The Devil's Fish Strikes Back

I thought that I was rid of my anchovies. I thought that I wouldn't need to cook with them again. No more tangy weirdness annoying my palate.

But I was wrong. I was so, so wrong...

I looked in my fridge to find three remaining anchovies in a Tupperware box: my nemeses, waiting to be added to an innocent, unsuspecting recipe. I couldn't throw them away; I can't bare to waste food. I had to find another recipe that used them... fast.

Like a man possessed, I tore through my cookery books, until I found the very thing within the Fabulous Baker Brothers volume: roast leg of lamb with baker's potatoes; featuring those three pesky anchovy fillets in the ingredients. Marvellous.

A prepared leg of lamb. Big, isn't it?

Those ingredients in full:
one leg of lamb, top bone removed, with the shank bone left in;
three garlic cloves, sliced;
three anchovy fillets, chopped;
large sprig of rosemary, chopped;
30ml extra virgin olive oil;
salt and pepper.

For the baker's potatoes:
three large onions;
two garlic cloves;
100g butter;
eight large Maris Piper potatoes;
500ml chicken stock.

I mixed the garlic, anchovy, rosemary and olive oil together before rubbing them over the lamb, inside and out. I seasoned it with salt and pepper before tying the lamb up with some string (possibly the most "cook-like" experience of my life so far) before setting it aside for later.

My most "cook-like" experience so far...

I melted 75g of the butter in a pan and cooked the sliced onions and garlic until soft and golden. Some seasoning followed before they too were put to one side. I preheated the oven to 200ºC.

Next came the potatoes, which I peeled and sliced as thinly as possible, before layering them on the bottom of a large baking dish, followed by a layer of the cooled onions. I seasoned then repeated the process, keeping the layers going until I was left with a layer of potatoes on top resembling fish scales.

The lamb went on top of these potatoes before being placed in the hot oven to brown over about half an hour, after which I reduced the temperature to 180ºC. For a medium cooked lamb, with the centre pink, but the fat well rendered, one is advised to keep it cooking for another hour. I went for an hour and a quarter. Next time, I may go for an hour and a half: I found a bloody centre a touch disconcerting.

How do you like your lamb done, madam / sir?

I took the dish out of the oven and removed the lamb to wrap in tin foil and rest for at least 25 minutes. Turning up the oven to 190ºC (its highest temperature; go up to 220ºC if your oven's more advanced than mine), I dotted the remaining butter around the surface of the potatoes and returned them to the oven for 20 minutes: this was to brown and crisp the top of the potatoes, most of which had been obscured by the lamb 'til now.

And that was it. Quite an undertaking, really: the lamb cost a little more than I was expecting and was blooming enormous, even after cooking; for goodness sake, invite some people around to eat this with you because you won't make it alone, even over the course of a week (I speak from experience...)

Blimey, better get some friends over!

To serve, slice the lamb thinly to accompany the soft potatoes, soaked in delicious lamb juices.

Again, the inclusion of the anchovies added beautifully to the meat's flavour. That said, it's some time since I've cooked this and I haven't dared go near the Devil's fish since. Maybe I should try them again, on a pizza, maybe? Nah: no chance, mate!

Courgette and potato cakes with mint and feta

My poor blog.  It should be suing me for neglect and emotional distress.  It's been a very busy summer, moving house and moving jobs, and I haven't had much time for culinary experimentation lately.  However, as the days grow shorter and colder and Christmas draws near, it is time to spend more time at home in the kitchen.   I hauled the slow cooker out for the first time in months today, and look forward to trying out some new stew recipes over the next few months.  No stew in this post though.  Instead, a Delia Smith recipe I've been meaning to try out for a while: courgette and potato cakes with mint and feta.  I'm a fairly recent feta convert, but now I use it in every dish that I can (and even some that I probably shouldn't).  It was perfect for these potato cakes though.  On their own they might have been a little bland, but the feta gave them a lovely sharpness and accompanied the mint and the courgette nicely.  So, without further ado:

Courgette and potato cakes with mint and feta cheese

6 medium courgettes (weighing about 700g)

4 medium Desirée potatoes (weighing about 700g)

4 tablespoons chopped fresh mint

450g feta cheese, crumbled

4 spring onions, finely chopped

2 large eggs, beaten

2 tablespoons plain flour

50g butter

1 ½ tablespoons olive oil

salt and freshly milled black pepper

First, grate the courgettes coarsely (leaving the skins on) and put them into a sieve. Then sprinkle them with 2 teaspoons of salt to draw out some of their excess moisture and leave them to drain for about an hour. While these are sitting, scrub the potatoes and place them in a large saucepan. Pour enough boiling water over them to just cover them, then simmer gently with a lid on for 8 minutes. When they are slightly tender, drain them and leave them aside until they’re cool enough to hold. Then peel them, grate them into a large bowl and season with salt and freshly milled black pepper.

When the courgettes have sat for an hour, run them under cold water.  Squeeze as much moisture as you can with your hands, then put them on a clean tea towel and roll it up to wring out the remaining water.  This was a neat trick - I'd never thought of doing it before, but it did help to get rid of the juices and prevented the cakes from ending up as soggy messes.  Add the courgettes to the grated potatoes, along with the spring onions, mint, feta and beaten eggs and toss the whole mixture together.

To prepare the cakes, divide the mixture into about 16 (or as many as you can get with the quantities you use), shape them into small rounds about 1 cm thick and then lightly dust them with flour.  The important thing is that they stick together.

To cook them, pre-heat the oven to 425°F (220°C). Melt the butter and oil in a small saucepan, then brush the cakes on both sides with it. When the oven is ready, place the cakes on trays, returning one to the top shelf and the other to the middle shelf for 15 minutes. After that, turn the cakes over, using a palette knife and a fork, swap the positions of the trays in the oven and cook them for a further 10-15 minutes, or until they are golden.

The recipe calls for them to be served hot, but I can confirm that they work well as cold leftovers too.  I think they were intended to be a side dish, but two of them make a lovely light lunch, accompanied by a green salad.

Shoot-myself -in-the-foot real Baked Potato Soup

OK so the last recipe for BPS was great and we all enjoyed it, but I couldn't help feeling that it was a bit of a cheat as there was no 'baked' about the potatoes or anything else in that recipe.  It was potato soup with toppings that would be appropriate for a baked potato and it worked.  It worked very well in fact.

But I wanted more. I wanted that baked potato taste in the soup itself so went out on a limb and tried something else which really does impart the comfort flavour of a good jacket potato with warm, creamy surrounds.  And it works very well with the lower fat version of some of the ingredients.


4 baking potatoes, about 1 kg total weight
80g plain flour
1.2 l milk (skimmed is fine)
100g grated sharp cheddar cheese
salt and pepper to taste
250 ml reduced fat crème fraîche

To garnish:

70 g diced and fried pancetta
snipped chives
freshly ground black pepper

Prick potatoes, rub lightly with olive oil and bake at 200ºC for about an hour until soft inside.  Cool slightly and then mash roughly with skins on.

Mix flour with milk in a heavy saucepan on hob.  Heat slowly, stirring frequently, until thick and bubbling.  Add mashed potatoes, 3/4 of the cheese and seasonings and stir until cheese is melted.  Remove from heat.

Stir in crème fraîche.  Cook over low heat for a further few minutes until thoroughly heated but do not boil.  Ladle soup into bowls and garnish with the rest of the grated cheese, chopped chives, pancetta and pepper.

I served this with yet another loaf of bread, made like the rosemary one of the other day, but without the herbs.  It went down a treat with all my fellow diners (family, but I take what I can get!).

Five-confession baked potato soup

Soup’s on!

But it comes with a few caveats.  Ready? 

First one:  I’m not a fan of soup.  I acknowledge that it’s hearty, healthy, filling and warm.  The accompanying soft rolls or bread or, as it is tonight, warm ciabatta are usually the best part for me.  I grew up in a house where there was often a stock pot on the hob or stove, boiling the hell out of the bones – chicken, lamb or beef – from the last roast.  And one of our cats only ate chopped boiled liver so I have a vivid memory of that simmering alongside (in a different pan of course!), and can still visualise the pan and smell the contents if I close my eyes.

Confession two:  soups R not Alison.  I don’t tend to make or eat them.  But now and then, at lunch, usually at a National Trust property, I will eat a bowl of soup (as a main, never ever a starter) with the necessary and more enjoyable crusty or fluffy carb accompaniment.

My family loves soup.  I love my family.  The tinned variety (soup, not family) is full of salt and some include nitrites.  There isn’t much of nutritive value in the varieties that fill the shelves in the supermarkets.  Messrs Baxter and Campbell take note.

Deep breath……………… please don’t judge me but I asked for (here’s the third confession) a soup maker for Christmas.  It does everything from frying the onions through mixing, boiling simmering, stirring at the press of a button and then blending to finish.  It’s the lazy woman’s soup companion.  It’s my new best friend.

So I’m putting it to good use and trying a recipe that Alex passed on which is originally from Smitten Kitchen and which I offer as my first attempt at making soup for pleasure (I’ve done the duty variety before).

Oh, and better get that fourth confession out of the way now:  although the title is ‘baked potato’ soup, the potatoes are not, in fact, baked.  They are boiled.  I have since found a recipe which requires them to be baked first and I will certainly try that but I think the idea here is that one puts toppings on the soup, of the kind that one might put on a baked or  jacket potato.

1 head garlic (I gulped and then shuddered when I saw this but it’s for flavour, not for chopping and including and hopefully we’ll all keep our friends in the coming days)

3 tbsp unsalted butter (olive oil works just as well)

2 medium leeks, washed and chopped into rounds which then become individual circles as the leeks cook

1litre chicken or vegetable stock (I always use vegetable so that the chicken doesn’t overpower other flavours unless it’s a chicken dish of course)

2 bay leaves

dash of salt (although most stock cubes, gels, powders have enough salt to see you through so really not necessary)

2 ½ lb (1 kg approx) russet potatoes cut into ½ inch cubes.

100 ml sour cream or crème fraîche   

I couldn’t find russet but any baker will do and I’m using Albert Bartlett Rooster potatoes.  I reckon the rooster is the russet.  The fifth and final confession (in this recipe) is that I can’t follow any recipe exactly.  I add subtract and substitute at will but for this blog I’m staying within the limits of the suggested ingredients and amounts.  You will be able to chop and change no doubt.  I will give recipes as written and my own suggestions as well. 

No more diversions and here is the rest of the recipe if you’ve not opened a tin of ready made by now!

Rinse the head of garlic to remove any grit.  Chop off top third and then peel down to the cloves, leaving the whorl intact. 

Melt butter or oil over medium heat.

Into melted butter put the leeks and cook until soft but not brown (5 minutes will do it).  Add the garlic head, stock, bay leaves, and a dash of salt if you want it.  Reduce heat and simmer until garlic is soft and the cloves are beginning to separate (perhaps 25 minute)s.  Add potatoes and continue to simmer for a further 15 minutes until potatoes are soft. 

Remove bay leaves and garlic head and discard.  If you want an extra garlic boost, mash a couple of the cloves and return to the pan.  Add sour cream and cook for another 2 – 3 minutes. 

Now remove a couple of ladlefuls of the chunky bits and put aside.  Blend the remaining mixture in blender in batches or with a hand blender until smooth.  Return the vegetable chunks to the mix to give it texture.

Serve in big bowls and offer a variety of toppings:  snipped chives, more sour cream or crème fraîche and chopped and fried bacon bits for authenticity.   Or simply eat it unadorned and enjoy.