INDIAN SPICED POTATOES

Gosh! I actually have nothing to say on this post. So I'll let this really funny song about potatoes by Cheryl Wheeler do the talking.......

They're red, they're white. they're brown
They get way underground
They can't be much to do
So now they have blue ones too

We don't care what they look like we'll eat them
Anyway they can fit our plate
Every way we can conjure to heat them
We're delighted and think they're just great

Chorus Po ta to (13 X)

Sometimes we ditch the skin
To eat what it's holding in
Sometimes we'd rather please
Have just the outside with cheese

They have eyes but they do not have faces
I don't know if their feelings get hurt
By just hanging around in dark places
Where they only can stare at the dirt

Chorus Po ta to (13X)

I guess the use is scant
For other parts of the plant
But that which grows in view
Is eating potato too

I imagine them under their acres
Out in Idaho and up in Maine
Maybe wondering if they'll be bakers
Or knishes or latkes or plain

Chorus Po ta to (13 X)

Words and music by Cheryl Wheeler

What more can I say?..........

Except that this is a very tasty and fast dish that I got from watching the Food Safari show. And if you were to use Russet potatoes it will just absorb the spices so much better than the firmer and less starchy white, red and yellow potatoes. This dish is yummm.


Here's the recipe..............

2 Russet potatoes, boiled in skin, peeled and then cubed
1 tbsp dessicated coconut
1 tbsp sesame seeds

1 tbsp cooking oil

Seasoning for potatoes :

1 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp tumeric powder
1 tsp chillie powder
salt to taste

To be sauteed :

1/2 tsp whole cumin seeds
1/4 tsp of fenugreek seeds
1 tsp mustard seeds

Season the boiled and cubed potatoes with the seasoning ingredients. Mix well. Put aside.

Put about 1 tablespoon of oil into a pan. Heat it. Saute the cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds and mustard seeds. It will pop and sputter but stir it around for a minute then add teh seasoned cubed potatoes and mix in. Add the dessicated coconut and sesame seeds and stir.Add salt to taste. Serve.

POTATO ROTI

This is the best roti ever! Hands down. The sweet and spicy potato filling is encased in a thin, crispy almost paper like parchment and the combination is exquisitely delicious. I just wish I had made this 200 years ago because the recipe has been sitting on my shelf for almost 250 years.

I have a collection of the Australian Women's Weekly Cookbook collection because I love the photographs and the fact that they are cheap in comparison to all those fancy schamancy cheffy cookbooks that are thick, heavy and scary. Yes, I like simple, everyday, rustic, plain, no-fuss food, with ingredients that I can relate to and that give me a full plate of food in just one course. Minus the dessert of course. That's what I call a meal. My thanks to the Australian Women's Weekly. Don't they (the roti) look good!


So take my hand and I'll take you on a one way trip to Potato Roti. It's easy, it's quick, it's fun and it's so good that you'll never want look back. Promise.

Here's the recipe..............

1 cup wholemeal flour ( I used plain flour as I didn't have wholemeal)
1 cup white plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
100 gm ghee
1/2 cup (125 ml) water, approx
100 gm ghee (I used cooking oil)

Filling......(I made slight changes)

1 large potato (300 gm)
1/2 small sweet potato (125 gm) I didnt measure this, I used a large one
1 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp cumin powder (I used 1 tsp)
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 cup tightly packed coriander leaves (I didn't use as much)

Sift flours and salt into a large bowl, rub in ghee. Stir in almost all the water first and if not enough then finish it all. The ingredients should just cling together. Turn onto floured board, knead about 10 minutes or until smooth.

Divide dough into 16 portions, roll each portion on floured surface into 16 cm round and stack them with cling film in between each or you can do 2 at a time, fill with the potato filling that has been divided into 8 portions, spreading the filling out leaving a 1/2 inch margin all around..............


Brush edges with water and top with the other piece of rolled out dough. Like so..........


Place on a plate and cover with plastic wrap or baking paper while you fininsh off the rest of the dough and filling. Use plastic wrap/baking paper between each layer to keep from sticking.

When done all, heat a frying pan , put in some oil, about a tablespoon and fry the roti until crisp and golden brown on both sides. Add in oil each time for a new roti so that it is fries to a crisp. When done you could cut them into quarters or eights or serve whole with some curry. I served them with a potato curry. YUMMMMM.

Filling..........

Steam the potatoes until tender. Mash coarsely and stir in the spices and corainder and mix well. Taste for salt. Use as above.

Make 8 rotis and can serve 8 people. Serve hot or warm.

TWO POTATO ROSTI

This will teach me never to skim through recipes again. Read Zurin read. Don't skim. Don't gawk at pictures. Read. Finally that was what I did after the first rosti I made tasted rather crappy. I had the nagging feeling that I should have boiled the potatoes first, should have thrown in all those herbs and of course the garlic. How could I forget the garlic! But that was after, when regret sinks in, when it makes you ponder and when a pin of light becomes visible in the distant end of the tunnel to my kitchen.

So I made this twice today. A tasteless one for lunch and a very, very tasty one for dinner. I heart garlic. It makes so much difference. I heart herbs. They give so much flavour. And I heart Rosti. Oh and I heart sweet potaotes too.

Rosti seems such a simple thing to make but I found out was quite, quite hard to get out of the pan in one piece especially if you do not use a non-stick. I had trouble there but a little patching up did the job.

I got this recipe from "The ultimate potato cookbook" but I tweaked it a little by replacing half of the potatoes with sweet ptoatoes and I added an egg to bind the mixture together.



The recipe..........

650 gm of waxy potatoes combined with sweet potatoes (I used two medium normal potatoes and I large sweet potato), steamed and cooled completely.
1 egg
2 cloves garlic
2-3 tbspn chopped white onion
1 tbspn dried parsely
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp fresh thyme
1/2 tsp salt
pepper

2 tbsp butter
1 -2 tbsp cooking oil

Grate the potatoes. I used a knife to flake the sweet potatoes because it was too soft to be grated. Put them into a bowl.



Chop the onion, garlic and fresh thyme.



Saute the onion and garlic in a frying pan until soft. Add them to the potatoes in a bowl. Add in the rest of the herbs, 1/2 tsp of salt and pepper and lastly the egg. Mix to bind well.

Heat up a medium frying pan until hot. Put in 1 tbspn of oil and the tablespoon of butter. When the butter melts put in the potato mixture and flatten it using a spatula or a fork. Using a spatula round the edges by patting gently.

Cook on medium heat for about 8 minutes until a crust forms on the base. Shake the pan occasionally to loosen the rosti. Take it off the heat. Place a large enough plate over the pan and invert the rosti onto the plate.

Heat up the pan again, put in 1 tablespoon of oil and the remaining butter until the butter melts and then slide the rosti into the pan, uncooked side down. Cook again for 6 -8 minutes until the base is crusty. Serve hot, cut into wedges.