The question in the title is a little facetious but potato skins cooked on the Big Green Egg are something of a revelation!  Just before the Covid Pandemic lockdown we were lucky enough to get a 12.5Kg box of Linda (1951) potatoes from Carroll’s Heritage potatoes – they have been great and have kept the 2 of us going really well during the lockdown period.  However April/May is the time when all self respecting potatoes that have not been chemically treated start to ‘sprout’ or as Lucy from Carroll’s Potatoes said – “start to wake up!!”  We reached the point where the last 20-30 potatoes  (these were relatively small, select potatoes) had developed lots of sprouts!  Under normal circumstances we may have just composted them at this point – but we have been trying to reduce our demand on local shops  so have looked for things to do with them – and success!!

We removed the potato shoots, scrubbed the potatoes and popped them into the large EGG whilst we were heating it up for a different cook.  As these potatoes were only the size of an extra large hen’s egg they cook in around 30-40 mins.  They were cooked over an indirect setup at around 180C (the other half of the EGG set up for direct cooking.)

Once cooked they were removed and allowed to cool.  The next day the potatoes were cut in half lengthways and 90% of the flesh scooped out with a teaspoon leaving the remaining 10% supporting the skin.  20 potatoes therefore give you 40 skins which is a lot to play with!   To cook and serve the halves were simply placed in the base of one of our ‘handleless” Tefal frying pans, and sprayed on each side with a little olive oil and sprinkled with salt placesd open side down in the pan and sautéed over direct heat at 170C until the edge of the skins were nicely coloured.  They were then flipped over and the cooking continued until they were crispy.

We have simply been serving them with a homemade hummus dip, though they would also work with a simple cooked filling (more of that later!!).  The potato that was scooped out was destined for other dishes which we will try and catch up with as we get chance.

For the moment though it is the skins that are taking the pride of place – they are lovely and ‘as cheap as chips’

…………….. go on – give them a go!!

Potato Skins - the best bits of the potato!?

June 29, 2020

Servings: Any number - fully scalable

Prep: 20 min

Total: 35 min

Difficulty: Easy

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Cooked potato cooked out of small baked potatoes to leave a glorious skin to sauté and roast!!

By: Mark

Ingredients

• 30 potatoes (size of a duck's egg)
• Spray oil e.g. olive or rapeseed oil
• Salt

Directions

• Step 1 Bake the potatoes indirectly at around 170-180C on the EGG until just cooked and allow to cool
• Step 2 Cut the potatoes in half lengthways and scoop out most of the cooked flesh (and set aside to use for another dish) leaving just a little potato lining the skins. Save the skins in the fridge till needed
• Step 3 Spray the skins (4 or 5 per person) with oil and sprinkle with salt. Place onto a solid cooking surface (e.g. pan) open side down and cook direct at 170C until the rim of the skin is golden coloured. Turn over and cook for another 5 mins or so until crisp.
• Step 4 Serve with a home made hummus dip

Just after we thought we had perfected the smoked mackerel dauphinois dish we decided to try yet another different potato!  Classically, dauphinois potatoes is made using a floury potato – but we had found the waxy potato Linda 1974 made a great tasting dish – see here. Now I would still stand by that, it is a great dish!!  However, we had the opportunity to try the dish  with a different potato, this time Red King Edward 1916 – again from Carroll’s Heritage Potatoes. This is a relatively rare version of the King Edward – first appeared as ‘Fellside Hero’ in Northumberland.  From my limited experience they are less flavoursome than Linda 1974 – but their texture is especially suited for this dish.  As an added bonus they cook beautifully in their skins and the skins stay red after cooking – so an added aesthetic bonus!

The advantage of the floury potatoes is that they add their own creaminess to the overall dish.  And if I am right that they are not quite as tasty as the waxy Linda 1974 potatoes, the deep rich smoky taste of the mackerel in this dish adequately cover any of those potential weaknesses!

The method of preparation is absolutely identical to our previously published recipe except that this time we did not peel the potatoes first as we wanted to retain their red skins.  They were cooked on the MiniMax set up indirectly in a cast iron roasting dish and cooked at around 170C for about an hour.

If the top doesn’t brown as much as you would like simply place under a hot grill for 2 minutes.  This was not a problem we had here though!  And just to make sure you don’t eat too much fill a third of your plate with a fresh green salad before serving!  It goes beautifully with the green salad.

Do give the dish a go in this or the previous version

– you will not be disappointed!!

Smoked Mackerel Dauphinoise Potatoes

May 21, 2020

Servings: 2-3

Prep: 15 min

Cook: 1 hr

Total: 1 hr 15 min

Difficulty: Really easy

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A beautifully smoky Dauphinoise potato dish enhanced with smoked mackerel and mustard

By: Mark

Ingredients

• 250g Smoked mackerel
• 400g floury potato (we used Red King Edward 1916)
• Medium sized onion 1
• 250ml of milk
• 100ml of cream
• 2 tablespoons of grain mustard
• Salt and pepper
• Mustard seeds (optional)

Directions

• Step 1 Do not peel the potatoes, just parboil for around 6-8 minutes. Cool so can be handled and slice around 5-7mm thick.
• Step 2 Finely slice the onion into rings and place as the first layer in a greased medium sized roasting dish.  Add the potatoes as the second layer lightly salting as you go. Then add the chunks of skinned mackerel. Repeat until the roasting dish is full then top with a layer of potatoes.
• Step 3 Press down the layers to remove any large air spaces.  
• Step 4 Mix the milk cream and mustard and and add to the dish to flow between the layers.  Finally add some extra mustard seeds over the top.
• Step 5 Put into the Big Green Egg set for indirect cooking at around 170-180C or into a domestic oven. Leave until the potatoes are cooked through and the top is a golden brown.
• Step 6 Serve by itself or with a green salad

The 2020 health crisis has given us time to think as well as having frightening implications on our lives.  In that thinking time we have been reconsidering amongst other things what we eat and how we prepare it.  We are trying to reduce our food waste to an absolute minimum, but we are also wanting to eat really great food.

Dauphinoise potatoes is a classic French dish.  Smoked mackerel dauphinoise is a very special twist on this classic – and it is so so simple!!  You can cook this in a domestic oven and it is very good – in the Big Green Egg it is stunning!  For best results I would recommend a waxy potato and we are delighted to have found Linda 1974 – this is an older variety of potato that was originally from Germany and was saved from extinction and re-instated simply because they taste so good!!  Other potatoes will of course work, but we got these beauties from the lovely people at Carroll’s Heritage Potatoes. Perfect!!

The dish itself is simple to make but so rewarding to serve!  We are just cooking for 2 at the moment and so this dish is based on that.  Four or 5 medium sized potatoes, one medium sized onion and a 250g pack of smoked mackerel are the main solid ingredients.  The potatoes were peeled and parboiled for around 6-8 minutes and then left to cool so they could be handled.  The onion was finely sliced into rings and placed as the first layer in a greased medium sized roasting dish.  The potatoes were sliced length ways around half a centimetre thick. These made up the second layer.  These layers were each lightly salted.  The third layer was the smoked mackerel, skin removed and torn into decent size chunks.  This was then repeated until the roasting dish was full and finished off with a layer of potatoes.

The layers were gently pressed down into place to remove any large air spaces between layers.  The final step was to add the creamy, mustard milk in which the dish would cook.  The mix was made up of around 250ml of milk, 100ml of cream and 2 tablespoons of grain mustard.  This was poured into the roasting tin and allowed to flow between the layers.  Finally some extra mustard seeds were sprinkled over the top.

This is all there was to it, all that was left to do was to add it to the Big Green Egg set up for indirect cooking at 170-180C (this can also be cooked in a domestic oven at the same temperature!).

 Leave this for around an hour until the top browns and the potatoes are beautifully softened.

Once cooked the roasting dish was removed from the BGE and allowed to stand for 5 mins or so which also allows the dish to cool just a little too.  Simply plated the layers were served with some chopped chives and freshly ground salt and pepper – it would work really well with a green salad – but we never got that far!!

Footnote:  we have also made this with the floury potato Red King Edward 1916 – it is a very interesting variation and worth a try – see here

Smoked Mackerel Dauphinoise Potatoes

April 27, 2020

Servings: 2-3

Prep: 15 min

Cook: 1 hr

Total: 1 hr 15 min

Difficulty: Really easy

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A beautifully smoky Dauphinoise potato dish enhanced with smoked mackerel and mustard

By: Mark

Ingredients

• 250g Smoked mackerel
• 400g Waxy potato (we used Linda 1974)
• Medium sized onion 1
• 250ml of milk
• 100ml of cream
• 2 tablespoons of grain mustard
• Salt and pepper
• Mustard seeds (optional)

Directions

• Step 1 Peel the potatoes and parboiled for around 6-8 minutes. Cool so can be handled and slice around 5-7mm thick.
• Step 2 Finely slice the onion into rings and placed as the first layer in a greased medium sized roasting dish.  Add the potatoes as the second layer lightly salting as you go. Then add the chunks of skinned mackerel. Repeat until the roasting dish is full then top with a layer of potatoes.
• Step 3 Press down the layers to remove any large air spaces.  
• Step 4 Mix the milk cream and mustard and and add to the dish to flow between the layers.  Finally add some extra mustard seeds over the top.
• Step 5 Put into the Big Green Egg set for indirect cooking at around 170-180C or into a domestic oven. leave until the potatoes are cooked through and the top is a golden brown.
• Step 6 Serve by itself or with a green salad

Sometimes it is the simplest of dishes that give the most satisfaction.  This is very much one of those dishes!  It is hard to better simple roast potatoes – but this is a dish that does that!.  Indeed it would be a lovely simple supper dish in its own right!  This is a sautéed potato dish with onions, garlic, rosemary and peas.  The secret is to hold your nerve and cook it for (more…)

Whilst chicken can be bland it really doesn’t need to be!  This is a really simple recipe and almost a one pan dish too.  We had taken 2 chicken breasts from a large free range organic chicken.  The skin was left on the chicken and the breasts were lightly dusted with a Shawarma seasoning from Angus and Oink.  They were set aside for an hour or so.  We paired this with chorizo sautéed potatoes, based on our earlier recipe with asparagus, so whilst the chicken was marinating the new potatoes were halved and parboiled and also set aside.

The BGE was set up for direct cooking at around 180C.  A handleless sauté pan was brought up to temperature and the chorizo was fried in rapeseed oil added to the pan.  This both cooks the chorizo and in turn spices the oil.  The chorizo was removed from the pan and replaced with the breasts of chicken, skin side down.  The idea is to do around 80-90% of the chicken cooking with the skin side down with the skin protecting the chicken from the heat.  The chicken was flipped over to finish off the cook.  The parboiled potatoes were added to the pan to sauté the potatoes in the chorizo infused oil.  The chicken was removed from the pan when the core temperature hit just above 70C.  They were wrapped in foil and allowed to rest whilst the core temperature rose to 74C.  The cooked chorizo was added back to the potatoes as they finished being sautéd.

The chicken was sliced and served on roasted cauliflower together with the spicy chorizo potatoes.  The level of spicing will depend on the type of chorizo you choose!

…………………………a great way to spice up your chicken!!

Footnote: Also see reflections here

Spicy Charred Chicken Breast with Chorizo Potatoes

July 15, 2019

Servings: 2-3

Prep: 15 min

Cook: 20 min

Total: 35 min

Difficulty: Easy

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Spicy Chicken breast roasted with chorizo sautéed potatoes

By: Mark

Ingredients

• 2 chicken breasts skin on
• Shawarma seasoning from Angus and Oink
• New potatoes
• Chorizo 3 inch piece
• Rapeseed oil

Directions

• Step 1 Leave the skin on the chicken and dust lightly with Shawarma seasoning. Set aside for an hour or so.  Meanwhile halve the new potatoes and parboil then set aside.
• Step 2 Set up the BGE for direct cooking at around 180C.  Use a handleless sauté pan and bring to temperature. Fry the chorizo in rapeseed oil. Remove the chorizo and replace with the breasts of chicken, skin side down.  Cook without moving until around 80-90% cooked.  Turn the chicken and finish off the cook. Add the parboiled potatoes and sauté.
• Step 3 Remove the chicken from the pan when the core temperature hits 70C.  Wrap in foil and allow to rest to allow the core temperature to reach 74C.  Add the cooked chorizo to the potatoes as they finish being sautéd
• Step 4  Slice the chicken and serve with the spicy chorizo potatoes