Next up in the potato week extravaganza: Hachis Parmentier! What the heck is Hachis Parmentier? Well, it’s cottage pie with a French accent. Seriously, I looked at 10 cottage pie recipes and 10 Hachis Parmentier recipes and I can’t find a lick of difference. Cottage Pies (and it’s cousins Shepard’s Pie (with lamb) and Shepherdess’ Pie (vegetarian)) are a filling on the bottom and then covered with mashed potatoes. This particular one also has a healthy dose of cheese — Gruyer in this case (maybe the Cottage Pie Version would have cheddar instead). Either way, delicious, easy to make (and can be done in stages over a few days, if needed) and perfect comfort food for a cold January weekend.
potatoes
Hasseltots
(aka Teeny Tiny Hasselback Potatoes)
These are Hasseltots…. teeny tiny potatoes, cut hasselback style. Contrary to the autocorrect on my phone, these are NOT Hasselhofs. As far as I know, The Hof is not involved with my lunchtime kitchen activities (shudder), but I’ve had to correct the autocorrect more than a few times.
Autocorrect is annoying. These Hasseltots are delicious. Hands down yummy.
Also, might be kid friendly (minus the greenery?) because they are “snackable” and taste a lot like french fries.
Potato Manchego + Caramelized Onion Tart
More spuds! And what’s not to like about putting carbs in carbs! Yea, a potato pie with carbs nestled in more carbs and nope, I don’t regret a thing. This is delicious. A little sweet from the caramelized onions, salty from the machego cheese, hearty from the potatoes. Can be served on it’s own as a brunch dish or an appetizer, or as your carbohydrate along with meat and a salad.
(PS: don’t have manchego cheese? Asiago or Parmesan will serve you just fine too!)
Kicking off “Potato Week” in my little attempt to create some January enthusiasm, here we have crispy and fluffy Sea Salt + Vinegar Smashed Potatoes. Yeah, sure — first you have to boil the mini-potatoes and then bake them and THEN finally, spritz them with a bit of malt vinegar, but OMG are these good. If you aren’t a malt vinegar type of person, you can skip that part, but don’t skimp on the sea salt. I didn’t make any dipping sauces (ketchup worked just fine), but I could see a sour-cream and chive, a curry ketchup or ranch-mayo deal. Find the smallest potatoes possible — these were a little smaller than a ping pong ball. Little red or yellows both work. Yum Yum!
This is Dublin Coddle, also known as Irish Potato and Sausage Stew. Now, I have no idea if this is authentic as I have never had it in Dublin, in Ireland…. or frankly anywhere at at time, so I hope that I am not embarrassing myself too much. Critiques — at least on the looks of things — are welcome. I will say that I like all the ingredients (onions, potatoes, bacon, sausage, broth and herbs) and together they tasted terrific and it wasn’t hard to make at all. At the end of the day, it is a bit similar to a German or a ‘standard European stew’. It’s a good way to end St. Patrick’s Day.