Potatoes - Retro Food For Modern Times

19
Jan
2025

Pebbles on A Peruvian Beach

categories: 1970's recipes, 500 Recipes for Quick Meals, Cheese, Eggs, Potato, Recipe Fail, Recipe Revamp

Hello friends and retro food lovers! Remember back in your school days when you got marks/grades for effort? Alternatively, does the phrase “the soul was willing, but the heart was weak” resonate with you? Well, they will indicate how I feel about the recipe for Pebbles on The Beach, which I’ve renamed Pebbles on a Peruvian Beach.

I understand what they were trying to do here…it just didn’t work! This recipe was also an anomaly because, so far, everything else I’ve made from Marguerite Patten’s 500 Recipes for Quick Meals has been great! Remember the Sardine Toadstools? (It’s still my favourite thing from last year)!

Pebbles on The Beach – The Intent (I think)

So, I assume that in this recipe the tops of the eggs and the potatoes would poke out of the cheese sauce like pebbles on a beach! If pebbles were white and pink and the sea was a cheese sauce. So, even then, the analogy has problems. Pebbles on the moon? Pebbles in the desert? These may have been more accurate visual descriptions of this dish.

Pebbles on The Beach – The Actuality

Without it’s Peruvian flavour bomb, this dish was as bland as could be. Potatoes don’t have much flavour nor do eggs. Don’t get me wrong, I love both of these ingredients but even combined with a cheese sauce this was dull. My best description would be nursery or invalid food. It even looks dull without its garnish!

The second is that the recipe requires you to take eggs that are already hard-boiled and then cook them for another 20 minutes. Those eggs were rock-hard!

Oh!

Surely that was not why they called this dish pebbles?

The cure for the blandness was to serve the Pebbles on the beach with some Peruvian Salsa. We last saw this salsa paired with some Croquetas de Carne almost exactly two years ago, in January 2023.

The cure for the eggs? Maybe keep them raw and cook them in the cheese sauce? I don’t quite know how to fix that one. And, to be honest, it wasn’t tempting enough, even with the Peruvian Salsa to give it another go! Honestly, if you want a really good tasty combination of potatoes and eggs, then I would recommend Roseanne Cash’s Potato Salad over this any day of the week!

Oh well, you can’t win ’em all….here’s the recipe in case you have any bright ideas or want to feed a three-year-old or an invalid.

Have a great week!

29
Dec
2024

Zuurkoolstamppot

categories: Europe, Holland, Potato, Side Dishes

Hello friends and welcome! Today we are taste testing Zuurkoolstamppot, a wonderfully named Dutch dish featuring mashed potatoes, sauerkraut and bacon! I made this quite a while ago but kept it in reserve in case I was desperate for something for a Dining with The Dame post. I figured if push came to shove, I could make some sort of pun out of Zuurkool / Hercule. But I am feeling brave. Thus far, the books from the 1950s have been laden with food, so I have decided to post this one now. Famous last words? We’ll see.

What didn’t go wrong was the Zuurkoolstamppot. If you haven’t already noticed, I also really like saying Zuurkoolstamppot!

What is Zuurkoolstamppot?

Although the name might be complicated, I mean, look at all those double letters; Zuurkoolstamppot is very easy to make! The name translates to “sauerkraut mash”, and it is exactly that – fancy mashed potatoes. It resembles Irish Colcannon, which combines sauteed cabbage with mashed potatoes. Think of it as Colcannon’s cool, edgy cousin! Or “kool” edgy cousin if you prefer!

Zuurkoolstamppot is traditionally served with smoked sausages but would be equally good with any other hearty meat dish. This is pure comfort food, to be eaten in the depths of winter to warm the soul! The combination of creamy mashed potatoes, tangy sauerkraut and crispy salty bacon is a delight in taste and texture!

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Zuurkoolstamppot

Print Recipe

A flavourful Dutch alternative to regular mashed potatoes.

Author: Taryn Nicole

Ingredients

Scale

750g starchy potatoes, peeled and cubed

250g sauerkraut, drained

100g smoked bacon, diced

1 onion finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 cup milk

Butter (as much as you like)

Pepper

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

In a large skillet, fry the bacon until crispy Remove from the pan but leave the bacon fat in in the pan.

Add the onion to the bacon fat and sauté until soft.

Add the garlic and cook for another minute until that is also soft. Add the sauerkraut and cook for another minute to warm it through.

Boil the potatoes in salted water until tender (about 15-120 minutes). Drain then tip back into the pan. Add milk and butter. Mash throughly.

Add the bacon, onion and sauerkraut mix and sitr through. Add pepper to taste. I don’t think this dish needs additional salt but taste and add some if you like.

Enjoy!

If you wanted to add some variations to this recipe, I can heartily suggest adding some wholegrain mustard into the mashed potato mix. You could also add a spinkle of chives or parsley as a garnish.

My grandfather once traced our family ancestry back to Holland in the 18th century. I wonder if my Dutch ancestors back in the day enjoyed tucking into a dish of Zuurkoolstamppot as much as I did!

Have a great week!

15
Jan
2023

Moscow Potatoes

categories: Posh Food, Potato, Sour Cream, Starters

Hello, friends, we are back from our hols – more to come about that later! Never have I agonised over a post as much as I have over this one. Not because these Moscow Potatoes weren’t fabulous. They were delicious and tasted like something special even though they are made from only four ingredients! My dilemma was about whether this might be seen as me taking a pro-Russian stance on wider world events. So just to be really clear, this is not a political statement, this is a food blog.

Moscow Potatoes6

The recipe for Moscow Potatoes comes from the February / March 1990 edition of Vogue Entertaining which is the same magazine that brought us the flowery delights of a rose petal salad. For this one, we are turning away from flowers and turning the usually humble spud into a ritzy item. It’s the culinary version of the plain girl taking off her glasses and becoming a glamour puss.

I had some of the salmon caviar left over from making the Oysters with Caviar so it made sense to give the Moscow Potatoes a try. We had these as a little starter before our New Year’s Day dinner of Tomahawk Steak with a coffee spice rub and a caesar style wedge salad. This was a delightful way to welcome in 2023! I served these on a plate meant for deviled eggs and I think they looked adorable! You will see I left some of the potatoes un-caviared in case people did not like it. In the end, I had to add some of the gorgeous salmon caviar pearls to the plain ones as no one wanted them!

Moscow Potatoes – The Article

The recipe for Moscow Potatoes comes from a feature called “Fed in The Clouds” . It is about Alan and Elizabeth Crompton Batts who are as posh as they sound. He was a food writer, and chef and owned a PR company that was involved with a LOT of very famous London restaurants including Chez Nico, Tamarind, and Christopher’s. He was also at one point the manager of The Psychedelic Furs whose song Pretty in Pink is in my Top Ten of best-ever songs. Her family used to own The Ivy. In short, these two are food royalty!

1990’s Power Couple, Alan and Elizabeth Compton Batts

Although I had never heard of either Alan or Elizabeth Crompton Batts before starting this post, and coming into this wanting to be a bit mocking about the whole 80s excess of it all, I was actually very sad to read that Alan Crompton Batts passed away in 2004 at only 50 years old. This meant at the time of this article in 1990, he was 36 and had already achieved everything I mentioned before! This took my breath away. What an absolute powerhouse!

Their menu is also amazing and I”m sure we will see more from the Crompton Batts’ in future posts.

In the meantime though, let’s find out how to make Moscow Potatoes!

Moscow Potatoes – The Recipe

You will see from the pictures that I swapped out the mint for some chives. I think you can go your own way on this. Dill would also be amazing.

Have a great week!

07
Jan
2019

Use By: Oven Fries with Marinated Feta and Rosemary

categories: Potato, Simple, Use By

One of my goals for the new year, inspired by Jenny over at Silver Screen Suppers is to cut down on my food waste. To that end, I spent a day or so over the break adding every item of food and drink in my house – of which I apparently have 530+ – ranging from Agnostura Bitters to Zulu Spice Mix into a spreadsheet.

Zulu Spice Mix? WTF? I don’t even know why I have Zulu spice mix. I also don’t know why I have 3 unopened boxes of cream of tartar (or even exactly it does) or two unopened jars of Char Sui Paste… But all of that stuff could wait. In the dairy shelf of my fridge (another Jenny inspiration), there was some very delicious (and also very expensive) marinated feta that absolutely positively could not go to waste.

So, then to my “Recipe Schedule” spreadsheet to see where I can use some marinated feta. Wow..I’m giving you all my spreadsheets!

Don’t even get me started on my spreadsheets. Because this will then become a blog about where and how to use a multi embedded what if scenario and not at all about food. On the other hand, if, like me, you are all about the spready, head over to my other blog www.tarynisexcellent.com* for all your spreadsheet needs, wants and desires. (*Not a real blog. Unless you want it to be…)

Back to my marinated feta and the concept of the “Use By” post. In each post, I will use up an ingredient that would have otherwise had to be thrown out. And will try to use that ingredient in a manner that does not entail buying several more items which will then have to be logged and “used by”…..

Yotam Ottolenghi’s latest book, Simple contains a recipe for fries with feta and oregano. I had feta, I had potatoes. I didn’t have dried oregano but I had fresh rosemary and I love rosemary flavoured roast potatoes so I subbed in the rosemary for the oregano.

Let me tell you, these fries are GENIUS!

That drizzle of garlic oil over the top takes them to next level. Add the feta and we’re talking eleven.

Being a philistine I also tried to add ketchup and vinegar to these fries Because normally, fries without them are useless.

These were fine without!

These are possibly the best home fries I have ever eaten!

And a super recipe for using up any leftover feta cheese you may have!

26
Nov
2018

Spinach and Gorgonzola Stuffed Jacket Potatoes

categories: Blue Cheese, Potato, Spinach

Doh! thought I posted this a couple of weeks ago!!!! I found it in drafts today so I guess not!

I had an idea about how to do these World Food posts. I’ll do a recipe from Good Housekeeping’s World Cookery from 1972, then I’ll do a modern recipe from the same country or somewhat related to the first post. It’s going to be a kind of retro/modern vibe. So, given that last time I featured Potato Maraska, a potato recipe from 1970’s Israel, today, I am showcasing a potato recipe from an Israeli chef, Yotam Ottolenghi. This is actually my second Ottolenghi recipe on here, the first being his Crespeou from way back in 2015. No “70’s style retro picnic bling” today but after the blandness of the Potato Maraska, these Spinach and Gorgonzola stuffed jacket potatoes bring all the flavour to the yard!

If you are one of those people who hate blue cheese, you could use cheddar or whatever cheese you like instead…but the gorgonzola, spinach and walnut combo is particularly nice.

The hardest part of this is scooping out the cooked potato flesh evenly and not putting a hole in the skin. Maximum taste for minimum effort. Vegetarian. And gluten-free for those who care about such things.

Potato skins or stuffed jacket potatoes or whatever you want to call them are fun food! And these have spinach so they’re also kind of healthy!

There’s not much more to say about these! They were simple to make and delicious! And they look just like the picture from the book!

This recipe comes from Yotam Ottolenghi’s latest book, Simple. This was our latest Tasty Reads book club selection and was, with one exception, liked by all. I love it and can see it becoming a favourite that I turn to regularly for simple, delicious food:

Highlights for me, apart from the potatoes above, have been so far:

Chicken Marbella
Bridget Jones Pan Fried Salmon with Pine Nut Salsa
Blueberry, Almond and Lemon Cake

Here’s the Spinach and Gorgonzola Stuffed Jacket Potatoes Recipe:

And here’s the book:

I love that cover. It’s so bright and cheerful and well…Simple!

Have a wonderful week!

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Tag: Potatoes

Pebbles on The Beach – The Intent (I think)

Pebbles on The Beach – The Actuality

What is Zuurkoolstamppot?

Zuurkoolstamppot

Ingredients

Instructions

Moscow Potatoes – The Article

Moscow Potatoes – The Recipe