The Lemon Zest Cake

As the academic part of this project draws to a close I thought what better way to end this project than with a dessert. 

I had recently been talking about my blog with my brother's fiance who is a dietician, who suggested I try to make a lemon zest cake which she heard about from the BBC's website 'Good Food'. The lemon zest cake is potato rather than flour based which is beneficial for those who suffer from celiac disease - or glutton intolerance.

Ingredients:

200g of softened butter

200g caster sugar

4x eggs

3x lemons

175g ground almonds

 250g mashed potatoes

2tbs of glutton free baking powder

Begin by heating your oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Butter and line a deep, 20cm round cake tin. Beat the sugar and butter together until light and fluffy, then gradually add the egg, beating after each addition.  Then fold in the almonds, cold mashed potato, lemon zest and baking powder.  

Tip into the tin, level the top, then bake for 40-45 mins. Place the cake onto a wire rack  and leave for 10 mins to cool. Mix the granulated sugar and the lemon juice together, then spoon over the top of the cake, letting it drip down the sides.

Let the cake cool completely before slicing. I recommend some custard as a side.

BBC, (August 2008) Glutton-Free Lemon Zest Cake [Internet] http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/5870/glutenfree-lemon-drizzle-cake April 20th 2012

Potato and Salmon Bake

Inspired by Elizabeth Woodland’s book: Best Ever 300 Potato Recipes (2011), I decided to make a potato salmon bake. Woodland not only gives potato recipes but she also talks about the goodness within the potato too! Describing her love for the potato I can only whole heartedly agree.

“Nutritious, versatile and comforting, the humble potato is one of the world's best-loved vegetables. Whether mashed, baked, chipped, cooked in a stew or topping a pie, the potato's seemingly endless adaptability makes it indispensable in every kitchen and an key ingredient in many of the world's cuisines. This book features 300 delicious potato recipes split into separate chapters for each course. Every kind of meal is covered from simple broths and salads to exotic curries, hearty stews, impressive dinner party dishes and even decadent desserts. Beautifully presented with 300 stunning photographs, and with cook's tips and handy variations throughout, this is the ultimate celebration of the potato, and an essential book for anyone who enjoys good, wholesome food.” (Woodland: 2011) I found this recipe book to be fantastic!

My Ingredients

Adding chopped onions to my salmon and chopped up Vivaldi potatoes.



        The finished pie! Dont forget to pour three beaten eggs over your pie to hold it together!               

Tuck in!!

Woodland, E. Best Ever 300 Potato Recipes, London: Southwater, 2011.

Saag Aloo

Inspired by the recipe of Anjali Pathak, a famous Anglo Indian cook I decided to make Saag Aloo.

Personally, I don’t eat a lot of spicy food such as curries and kormas but I would argue that Indian recipes are among the most creative around the world and the Saag Aloo allows the potato to shine as the dish’s main ingredient. Different from my preferable western ‘meat and two veg’ meal the Saag Aloo combines potatoes, spinach and some Indian spices to produce a delectable vegetarian meal.

You’ll need:

2x Large potates (I chose King Edwards)

1x Garlic Clove

Chiles

Cuman Powder

Spinnich

Pepper

Masala Spices

Begin by either boiling or steaming the potatoes and chopping them up into roughly ince thick pieces. Prepare a frying pan and add to it the garlic and spices as well as chopped chilli. To this add your potatoes.

Lastly, simply add the spinnich to the mix and cook for a few minutes. The longest part fo the process is waiting for the potatoes to boil; once on the pan it will take minutes!

 I even added a little sour cream and soft cheese to soften the blow from the spices.

Below is a video of Anjali Pathak making the dish for an online cookery show. Such skills she has!

PataksCurClub, (2012) How To Make Saag Aloo, Video With Anjali Pathak [Youtube] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APoBVISfa18 April 20th 2012

Sweet Potato Quote

"A diet that consists predominantly of rice leads to the use of opium, just as a diet that consists predominantly of potatoes leads to the use of liquor."

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), German philosopher

Hot Potato Fact

The worlds biggest potato weighed in at at 18 pounds, 4 ounces according to the Guinness book of world records. That’s enough for 73 medium fries at macdonalds!

Potato Dauphinoise

Whilst at home, I decided to take advantage of a fridge full of food and so invited my cousin Arlene around for dinner – the parentals didn’t mind of course.

Saturday night so as tradition goes in the Smyth household, steak’s on the menu! Garlic lovers, Arlene and I decided to make our own favourite accompaniments to our steak where I of course was in charge of potatoes. Cheesy, garlicky and so very creamy, there’s no better potato side dish to use than the luxurious potato dauphinoise. Arlene prepared her speciality: breaded garlic mushrooms.

To prepare potato dauphinoise you’ll need:

5 Large potatoes

1x tub of single cream

2x cloves of garlic

200g of grated cheese

Begin by peeling the potatoes and cut into halves. I decided to steam the potatoes as it allows the potatoes to keep hold of their nutrients much better than boiling them. Steam the potatoes for 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes take the potatoes from the steamer and cut into equal horizontal slices then place them into a casserole dish. Add grated garlic cloves as well as the grated cheese before pouring evenly the cream onto the potatoes.

Place the potatoes into the prepared oven (200 degrees) for a further 10 minutes.

Whilst waiting I recommend you prepare the table before going to the wine rack and opening a bottle of red. Grapes are one of your five-a-day after all.

Spanish Omelette

Known to the Spanish as the ‘Tortilla de Patatas’, the dish is scrumptiously satisfying and one of the nation’s signature meals. The Spanish omelette has made its mark in English cookbooks and has been tweaked over the years with the addition of more ingredients along with the original eggs, potatoes and onions.

This omelette is a meal in itself and is a personal favourite of my mothers. It is incredulously easy to make. Not only does it allow you to put left over potatoes to good use but it also allows you to become more creative by adding different ingredients.

My mother and I decided to treat ourselves to the omelette (although this omelette provides for up to 4-5 people) for lunch the other day and I must say it was rather delicious.  Following no recipe, just years of experience we got stuck in to creating this all-time classic dish.

Bellow I’ve detailed how we got on and if you like our method you’ll need…

4-5x potatoes (preferably ones that have been left over from a recent meal)

4x eggs

Cooked ham

Scallions

Powdered garlic for seasoning

Black pepper

Paprika

Crushed chilli (to give it that little extra kick)

If you’re making the dish with freshly boiled potatoes make sure they’ve had time to cool and settle. Then simply cut the potatoes horizontally into slices of about 1cm thick and place on a warm frying pan.

Beat your four eggs with a teaspoon of chilli and garlic and add to the frying pan. If you’re using a large frying pan you can add a little milk to the beaten eggs.  

Chop up as much scallions as you wish to add, as well as slicing up your preferred amount of ham and scatter onto the pan.

When the omelette is cooked through to the centre, don’t fold it like a normal omelette, and place it under a hot grill for about 1-2 minutes so to cook the top.

When the omelette has been through, slide it off onto a plate and cut into triangles as you would with a pizza or quiche and Walla, it’s ready for you to tuck in!

Tayto Factory Tour!

Visitors Pass

During the Easter holidays I was able to go home for a few days. I took time out from my studies to attend my best friend’s wedding where I had the honour of being best man. Although I was busy helping things come together for the wedding I had potato on the brain. It’s interesting how I’m constantly reminded of this potato blog, what with home cooked dinners, savoury snacks and fast food places everywhere. It was no wonder that whilst eating a packet of crisps that I had an idea – I must visit the Tayto Factory!

Set in the historic village of Tandragee, the Tayto castle is home to Northern Ireland’s biggest and wealthiest crisp factory. I was able to send an email at short notice on the 11^th of April and by sheer luck I secured a last minute place on a tour around the castle on the 12^th of April.

Unfortunately I realised when I got there that I was not allowed to take either a camera or notepad into the factory for hygiene reasons. However I was able to retain most of the information in my head and jot it down when I got back to my car.

After being used as an English military base during WWII, The castle itself passed hands to the Hutchinson family in 1956. Mr Hutchinson who had visited America during the war came across ‘the crisp’ and liked it so much that he decided to introduce the new phenomenon to Northern Ireland. It was an immediate success. The company grew and grew and today turns over £150 million per year. It even has its own secret recipe room where the company’s top secret Cheese and Onion flavour is made. No one knows but Mr Hutchinson and his selected few what the recipe is (although there are over 1,000 employees). I learned these and a few other facts during my visit which I’ll let you in on...

·        The factory had 8 huge potato storing bays which can contain up to 4 tonnes of potatoes. The main potato suppliers are 4 farmers from the North of Ireland and 2 from the Republic.

·        The potatoes are brought into the factory between July and October and are stored under huge cooling blankets in the dark to keep the potatoes fresh. The blankets ‘trick the potatoes’ in to believing they’re still underground which stops them from going green.

·        The factory uses only Lady Clare and Lady Rosetta potatoes as they feel they’re the best types of potatoes for turning into crisps. Both types of crisps are waxy and once cut very finely they do not break apart.

·         After the potatoes have been through a machine which washes them they are moved on to a peeling machine where they are skinned.

·        The potatoes are then dropped into a container of water to remove the starch where they fall to the bottom to be moved along for slicing. The smaller/average potatoes are cut to 1.2mm and are passed along to the fryer where they remain for 3.5 minutes. The larger potatoes are cut to 1.8mm per slice and are fried for 11 minutes.

·        The thicker slices once fried are a lot more crunchier and filling and are so moved to another part of the factory where they are flavoured and sent out in more expensive packets such as ‘Tayto Rough Cuts’ etc.

·        The thinner slices are used for all other standard packets of Tayto crisps.

·        The Tayto snacks we get in Northern Irish stores such as ‘Tayto Rollers’ and ‘Tayto Bikers’ are corn sacks made from maze.

·        After all crisps are flavoured and evenly divided into packets, they are sent out to be delivered to shops around the country.

The tour was both enlightening and educational and I would certainly encourage any crisp lover to go visit a crisp factory if you can. You learn so much and you may be given lots of freebees to take home like I did!

Hot Potato Fact

It takes 5 TONNES of Potatoes to make 1 TONNE of Crisps!!

Mash Made in Heaven

Novel cover after the novel was made
 into a movie in 1996

I have recently read Nora Ephron’s romantic heartfelt yet ‘revengeful’ novel Heartburn (1983) widely renowned as her semiautobiographical novel. She uses her characters to publicise her husband’s affair with Margaret Jay. The novel is a romantic heartbreak which contains underlying meanings and metaphors, and links memoir and recipe to explain how she felt at different moments in her life.

One particular passage caught my attention as she writes about eating mashed potatoes as comfort food.  She writes:

“POTATOES AND LOVE: SOME REFLECTIONS

The beginnig

I have friends who begin with pasta, and friends who begin with rice, but whenever I fall in love, I begin with potatoes. Sometimes meat and potatoes and sometimes fish and potatoes, but always potatoes. I have made a lot of mistakes falling in love, and regretted most of them, but never the potatoes that went with them. … Not just any potato will do when it comes to love. There are people who go on about the virtues of plain potatoes - plain boiled new potatoes with a little parsley or dill, or plain baked potatoes with crackling skins - the time for plain potatoes - if there is ever a time for plain potatoes - is never at the beginning of something. All this takes times, and time, as any fool can tell you, is what true romance is about". (Ephron, 1996 p. 124 – 125)

Throughout her novel, her ability to paradoxically express simple metaphors is genius. She tends to throw things in a pot to boil, boiling out past worries and feeling.

Everyone loves a bit of mashed potato, and not just for comfort consumption, so I decided to prepare a mix of my own favourite types of mashed potato to scoff all by myself.

If you want to do the same, all you'll need is:

Sweet Potato & Parshnip          Mash Simple Mashed Potato               Champ

2x Large Sweet potatoes                 2x Large King Edwards            2x Large King Edwards

2x Parsnips                                       ¼ lb butter                              ¼ lb butter

¼ lb Butter                                       100 ml of Milk                          100 ml of Milk

3-4 Scallions (spring onion)

200 ml sour cream

Peel all 6 potatoes and chop into quarters.

Bring 3 saucepans to boil, in one add the sweet potato quarters and in the other two divide the King Edward potatoes (great for mashing) evenly. To the sweet potato saucepan add the parsnip, peeled and chopped. Make sure to turn the down a little when the water has reached boiling point.

When the potatoes in each pan are fully cooked (simply pierce a potato quarter with a knife and it should easily slide off) turn off the heat and drain the water out.

·        For the sweet potato and parsnip mash, simply add the butter and get mashing!

·        Add the butter and milk to the simply mashed potato pan. You can even add a little sour cream to make it that more interesting and begin mashing.

·        With the Champ, slice up the scallions and add them to the potatoes along with the butter, add the milk followed by the sour cream and get mashing.

When you’re sure there are no lumps and bumps simply spoon the mashed potatoes out onto one large place and enjoy!

If it’s a little comfort eating you’re after, you can eat straight from the saucepan in front of the television wrapped up in a blanket! Bliss.

Ephron, N. Heartburn. London: Virago Press, 1996

Sweet Potato Quote

"Nor do I say it is filthy to eat potatoes. I do not ridicule the using of them as a sauce. What I laugh at is, the idea of the use of them being a saving; of their going further than bread; of the cultivating of them in lieu of wheat adding to the human sustenance of a country....As food for cattle, sheep or hogs, this is the worst of all the green and root crops; but of this I have said enough before; and therefore, I now dismiss the Potato with the hope, that I shall never again have to write the word, or see the thing."
William Cobbett (1763-1835), British journalist and reformer


We've come a long way since opinions such as these.

Hot Potato Fact

Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were both known to wear potato blossoms to spiff their outfits!

Potato is fashion, potatoes are the way forward!

Interview

Richard, pictured centre aboard his new home and workplace.

By chance luck I was able to interview my cousin Richard Smyth who is a busy, qualified and simply talented chef - if i do say so myself. 

 

Richard has been cooking ever since the age of thirteen whom recently closed his restaurant in Co. Monaghan to manage a kitchen aboard a cruise ship. I was very lucky to get in contact with him to ask a few questions.  

 

1. How Long have you been in the Food industry? When did you start?

Ive been cooking for 15 years. I started in ANDYS in Monaghan at 13, became a qualified chef at 18 and became head chef there at 20.

 

2. What sort of organisations have you worked for/within?

Mostly within restrarunts and hotels but I am now aboard a cruise ship.

 

3. As a chef, what is you general opinion on using the potato in cooking?

The potato is a very versatile vegetable, you can’t go wrong with a potato. It can be used as a side, a garnish, for a main, in baking and soups and loads loads more!

 

4. What is your favourite dish to cook that incorporates the potato? Can you give me an ingredient list and method?

If you want a really simple and tasty recipe I’d advise you to make Irish potato bread! Just do as follows:

 

Get two hundred grams off seasoned cold mash potato and place in a bowl. Add two eggs and need (or mix with your hands) in plain flour until the mix becomes doughy. Then roll out and cut into whatever shape you wish. Dust in flower and shallow fry until golden and cooked through. Serve with breakfast or with some cream cheese and smoked salmon. You can add or serve what you like with this for a starter or whatever.

 

Also crisps are good! Thinly slice the potatoes. Wash to remove the starch and then dry well and deep fry at 160 until golden and crisp. Then toss in cajaun seasoning or whatever spices you fancy and serve with dips of your choice.

In Praise of the Potato

Book Cover



Whilst researching potato literature I came across a book written by Lindsey Bareham entitled ‘In Praise of the Potato: Recipes from around the world’, (1989). Bareham’s book contains a combination of recipes that centralise around the potato and provides us with information about the potato.

‘Anyone interested in learning more about potatoes should buy Lindsey’ Bareham’s marvellous book … a joy to own, for potato dishes will never go out of date’– Arabella Boxer in Vogue.

‘Splendid and imaginative … I now feel there can be nothing left to say on the subject of potatoes’ – Delia Smith.

Bareham begins by enlightening her reader of the history of the potato: its nutritional content, storage advice and different varieties, before entertaining us with different methods of cooking. By devoting entire chapters to particular methods of cooking potatoes such as ‘Boil and Steam’, ‘Mash’, ‘Bake’ etc, Bareham informs us upon the various ways in which to prepare potatoes within that particular type. I found one roasting method quite scrumptious…

“Paprika Roast Potatoes

This is a variation on the famous Hungarian Paprika Potatoes cooked fondante style. They make a good alternative to baked potatoes with cold meat.

2 large potatoes, boiled and peeled

1 ½ oz (40g) butter

2 oz (50g) plain flour

1 oz (25g) paprika

2oz (50g) onion finely chopped

Hot milk and hot water as required

Salt, pepper

Pre-heat the oven to 350F/180C/gas mark 4, butter a shallow dish and cut the potatoes horizontally into ½ -in (1-cm) thick slices. Make a layer of potatoes, sprinkle on half the sifted flour, season with salt, pepper and half the paprika and then with half the onions. Repeat and finish with potatoes. Season and pour on enough milk and water (in equal amounts) almost to cover. Dot with butter, cover with foil in which you’ve punched a few holes. Bake for 1 hour, remove the foil and bake for a further 30 minutes.” (Bareham, 1995 p. 47)

Following on from methods, Bareham provides the reader with a wide range of potato recipes. Whether it’s ‘Salads’, Sauces and Stuffings or exciting ‘Dinner Dishes’, Bareham does not disappoint.

There is also a list of ‘Drinks’ recipes provided. I smiled at the mention of Irish Poteen, probably the most famous drink made from potatoes, yet it is highly illegal. Bareham says: “the most famous, reputedly lethal and strictly illegal alcoholic brew is the Irish poteen.”   (Bareham, 1995 p. 296) However, she does provide ingredients and recipes for other potato based drinks.

I found the ‘Cornish Barm’ recipe rather interesting and useful for those who fast for religious or other reasons. I’ve included the recipe below, give it a go - if it tastes nice let me know as I’m too wary to try it for myself!

“Cornish Barm

This curious drink should be viewed as sustenance during a fast.

3 oz (75g) mashed potato

4 oz (110g) sifted flour

4 oz (110g) sugar

2 pts (1.1 l) water

1 oz (25 g) raisins” (Bareham, 1995 p. 298)

Bareham, L. In praise of the Potato: Recipes from around the world. London: Penguin Group, 1995.

Hot Potato Fact

Did you know that every year there enough potatoes grown worldwide to cover a four-lane motorway that would circulate the world six times.

That's a lot of potatoes!

Sweet Potato Quote

"Found a little patched-up inn in the village of Bulson. Proprietor had nothing but potatoes; but what a feast he laid before me. Served them in five different courses-potato soup, potato fricassee, potatoes creamed, potato salad and finished with potato pie. It may be because I had not eaten for 36 hours, but that meal seems about the best I ever had."
General Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964)

Potato Filled Folklore

There are many a wives tale about the potato; some may be true others superstitions whilst others are downright bizzare! Here are my top favourites:

1. To cure toothache, carry a potato in a pocket on the same side of the tooth. As the potato dries, the toothache will fade.

2. Soothe and extract the heat from sunburn or a burn with a raw potato cut in half.

3. Similarly, use slices of raw potato to refresh puffy eyes. This is particularly effective after tears.

4. Pregnant women shouldn't eat potatoes, especially at night, if she wishes her child to have a small head.

My understanding is that these tall-tales or popular beliefs are simply traditions of certain culture or subcultures. They may work or they may be simply farcical, that’s up to the superstitious individual who I guess must receive some sort of psychological comfort adhering to their superstitions. Others I’m sure believe them to be a load of old nonsense. That’s up to you.

Potato Propaganda

'Lest we Forget'

Also during wartime, potatoes and other vegetables were described as excellent sandwich fillings. Raynes Minns writes within his book Bombers & Mash: The Domestic Front 1939-45, (1980) that “[p]otato consumption rose by 15 percent and ministerial advice to caterers concerning nutritional values in wartime diets was clearly set out in MOF pamphlets.” (Minns, 1980 p. 118)

Minns includes examples of ‘potato propaganda’ used within Ministry of Food pamphlets which I have listed below.

“1. Potatoes:

1. An essential energy food full of vitamin C and essential vitamins throughout the year.
2. Serve large helpings if meat amounts are small.
3. Use in pastry, scones and cakes.
4. Use mashed potato flan cases and pie coverings.
5. Use potatoes as the basis of all dishes.
6. Mix with meat rissoles, fish, sandwich spread etc.
7. Serve baked potatoes stuffed with vegetables as snacks.
8. Use grated raw potato in place of half your suet in steamed puddings and suet pastry.
9. Serve potato pancakes and scones for tea, not buns and cakes.

2. Increase the potions of green vegetables and carrots if the supply of protein is small. Serve two vegetables as well as potatoes, the greener the better.  

3. Raw carrots added to steamed puddings and cakes will help to sweeten them.

4. Serve well-flavored mashed potatoes as sandwich fillings.” (Minns, 1980 p. 118)


Minns, R. Bombers & Mash: The Domestic Front 1939-45. London: Virago, 1980.

Here's Spud in you Eye!

Below is a short clip I found on potatoes during WWII.

Because they're easily grown and nutritious, potatoes weren't particularly rationed. In fact they were plentiful!

(Please note: no one hurt their eye in the process of making this short film.)

Imperialwarmuseum, (2010) Here's Spud in your Eye! [Youtube] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRDFB238MKE April 10th 2012

"What I say is that, if a fellow really likes potatoes, he must be a pretty decent sort of fellow."

A. A. Milne (1882-1956), popular children's author.

Hot Potato Fact

During WWII, The Minister of Food Frederik Lord

Woolton declared that fish and chips were not to

be rationed! Our love of chips started in the 19th

century. They are first recorded in an 1854

cookbook called ‘shilling Cookery’ by a leading

British cook. He describes thin potatoes cut in oil.

Planning Ahead & Planning Meals

Sign just above enterance.

Last week I decided to take a trip to the British Library, Euston to see what I could dig up on potato literature. Not really thinking ahead and acting on a whim I made my way to north London. It was my first visit to the library and I was immediately taken by the architecture. Anyway, I was informed by a receptionist that I had to go through registry and get a readers pass before I was able to view the books. When I got to the registration office I knew my trip was wasted. Apparently you have to bring all sorts of identification including a signature ID, proof of billing address and student ID. I left rather embarrassed at my lack of planning with an ‘Introduction to the British Library and how to register for a Reader’s Pass’ pamphlet tucked out of sight.

Yesterday I returned to the library fully confident that I would obtain a reader’s pass and gain access to the books. I was mistaken. I received my reader’s pass (valid for three months mind you) but failed to get a look at the book I wished to see after looking it up before hand: Hard-Time cookery (1940). I was told the book would take ‘some time’ to arrive but I couldn’t wait around as I had work to go to in Essex. My trip was again unsuccessful, but I still have my readers pass and can return again. Moral of this short story: always plan ahead!



 Hard Time Cookery, p. 6-7.



I didn’t want my trips to Euston to be spent in vain so now, back in London I am currently doing further research upon the book I wanted to see.

From the British library’s website: http://www.bl.uk/ I am able to read a short overview and passage from the text, which in hindsight I should have done this morning. The book is called Hard Time Cookery and was published in 1940 by the Association of Teachers of Domestic Subjects (now the National Association of Teachers of Home Economics). On page 7 there is a fine description on ‘The Importance of Panning Meals’. The meal mentioned consists of liver and bacon, potatoes and tomatoes or cabbage’ – more commonly known in Ireland as ‘pigs ass and cabbage’ which I must admit I look forward to when I go home (drowned in gravy!).

Imperial War Museum

Cookery guidance books such as this one were only the beginning. With a system of rationing put in place in 1940 by the Ministry of Food more and more flyers and pamphlets were given to the British public to educate them of the importance of nutrition. Great care was taken to composing the information as nutritionists delivered significant information on which foods were important for energy and repair.

On a recent trip to the Imperial War Museum, I was able to access such pamphlets from protected archives. The propaganda was amazing. Slogans such as ‘Cooking for Victory’, ‘Our Food – Our Defence’ accompanied with images of healthy looking children promoted healthy eating. The public were encouraged not only to cook wisely but to save their left overs and recycle meals. We still do this today. If I’ve cooked too many potatoes for myself (sometimes intentionally) I will leave them in a bowl to chop and fry the following day.

Being a vegetable, potatoes are easily grown. The British public were encouraged to grow their own vegetables. Most of the parks in London were turned into allotments where people came together to tend to their plot. This system worked of course, England won the war.

The Association of Teachers of Domestic Subjects. Hard-Time cookery. London: A V Huckle & Son Ltd, 1940.