Last time, I talked about how I’ve been growing carrots in my garden. Well, I’m doing the same with potatoes!
I have a clear memory of going out into the garden last year and digging my hands down into the soil to rescue some home grown potatoes. Until we actually tried them for ourselves we couldn’t believe the difference in flavor when compared to store bought ones.
So I started getting a bit creative and trying some different things with them, just so we could eat them in lots of different ways. Here are some of my favorites:
1. Potato salad. This is a firm favorite and good to do if we have guests coming for lunch. I grab some new potatoes, cook them, chop them and use a mix of mayo, spring onions and chives to make my own potato salad. Then I add a sprig of parsley to finish them off.
2. Garlic roasties. These have to be tasted to be believed! I par-boil my potatoes in as little water as possible with a couple of crushed garlic cloves. Then all I have to do is toss them in olive oil and cook as normal. Quick and easy for an amazing flavor.
3. New potatoes tossed in butter and topped off with home grown herbs. One thing I noticed about home grown potatoes was the amazingly strong flavor they have. This means you don’t need to do much with them to enjoy them at their best. A knob of butter and some home grown herbs thrown in works brilliantly. Use chives for an onion flavor, or pick another favorite herb. And of course there is always parsley as a garnish.
4. Sliced potatoes with shallots and a creamy sauce. A home made cheesy, creamy sauce is easy to make. Just take some milk, some grated cheese and a dash of flour and heat them until they thicken up. Season the sauce and pour it into a dish of sliced potatoes (raw) with sliced shallots interspersed between the layers. Quick, easy, cheap and very tasty! Great for all kinds of dishes.
5. Plain and simple, sliced and tossed in a salad. This is another thing we like to do with them when the best of the weather has arrived. I tend to boil them and let them go cold, but warmed potatoes in a salad are good too.
One thing I found out is that you can stay as simple as you want with your recipes, or you can try all different combinations to enjoy your home grown potatoes at their best. I always dig up the potatoes at the last possible moment so I can clean them and cook them straight away. The flavor is divine and that’s why you can eat them as plain as you like.
I am just about to plant out my first seed potatoes for this year, so in a few weeks’ time I will be getting my first taste of them for the year. Patience is a virtue when growing potatoes, but you can keep harvesting them continually once you get them going. I staggered them by a couple of weeks last year as well, with one crop going in about now, the next one a couple of weeks later and so on. I’m planning on doing the same thing this year too, so watch out for a few recipes as my potato crop finally comes to fruition.
For more on how to be creative and resourceful in the kitchen, check out our articles on how to stretch a can of tuna and how to enjoy oatmeal in a whole new way.
If you enjoyed this post, you can get free regular updates through our RSS Feed, or you can have our latest posts delivered to your email inbox by supplying your address here. Your address will only be used for this purpose, and you can unsubscribe anytime.
{ 0 comments… add one now }