Pete’s Potato Wedges

Looking for something new to do to spice up your roast potatoes?

What’s in it?

• Potatoes cut into wedge shaped pieces
  

PLUS

• Fresh Rosemary from your garden 😉 – chopped finely
• A clove of garlic – chopped finely
• Cumin (whole seeds or ground is fine. We use either, depending on what is in the house.)
• Tonight we also added Cajun Pepper too, just to spice it up a bit. You can left this out if you prefer.
• Sweet Paprika – one teaspoon
• Olive oil (more than you want to admit to… glug glug glug)
• salt
• pepper

Par-boil the cut potatoes in boiling water. We cooked for two people tonight and 8 minutes on the stove did the job. You can of course skip this par-boiling and go ahead and whack them straight in the oven, it just takes longer.

While the potatoes are par-boiling, prepare and mix all the rest of the ingredient in a small bowl. It should be a sloshy liquid, not a paste. See my note about using fresh rosemary here.

Drain the potatoes and let them sit for a bit. All the water needs to evaporate. I like to spread them out over the oven tray to let off some steam in their own space. I’m about to use it (get it dirty) for the baking anyway, so no loss.

Here is another tip. You already dirtied the saucepan par-boiling the potatoes, so why not use it again now, instead of another mixing bowl. Can you tell I’m not a fan of washing up? 🙂
SO – pop the now “dry” par-boiled potatoes back in the saucepan and pour the liquid spice mixture over the top. Mix together. You can use a spoon, but I find getting in there with your hands gets a better result.

Lay the spiced potatoes out on the same oven tray as before, spreading them out as much as possible. Pour any extra spice mix over the potatoes on the tray.

Cook in the oven until crispy as, bro. 🙂 Yum!

Seasonal Note: There are many varieties of potato that grow throughout the year in Australia. So that’s good news! 🙂 Eat up!

HOW TO: Grow your own mint

This seriously huge mug, filled with water, makes for a cute addition to the kitchen this week while my mint attempts to grow its new roots.

Growing mint in my garden is one of my secret pleasures. It likes to be drowned in water all the time, and when you brush past it, it smells so gosh darn delicious. 🙂 Here’s another little tip I picked up from my Mum. If you don’t grow mint in your garden yet, you may start to, after this super easy tip.

When you pick mint from your garden, (or the next time you buy it from the shops (*cough* farmers markets!!) 😉 ) rather than pulling individual leaves off the bushes, cut long stems and remove the bottom half of the leaves. These loose leaves can be used immediately or stored in the fridge to be used within a day or so afterwards.

Put the stems in water and over the next few weeks new roots will grow out sideways from the stem. (I’ll post photos below, showing the new roots as soon as this lot start to grow.)
All you have to do then is replant them in a pot (easy to contain and maintain), or the garden (it will spread out a lot though, it’s an explorer. Choose an area you want to fill)… and then you’ll have brand new mint. Plants are kinda awesome like that. Hooray for tasty, sustainable, edible gardens! 🙂 Keep them well watered. Mint hearts water.

Here is the recipe I use for “minted yoghurt”. Try it as a dip, with kofta and flatbread, with tabouli etc. YUM!

Edit 11/11/12: After less then two weeks in the water here are the results so far. Most haven’t yet sprouted, but a few have. I will leave them all in the water, even these, for a bit longer.

Jamie’s Smash

This is (our bastardised version) of one of Jamie Oliver’s quick meal ideas. We use it A LOT. It is, as he would say, “proper tasty”. We have his 30 Minute Meals book, but I couldn’t find it in there. We pulled this from his tv show.

What is in it?

• 1 – 2 Potatoes halved or quartered
• 1 – 2 Sweet Potatoes halved or quartered (or sometimes we use pumpkin, depending what is in the house.)
• A handful of chopped Feta Cheese
• A handful of chopped fresh coriander (The coriander really makes this recipe. We have a friend who doesn’t eat coriander and we replace it with parsley when they come to dinner. It really is not the same, but it does the job.)
• Chilli (Fresh is best, but when we do use dried chilli we chop some red capsicums very finely and add them in too.)
• Olive oil
• Salt
• Pepper

Cook the potatoes. Jamie cooks his potatoes (both kinds) in the microwave in a bowl covered in cling wrap. We just boil them and drain them (drain them well).

Meanwhile, “dress the board”. This is an expression Jamie uses when he serves things on a “rustic” wooden chopping board. Drizzle olive oil over a large board, add salt and pepper. Chop the coriander, fetta, chilli roughly. They will get more chopping later.

After the potatoes are cooked through put them on the “dressed” board, on top of the other ingredients. Using a large knife chop the potatoes mixing through the ingredients. Use the flat side of the knife to flatten the potatoes and flip the underside ingredients to the top. Leave some large chunks throughout. It is a smash, not a pureed mash.

Serve immediately. It goes cold really fast.

HOW TO: Grow your own Rosemary

This is a really simple tip that I learned from my Mum. When you use rosemary in your cooking only use the bottom half of the sprig. Strip the bottom “leaves” from the stem, use them as normal, but leave the top half untouched.

Push the stem back into a pot of dirt (earth) and leave it be! It’s that simple. Nine times out of ten, it grows happily away without complaint. And woolah – you have a brand new rosemary plant! I keep a pot by the back door, especially for this use.