Perfect When There's A Chill In The Air Take a classic like leek & potato soup and boost it with corn, cheddar, chicken, and delightfully crunchy homemade croutons and what do you get? This one-pot wonder chowder made in a hurry to satisfy any fans of the original. Any time of year when a chill wind wanders past… like now on the Spring … Read More →
Flexible Finish - Fried, Baked or Sauced Every culture has a favourite dumpling and Italy is no exception. Across the whole of the country gnocchi in its many forms is their answer. While potato-based versions abound, cheese is also used as a base with plenty of regional arguement over naming conventions. Some profess only potato can be called gnocchi with cheese being … Read More →
Just Say No To Hamburger Helper In my ongoing joust with the scourge of ‘convenience’ food, I was inspired to prove that a simple meat and potatoes gratin could be made from scratch pantry staples just as simply and just as quickly as ready-made ‘Hamburger Helper’ style boxes. My choice in the moment was pork and potato but it could just … Read More →
Ugly Yet Delicious - The Next Test Will Be More Attractive I had a spare cauliflower in dire need of use so thought I’d do a first run and test on a simpler one-pot, hands-off oven baked aloo gobi. That’s a mild potato and cauliflower curry to the uninitiated outside India or too distant from a good take away joint. By using the whole head and … Read More →
Spin Your Spuds A Different Direction Fresh heaps of potatoes are rolling in from the fields around here so what better time to wake up your ordinary mash with some bold flavours, namely cider vinegar and fresh dill just as the summer herbs are finishing. Anyone can love whipped potatoes with heaps of cream and butter mixed in – I certainly … Read More →
Smoke First, Dress Later Charcoal fills the air as much as honeysuckle this time of year and my little plot of land is no exception. Cleaning off the kamado smoker and trusty old Weber kettles is the BBQ equivalent of spring cleaning so I got after my collection of fire-based cooking vessels with the wire brush and scrunched-up balls … Read More →
Orange is the New White I’m sometimes asked about fried potatoes and have to straddle the linguistic gap over the Atlantic. Whether you call them ‘chips’ or ‘fries’ is up to you. I call them delicious. Even more so if you branch out and use sweet potatoes in addition to their white cousins. Let’s start with potato choice which is … Read More →
Gratin any veg you have handy If you aren’t making gratins from scratch at home, sell your kitchen now because you obviously don’t know what ovens are used for in a civilized world. Eat takeaway food from polystyrene boxes the rest of your days and ponder your culinary sins over a pot noodle. On yet another of my forays into the … Read More →
That's a BIG Sack 'O Taters Atlantic Canada would make Samwise Gamgee proud. We’re just covered in ‘taters’ as he’d tell Gollum. Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick supply not only most of Canada’s spud needs but plenty cross the border to feed the eastern US. From ordinary bags of them in the market to McDonald’s insatiable industrial french fry demand … Read More →
