Showing posts with label vegetarian. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vegetarian. Show all posts

Sunday, September 29, 2013

Scalloped Potatoes

IMG_1912

Recently I noticed that potatoes do not make much of an appearance in George's diet so I thought it would be funny to make a Scalloped Potato to slowly introduce him to potatoes since I am rabidly fond of horrible things like crisps and chips.

There isn't really a need to list out a specific amount of ingredients, but you will need at least one potato per person, and some cheese and butter. The cheese and butter need to be cold - I've observed that people living in cold countries sometimes leave their butter out of the fridge for long periods of time (especially in a cold sub-zero temperature kitchen like this kitchen tends to become when its winter) - but for the butter to be sliced you'll need to have it really solid; if not after a minute or two or handling you're going to be swimming in melting buttery goo.

skitched-20130929-141111

IMG_1906

Firstly, the potato needs to be sliced really thinly but not to the bottom. I've put two spoon handles at both ends of my potato to prevent myself from cutting it all the way to the bottom.

IMG_1908

Next you should slice up all the butter and cheese into small slabs and alternately stuff each potato incision with either cheese or butter. I've used a simple cheddar here.

IMG_1910

Bake for about 180deg for 1 hour to 1.5 hours depending on size of potato. At the half hour mark, take it out and put more shredded cheese on top. A medium sized potato will be well done by about 1 hr 15 minutes. Depending on the vagaries of your oven, you can also cook it at a lower heat for longer. Our other oven is sometimes crazy, so I had to turn it down to 150 after half an hour as I was worried it would burn on top. Basically the timing is not so important so long as you check it for its doneness and once you are satisfied that everything has melted together and cooked you can consider it done.

IMG_1914

Here it is served with chopped spring onions and a bonus tomato. So there, a baked potato dinner that looks impressive and yet requires minimal tending.

Basic Tomato-based Pasta Sauce

P9267080

After years of many abortive tomato-based pastas, I now think all variations are best when beginning with these basic parameters. Don't add strange things like onions or leeks or ginger or five-spice or anything experimental in the base sauce. Its a matter of restraint, and if one actually wishes to eat a tomato sauce then just stick to the recipe and make a goddamned tomato sauce. I'm not saying you can't have avant-garde sauce, but if you're not in the mood for avant-garde sauce, then just make normal tomato sauce!

IMG_1748

Ingredients for a basic tomato-based pasta sauce
1 tin Ginos tomato paste (39p) / Or any kind of kind of tomato paste, about 2 tbsp
Half a box of tomatoes on vine (£1.00 per box)
3 cloves garlic
Fresh Basil
Dried Basil
Salt to taste
Pinch of sugar

Some years ago I had an Italian housemate who allegedly told me that the right way to start making your pasta sauce was to start by sautéing sliced garlic in very very hot olive oil, and then, followed by the other ingredients. As tomatoes themselves have the tendency to have a rounded or tart taste, the addition of some sugar actually really helps lift the taste. I prefer Tomato paste over Tomato Puree as it is much more concentrated, and in the cooking process, one can add more water.

P9267081

In this iteration of this pasta we added sliced chestnut mushrooms and used a peculiar round pasta that George had bought from some fancy italian deli. I also wish we had a pasta maker so we could make pasta of any shape!! TRIANGULAR PASTA! DONUT RING PASTA! INFINITELY CONTINUOUS PASTA!