Self Mashing Potatoes

Sweet potatoes rock.

Just bung them in the oven, on 150C, on a tray, and let them do their thing. Depending upon their size, they will take from 45 minutes to an hour and a bit. Wait until they’re hissing, and oozing dark red goo; which you’ll have to clean up later.

The best thing is, the insides will have collapsed into a dark orange carb rich mush, requiring little more than some salt and pepper, and/or butter. Tonight, there was some crème fraîche handy, so a glob of that went in as well.

(Oh, and the sausages that had been carelessly left on the baking tray underneath.)

Reeee-SULT!

Shepherd’s Pie

There is leftover garlic mash from the other night. It was pushed into a square sandwich bag, and squished into a flat slab, about an inch thick. The slab is conveniently the same size as my smallest square baking dish. Muwhahaha.

Some minced lamb and a chopped onion get fried in olive oil with salt, pepper and a half a teaspoon of sugar. I realise that there’s no red wine handy, at least of the sort I’d use to deglaze the pan, so I pop in a splash of vermouth and, for the hell of it, some squished up juniper berries. A sprinkle of dried thyme, a tin of chopped tomatoes (minus their juice) and the results go into the bottom of my baking dish. A layer of frozen peas and then the slab of mash. The mash turns out not to be exactly the right size, so there’s some artistic carving with a serrated bread knife to make it fit.

Finally, into a hot oven for half an hour. Joy.

Variations:

• Worcestershire sauce
• tomato paste (not keen on this as it makes the whole thing tomato flavoured, whilst the pieces provide just the occasional nugget of fruitiness)
• chopped up dried tomatoes

Bangers & Mash

What a horrid day. Tension just seemed to have worked its way into the office: even the boss squared, normally tranquil in the face of all adversity, was irritable. I caved in to the mid afternoon slump, and had the dreaded Coke and Kit Kat Combo, whose sugar rush is as pleasurable as it is transitory. Then walking home in the cold past houses for sale that I can’t afford.

On days like this, one needs a bit of sausage to keep the glint in one’s eye and the spring in one’s step.

I always do mine in the oven – in a roasting tin with no need for oil – just 160 of the best degrees centigrade that my fan-forced oven has to offer for about 45 minutes. This leaves them with a nice all over tan, and reduces the risk of them bursting. (And don’t prick them, please. All the flavour just runs out.)

Meanwhile got busy with some garlic mash and steamed spinach. The garlic butter had surprisingly little effect on the mash, so wondering whether the effect was too subtle. Some other good things to put in mash:

• mustard: wholegrain, Dijon, or English are all good, although be careful with the last of these
• thinly chopped spring onions (no need to cook them)
• cheese: grate and stir in at the last moment (hard cheeses are best: Cantal, Grana, Cheddar, Doddington, etc)
• chopped up chives or parsley
• garlic butter: peel and squish three cloves of garlic and fry gently in a little butter for about five minutes, making sure the garlic doesn’t brown, then fish out and discard the garlic, and tip the butter into the spuds during mashing

All of these particularly effective, and almost necessary, if you’re using Aunt Bessie’s, as it’s just a little too smooth otherwise.