It seems ludicrous to give you a potato salad recipe. I mean, thousands of them already exist and mine changes basically every time I make it. But this one is a bit of a dinner winner.
A deeply comforting potato salad with tangy and sweet dressing.
Author: allconsuming
Ingredients
1.8-2kg potatoes, whole and unpeeled
10-12 strips of streaky bacon
2-4 green shallots/spring onions, depending on size
6 eggs
The dressing
200g mayonnaise
4tbsp buttermilk
2tbsp maple syrup
1tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 heaped tsp seeded mustard
good pinch of salt
heaps of freshly cracked pepper
Instructions
Boil the potatoes until a skewer easily goes through them
Drain and let cool
Peel the skin off and cut into dice or rounds, whatever takes your fancy.
Cook the bacon until quite crispy (think you want to be able to crumble it or roughly chop it into smallish pieces)
Slice the shallots/spring onions thinly
Hard boil the eggs eggs in cold water, bring to the boil, boil for about 9 minutes drain and run under cold water until they're cool enough to handle peel while the water keeps running over them
Grate the eggs on the fine side of a box grater
Gently mix everything together
The dressing
Mix everything together, have a taste and adjust as needed (sometimes I add more vinegar) The flavours develop if you can make it ahead of time and let it sit in the fridge
Add about ⅔rds of the dressing to the potatoes, have a taste, had more dressing until you get a coverage and consistency you like.
One of my greatest failings as a parent is that I have produced children who don’t like mashed potato. How is that even possible? I mean potato, unholy amounts of butter and milk with plenty of salt and pepper, what is not to love. So, when I made these for #everyfuckingnight I was pretty nervous I’d be left eating them for days, but I totally tricked them with bacon, sourcream and cheese! Huzzah!
I based mine on a Pioneer Woman‘s recipe but used violently less butter and completely forgot to add the milk. I also didn’t have/couldn’t find the potatoes on steroids PW used.
While I’ve put some measures in this I strongly advise you to trust yourself and go largely by sight. PW used 8 super big potatoes, I used 6 smaller mid sized ones, probably about a kilo? So look, That’s what I did and they worked a treat.
Twice baked potatoes about to go back in the oven.
So how’s all that ham going? I basically lose interest with it the minute Christmas lunch is over so much of my time is occupied with recipes using the leftover ham. To, you know, use the remaining SIX kilos of it.
Christmas was wonderful. A relaxed day here feeding family with lots of laughter, delicious food and plenty of sparkling shiraz.
It was followed by my MIL’s birthday celebration, also here. It will go down in history as the Festival of Ham. With cheesecake. Divine divine cheesecake.
The boys have all been rather delicious – I believe I will look back on this next little episode of our lives with a full heart. My boys are not babies anymore and who they will be is slowly revealing itself – a process I feel absolutely blessed to witness. Even if at times my head wants to explode from the less pleasant aspects of it.
Oscar loves his basketball hoop for the trampoline – possibly the finest example of highway robbery by a company I’ve ever been party to. Felix is smitten with his cruiser skateboard and ZOMG he will be 13 this year and that makes my chest tighten. Jasper got his long-pined-for Halo rocket ship. A Megabloks hellzone. There were three lots of tears on Christmas Day at being so overwhelmed by it. I ended up building most of it. Ask my chiropractor how that worked out for everyone. Grover was conflicted, apparently Santa “got it wrong” with his Lego but all was forgiven with a Dr Who sonic screwdriver.
Mum’s left knee has totally packed it in – she’s basically incapacitated so between the two of us we cut quite a pair.
What better way to counter chronic pain and, in mum’s case, now unavoidable joint replacement surgery in 2013 than eating ham. A lot of ham.
It’s a pie of promise (with a quiche in the background for good measure)
Ham and potato pie
Shortcrust pastry – you can NOT go past Maggie Beer’s sour cream pastry, it has revolutionised my fear of working with pastry – it’s hugely forgiving, ridiculously easy to work with and tastes DIVINE.
5-6 waxy potatoes – cooked, peeled and cut into 1/2-1cm slices
700g ham, sliced thinly off the bone
handful fresh basil, finely chopped
handful fresh flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
salt and pepper
3 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup milk
layer upon layer upon layer
Preheat oven to 180C and grease a 24cm springform tin
Roll out 2/3 of the pastry to about 3mm thick and line the tin – try and do it in one whole piece but don’t stress if it breaks – just smoosh the broken edges together
Place a layer of the potatoes in the bottom, top with ham, then scatter over herbs and seasoning – go light on the salt depending on how salty your ham is
Keep layering and end with ham and herbs then press the filling down firmly
Mix the eggs with the milk and cream, pour over the layers then pop a pastry lid on the top, cut some slits in it and glaze if you feel so inclined
Let it sit for 1/2 hour and then bake for 1-1.5hrs. I always bake it for 1.5 and it comes out a treat – just stick a knife in it and if it’s piping hot it’s good to go.
Leave it to sit for 10-15 minutes once it’s done and then serve with a simple green salad.
Thursday’s radio spot saw me veer away from the sweets (quelle horror!) to show a steady course to one of my go-to one pan roasts. The big tip here is to have a rare moment of organisation when you buy your chicken pieces. Throw them in a snap-lock bag with the marinade before poping them in the freezer. It means on the night you’re going to have it all you need do is defrost the chicken, toss with the potatoes and roast. As my friend Beth says, BANG.
dinner winner
One pot wonder
1kg chicken pieces (drumsticks, wings, pieces that are on the bone)
one lemon, cut into chunks
few lugs olive oil
a handful mix of fresh herbs (eg tarragon, sage, parsley, thyme)
4 garlic cloves, slightly crushed but skins still on
one onion, cut into chunks
heaped dessert spoon of dijon mustard
good pinch of salt and a healthy grind of pepper
6 potatoes, cut into wedges
Combine the chicken with the marinade in a bowl or large snap-lock back and combine thoroughly
Marinate for a long as you’ve got – ideally a couple of hours at least
Preheat your oven to 180C
Tip the chicken pieces and potatoes into a baking dish and toss together, add a few more lugs of olive oil if everything’s not getting nicely coated with the marinade. You could probably sprinkle over some more salt and pepper here as well.
Bake for about an hour or until everything is nice and golden with some crispy bits and charred bits and basically a pan of ridiculous goodness.
When I was little Shepherd’s Pie was for dinner the night after we’d had a roast leg of lamb as sure as the sun would rise. Mum had a mincer that attached to her Sunbeam mixer and the lamb, onion and carrot would all go through it.
I can’t say that I remember it that fondly but I do remember the ritual of it – the fascination with this scary looking mincer, the mash on top peaked by the prongs of a fork and the slathering the whole thing with tomato sauce.
I don’t have a mincer and finely chopping it by hand is not the same. And I was never able to bring myself to make it with mince until I saw this Terry Durack recipe for it in The Sydney Morning Herald’s Good Weekend magazine a few months back (It was part of his spread for an Easter lunch or something like that.) Terry’s had 200g of mixed mushrooms in it but I have a boy and a mother who don’t eat mushrooms so I just ditch those and cook it a little longer so the sauce isn’t too runny. Also, I have a mother (the same one in fact) who doesn’t like tomatoes, so while Terry’s calls for a 400g can of chopped tomatoes I just put a couple of cherry tomatoes or baby Roma tomatoes or two normal toms diced.
All that considered, it’s an absolute winner.
Shepherd’s Pie Adapted from Terry Durack, Good Weekend magazine, The Sydney Morning Herald
Olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
2 celery stalks, finely chopped (I never have celery in the house so have made this more times w/out than with)
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
500-600g lamb mince
1 tbsp plain flour
125ml red wine
300ml stock
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tomatoes, diced (or about 1/2 dozen cherry toms)
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp fresh thyme (which I hate so I use parsley instead)
2 bay leaves
800g potatoes
1 tbsp butter
1 egg yolk
100ml milk
3 tbsp parmesan
2 spring onions, finely sliced
sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper
Heat a little oil in a large pan and fry the onion, carrot and celery until nice and soft
Add the garlic and cook off a little
Add the lamb and cook for a few minutes, breaking up the meat so you don’t get any of those manky big lumps of mince (gag)
Sprinkle over the flour and cook, stirring, for a minute or two
Add the wine, bring to the boil (whenever I add it it kinda gets absorbed straight away so I just cook it out for a little)
Then add the stock, Worcestershire sauce, tomatoes, tomato paste and herbs
Season and simmer for about 40 minutes until nice and thick
While that’s simmering boil the potatoes until soft, about 15 mintues
Drain and mash, then beat in the butter, egg yolk, milk, parmesan and the green onions
Preheat oven to 180C
Pour the meat into a baking dish, top with the potato, rake over with a fork and scatter over some more knobs of butter
Bake for 30 minutes or until the meat is bubbling and the potato topping is nice and golden.
