Pommes Boulangeres

image provided courtesy of tescorealfood.com

Boulangeres is one of those potato dishes that goes pretty well with everything, and is useful alongside hearty dishes as well and lighter ones, they go phenomenally well with meat and fish dishes and much like every potato dish they can serve well as a "vehicle" for a variety of flavours. This dish uses a rosemary herb focus, but it doesn't have to be that way it can easily be amended to suit your preference.


You will need (serves roughly 6):

1.2 kg desiree, king edward or romano potatoes, peeled and sliced thinly on a mandolin (/or carefully with a chefs knife)
2 medium onions (peeled  & sliced thinly into same porportions as the potatoes)
large handful fresh rosemary
2 cloves garlic, sliced thinly
300 ml vegetable stock
150ml milk
50g butter

The doing bit:

Take the rosemary and rub in a pestle and mortar until it softens a little. If you dont have one you can do the same with a rolling pin on a hard surface. Take two thirds of the rosemary and chop finely. Take the sliced onions and the potatoes and garlic, and create a layer in a baking dish followed by a scattering of rosemary and season with a little salt and pepper. Continue layering, until your top layer has a layer of potatoes and onions that slightly overlap.

Mix the milk and stock together and pour over the potatoes into the dish. Season the top layer, then scatter the remaining rosemary over the top for decoration.On the top add the butter in small pieces until the dish is evenly covered and place in oven on the highest shelf into a preheated oven to 180C, until the top is crisp and the underneath is soft, tender and creamy.

Remove from the oven and devour.

Soda bread

Image provided courtesy of bbc food

I love soda bread - it provides a means of making bread without yeast, whilst maintaining a buttery flavour by using buttermilk. I suppose soda bread is similar to alot of sourdough breads, which have been in use for over a thousand years. This recipe is simple and enjoyable, and can be prepared quickly. Best of all it is also quite cheap to produce :).

(Makes 1 loaf)
Ingredients

350G plain flour
1 level tablespoon of bicarbonate of soda
Heavy pinch of sea salt
300ml buttermilk


Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda and fold in the sea salt

Pour in the buttermilk and mix into a smooth dough

Mould into a large round, place on a silicone mat

Score the top into four

Bake at about 180C until golden brown and sounds hollow


MTCYNYKSTYUA

Fish Cakes

Image courtesy of redsnapperseafoods.co.uk

The fish cake I suppose is a bit of a misnomer - no two are ever the same. Everyone has their own tweaks here and there as to their preferences of the fish cake, and everyone makes them differently. This recipe makes a large batch for an appetiser sized fishcake, or enough for a few larger ones for meals and main courses. (they're lovely with parsley sauce)

I've included this recipe with that in mind - you can shape and coat these fish cakes as big and small as you like - i like to do bitesize ones for warm nibbles for guests, or even as a starter - a pyramid of tiny fishcakes with a chilli jam dipping sauce always goes down well.

As a fish cake these can be done with any white fish meat such as crab, whiting, cod, etc. Whichever is cheapest will suffice. If you can get fish trimmings from the fishmonger even better. They'll be very cheap and perfect for these.

You will need....

250g plain unseasoned mash potato
250g of Flaked Poached Salmon
75g of Smoked Salmon
30g of chopped dill
1 Lemons juiced
Pinch of Nutmeg
50g of crushed anchovy’s
Seasoning

The doing bit

Once all the ingredients are cold blend together, shape and coat them in crushed Jacobs cream crackers, crushed cornflakes, or seasoned breadcrumbs (sieved)

Fish related joke: "A man walked into a fish and chip shop with a salmon under his arm. He asks 'have you any fishcakes?' - the man behind the counter says 'sadly not, all gone today'. The man gestures towards the salmon and says 'awww! Its his birthday!'"

To cook, sear in a pan and leave to rest in a warm oven until warm throughout. Alternatively they can be deep fried.