Potato, green bean, white bean and tomato salad

Little s and I went for dinner at his best pal n's house the other day. It's really lucky: they are totally best pals, and happen to live just across the road. Also, his mum has the same birthday as me! It was nice to eat at someone else's house, food made by someone else - one of the things I missed most during the whole lockdown thing. Other people do things different, and even small things can be so refreshing and inspiring. 

We ate this at n's house. s seemed to like it, and I did too. We had basically all the ingredients in the fridge or freezer, so I made our version yesterday.

Boiled cooled potatoes, roughly chopped

Cooked green beans

Cooked white beans

cherry tomatoes, halved

red onion or chives, finely chopped

dressing: capers, lemon juice, mustard, olive oil, salt, pepper

Mix potatoes, green beans, white beans, cherry tomatoes, and onion in a bowl. In a separate, small bowl mix chopped capers, lemon juice, mustard, olive oil, salt and pepper. Pour the dressing over the salad, toss and serve.

Baked potatoes

I rediscovered baked potatoes this autumn-winter. I loved them as a kid, but had got out of the habit of them. But with being home so much, things like this that take a while in the oven but little involvement seemed like a good idea. If I do 180C for 2 hours I can put them in the oven before I go get s and they'll be done in time for dinner.

A few large potatoes, ideally a good baking variety

olive oil

salt

Heat the oven to 180C (for cooking time approx. 2 hours), or 200C (for cooking time approx. 1 hour) - if you have time I think they taste better with lower for longer. Scrub the potatoes and pat dry. Put them directly on a big baking sheet. Stab them all over with a fork. Rub with olive oil and salt. Bake until done - they should have a thick brown skin, and be squeezable.

Good with bean chili. Or cheese. Or hummus. Or loads of other things.

Baked smashed potatoes

It's been a while since I updated my recipes. Ages ago, when potatoes were new, I made some smashed potatoes, inspired by this.

Basically just take some boiled potatoes (I don't remember if I used warm or cold ones, either should work?), put in a baking tin and squash with the back of a big wooden spoon. Then drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and put in the oven at 200C for about 30 min / until golden and crispy around the edges.

Potato pizza

We'd tried a few approaches to potato pizza, but they'd never been quite like the real thing. I think my recent pizza experiments with thinly sliced apples/mushrooms made me think of potato pizza, so I read a bit and gave it another go. It came out brilliant.

1 batch pre-made pizza dough
some medium-sized potatoes
salt
olive oil
rosemary (fresh or dried)
black pepper

Wash the potatoes but leave the skin on. Slice them as thin as you can with a peeler or sharp knife (or mandoline, if you have one) - try to judge the right amount of potato for the amount of pizza you want to make - if in doubt, err on the side of too much. Mix some salt in a medium bowl with some water, stir until dissolved, then add the potato slices. Set aside - for at least a couple of hours, or longer - will be ok in the fridge for up to a couple of days.

When ready to make pizza, drain the potato slices, rinse and pat dry with kitchen roll or a tea towel. Put in a bowl with a good slosh of olive oil, some fresh-ground pepper, and some fresh or dried rosemary, and mix well. Set aside, pre-heat the oven to 220C and roll out the pizza dough.

Arrange the potato slices over the pizza base, letting them overlap and spreading them right out to the edges. Sprinkle any remaining olive oil / rosemary mixture over the top. Put in the oven and bake for c 20 min, until the potatoes are lightly browned and crispy in places.

If you have too much sliced potato, put them in a baking tin a few layers deep with a little cheese on top and bake together with the pizza - makes a tasty extra snack.

Lentil and potato pasta (the best lentils in the world)

When we were at S's in Italy last winter, we bought a packet of 'the best lentils in the world' from Santo Stefano di Sessanio. I just remembered them around New Year, because apparently lentils (along with a big fat sausage) form part of the traditional Italian New Year's feast. We didn't eat ours at New Year, but we had some with Amy on Jan 2nd, and the rest I made into this. I found a bit of paper with a few recipes in Italian in the packet from the lentils - I attempted to translate it, and this is the result. It was deceptively simple-looking, and very tasty, like a lot of real Italian food.

200 g small green/brown lentils
2 cloves garlic, 1 whole / 1 peeled and chopped
1 bay leaf
salt
2 tbsp olive oil 
4 medium tomatoes, diced
4 medium potatoes, approx. 2 cm dice
pasta

Put the lentils in a saucepan with 1 clove garlic, bay leaf and a little salt, and boil for about 25 min. Drain, reserving the liquid.

Heat olive oil in a frying pan, add chopped garlic and tomatoes and cook for a few minutes. Add a little salt and the liquid from cooking the lentils (and more water if needed), and the diced potatoes. Halfway through cooking, add the lentils.

While the lentils are cooking, bring a pan of salted water to the boil and cook enough pasta (your choice of shape) for 2 people. Stop cooking halfway through, drain, and pour pasta into the pot of lentils. Simmer until the pasta and the potatoes are well cooked.

Exciting pizza

S has a different approach to the kitchen than me. I tend to make different things all the time (as evidenced here), and get bored if I make the same thing too many times. He finds things he likes and makes them again and again until he reaches perfection. Like pasta. Or pretzels: he reaches a level of perfect replication in pretzel shapes that I have never achieved with anything. The latest thing to gain his attention is pizza. Since I discovered the speedy dough trick, we have developed a system: I make the dough and leave it in the fridge, then anytime he wants he can make pizza (and then I can eat it)!

Since we got back from Italy he's been getting awesomely adventurous. One success was white pizza with mozzarella and truffle paste, inspired by pizza we had in Rome and truffles we brought back in a jar. Another, which I guess was more inspired by Otto's in Boston, is pizza with spicy tomato sauce, white beans and potato. I cannot fully express just how well beans work on pizza: they get a little bit crispy on the outside: a bit of a falafel vibe? Very good! Both beans and potato are best cooked before putting on pizza to simplify matters.

Christmas food 2015

We got a veg share from the coop we just joined, and based our Christmas Day food around that. We ate:

Maple-roasted parsnips and celeriac (similar to this)

Roasted brussels sprouts with pomegranate molasses (a simplified version of this)
Red cabbage and sesame salad (similar to this, with coriander instead of chives and no carrot or radish)
Potato, mint and edamame salad
Tahini-lemon sauce

Zimtsterne (these take ages to make but keep very well)

S was in charge of Christmas Eve since that is the special day in Germany. We ate cheese fondue (which is apparently traditional) with broccoli, cauliflower, gnocchi, bread pieces.

New potatoes, peas, radishes and skyr

D+Sh visited last weekend. For the first time in ever. It was fun. It felt very different from any time we ever spent together before. They were on holiday, and if anyone was in charge it was S+me. Perhaps I am grown up at last.

We made quite a lot of adventures: the zoo, Louisiana (both really good), Relae. But spent a fair bit of the inbetween time chilling on our balcony (it was very hot out, like over 30C), listening to jazz drifting up from the bar across the canal, and more of it from boats floating past with bands on. We ended up having some nice salad+bread type meals on the balcony too - it was salad weather, and Danish bread is sooo good. This was one of the salads. It makes very pleasing use of in-season fresh peas, new potatoes, radishes and chives. Plus skyr, which forms a creamy dressing while remaining fresh and light and not overpowering.

20 or so new potatoes (adjust according to size / taste)
500 g bag of fresh peas, shelled
1 bunch of radishes, trimmed and sliced
1 tbsp chopped chives
4 tbsp skyr mixed with 2 tsp lemon juice and 2 tsp olive oil
salt+pepper

Cook the new potatoes until just tender and set aside to cool while you prepare the other ingredients. Blanch the shelled peas by pouring boiling water over them then draining pretty much straight away. Put all ingredients in a serving dish and mix together. Serve warm or cold.

Cajun spiced potato wedges with dilly cream cheese dip

These were an afterthought - I had the oven on to make roasted brussels sprouts with birch syrup, and thought I may as well root through the fridge and see what else I could bung in the oven while I was at it. I found potatoes.

For the potato wedges:
3-4 medium-large potatoes
pinch of salt
~1 tbsp cajun spice mix (mostly paprika I think)
1-2 tbsp olive oil

For the dip:
~5 tbsp vegan cream cheese
juice of one small lime
~1 tbsp chopped fresh dill (or chives)
pinch of salt

Heat the oven to 400F. Wash (don't peel) the potatoes, trim off any dodgy bits, and cut into regularly-sized wedges. Toss the wedges with the salt, cajun spice and olive oil, then lay out on a baking tray, if possible with a skin side down. Put in the oven and bake for ~20 min, then take out and turn, checking they are golden underneath, and put back in for another 15-20 min. Let cool for a few minutes before eating.

While the potatoes are cooking, make the dip. Beat together the cream cheese, lime juice, dill and salt in a small bowl.


Really simple and good - these disappeared like lightning when S found them. The dip really made them (nb it is just as good although different with chives instead of dill... and TJs vegan cream cheese is so very surprisingly good).

Massaman curry (from tinned paste)

Sascha bought this little tin of curry paste when he stayed with us (and S demanded he make us dinner when we got home from work / before going to basketball). The remainder of the tin had been in the fridge ever since - I wasn't sure how long it'd last but guessed it needed using up before too much longer. Last night I got home before S and decided it was time for curry. I filled it with a pretty random selection of stuff from the corners of fridge, freezer and cupboards. Which actually worked out really well.

The paste is good, and tinning means it has no unidentifiable ingredients. In case I want to try and recreate it / find it again, it is labelled Massaman curry paste, and the ingredients list is: garlic, sugar, soybean oil, dried red chillies, tamarind juice, shallot, salt, lemongrass, spices (coriander seeds, cumin, cardamom, cinnamon, bay leaves, lesser galanga, cloves), kaffir lime, galangal, citric acid (E330).

1/2 tin Massaman curry paste (see above)
1 tin coconut milk
1/4 butternut squash, deseeded and chopped into ~2 cm chunks
2 medium potatoes, washed and chopped into ~1 cm chunks
~1/4 cup okara (optional - chucked it in because it needed eating)
~1/2 cup frozen chickpeas
1/2 block super firm tofu
~1/2 cup frozen peas
~2 tbsp crushed toasted peanuts
~2 tbsp chopped coriander

Heat a deep frying pan with a lid. Put the curry paste and half the coconut milk in and stir-fry for ~ 3 min. Add the potato and squash. Cover and simmer for ~15-20 min, until the potato is almost cooked, adding the okara after about 5 min if using. Add the chickpeas and tofu and heat for another 5 min or so, then add the frozen peas and heat for 2-3 min, until they are cooked. Take off the heat and stir in the toasted peanuts. Serve with rice, and with coriander sprinkled on top.

Potato and green bean salad

Boiled potatoes and green beans are a great combination. This way you can cook both in the same pot without having to mix them and risk getting one or the other under/over cooked. I like them tossed with a mustardy, vinegary, capery salad dressing. Salty olives or sundried tomatoes also work well.

~15 small new potatoes, washed and bad bits cut off
bag of French beans, topped and tailed and cut into ~ 2 in pieces
1 tbsp wholegrain mustard
1 tsp honey
1 tbsp nasturtium seeds (or capers), chopped
1 tbsp chives, chopped
1 tbsp parsley, chopped
2-3 tbsp olive oil
juice of 1/2 a lemon
salt+pepper

Put the potatoes in a few inches of boiling, slightly salted water in the bottom of a large, lidded pot you can fit a steamer basket into. Cover and bring to the boil. Prep the beans and put them in the steamer basket, then put it into the pan above the potatoes (make sure the water is not boiling up into the basket). The beans will take 10-15 min (until tender); the potatoes will take 15-20 min depending how big and how new they are. Meanwhile, put the remaining ingredients into a serving bowl and whisk together to make the dressing. When the beans and potatoes are ready stop cooking in cold water, drain and then transfer to the dressing while still warmish. Toss together, taste for seasoning and serve.

Roasted potato and herb focaccia

Since we love potato bread (and S loves dill and salt), this bread immediately looked like it would be a hit. Definitely a weekend bread, as the protocol is a bit long... We had most of the ingredients, including 00 flour and salad potatoes. But I didn't have dill, so used some herbs I did have from our garden instead - thyme and chives. Think next year I will try and grow dill and coriander (I did plant coriander seeds but they didn't sprout) - they are the two we use most besides the ones I'm already growing (mint, chives, thyme, basil, parsley).

450g salad potatoes, washed (used red-skinned ones)
olive oil and sea salt flakes
1 tsp yeast
100ml low-fat yoghurt (used coconut kefir)
50g honey
175g pitted green olives (used 1 tin of black olives in brine, drained)
1 small bunch dill, chopped (used chives and thyme)
625g Italian 00 flour
2 tsp fine sea salt

Chop the potatoes into cubes, toss them with oil and a little salt, roast for 30 minutes (@ 400F) until barely cooked, then leave to cool (did this a day in advance).

In a large bowl, mix 375ml water with the yeast, kefir / yoghurt, honey, olives, herbs and cold potatoes, then mix in the flour and salt to make a sticky dough. Leave for 45 min, then knead the dough gently for 10 sec. Repeat this three more times at 45-min intervals, then line a baking tray (used roasting tin) with paper and press the dough out so it half covers it. Leave another 45 min, then stretch the dough to cover the rest of the tray. Sprinkle with salt flakes and leave for about 30 min while you heat the oven to 200C / 390F. Bake for 35-40 min, until a deep golden brown on top. Let sit for 10 min when you take it out of the oven, then lift out of the tray and off the paper and leave to cool on a rack.


I think this was a real focaccia-type dough: it was very wet. Interesting to work with - hard to knead properly - was glad it was a minimal-knead protocol. Came out lovely and soft as a result, with a nice loose, moist crumb. The kefir was definitely a good yoghurt substitute - I love the taste of it (you can't taste the coconut in the finished bread). Glad to find a good use for the last of my 00 flour - had almost exactly the right quantity. The protocol was really, really long (~5 hours not including the potato-roasting time!) - it was fairly simple but I don't think this will become a regular bread for us just because of the time. Even though it was quite delicious and I am intrigued to try it with dill / other additions instead of potatoes...

Vegan 'Brazilian' 'cheese' bread

Brazil is pretty high on my list of places I want to visit. But I'd never even heard of Brazilian 'Pão de Queijo' (cheese bread) until I went to our friends' (C+J who we made spaetzle with) place for brunch on Sunday and found another friend, B, who frequently travels to Brazil for work, putting these in the oven. They are little, golden, savoury bread-buns, made using tapioca (cassava) flour - so they are accidentally gluten-free and have a wonderful sticky-gooey, almost mochi-like crumb inside a crusty exterior.

Obviously the real thing is full of cheese, and also eggs. But I felt like a vegan version should be attainable, and was even more convinced when I did an internet search and found that the breads are sometimes made with potato as well as the tapioca flour - I have had a recent run of success with putting mashed potato in baked goods - Kartoffelbrot in particular is a firm household favourite. I found a vegan recipe already in existence here, and it looked good, pleasingly simple and similar to what I had in mind, so I pretty much followed it... although obviously I couldn't resist throwing a few extra things in the mix (and yes, I did just happen to have potatoes, tapioca flour and nutritional yeast lying around at home: our pantry is getting a little out of control but I kinda love it).

(makes approx 17 small bread-buns)

(total time approx 1 hour, halved if you have mashed potatoes made already and you do small buns)

2 1/2 cups tapioca flour (glutinous rice flour also works)
2 cups mashed potato (or yucca)
~1 tsp salt (to taste)
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup veg oil
1 tbsp baking powder
2-3 tbsp nutritional yeast
1 tsp chilli flakes (optional)
1-2 tbsp sesame seeds (optional)

Heat the oven to 350F. Mix the tapioca, salt and nutritional yeast / chilli / sesame seeds (if using) together in a medium bowl. Heat the water and oil in a small pan. When the water has boiled, add it to the bowl, stirring rapidly. It's OK if it doesn't all come together. Add the mashed potato and mix/knead until a smooth dough forms. Add the baking powder and continue mixing until it is well incorporated. Oil your hands and shape the dough into small balls. Place them on a baking sheet and bake until golden: 30-40 min (depending on size). Delicious warm, still good the next day, freezing possible if they are not all eaten straight away (unlikely).


The vegan ones are just as good as the non-veg variety: really savoury and crusty and I absolutely love the salty, gooey interior. These did come out quite gooey - I like it, but perhaps adding a little xanthan gum would give a more defined crumb? Or maybe a little less water? Or more mash?

Note: I made this a second time, and used ~1 3/4 cups of tapioca flour (all I had left) plus ~3/4 cup glutinous rice flour. I also used more like 2 1/4 cups of mashed potato. They came out even better than the first time - less gluey in the middle, more of a consistent crumb. Obviously I changed a couple of things so not a well controlled experiment, but my suspicion is that the extra potato did it.

Another note: I tried the real deal from a Brazilian bakery at the weekend; these are really, really close. I would never be able to guess which were the veg ones and which were nonveg.

St. Patrick's Day: Potato-Stout Cake

When I realised St. Patrick's Day was today I got this idea into my head, and I couldn't stop thinking about it until I made it. I couldn't find Guinness sold singly, so ended up with chocolate stout, which was perhaps even better for the job. The mashed potato sounds weird, but less so the more you think about it - it's just another starch really, with the added advantage of moistness, and I think it worked brilliantly. I've had Guinness-chocolate cake before (I'd consider it a classic, originally introduced to me by my former colleague Des), and I'd seen potato in cake here and stored the idea away (this recipe is loosely based on that one).

1 cup plus 2 tbsp mashed potatoes (unseasoned)
1 1/4 cup chocolate stout (or any kind of stout)
1/4 tsp coffee granules
2 cups flour (incl ~2-3 tbsp cornstarch)
1 cup cocoa powder
2 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup veg oil
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 tsp vanilla essence
1 1/2 tbsp cider vinegar
1/4 cup fake milk

icing sugar to finish

Heat oven to 350F. Prepare a 9 inch cake tin with removable base. Mix mashed potatoes, stout and coffee in a bowl. In another bowl, mix the flour and cornstarch, cocoa, baking powder, bicarb and salt. In a third, large bowl, beat together the oil, sugar, vanilla, vinegar and milk. Add the flour mix and the potato mix alternately to the sugar mix, starting and finishing with the flour. Check consistency and add a little more milk if too thick. Pour mixture into the tin and put in the oven. Bake for 60-90 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Remove and allow to cool until touchable (about 10 min), then pop off the outer ring and leave until completely cool.

To serve, I cut a shamrock shape (um, perhaps it was more like a 4 leaved clover) out of paper to make a stencil, laid it on the cake, then dusted icing sugar over the top before carefully removing the template.


This cake is moist and intense with chocolate and stout flavour. I was really happy with both texture and taste. It rose nicely and didn't sink. Only thing is, it's huge! I mean, a good size for a cake, but huge for S and I to eat alone. I'll be giving some away...

I am tweaking an idea for a thick icing with mashed potato in it - used as a thickener the same way you would cornstarch, also Irish Moss / carrageenan. So then you could ice the cake with a fluffy, vanilla-y icing to make it look a bit like a pint of Guinness (which would perhaps work better with cupcakes - it'd cook quicker in that form too). But I wasn't quite happy with the icing. Also, the cake is so rich and dense that I actually prefer the simplicity of the shamrock patterned icing sugar dusting.

St. Patrick's Day: Mushroom-stout shepherd's pie

Really, this is an effort to use up various odds and ends of things laying around - the fridge, freezer and pantry have all been feeling rather full lately. So, leftover mash and the stout from this, plus some carrots, mushrooms and parsley that needed eating, the last of a jar of tomato puree, stock I couldn't fit in the freezer, a couple of odd ends of packets of pulses... It all came together surprisingly well to make a pie packed with powerful, punchy flavours: a very St. Patrick's Day kind of a thing. About as close as I'm ever going to get to green beer and leprechaun hats, despite living in Boston.

For the topping:
~ 2 large potatoes, peeled and chopped
2 tbsp wholegrain mustard
1 tbsp white miso
1 tbsp fake butter
2 tbsp olive oil
~1-2 tbsp fake milk
salt+pepper

For the insides:
1-2 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, peeled and chopped
4 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
2 large carrots, peeled and sliced
~10 mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
2 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried basil
1-2 tbsp paprika
1/4 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp dried chilli flakes
3 tbsp mushroom powder (hedgehog+chanterelle)
1 cup crushed tomatoes
2 tbsp tomato puree
1 cup stout
1 1/2 cups veg stock
1 tsp dark mushroom soy sauce
1 tbsp vinegary red wine
3/4 cup chana dal
3/4 cup brown lentils
salt+pepper


To make the filling, heat the oil in a large, lidded saucepan, then add the onions and fry, covered, until starting to soften (a few minutes). Add the garlic and the carrots, cook a few minutes more, then uncover, add the mushrooms and cook until they turn dark and give up their liquid. Add the spices and dried herbs and saute until fragrant. Add the remaining ingredients, taste for seasoning, then cover and simmer until the pulses are tender (about 40 min).

Meanwhile, heat the oven to 400F. Make the topping: cover the potatoes with water and bring to the boil. Simmer for 15-20 min, until tender. Drain and mash with a fork until smooth, then add the remaining topping ingredients and continue mashing until a good, smooth consistency. Taste for mustard and seasoning.

When the filling is cooked, pour it into an ovenproof dish and level out. Splodge the mashed potato mixture on top and level it out, patterning it with a fork if you like. Put into the oven for about half an hour, until the potato is starting to brown and the filling is bubbling up. Remove from the oven and let sit for 10 min before eating.

Mum's 'Red Dragon' bean pie

This is sort of a veg shepherd's pie. Grandma looked out the recipe while I was in Edinburgh and made it for me. She had got the recipe from Mum. In fact, as she looked through her recipe folders she found that she had got the recipe from Mum twice: she had two different copies, both handwritten by Mum. Seeing Mum's handwriting is one of those things that makes her seem so near yet so far - I remember tearing out and keeping all these little bits of paper where she'd signed my schoolwork: I didn't want to forget what her writing looked like, same as I didn't want to forget anything else about her.

The pie was really tasty - a bit 70s perhaps, but lovely. Grandma gave me one copy of the recipe and I've brought it back with me: I made it for S today (with black eyed beans) and he liked it.

For filling:
4 oz aduki beans (or similar)
2 oz wheat grain or rice (used rice)
1 onion, chopped
8 oz grated carrot (used about 5 medium-small ones)
1-2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp tomato puree
1 tsp mixed herbs (used mix of oregano, basil, thyme)
1/2 pint bean stock
salt+pepper

For topping:
~4 medium potatoes, peeled, boiled and mashed with
-marg, olive oil, fake milk, salt+pepper to taste

Soak the beans overnight, then cook. Cook the rice. Cook the potatoes separately, then mash with oil/marg, milk, salt+pepper (we used a mixture of potato and celeriac and it was yum).

Fry the onion and carrot. Add the rest of the filling ingredients to the onion and carrot and simmer until thickened.

Put the filling in an ovenproof dish, top with the mashed potato, and bake in a 400F oven for 20-30 min until the top of the mashed potato has started to brown and the filling is bubbling.

Note: I followed the recipe fairly approximately - used ingredients as above but just guessed quantities.

Potato salad

As a child, the only way I'd eat boiled potatoes was in potato salad, which had to be with salad cream and chives (or finely chopped onion at a push) - no other way.  As an adult, salad cream seems disgusting.  I guess this is a grown-up version.

~20 new potatoes (we used fingerlings, other small boiling potatoes would also be fine), scrubbed and boiled with the skin on until just cooked, left to cool (can store in the fridge for several days)
1 tbsp chives, chopped (parsley also good, or both)
2 tbsp capers, drained and chopped (sundried tomatoes in oil also good - if using replace the olive oil with the tomato oil)
1 tbsp wholegrain mustard
2 tsp honey
1 tbsp lemon juice (juice of 1/2 a lemon)
2 tbsp olive oil
salt+pepper

Chop the cold, cooked potatoes into chunky, evenly sized pieces.  Mix the remaining ingredients in the bottom of a medium sized bowl and check for tastiness.  Add the potatoes, toss and eat.


This is a classic. I've made many slight variations but the honey-lemon-mustard-olive oil dressing with herbs and nuggets of strongly-flavoured caper or tomato is really yummy, and makes for an instant storecupboard / fridge salad out of a tub of leftover boiled potatoes.

Kartoffelbrot

Still on the German baking thing.  We were looking for some crap to watch the other night and ended up watching the Hairy Bikers (/Bakers) in Germany on the BBC.  I'd been thinking of making a Kartoffelbrot anyway, they reminded me, and I used their recipe.

375g/13oz potatoes, peeled and cut into even chunks (300g/10½oz peeled weight; 2 large potatoes)
1 tsp dried yeast
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp sunflower oil
1 tsp salt
300g/10½oz strong white flour, plus extra for kneading (or 100g/3½oz strong wholemeal flour and 200g/7oz strong white flour)
1 tsp onion seeds – or use a mixture of caraway (2/3 tsp), anise (1/3 tsp) and fennel (1/3 tsp) seed

You need exactly 300g/10½oz potatoes to make the bread so check the weight once they are peeled.  Place the potatoes in a large saucepan and cover with cold water, bring to the boil, then reduce the heat slightly and cook for 15–20 minutes until they are tender but not falling apart.

Drain the potatoes in a colander over a bowl and reserve the cooking liquid. Return the potatoes to the pan and toss over a very low heat for 2-3 minutes until any excess liquid has evaporated.

Pour 75ml/5 tbsp (90ml / 6 tbsp if using a wholemeal / white flour mix) of the warm cooking liquid into a large bowl and leave to cool for a few minutes. When it’s lukewarm, sprinkle in the yeast. Stir in the sugar and leave in a warm place for about 10 minutes until a light foam appears on the surface.

Mash the potatoes with the oil in the saucepan until they’re as smooth as possible, then stir in the yeast mixture and salt.

Mix well with a wooden spoon and gradually add the flour, a few tablespoons at a time, stirring well before adding more. When the dough becomes too stiff to stir in the flour, turn it out on to the work surface and knead the remaining flour into the dough. Don’t be tempted to add more water or the dough will become too sticky to work with.

Knead the dough for 10 minutes until soft and pliable. Place it in a bowl, cover and leave to rise in a warm place for 45–60 minutes, or until well-risen and spongy to touch.

Knock back the dough with your knuckles and shape it into a rough ball. Flatten the ball on a floured surface until it is about 2cm thick, then split into three and braid. Sprinkle on some wholemeal flour, for additional texture, on the outside of the loaf. Place it on a baking sheet lined with baking paper, and leave to prove in a warm place for a further 30 minutes.

Heat the oven to 220C/428F. Sprinkle the top with your choice of seeds. Bake the loaf in the centre of the oven for 35 minutes until well risen and crusty on top. Cool on a wire rack.


This is really good - came out as a big, rustic, golden-brown braid, and we disappeared almost all of it as soon as it was cool enough.  Nice, soft texture and hearty, comforting taste.

Edit: I've re-made this a few times since and we still love it. It is wonderfully soft and moist, and keeps well - still easy to slice after a week.

Potato, leek and lavender soup

Another New Covent Garden Soup Company old favourite.  I hadn't had any cookable lavender for a while, so hadn't made it for a while, but now I have lavender and now I have made the soup again.

1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
2 large leeks, washed and finely chopped
1 1/2 lb potatoes, peeled and roughly chopped
1.5 l / 2.5 pints veg stock
425 ml / 3/4 pint fake milk
flowers of 3 lavender heads
salt and pepper

Heat the oil in a large saucepan, cover and cook gently for ~5 min til softened.  Add the potatoes, stock, milk and lavender.  Cover, bring to the boil and simmer gently for about 20-25 min until the potatoes are tender.  Cool a bit, then puree in a blender til smooth.  Season to taste and thin with water if necessary.


It's subtle but tasty.  Blended potato does make for a really nice smooth consistency (good for ill 'uns, like S this weekend).  I made the mistake of chucking some beetroot in my last batch of stock, so the colour of this was a little odd, just a little - browner than one might expect...

Chili gnocchi and onions

I mashed the potatoes I had boiled for the potato 'maple' syrup on Sunday, so had a tub of mash in the fridge.  We went out for Italian food for S's birthday on Tuesday, which made me realise the thing to do with the mash was gnocchi.  I made pumpkin gnocchi once before and it didn't really work, but that was a while ago and it felt like time to try again.  The mix is very similar to that for tattie scones, another good thing to do with leftover mash.

For the gnocchi:
~2 cups / 9 oz mashed potato (it was already seasoned and mixed with some chopped spring onion)
~1 cup / 4 oz plain flour
~1 tsp chili flakes
~ 1 tbsp chopped coriander
~ 1/2 tsp grated nutmeg
salt and pepper

For the onions:
2 medium onions, finely sliced
4 cloves garlic, finely sliced
1 sprig of thyme, leaves only
2 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp chili flakes
salt and pepper
olive oil

Put the gnocchi ingredients in a medium bowl and mix with a fork.  Check seasoning.  Modify amount of flour to give a workable dough (but don't use too much or it won't taste good).

Take a handful of dough and roll on a well-floured board into a long sausage about the thickness of your thumb.  Cut into little pillows (about 2 cm long) with a knife, and transfer to a floured plate - they are ready to go.

Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil.  When at a rollicking boil, drop in the gnocchi.  They will sink initially, and within a few minutes they will start to rise up and float.  This means they are done - fish out the floating ones with a slatted spoon and drain.

Meanwhile, heat about 2 tbsp olive oil in a frying pan and add onions and garlic.  Add other ingredients, cover and cook at a medium heat until completely softened and slightly caramelised.

Eat the cooked gnocchi straight away, with a pile of onions.


These turned out really good: texture is lovely and light; I enjoyed the irregular shapes of the gnocchi, and the additions made them really interesting and different from any I've eaten before, in a good way.  Inspired to try different additions - specifically thinking of the wonderful gnocchi stuffed with porcini we ate in Italy - stuffing might be a bit ambitious, but adding mushrooms to the gnocchi mix seems realistic...