Herby Potatoes

Right, here's a nice easy one for you to try. Personally I love it, unfortunately my other half is not so keen so I've had to mix and match the ingredients to suit. What I have here is what I consider to be the classic recipe, but have a go at experimenting with it yourself, add different veggies and change the herb for different flavours.

Put the oven on to a nice high heat, around 400f/200c, chuck a couple of tablespoons of olive oil, 1 tablespoon of Balsamic Vinegar into a baking dish, get a teaspoon and add 1 spoonful of Garlic Salt and another of crushed Dried Rosemary, season it all with a good shake of Black Pepper and combine the lot by giving it a good stir.
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Next up you need to chop a couple of small onions into wedges, then slice a few good sized carrots and chop two or three potatoes (preferably Red) into rough inches. Drop the veggies into the baking dish with your mixture and toss the lot to coat the veg.

Pop it in the oven, remembering to give it a good shake or turn with a spoon every so often, until the veggies are tender, it should take around 40 minutes. Serve piping hot with just about anything you fancy as part of a main meal, alternatively serve them on their own, topped with grated cheese and with a selection of dips (or just your favourite) for some tasty evening movie munchies.

Chunky Onion Rings

There's a bit of a procedure to these and strangely enough the explanation of why we do these things makes more sense if it's explained back to front. So here goes:                                                  

The finished rings will be coated in Breadcrumbs but the problem is the crumbs won't stick to the Onion Rings, so we need something to go in-between, to give the crumbs something to stick to; we're going to use Batter, although the batter has a double purpose because it will also form a nice textured layer itself. Unfortunately though the batter will have difficulty staying on the onion rings without a bit of help, so we need another layer for it to stick to, and for this we're just going to coat the Onion rings in flour.

So here's what we do:           Click Here!

First of all heat a good depth of oil in a pan, I would suggest at least a couple of inches. Top and Tail some large onions then slice them horizontally so they can be separated into rings, I like the rings to be at least half an inch deep, but adjust to taste.

Mix a couple of cups of Plain Flour with a teaspoon of Baking Powder and a good sprinkle of Salt, then coat the separated onion rings with the mix. Next using the same flour mix, whisk a beaten egg and some milk into it to make a smooth creamy batter.

Coat the Onion Rings in the batter by dipping and set them to one side on a wire rack to drain the excess batter off. Meanwhile scoop a few cups of Breadcrumbs into a shallow dish.

When the bulk of the batter has drained off, take one Onion Ring at a time and coat thoroughly in the Breadcrumb, giving it a good shake as you remove it from the dish to make sure the crumb has a good grip.

Deep fry the rings just a few at a time for 2 or 3 minutes, or until you get them exactly the right shade of golden brown. Drain them on a paper towel and season before serving.

Potato Cheese

Here's one of my family favourites, it's relatively quick, reasonably cheap and ridiculously simple.

You'll need: 

• Spuds
•  Cabbage
•  Cheese
•  Salt + Pepper

First of all boil the spuds, the trick here is not to boil them too much because we don't want them too soft, I suppose the experts would say “par boil them” but to be honest I've never had much of an idea what exactly is meant by 'par boil', so the best advice I can give is to say that when you prod them there needs to be a good bit of resistance as the knife goes in.

As the Spuds begin to soften put the pan of Cabbage on. All we are aiming to do with this is to take the stiffness out of it. I think boiling the Cabbage is fairly optional, but this is the way I like to do it.

When the Spuds are ready take them from the pan and drain them well, I usually dab them with kitchen paper at this point, but maybe I'm just fussy. Next, chop them with a knife, basically we need to almost mash them, that's why they are only lightly boiled. Using a Potato masher is likely to over-do it, we are aiming to have big soft lumps of Potato in the finished product, so take care with this part.

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Then drain the Cabbage, again make sure the job is done thoroughly leaving no excess water. Add the Cabbage to the Potato and mix it all up with a wooden spoon.

Next we need the Cheese, I will usually grate it but I also like to have a dozen lumps of Cheese about 1cm sq just to throw in to the mix.

Season the whole thing with Salt and Pepper and press it down into a casserole dish. Score the top with a fork, making lines that will go slightly crispy in the oven, and give a light sprinkling of grated cheese on top.

Pop it in the oven for half an hour or so, and serve piping hot.

The great thing about this meal is it's versatility, vary the ingredients to see what you like best, one of my favourite alternatives is Corned Beef and Beans replacing the Cheese and Cabbage. Try Ham and Leek or Cheese and Tomato, whatever takes your fancy.

The only limitation is imagination.