Showing posts with label side dishes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label side dishes. Show all posts
I was cooking some chicken the other day and wanted a side dish to serve with it, but I wanted something that would be a tiny bit different than what I usually make.
I didn't want mash, or chips, or even roasties . . . but I did want potatoes.
I thought that these Oven Roasted Garlic Potatoes might be nice, but I was also thinking of Greek Roasted Potatoes, which are lovely and lemony and deliciously Herby.
I kind of didn't want garlic with the chicken however and I didn't have any lemons . . . so I decided to make my own version of an oven roasted potato . . .
Tender on the insides, and almost creamy . . . but well flavoured and somewhat crisp on the outsides . . .
I used vegetable stock and Dijon mustard . . . in retrospect, I might have added a bit of olive oil or butter, but I didn't.
They would have browned a bit better with some fat in the mix. Never mind however, these were still bodaciously delicious!
The Dijon mustard added a beautiful depth of flavour to them, without overpowering the integrity of the flavour of the potatoes . . .
I used parsley, but you certainly could use some thyme or marjoram, or even oregano or sage. I wanted to keep it simple.
I use Knorr vegetable stock gel pots. I use their gel pots for all of my stock needs. They are really good.
These came out perfect, knife tender, and yet holding together, having absorbed most of the stock . . .
They were beautifully flavoured and went very well with our chicken!
Yield: 4
Oven Braised Potatoes
prep time: 10 minscook time: 1 hourtotal time: 1 hours and 10 mins
Quite simply delicious. You can pop these in the oven while you are cooking whatever else you are cooking as your main. The perfect side which cooks itself.
ingredients:
4 medium potatoes, peeled and cut in half lengthwise
240ml vegetable stock
1 tsp Dijon mustard
salt and black pepper to taste
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp dried parsley
instructions:
Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4. Have ready a shallow baking dish with sides.
Whisk together the vegetable stock, mustard, salt, pepper, garlic powder and dried parsley.
the potatoes, cut side down in the baking dish in a single layer. Pour
the stock mixture over and around the potatoes. Cover tightly with
foil and then place into the pre-heated oven. Cook for about an hour
until the potatoes are knife tender, uncovering and basting in the last
10 minutes until golden brown and cooked through. Serve hot.
Created using The Recipes Generator
These would go with just about anything . . . meat, fish, poultry . . . other vegetables. I hope you will try them and enjoy them as much as we did. Oh, and if you have leftovers, just pop them in the refrigerator. They are great fried up in butter with some onions the day after! (Just saying!) Bon Appetit!
Some other potato recipes you might enjoy are:
This side dish I am sharing today, is one from out of my Big Blue Binder that I was given by a Mennonite friend many years ago. I will tell you one thing about the Mennonites, they sure know how to cook delicious food!
My Big Blue Binder is filled to overflowing with little gems like this recipe. Tried and trues, family favourites, shared with me by friends and family over the span of the last 45 or so years. (Yes, I am that old!)
My big blue binder is an old binder that I have been lugging around with me all through my life since I was about 9 or 10 years old. I have been collecting recipes in it from friends, and magazines and library books, etc. for all of that time.
It is old now, and falling apart, but it is a treasure to me. Filled to over-flowing with love. I did write a book about it a few years back, which you can buy on Lulu, which only a small sampling of what is actually in the Binder. Maybe I need to do a second volume.
In the original recipe my friend used home canned green beans. I don't can my own green beans (I don't expect many do these days) so I use well drained tinned from the shops.
I like to buy the mixed yellow and green beans if I can get them. Yellow beans, or waxed beans as my mother called them are very hard to find over here. You could also cook an equivalent in fresh beans to use in their place if you wanted to.
Along with the beans there is a quantity of cooked potatoes, cubed. I confess I have also used tinned new potatoes in the past with great success. Just drain well, rinse them off and then cube them. They work great.
I also am a person who, when I am boiling potatoes for one reason or another, always boils more than I know I am going to use on the day. Leftover boiled potatoes always come in handy for one thing or another. We absolutely love pan fried leftover potatoes in this house!
These are combined with a homemade cheese sauce. My friend always used undiluted evaporated milk, but I just use regular whole milk (whole fat) which works perfectly.
I am sure skim milk would also work, although you might not have quite as rich a sauce. A bit of extra fat always adds a special flavour to things. Admittedly it also adds to your hips and girth, but we won't go there!
There is a quanitity of sauteed onion and celery in the sauce and some seasoning. When you are sauting your vegetables don't let them brown if possible. Keep an eye on them.
You mix the vegetables and the sauce together until well combined. This mixture then gets poured into a nicely buttered casserole dish. I favour a somewhat shallow one myself.
I like to top it with crushed cracker crumbs and crumbled cooked streaky bacon. You could butter the cracker crumbs and leave out the bacon if you wanted to.
I am from the school however with the motto that everything tastes better with bacon. You could even also mix the cracker crumbs with some additional grated cheese.In for a penny, in for a pound.
I like to use a whole wheat buttery crumbly cracker for this. More fibre and GI friendly. Whole wheat ingredients are much better for you if you can possibly use them instead of others.
I choose to use whole wheat breads, crackers and pasta these days over white things. They are filled with fibre and are a lot more nutritious and are much easier for your body to metabolise.
I think you could also add some cubes of cooked meat to this if you wanted to. Leftover cooked ham, or pork, chicken/turkey would work very well, as would leftover roast been or browned ground meat.
It realy is quite an adaptable dish which works well with many flavours.
Its not much to look at . . . ie. not the most attractive crayon in the box, but I can promise you that what it lacks in appearance it more than makes up for in taste.
I really love these fabulous old recipes. They are thrifty and delicious. They use simple ingredients. There is nothing fancy here.
They are solid, trustworthy and reliable, which were pretty much the values that people lived by in days gone past. Oh, I sometimes long for simpler times, don't you?
I really hope you will make this and that, if you do, you will enjoy it. Come back and let me know how you get on! Lets share!
Oh I do so love to share and I really love it when you make what I have shared with you and enjoy it also. I also really love it when you take the time to come back and let me know.
Yield: 6
Green Bean & Potato Casserole
prep time: 15 minscook time: 35 minstotal time: 50 mins
This is a delicious side dish will have your family clamouring for seconds.
ingredients:
1 (400g) tin of cooked green beans, drained well (14 oz tin)
(1 1/2 cups cooked beans)
2 medium potatoes, cooked and cubed (1 cup)
1 stalk celery diced (1/2 cup)
1 small onion, peeled and chopped
4 slices streaky bacon, cooked and crumbled
1 TBS butter
1 1/2 TBS flour
240ml whole milk (1 cup)
120g grated strong cheddar cheese (1 cup)
salt and black pepper to taste
10 buttery crackersinstructions:
Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F./gas mark 4. Butter a 1 litre/1 Qt casserole dish and set aside.
Put
the potatoes and beans into a bowl. Melt the butter over medium heat.
Add the onion and celery and cook for several minutes until softened
without browning. Stir in the flour and cook for a further minute.
Slowly stir in the milk and cook, stirring constantly, until bubbling and
thickened. Stir in the cheese to melt. Season to taste with salt and
black pepper. Pour over the potatoes and beans. Mix to combine well
and pour into the prepared casserole dish. Crumble the crackers over
top. Crumble the bacon over the crackers.
the potatoes and beans into a bowl. Melt the butter over medium heat.
Add the onion and celery and cook for several minutes until softened
without browning. Stir in the flour and cook for a further minute.
Slowly stir in the milk and cook, stirring constantly, until bubbling and
thickened. Stir in the cheese to melt. Season to taste with salt and
black pepper. Pour over the potatoes and beans. Mix to combine well
and pour into the prepared casserole dish. Crumble the crackers over
top. Crumble the bacon over the crackers.
Created using The Recipes Generator
She
didn't do anything really special to them . . . she just basically
scooped the insides out and mashed them with butter and milk, a bit of
seasoning and then refilled the skins and baked them for a bit longer
until the surface of the mash got a bit crispy.
She might have added a bit of minced onion from time to time, but that is as fancy as she got. She liked to keep things really simple.
We thought they were a real treat. She could never make enough of them for us . . . kinda like her butter fried potatoes. We gobbled them up!
I used to do the same thing for my own kiddies, except I got a tiny bit fancier and used some sour cream, butter, and chopped spring onions . . .
and then gradually through the years I added other bits and bobs as I was inspired . . .
Chopped bacon or ham, cheddar cheese, sometimes creamed cheese, garlic . . .
Not all together mind . . . just a bit of this and a bit of that. I think my children's favourites were when I did them with sour cream, cheese, chives and bacon.
I'll let you in on a little secret, they were my favourites also!
I had some leek which needed using up the other day and decided to saute it in some butter and use it to stuff some baked potatoes . . .
Along with a little bit of a four cheese blend. Mine had Cheddar, Jack, Red Leicester and Gouda in it.
I scooped the potato insides out and mixed them with some seasoning, the cooked leeks and the cheese and stuffed them back in.
Do leave a thin layer of potato in the skins when you are scooping the potato out. It makes for more stability in the finished product.
Don't pack the filling in too tightly either when you are refilling the skins. You want it a bit loose and craggy looking.
This makes for lots of lovely crispy edges, which we love.
I like to sprinkle a bit more cheese on top before I pop them back into the oven.
You don't need a lot really, just a couple teaspoons on top of each. Or not, as you wish. We like the extra cheese.
You don't really have to bake them for long after you have re-stuffed them.
You are basically only reheating already cooked stuff . . . and making sure the cheese melts.
And of course you want some crispy bits. They are the best!
If the potato is your favorite vegetable like mine is, you might enjoy the following!
CHICKEN & PANCETTA STUFFED JACKET POTATOES - I like to use up all of my leftovers. I just hate waste and in today's economic climate, it just makes sense to use up all that we have. Good use of leftovers makes good food budget economy, and I am all for that!A great use of leftovers with cooked chicken, diced pancetta, some spinach and a delicious creamy cheesy sauce, spooned over a baked jacket potato. A tasty bit of this and a tasty bit of that!
CHEESE & BROCCOLI STUFFED JACKET POTATOES - Really tasty stuffed twice baked potatoes, containing crispy tender bits of broccoli and a tasty strong cheddar.
These are a fabulous way of getting in some of your five a day and really tasty way to get your broccoli haters to eat broccoli!
Yield: 4
Twice Baked Potatoes with Leeks & Cheese
prep time: 5 minscook time: 2 hourtotal time: 2 hours and 5 mins
These are the perfect light lunch or a delicious side for with your supper.
ingredients:
4 large baking potatoes
2 medium sized leeks
1 1/2 TBS butter
salt and black pepper to taste
124g grated four cheese blend, plus a bit more for sprinkling (1 generous cup)
instructions:
Preheat the oven to 200*C/400*F/ gas mark 6. Scrub
the potatoes clean and prick with a fork. Place into the oven directly
onto the oven rack. Bake for about 1 1/2 hours, until the potatoes give
a bit when gently squeezed. Remove and set aside to cool while you
cook the leeks. Keep the oven on.
the potatoes clean and prick with a fork. Place into the oven directly
onto the oven rack. Bake for about 1 1/2 hours, until the potatoes give
a bit when gently squeezed. Remove and set aside to cool while you
cook the leeks. Keep the oven on.
Trim the
dark green parts from the leeks and discard, or save to use in making
stocks. Cut the remaining stalk in half lengthwise and rinse well in
cold water to remove any grit or dirt. Slice thinly. Melt the butter
in a large skillet. Add the leeks and saute gently for about 5 minutes
until softened. Set aside.
dark green parts from the leeks and discard, or save to use in making
stocks. Cut the remaining stalk in half lengthwise and rinse well in
cold water to remove any grit or dirt. Slice thinly. Melt the butter
in a large skillet. Add the leeks and saute gently for about 5 minutes
until softened. Set aside.
Cut the potatoes
in half lengthwise. Carefully scoop out the flesh into a bowl, leaving a
thin shell. (I find a teaspoon works beautifully for this.) Mash
together with the softened leeks and some salt and black pepper to
taste. Stir in the cheese. Mix well together. Place the potato halves
on a baking sheet and then stuff lightly with the potato/leek/cheese
mixture. Try not to compact it. Leave it loose, you get more crunchy
bits that way. Sprinkle with a bit more cheese. A pinch works well
for each.
in half lengthwise. Carefully scoop out the flesh into a bowl, leaving a
thin shell. (I find a teaspoon works beautifully for this.) Mash
together with the softened leeks and some salt and black pepper to
taste. Stir in the cheese. Mix well together. Place the potato halves
on a baking sheet and then stuff lightly with the potato/leek/cheese
mixture. Try not to compact it. Leave it loose, you get more crunchy
bits that way. Sprinkle with a bit more cheese. A pinch works well
for each.
Created using The Recipes Generator
I can't think of anything these wouldn't go with. I love them even on their own with nothing else! Its a simple thing really . . . twice baked potatoes. Its really true that the simple things in life are the best things! Bon Appetit!
Late summer is one of my favourite times of the year. You get lovely days with cool nights, and our gardens are overflowing with lovely fruit and veg.
This recipe I am sharing today is a perfect way to use up some of the garden glut!
I don't think it is an accident that fresh tomatoes and corn are ripening at the same time.
These two vegetables go wonderfully together!
This recipe includes both sweet corn kernels and ripe summer tomatoes, mixed together with crisp green bell peppers and beautiful garden basil.
Its not a pie in the way that you would recognise a pie . . . there is no crust really, just two layers of streaky bacon and dry bread crumbs that kind of form a crust if that makes sense.
BACON!! Yes, with corn and tomatoes? Count me in!
I used pulverized KrispRolls for the crumbs. Whole grain and really crisp, they were perfect for this use. I try to get as many whole grains into us as I can.
Todd really prefers white bread, but I know that whole grains are essential for good health and lower GI, so in something like this, I use them. Feeding men is sometimes like feeding children. You have to just sneak the goodness in so they don't notice. Shhh . . . don't tell.
The whole dish has a slightly smokey quality, from the bacon of course, and the bread crumbs soak up any excess fat which helps them to form a bit of a crust.
Crisp bacon, who doesn't love that! (Well, unless you are a vegetarian of course!)
Fresh crisp sweet corn . . . tender and delicious . . . ripe sweet tomatoes, with the taste of the sunshine in every mouthful . . . To peel the tomatoes easily cut a cross in the centre of the bottom of each tomato with a sharp knife and plunge them into boiling water.
Let sit for about 1 minute and you will notice that the edges of the cross will be starting to lift just a bit. Scoop the out with a slotted spoon into ice water and they will peel really easily. No problemo!
Herby basil . . . basil goes extremely well with corn and tomatoes . . . and the smell . . . mmmm . . . . I actually cut it chiffonade style.
Just layer the leaves and then roll tightly into a cigar and cut crosswise into thin slices.
Chopping basil bruises it too much, and you release more of the flavour into your cutting board. You really want the flavour to stay in the leaves.
Some people have a difficult time digesting green peppers. In that case you can use red or orange peppers.
It won't be quite as pretty as the green, but will still taste very good. I use a chopper which easily chops them to the perfect size. No fuss no muss.
A bit of salt and pepper, remembering that bacon can be salty. Oh, about the bacon. I always use dry cure bacon. Less water in it. More natural. Oh, I am reminded of something.
Many years ago we used to buy home smoked bacon from a little country store back home. It was simply gorgeous. The smell alone was like nothing you could buy in the regular shops and the flavour was amazing.
But I digress . . . all of these flavours today, combined in a delicious layered casserole/pie make for some pretty darn delicious eating if I don't say so myself.
You won't want to miss out on this one. I dare say that you could use frozen corn in a pinch, but if you have fresh, why not use that. You are going to love this!
Yield: 6
Corn & Tomato Pie
prep time: 15 minscook time: 1 hourtotal time: 1 hours and 15 mins
A great way to use up some of the abundance in the garden at this time of year. Simple fresh ingredients done right.
ingredients:
8 slices streaky bacon, halved crosswise
240g dry bread crumbs (2 cups)
1 green bell pepper, trimmed, seeded and minced
8 medium tomatoes, peeled, seeded and coarsely chopped (2 cups)
the fresh kernels from 4 large cobs of corn (3 cups)
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp soft light brown sugar
large handful of fresh basil, minced (1/4 cup)
instructions:
Preheat the oven to 190*C/375*F/ gas mark 5. Have ready a shallow 2 litre/2 quart casserole dish.
Line
the casserole dish with half the bacon. Top with half of the bread
crumbs. Layer in the green pepper, tomatoes and corn, seasoning each
layer with salt and pepper, chopped basil and brown sugar, layering each
ingredient twice. Sprinkle the remaining bread crumbs over top. Lay
the remaining bacon slices over the bread crumbs.
the casserole dish with half the bacon. Top with half of the bread
crumbs. Layer in the green pepper, tomatoes and corn, seasoning each
layer with salt and pepper, chopped basil and brown sugar, layering each
ingredient twice. Sprinkle the remaining bread crumbs over top. Lay
the remaining bacon slices over the bread crumbs.
Created using The Recipes Generator
This is a recipe taken from my Big Blue Binder. For those who don't know it is a huge blue covered binder that I have been collecting recipes from family and friends in since I was a girl. It has travelled the world with me! Its pretty much falling apart at this point, but it is filled with lovely gems such as this one! Bon Appetit!
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com
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