards here. Ta muchly. And now for the spuds…

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

Lebanesey Potato Pie

Admittedly I don’t automatically think of potatoes with I think of Lebanese cuisine. In fact, after yesterday’s buffet at Levant, I would say that, yes, Lebanese food mostly makes me ~~think~~ stink of garlic. And I mean that in a good, if occasionally smelly, way.

Lebanon does, however, appear to be home to some rather large potatoes, so a potato pie with Lebanese flavours is not such an outrageous proposition. I adapted the recipe below from one I came across on the Daily Mail site here, but which contained no garlic to speak of. I soon fixed that.

World's heaviest potato? (image from bbc.co.uk)

For the pie:

500g potatoes, preferably a floury variety
125g coarse bulgar wheat
25g plain flour
0.25 tsp cinnamon
250g onion (2 small-ish specimens), finely sliced
2 large cloves garlic, finely chopped
50g pine nuts
50g flat leaf parsley (leaves + thin stems), finely chopped (or substitute fresh coriander)
2 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp sumac (optional)
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1.5 tblsp olive oil plus more for coating dish and frying

To serve:

150g natural yoghurt
3 tblsp finely chopped mint leaves
small pinch of sugar
pinch of cayenne pepper
coarse salt to taste
3-4 spring onions, white and light green parts finely sliced

You’ll also need:

An ovenproof dish – mine was 20cm x 20cm x 5cm

The Steps:

Rinse the bulgar in several changes of water, then place in a small bowl and add cold water to cover by a few cm. Leave aside to soak for at least 30 minutes.
Peel your potatoes and cut into roughly even-sized slices, around 1-2cm thick. Rinse them under cold water.
Bring about 1l of water to the boil in a saucepan, add about 1 tsp salt and the potato slices. Bring back to the boil and reduce to a simmer. Simmer gently, covered, for around 12-15 minutes or until just fork-tender. Alternatively, you can steam the potatoes until they reach the same stage.
You can now go ahead and preheat your oven to 220C
While the potatoes are cooking, place a large frying pan over a medium heat. When hot add enough oil to coat the pan and add the onions. Stir and fry for around 8-10 minutes, until soft and starting to colour. Add the garlic and pine nuts and stir and fry for another 2-3 minutes. Add the chopped parsley, stir and fry for about a minute, then remove from the heat and season with the lemon juice, sumac (if using) plus salt and black pepper to taste.
When the potatoes are done, drain well and return them to the saucepan. Then either let them sit, covered by a tea-towel, for about 5 minutes or place the pan over a low heat and stir the potatoes gently for a minute or so, so that they dry out.
Put the dried and still-warm potatoes through a potato ricer and into a large bowl, or mash gently in the bowl using a masher or a fork.
In another small bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, about 0.5 tsp salt and a couple of twists of black pepper.
Drain the bulgar and, placing the drained bulgar in a clean tea-towel, squeeze out as much water as you can.
Add the bulgar and flour to the mashed potato and mix gently to combine. Taste for salt and add more if needed.
Brush the base of your ovenproof dish with oil and spread with half of the potato mixture. Add the onions in a single layer next, then top with the remaining potato, smoothing with the back of a spoon. Brush about 1.5 tblsp of olive oil over the potato and, using the tip of a sharp knife, make shallow diagonal cuts in the top of the pie, with about 2-3cm between cuts, so that it marks out a diamond pattern.
Bake at 220C for about 10 minutes, then reduce the heat to 190C and bake for about another 30 minutes or until golden on top.
Serve pieces of the pie, warm or at room temperature, scattered with sliced spring onions and a couple of spoonfuls of mint yoghurt, made by mixing together the yoghurt, mint and sugar, with salt and cayenne to taste. This would also be nice with some grilled or roasted courgettes.

The Variations:

Crumble some goats cheese or feta between the onion and top potato layer or perhaps add some tomatoes to the onion mix or maybe some fried courgette slices.

The Results:

Serves 4, as long as nobody gets greedy

Spud Sunday: A Chilean Tale

Daily Spud — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 15:00:41 +0000

Bernardo O’Higgins is big in Chile. As are spuds, with Chile hotly disputing Peru’s right to claim their country as the one who gave birth to the potato.

I was reminded of O’Higgins earlier this week, when it was my good fortune to be the guest of Santa Rita wines at the launch of their Local Heroes campaign. Son of an Irishman, O’Higgins was born in Chile in 1778 and was destined to become the first leader of a fully independent Chilean state. That his Da may have emigrated to Chile from Ireland in search of the ancestral home of the spud is a matter of pure speculation.

At the Local Heroes launch: somebody tell that woman she's supposed to be drinking wine

One story has it that, while fighting the good fight for Chilean independence, Bernardo and his men, 120 in number, hid out in the cellars of the Santa Rita winery. They may or may not have helped themselves to a few bottles of vino while they were there. The Santa Rita folks clearly didn’t mind, however, because they have not only named a range of wines in their honour (that would be the Santa Rita 120 range), they have also invited the people of Ireland to tell them all about their own local heroes. One such local hero will be the recipient of a €10,000 prize to spend within their community, while said hero and the person who nominated them will also win a trip to Chile to visit the Santa Rita winery. Nice.

For more details and to nominate, head over to the Santa Rita 120 facebook page.

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

Local Hero Empanadas

Speaking of things that are big in Chile, according to this New York Times article, Chileans are truly passionate about empanadas – little pastry turnovers with fillings which can be meaty, fishy, veggie or cheesy. I couldn’t resist giving a potato-filled version a whirl.

For the dough, I used as my guide a recipe for empanada dough that I found on Epicurious. Though I understand that lard would probably be more traditional, this dough, which uses butter, worked a treat. I would definitely consider making a big batch of this and then freezing individual empanada-sized portions.

For the potato filling, I can’t claim it’s entirely Chilean in origin. The tomato base into which the potatoes went was inspired by an Indian tomato sauce by Madhur Jaffrey. I happened to use small, waxy potatoes for this, which meant that the little cubes of potato retained their shape, whereas floury spuds would tend to break apart a bit more. Either works.

For the dough:

300g plain flour
125g cold unsalted butter, cut into approx. 1cm cubes
1.5 tsp salt
1 medium egg
1 tblsp distilled white vinegar
60ml ice water

For the filling:

1 tsp black mustard seeds
150g red onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
400g fresh tomatoes, peeled and finely chopped
1 tsp grated fresh ginger
1 large fresh green chili, finely chopped
350g potatoes, scrubbed and cut into approx 1cm cubes
0.75 tsp salt or to taste, plus freshly ground black pepper
3 tblsp loosely packed chopped coriander leaves
olive oil for frying

You’ll also need:

2 large baking sheets (my 35cm x 40cm baking sheet fit about 8 empanadas – the recipe makes 12 in total)

The Dough Steps:

In a large bowl, whisk the flour and salt together well.
Rub the butter into the flour until the texture resembles coarse meal, but with some larger (approx. pea-sized) lumps of butter remaining.
In a small bowl, beat together the egg, vinegar and water.
Add the egg mixture to the flour, stirring with a fork until just combined – the mixture will look a bit shaggy.
Turn out onto a floured surface and gather together – kneading gently once or twice just to bring things together.
Cover with cling film and refrigerate for at least an hour.

The Filling Steps:

Place a large pan over a medium heat. When it’s hot, add enough oil to just coat the pan. Add the mustard seeds.
Once the mustard seeds start sizzling and begin to pop, which should only take a few seconds, add the onion. Stir and fry for about 2 minutes, then add the garlic, chili and ginger and stir and fry for another 2 minutes or so, until the onions start to soften.
Now add the tomatoes, potatoes, salt and a couple of twists of black pepper. Stir to mix and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer gently, uncovered, stirring occasionally, for around 25 minutes or until the potatoes are just tender.
Stir in the chopped coriander and leave the filling to cool.

The Put It All Together Steps:

Preheat your oven to 200C
Take the chilled dough from the fridge and divide into 12 roughly even pieces.
To make each empanada, take one of the pieces of dough, leaving the remaining pieces covered in the fridge, and shape into a ball. I did find my dough to be ever so slightly tacky but nothing that rolling with a little flour didn’t fix.
On a lightly floured surface, roll the ball out into a disc, roughly 12cm in diameter.
Place 2-3 tblsp of the filling on one side of the dough circle, leaving 1cm to 2cm between the filling and the edge of the dough. Fold the other half of the dough over the filling, giving a roughly semi-circular shape, and press the edges together. If you like, you can decorate the edges by pressing down on them with the tines of a fork. Place the empanada on a floured baking tray and repeat the process with the rest of the dough and filling.
If you like, you can brush the empanadas with some beaten egg or milk.
Bake for around 25 minutes or until golden.
Serve hot or at room temperature, with salads and maybe sour cream or a sweet tomato relish.

The Variations:

Next time I think I will try stirring some cottage cheese through the filling to give it some added moistness.
If you reckon that small is beautiful, then you could divide the dough into 24 pieces and make empanadillas instead.

The Results:

Makes 12 empanadas and you’ll be feeling a bit heroic after putting in all of the effort required!

Spud Sunday: Pressure Cooking

Daily Spud — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 11:08:14 +0000

There is nothing like a deadline to focus the mind.

I was reminded of this fact lately as the closing date for An Bord Bia’s new season potato recipe competition approached. The competition had been announced on the newly launched best in season website over the summer and, with a potato-based reputation to uphold, I was clearly going to have to enter. For weeks I reminded myself that I should do just that. But what new and amazing spudly morsel should I make? I pondered the possibilities.

Should it have an unexpected ingredient, like that potato salad with ground walnuts, say?

Or, given our nation’s fondness for having several kinds of potato with dinner, should it incorporate spuds cooked in more than one way?

Or should it be something classic but with a Daily Spud twist?

The more I thought about it, the less decisive I became. The deadline loomed. Oh the pressure. I even thought about, well, not actually entering…

And then, as I was packing for my Ballymaloe adventure, and with the deadline less than 24 hours away, something emerged from a head that was filled with a mish-mash of Spanish tortilla, tayto crisps and grated potato pie toppings. A hasty trial run, with an anxious wait for the chief taster to pronounce yay or nay, followed by a return to the kitchen, the emergence of a new-and-improved version and a by-George-I-think-she’s-got-it moment.

My lil' potato pie

What I had produced was really just a classic cheese-potato-onion combination in a mini-pie form, but I knew that I had found something that was both endlessly variable and that I would make again and again. So pleased was I, in fact, that the entering of the competition became entirely secondary. I set off for Ballymaloe with a spring in my step and a head filled with daydreams of mini potato pies to come.

Update, 2nd Nov ’09: So, this morning the postman arrived with the reward for that harried bout of pie-making back in September: a big, fat restaurant voucher, having made the grade as a runner-up in the competition. Worth it in the end, then, even if I was beaten for top spot by a potato caesar salad…

You can see all of the winning recipes here.

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

Daily Spud Pies

You’ll need:

900g potatoes, preferably a waxy variety
300g red onion
3 medium eggs
50g mature cheddar
2-3 tblsp grated parmesan
0.5 tsp dried thyme
0.75 tsp salt or to taste
freshly ground black pepper
olive oil for frying

You’ll also need:

You’ll also need one deep 12-piece muffin tin

The Steps:

Preheat your oven to 200C and grease your muffin tin well.
Scrub your potatoes and, if they are large, cut them in half. Aim to have roughly even-sized pieces for boiling. Slice your onions thinly.
Bring a large pot of water to the boil, add a good pinch of salt and your potatoes. Allow the potatoes to come back to the boil and boil, covered, for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, place a frying pan over a medium-high heat. When hot, add enough olive oil to coat the pan. Add the onions and thyme and sauté, stirring frequently, until the onions have softened and started to brown – about 8-10 minutes.
Once your potatoes have been boiling for 10 minutes, remove from the heat, drain and run them under the cold tap to stop them cooking. Take your cooled potatoes and grate them into a large bowl. The skins will naturally fall away from the potatoes as you grate them.
In another bowl, lightly whisk the eggs and add the salt and a couple of twists of black pepper. Add the egg mixture to the grated potato and stir to mix.
Divide about 2/3rds of the potato and egg mixture among the muffin tins. Using the back of a spoon, press into the centre of each mini-pie so that you create a little well.
Now, divide the cooked onion among the pies, placing it in the little well you created. Crumble the cheddar and divide it among the pies.
Top the pies with the remaining potato mixture and sprinkle with the parmesan.
Bake for about 30 minutes until golden. Remove carefully from the muffin tins and eat hot or at room temperature, on their own or with chutneys or salads or make ahead for parties or picnics.

The Variations:

I reckon that there are all sorts of things that you could do with these, like substituting rosemary for the thyme or goats cheese for the cheddar or perhaps adding some cayenne or other spices to the egg mixture or adding some crispy fried bacon bits to the cheese and onion or… well you get the idea.

The Results:

Makes 12 mini-pies and you’ll probably want to eat more than one each.

Spud Sunday: Curious Spuds

Daily Spud — Sun, 03 May 2009 17:08:46 +0000

Would you care for some wine with your meal? Why, yes, silly question, ~~hand it over~~ here’s my glass…

Now, I will put my hands up and say that I am no expert on the subject of fermented grape juice. That fact, however, does not deter me from quaffing my fair share. Expertise requires practice and I am all about further education for my taste and wine buds. So you can guess that I was more than happy to chat with the guys at Curious Wines about trying out some wine matches for the Daily Spud. I mean, where do I sign?

Some Curious French Wines

What emerged as part of the conversation was the one word that most speaks to me of both wine and potatoes, which is France. Its record on the wine-making front speaks for itself. Its record on culinary uses for the potato is no less impressive. This is the country that brought you potato gratin in its many forms, including pommes anna, a study in simplicity of ingredients and elegance of presentation, plus innumerable dishes bearing the name Parmentier, after Antoine Augustin Parmentier, the original French champion of the spud.

With this is mind, I hatched a plan to make something potato-y and French, while the Curious boys very kindly sent me some French wine which they thought might make a good match. My Frenchified potatoes consisted of a quiche with spuds appearing on the double, as part of the pastry crust and as part of the filling. The other players in the quiche, apart from the requisite eggs, were caramelised onions and goats cheese. The wines were red and white burgundies – Moillard Macon Superieur and Charles Thomas Bourgogne Chardonnay.

Not one to undertake a wine-tasting task on my own, I, as CEO (Chief Edibles Officer) was joined by resident sis as CTO (Chief Tasting Officer) and our friend Tim as COO (Chief Offerings Officer i.e. he brought the desserts). Well, we were most enamoured of both wines. The white was just ever so slightly but pleasantly sweet, while the red was lighter in body than I’m used to drinking but none the worse for that. As far as the food went, there was pretty much universal agreement on the fact that the white was a better match for the quiche. The layer of distinctly sweet, caramelised onions in the quiche worked very nicely with the slight sweetness of the white while it fought a little with the tannins in the red. That did not stop us enjoying the red, however. We were nothing if not dedicated to the task at hand.

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

Curious Potato Quiche

This quiche is indeed, in its own way, somewhat curious, because spuds appear twice but not in any immediately identifiable form:

I used a potato pastry crust, which is nice for savoury uses, if a little bit hard to handle. You can substitute your own preferred pastry crust here as you like.
In an unusual (and admittedly experimental) step, I decided to grate and fry the potatoes before putting them into the quiche. The result was that they just kind of disappeared into the quiche and became part of the base. You can just replace with chunks of steamed or roasted potato if you prefer.

The crust:

1 portion of potato pastry (see below) or use regular shortcrust pastry or pre-made as you prefer.

The filling:

500g onion
100g goats cheese
250g potato
8 medium eggs
2-3 tsp fresh thyme leaves
1 tsp brown sugar
salt and freshly ground black pepper
olive oil and butter for frying

You’ll also need:

Ovenproof dish – mine was 24cm diameter and about 3cm deep – plus some dried beans to use as weights when baking the crust.

The Steps:

Make a batch of potato pastry (below) or regular short-crust pastry for the crust. Following Jenni’s recommendation, once the pastry was made, I rolled it out between two layers of parchment paper and put the rolled-out dough in the fridge to rest while I got on with the fillings.
Next, caramelise the onions, which, if you want to get them really soft and sweet, could take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour. So…
Slice the onions thinly.
Place a pan over a medium-high heat and, when hot, add about 1 tblsp of olive oil and 1 tblsp of butter.
Add the onions to the pan and toss, so that they become well-coated with the cooking fat.
Lower the heat and allow the onions to cook, uncovered, stirring only very occasionally, until they eventually start to turn brown, as their sugars caramelise. I stirred in 1 tsp of brown sugar about 10 minutes into the process.
Once the onions are done, allow them to cool.
Meanwhile, peel and grate the potato, rinse and squeeze out any excess moisture. Heat your pan again and add about a tblsp of olive oil. When hot, add the potatoes and a pinch of salt and fry for about 10 minutes until starting to get a bit tender. Remove and cool.
Preheat the oven to 180C.
Remove your rolled-out dough from the fridge, peel off one of the layers of parchment paper and place that side down on your ovenproof dish and let it slump into the dish. Peel off the other piece of parchment paper and ease the dough into the dish and then trim around the edges. If the dough insists on tearing (which I found the potato pastry had a tendency to do), just patch it up with the pastry trimmings.
With a little knife, poke little slits in the base of the pastry for steam to escape, then line with some parchment paper or an old foil butter wrapper, filled with dried beans to weight it down.
Bake for about 10 minutes or so, until the crust starts to set and dull a bit. Remove from the oven and remove the baking beans and paper or foil.
Beat the eggs well and season with a little salt and black pepper and add the thyme leaves.
Fill the quiche with the onions, potatoes, crumbled goats cheese and pour over the beaten eggs.
Bake for around 30 minutes or until the eggs have set and the top is golden.

The Variations:

Steam the potato and cut into chunks instead of grating it raw or omit the potatoes completely and perhaps add a little more goats cheese.

The Results:

Quiche for 4 to 6 – more like 4 portions if you’re just having it along with a green salad for dinner and need to sample a lot of wine with it!

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

Potato Pastry

I have seen versions of this in various places, including Lindsay Bareham’s In Praise of the Potato. It’s recommended for use with savoury pies, like steak and kidney, so I thought I would give it a whirl with the quiche. I will say that, while it made for a nice crust, the pastry was tricky to handle and I did have to do a lot of patching.

You’ll need:

175g plain flour
115g cold unsalted butter
175g cooled mashed potato
0.25 tsp salt

The Steps:

Boil or steam your potatoes, allow them to cool and mash well. You can cook more than you need for this recipe because there are always plenty of other things to do with spuds.
Whisk the flour and salt together.
Cut the butter into cubes and then rub it into the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs.
Add the mashed potato and bring the lot together as a dough, kneading lightly.
Chill for at least 15 minutes before using.