One Pot Chipotle Bean and Potato Stew

This stew uses chipotle chillies to add smokiness, but they aren't necessary if you don't have any to hand. You can substitute for liquid smoke or extra smoked paprika. Make sure you cook the potatoes in the stock before you add the passata, as the acidity of the tomato sauce means the potatoes will take much longer to cook once it is added to the dish. We ate this dish by itself but if you wanted more carb you could serve with crusty bread.

Potato and Stilton Soup

This soup is pure comfort food; we ate it in our house with home made cheese scones and it was delightful. You could also substitute the onions in this for leeks if you want to make a jazzed up potato and leek soup.

Creamy Potato, Leek and Mushroom Bake

This recipe comes from an old Linda McCartney recipe book I picked up somewhere which I've modified slightly. It's basically a potato gratin with added layers of leeks and herbed mushrooms, and a cheesy breadcrumb topping. The recipe serves 2 as a main course, so if serving more, scale up accordingly. It doesn't keep particularly well so needs to be eaten up on the day it's cooked. Make sure you slice the potatoes as thinly as possible, as otherwise it will take hours to cook. I sliced mine using a box grater, and even then it took an hour an a half.

Serves 2
Ingredients:

2 cloves garlic, crushed
250g mushrooms, sliced
3 tsp dried mixed herbs - I used thyme, marjoram and parsley
400g potatoes, thinly sliced (I used a box grater)
400g leeks, sliced
nutmeg, to taste
200 ml double cream
60 ml milk
2 tbsp cream cheese (optional)
100g bread
50g flavoured cheese (I used a mix of hard goats cheese and marture cheddar)
1/2 tsp garlic powder (optional)
salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 190 degrees C/375 degrees F/Gas Mark 5

1. Saute garlic in oil/butter in a pan for a couple of minutes. Add the mushrooms and half the dried herbs (1 and 1/2 tsp) and fry for 5-10 minutes until softened.

2. Arrange layers of vegetables as follows:

Using half the potatoes, add a layer of potato on the bottom of a baking dish, dotting with 1 tbsp cream cheese (if using), and a sprinkling of herbs.

Using half the leeks, add a layer of leeks and sprinkle sparingly with nutmeg.

Add the mushrooms and cooking juices on top.

Using the remaining leeks, add another layer of leeks, herbs, nutmeg, and dot with 1 tbsp cream cheese.

Finish off with a layer of potato on top.

3. In a jug, combine cream and milk. Season with salt and pepper to taste, and pour over the potato, leek and mushroom layers.

4. Blend bread into breadcrumbs. Grate cheese into breadcrumbs, add garlic powder and stir to mix. Cover the top of the potato bake with breadcrumbs.

5. Bake, covered with foil, for an hour. Remove foil and bake for another half an hour or until potatoes are soft.

Roasted Pepper Soup

As the Starks would say: Winter is coming. And in my house that means one thing: soup!

This is a relatively simple soup recipe but it is still very tasty. I used shallots but you could just use onions instead. This soup uses a couple of potatoes to bulk it up; I cooked the potatoes in the stock to be included in the soup, so as to retain the starch for thickness. The resulting soup was very thick (how I like it) but if you prefer a thinner soup, or you want it less starchy, you could cook and drain the potatoes before adding to stock, or use slightly more stock.

How to make *amazing* jacket potatoes...

... if you like your potatoes soft and fluffy on the outside, and super crispy on the outside, that is :) No soft and wrinkly potatoes skins to be found here.

You might be wondering what the point is in writing a blog post like this, since jacket potatoes are easy right? Right, it's easy to make a jacket potato that tastes nice (it's also quite easy to mess up jacket potatoes and have some under cooked thing, but that's another story). But I'm talking about a jacket potato that tastes amazing.

The secret to making amazing jacket potatoes:

1. Time/Patience - this recipe does not involve any sort of microwave shortcut!
2. Oil (yes, I know it makes the meal less healthy but I don't care, oil really crisps up the outside nicely)
3. Kitchen foil to wrap, to avoid the skin getting too burnt (though I have cooked without when desperate)

This is not a 'get back from work and rustle up a meal quickly' kind of recipe. This is a 'I have a couple of hours before I need to eat' kind of recipe. Having said that, it involves the bare minimum of effort. Once you do the prep and put the potatoes in the oven, you pretty much leave them be. The recipe instructions may look long but only because I'm making them very precise.

Jacket potatoes are a perfect Sunday-kicking-around-the-house meal. Top with whatever you fancy, though my personal favourite is baked beans with cheese, and some mayonnaise and Encona hot pepper sauce on the side. Yum!

Spicy Paprika Sweet Potato Chips

Chips (or fries, if you like) are a luxury I allow myself from time to time though I always roast my chips  as it's healthier than frying, and requires less effort - you just put them in the oven and shake occasionally. This recipe comes courtesy of my cousin Lucíola and it is fabulous! The trick is to coat the chips evenly in a bowl before roasting. I used one white flesh and one orange fleshed sweet potato, but you could also do this recipe with normal potatoes too.

Leek and Potato Soup

Leek and potato soup is great comfort food now the evenings are long and it's cold out. The combination of milk and cream in this recipe means this soup is not too rich, but retains a lovely creamy texture. You could jazz things up a bit by garnishing with some fresh chives, but I didn't bother. 

Red Onion, Thyme, and Smoked Applewood Cheddar Potato Dauphinoise

Inspiration for this dish comes from my brother Jesse, who a while back told me he'd invented a potato gratin with red onion, thyme, and smoked applewood cheddar and suggested I might want to try it out for this blog. It took me a few attempts to get this right, and what I learnt from these attempts was that the golden rules when it comes to potato dauphinoise are:

1. Slice the potato as thinly as possible (I used a boxed cheese grater).
2. Don't pre-cook the potato - you need the starch to thicken the sauce.
3. Don't try to lower the fat content of the recipe by using milk; it does not work and you end up with a far inferior dish.

After a few attempts, I was able to get this dish down to perfection; my boyfriend's comment after he'd taken his first bite: 'Yep, you've smashed it'. I think that about sums it up. A warning: this is a highly indulgent and rich dish.

Paprika and Mustard Potato Salad

This is a very easy, tasty, potato salad to make. Beware - I used raw onion in this and the flavour packs quite a punch. If you are less keen on onion and/or have to be out somewhere around people(!), you can easily omit it from the recipe. Or, as Google once again reliably informs me, you can soak the onions in very cold water for around 10 mins before draining and adding to the recipe.