My New Year's Gift To You

Now this, my friends, is the kind of salad you want to have in your back pocket, so to speak.  It is possibly the dish I have served to the most people, over my lifetime, and have noticed that it is both an excellent, rock solid standard, and a game changer - people wolf this down, and on more than one occasion I've had someone turn to me, cheeks stuffed full of new potato, eyes wild, and declare "but how can this be?  I don't even like potato salad".

I do claim an unfair advantage on this one, it's true - I come to it from a place of love.  Just as I'm convinced that the perfect roast potatoes can only be made by cooks who love them above all over things (in our house, it's Andy's job for this very reason - I'm definitely a mash girl, and boy do my roasties know it), so I believe the same is true of potato salad.  It's long been a true favourite of mine, and I remember a million years ago at university when my mum gave me some money for groceries and told me to make sure I bought a treat, potato salad was the thing I went for.

The secret is definitely in the dressing, and in particular, the white wine vinegar which isn't the most obvious ingredient, it's true, but it does amazing trickery in adding some tang and background flavour.

I have given you catering-size quantities, that's undeniable, but one taste of this and you will know why.  Whether you're feeding a crowd or just feeding yourself, this is comforting and fresh and tastes of summer.  Keep it in the fridge and dip into it as and when.  You will thank me, and so will all those in your life who are languishing in some misguided potato salad denial.

Potato Salad
My own recipe, developed through years of delicious experimentation

1kg new potatoes, with the peel still on
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon grainy mustard
1 cup mayonnaise
1 bunch spring onions, finely chopped
Handful chives, chopped
Handful fresh mint, chopped
Salt and pepper

Keep the smallest potatoes whole, and cut the larger ones in half so they are all approximately the same size.  Put them in a large pan, cover with cold water, add salt, and bring to the boil.  Boil gently for 15 minutes, until a knife slides easily in to a potato with no resistance.

While the potatoes are cooking, mix the vinegar, olive oil and mustard until emulsified.  Season with a good pinch of salt.

Drain the potatoes well and put into a large bowl.  Immediately, while they are still hot, pour over the vinegar dressing.

Cover, and leave to cool completely.

Before serving, mix together the herbs and the whites of the spring onions with the mayonnaise.  Stir this through the potatoes, making sure to stir through any vinaigrette that's lurking at the bottom of the bowl.  Check for seasoning and add any salt and pepper if you think it needs it.

Put into your serving bowl, sprinkle over the spring onion greens, smile, sit back and wait for the conversions.

Serves 8

The best day of my life

A couple of days ago we went to view a house for rental that bore more than a passing resemblance to the house in the video for 'Thank You' by Dido.  Very old by Wellington standards, about 1870, it was a little pink cottage, replete with wooden floors and fireplaces and fruit trees in the back garden, surrounded entirely by industry, retail and car parks.  And yet once inside, it was so utterly, utterly charming I could feel its bewitching pull on us.  Despite being so absolutely impractical, and despite Andy banging his head on the staircase that we had no chance of getting any of our furniture up, I tried desperately to imagine our life in the little pink cottage.

Not to be this time; practicality must be the way forward.  So we're still looking, and still in a state of flux, and Andy, in all his wonderfulness, must daily talk me down from the edge of "andwe'regoingtohavenowheretolivepanicpanicpanic".  In addition to all this flux, we're having to tighten our belts quite spectacularly at the moment, to prepare for moving costs and cope with the costs of an ancient campervan.  Treats are few and far between - my contribution is to make meals out of virtually nothing in the Mother Hubbard-esque cupboards; Andy's contribution is to reassure me it's lovely.  Which he does, even when I know we're eating nothing more than a conjuring trick.

So in this time of flux, when we do have a treat, it takes on a special significance.  A perfectly cooked steak (blue for me; wave a match at it and call it done, medium for Andy) with great sides is just such a treat.  And I can think of few things that would pair up with a great steak quite as well as these garlic wedges.  Doused and dredged in an aromatic mixture of garlic oil and tickle-the-back-of-your-throat spices, these are so heavenly that, even on their own, they would do an excellent job of keeping the wolf from the door and turn even the most scary, hide under the covers kind of day into the best day of your life.  Even if only for a short while - which, let's be honest, is sometimes all it takes.

Baked Garlic Fries

Adapted from Lottie & Doof

Note: the original recipe uses the microwave for this, as do I.  If you prefer not to use it, it would be very simple to heat the oil in a pan, and to steam the wedges on your hob then mix them with the oil.  

4 garlic cloves, crushed

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 large potatoes or 4 smallish, cut into wedges

1.5 tablespoons cornflour

1 teaspoon flaky sea salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

0.5 teaspoons garlic granules

0.25 teaspoons cayenne pepper

Preheat your oven to 225C.

In a bowl large enough to later hold the potatoes, mix the garlic with the oil.  Heat it in your microwave until warm and fragrant - about a minute.

Remove 2 tablespoons of the oil only, and put in a roasting tray.  To the remaining oil and garlic, add the wedges, tossing well to coat them.  Cover with clingfilm and microwave on high until starting to go translucent around the edges - about 4 minutes in my microwave.  Most will take about 3-6 minutes.  Give them a good shake halfway through.

In a small bowl, mix together the cornflour, salt, pepper, garlic granules and cayenne until well combined.  When the potatoes are done, tip in the cornflour mix and toss very well, coating them thoroughly.

Tip the potatoes into the roasting tray and bake for 30 to 40 minutes, flipping them halfway through, until crunchy and golden and delicious.

Serves 2, generously.

Baked Potato Soup with the Works

I think I am seasonally confused.  While my temparament and dreams thrive in the lazy heat of summer, and I have visions of us living somewhere untouched by seasons, my cooking and my palate are drawn to the cooler months.  I definitely find it harder to get excited about pared-down, cooler dishes than I do about unctuous, slow-cooked stews, big flavours, candle-accented nights with a bottle of red in front of the crackling fire heatpump.

Take this soup, for example.  It tastes exactly like a fully-loaded baked potato, but without having to plan what seems like hours ahead and heating the oven to full whack just to cook a couple of potatoes, which does always seem quite wasteful.  If I was better organised, or just better, I would cook them alongside something else, but I came to terms a long time ago with the fact that I am just Not That Person.  So, if I want to eat the buttery, indulgent loveliness that is a jacket spud, I had to come up with an alternative way.

This is a great way for feeding lots of people for a lunch, and always sells out when I do it at my market stall.  With the different toppings it's got a great DIY aspect that, I find, always gets people on board even before they take a bite.  It's a fairly uninspiring colour, but wow, it tastes good.  Sets you up for winter.

Baked Potato Soup with the Works

4 rashers of streaky bacon, chopped

1 large onion

4 garlic cloves, finely chopped

4 sprigs of thyme

1 heaped teaspoon smoked paprika

1 kg potatoes, peeled and chopped

1.5 litres chicken stock

few drops Tabasco sauce

salt and pepper

To serve:

Sour cream

Grated cheddar

2 spring onions, sliced

smoked paprika

In a large, heavy bottomed pan fry the bacon over a medium high heat until crispy.  Remove with a slotted spoon and set to one side on a sheet of kitchen paper to use as one of the toppings.

In the bacon fat, fry the onion until it starts to soften.  Add the garlic and thyme, stir for a minute or so, then add the paprika.  Give it a good stir.

Add the potatoes, stirring well so they get coated in the paprika, then add the chicken stock, scraping the pan well so all the bits from the bottom get stirred through.

Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer.  Cook for about 15 minutes, until the potatoes are tender and the point of a knife finds no resistance.  Blend in a processor, blender, or with a stick blender, until smooth and velvety.  If you find it is too thick, add more stock to thin it out, though this is a soup that really suits being stick-to-your-ribs thick.

Add tabasco, salt and pepper to taste.

Add your own toppings - personally I go for the full whack of sour cream, cheese, bacon and spring onions; the mix of textures and flavours is wonderful.  Sprinkle over a small amount of smoked paprika at the end.

Serves 4

Prawn & Potato Curry

There is a pox on this house.  Well, a cold that we seem to be passing back and forth to each other, back and forth.  Extra boringly, the cold has triggered old ailments in both of us that seem to be complicating the road to recovery.  Needless to say, not much bar the essentials is getting done round here, and I am trying to fight the guilt that comes with being a small business owner and taking any time off whatsoever.

Anyway.  Even cooking was an achievement this week, feeling so under the weather, and grocery shopping, which I normally love, was a definite no-no.  Yet we also knew that actual medical scientific fact told us that we had to 'feed a cold'.  (Hmm, although on second thoughts, I've also had a comical-style fever, going from boiling to freezing in a few minutes - what to do?  Feeding rather than starving is a much more appealing prospect, it has to be said).  

So,  back to the old trusty storecupboard.  Even though they still look bizarrely full, we are getting down to the bare bones of serviceable ingredients lurking in the pantry and the freezer.  We had a few vegetables knocking round, including the last of the summer wine new potatoes, and the last handful or two of frozen, cooked prawns from the freezer.  Add into this a requirement of spice, so we had a cat in hell's chance of actually tasting our tea, and a Prawn and Potato Curry was calling.

The starting point of the recipe came from Levi Roots (of Reggae Reggae fame), but it was adapted to what we had in.  I'd used the last of the canned tomatoes in the pizza sauce, and refused to shop even once to replace them.  Instead I used 400ml chicken stock with a tablespoon or two of tomato puree dissolved in it, and then a tablespoon of cornflower slaked in cold water, stirred through at the end to thicken.

This was really, really good.  Bright and fresh and comforting flavours, almost good enough to kick start us back into life.

Prawn & Potato Curry

400g new potatoes, cut into chunks

1 tablespoon sunflower oil

1 onion, finely chopped

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

2cm ginger root, peeled and finely chopped

1 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

1/8 teaspoon cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon paprika

1/8 teaspoon ground pepper

pinch fennel seeds

1 green chilli, chopped with seeds

3 mushrooms, sliced into good-sized pieces

1 red capsicum, sliced finely

Handful green beans, topped, tailed and cut into 2cm pieces

400ml chicken stock

1 tablespoon tomato purée

150g cooked, peeled prawns (defrosted if frozen)

1 tablespoon cornflour, mixed with just enough cold water to make a thin paste

First, cook your potatoes.  Put them into a pan of cold water, bring to the boil, salt the water then simmer for 10 minutes, until mostly cooked through.  Drain them, and leave to one side.

Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large pan over a lowish heat.  Gently fry the onion, garlic and ginger until soft but not burned.  Add the salt, cloves, cinnamon, paprika, pepper and fennel and cook, stirring, for a minute.  Add the chilli, mushrooms, capsicum, and green beans and cook for 5 minutes, stirring frequently.

Stir the tomato puree through the chicken stock until dissolved.

Add the potatoes, prawns, chicken stock and tomato puree, and simmer for about 5 minutes, until the potatoes are fully cooked and the prawns are completely hot.  Stir through the cornflour, and simmer for a couple of minutes until the sauce is thick and glossy.

Eat in gratitude of the only food you have properly tasted for a week.

Serves 2

Prawns to use up

Ah, the perils of renting.  Just when you think you have found the perfect house - located close to the sea in chilled-out Lyall Bay, three bedrooms, enough space for two hoarders to spread all their stuff around, good size kitchen, no pesky hills to go up and down, garden for barbecue and herbs and off road parking, your landlords decide to sell up and you are back on the househunting trail.  This isn't another whinge about the soul-destroying process of finding a rental in Wellington (although it truly is the stuff of nightmares), but putting a resolution down in writing. This will be our fourth move in 3 years in NZ; we never seem to learn and just accumulate more stuff each time, including food.  I do not want to move the contents of our freezer, succinctly described by Andy as "bones and juice", so I am on a mission to use up as much as possible before the day is here.

Having exhausted, for now, the possibilities of leftover slow-cooker pork (I sell it on my market stall every week; leftovers get bagged up for our own use), I spied a bag of prawns lurking in there.  My last experiment with prawns was a take on Delia's Prawns with Chilli and Cheese that my dear heart described as "interesting" - yes, that is a euphemism - so I suggested spicy prawn noodles this time.  However, doing some more tidying and packing, I came across a years-old supplement from Sainsbury's magazine, from back in the UK.  Spying an opportunity for procrastination, I was flicking through it when I spotted a recipe for Prawn and Potato Chermoula.  Not a traditional Chermoula, a spicy Moroccan sauce with a thick, pesto-like texture, this was closer to a soup.  I had most of the ingredients except tomatoes of any kind (how on earth did that happen? Kitchen Fail), so I improvised with tomato puree - this was fine, but proper tomatoes would have been better.  Likewise I had used up the last of my fresh ginger, so used 1/4 teaspoon ground.  I had a lonely half a bulb of fennel lurking in the fridge too, so threw that in.

It was absolutely delicious.  Spicy, easy, quick, the perfect weeknight tea.  Both of us wolfed it down, and I wouldn't hesitate to make it again.  It was substantial enough to be filling but not overwhelmingly so on a hot summer night.  Possibly the only addition I would make next time would be a green vegetable; spinach might be a good one to stir through, accompanied by a good spritz of lemon to freshen it up.

In a poignant footnote, the recipe in the supplement comes from the prolific and influential Katie Stewart, who died on January 13.  RIP Katie, I hope this recipe honours your memory.

Oh, and if anyone knows a fabulous, warm, 3 bedroom place by the sea renting for $200 a week, give me a shout.

Prawn and Potato Chermoula
From Fabulous Fish, Sainsburys Magazine, by Katie Stewart

200g peeled and cooked prawns
350g waxy potatoes, scrubbed and sliced
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2.5cm fresh ginger, grated, or 0.25 teaspoon ground ginger
1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
1 bunch spring onions, finely sliced
0.5 fennel bulb, finely chopped
1 tablespoon smoked paprika
1 tablespoon tomato puree, or 4 ripe tomatoes, chopped, or 1 can tomatoes, chopped
1 tablespoon light brown sugar
150ml chicken stock
Handful parsley, chopped
Small bunch chives, chopped
Salt and pepper

Heat the oil in a large pan.  Add the garlic, ginger, chilli, onions and fennel and cook over a low heat for one minute, then stir in the paprika.  Add the sliced potato, stirring them to absorb the flavours.

Add the tomatoes, sugar, stock and a good seasoning of salt and pepper.  Cover with the lid and simmer gently for 15 minutes, until the potatoes are tender.  Stir in the prawns and herbs and cook, uncovered, for a couple of minutes to heat the prawns.  Serve immediately.

Serves 2