The Garden Fence - help and support in tough times

MrsCD

Sorry for your loss Floss. When my granda died a few months after my nanna, we all thought that he must have wanted to be with her. Take care.

mardatha

Fencers - I am in need of help! SOS in fact... and this involves the dreaded word cooking :eek::eek::eek:
I am SO bored with eating and am fast approaching the crisp & cornflake stage again. I've been plonking down horrible plates of mash, cold meat, and beans/peas for a week- and there must be more out there than this!! To start with, could somebody give me something better to do with potatoes that isn't mash or chips?
And other more interesting veg than tinned beans or peas?
Bearing in mind we don't eat spicy or exotic stuff.
I would be so pathetically grateful lolol

elona

Mardatha

You can make your own tattie scones. Just use some cold mashed potato and mix with flour and a bit of milk till it is like a dough then form into small balls, flatten with your hand and fry in a little oil. Lovely with bacon and eggs. Also with fried bacon and mushrooms.

There is a potato and ham dish take that takes a while but is worth it.
Peel and cut one large potato per person into thin slices. Do the same with a couple of big onions. Layer a casserole or oven dish with a layer of onion. layer of diced bacon, layer of potato - then repeat. Make a cheese sauce and pour it over the contents shaking it slightly so the sauce covers all the layers. Season and sprinkle grated cheese on top. Bake in medium to hot oven for about two hours till potato is tender.

You could do a cheat version of potato dauphinoise (sounds posh but is just cheese sauce with sliced potato and chopped onions)
Scrub some big potatoes then boil in a pan till almost cooked. Let them cool and the skin will slide right off. Chop a big onion and layer the grated cheese onion and slices of potato into an oven dish - top with cheese or white sauce and bake for about half an hour till it goes golden.

Do you like sweetcorn, green beans, mushrooms, tomatoes?

kidcat

Mardatha - I have been buying small potatoes, they dont need peeling, then I chop them, steam them in micro steamer and then roast for 10 mins, much quicker than proper roasties but tasty and quick

[Deleted User]

Oh yes there is my little Scottish pal, it's so easy to make a lovely potato gratin and very quick. Slice some whole potatoes about 1/4 in thick (so quite thinly) 1/4 pint of single cream, grated cheddar cheese, a couple of ounces then in a deep sided dish make layers of overlapping potato slices sprinkled with a bit of cheese and lightly seasoned with salt and pepper between the layers of slices. Pour over the cream and it will sink down through the layers and as it cooks mix with the cheese to form a sauce. Pop in a medium hot oven 160deg ish and cook until the potatoes are soft right through when you push a knife point in the middle. If you use lots of potato and make a bigger dish add more cream and cheese. You can also add in finely chopped leek or onion in layers and some chopped bacon or ham sprinkled in with the cheese is lovely too.

Another easy and tasty dish is Lyonnaise Potatoes which is sliced potatoes and sliced onions in layers in an ovenproof dish seasoned well with salt and pepper and drizzled with oil and cooked in the oven until the potato is cooked through and soft. Give it about an hour at 160 deg and it is really nice with sausages, bacon or ham.

Cheesy mash is nice too, just mashed potato with as much grated cheese mixed through it as you like. You can also add in fried onion, bacon, etc and it's nice with cold meat.

A wartime dish was made using mashed potato as the crust for a sort of pie. Spoon the mash into a pie dish and spread it across the bottom of the dish and up the sides, use a filling you like, mince and beans, bacon and hard boiled egg, leftover joint and gravy and then spread a layer of potato over the top to cover the filling and pop into the oven until the potato on top is browned and crisp.

Will look in my books for some ideas and post again.

mardatha

Got these all written down now, taverymuch. Yes we like mushrooms and tomatoes elona - I love fried tomatoes but hate the skins.

Rainy-Days

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

Cheesy mash is nice too, just mashed potato with as much grated cheese mixed through it as you like. You can also add in fried onion, bacon, etc and it's nice with cold meat.

Hello MrsLW glad to see you back hope you had a good break. Hampshire came out in a top position for being the best place to live and got the link of it posted here!

Anyway as the above, it is on my meal planning list, cheddar mash, with grilled bacon and plum tomoatoes! Going to have that on Monday to get over the Christmas 'blow out'!

Love it so simple but so very tasty and one of the dishes that I loved when my mum did it :T

[Deleted User]

Hi RAINY thank you we had such a lovely time but no snow in Berlin either, in fact it was 15 degrees most of the time we were there and cooler by far here in the UK when we got out of the airport! Cheesy mash is so nice and if you have any left over it's nice made into mug sized 'mountains' on a baking sheet and the outsides ridged with a fork like topping a shepherds pie, sprayed with an oil spray and popped into the oven until it's crisp and browned. Works well with plain mash too, tastes different to fresh mash, I like it very well!

Rainy-Days

Rainy-Days wrote: »

This is what you and Mrs LW need Silvasava:-

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/property/article-3364043/The-50-best-places-live-UK-Hampshire-district-retains-spot-impressive-fifth-year-row.html

Here you go MrsLW click on the link and enjoy living in a property hotspot!

Glad you enjoyed your break and at least the weather sounded as though it was quite balmy!

There is never any left over cheesy mash - I also save some of the grated cheese back and sprinkle it on the top of the pie to melt and crisp off whilst it's baking. Amazing such an old and easy recipe yet everybody just loves it with something so simple!

melodramaticme

How about potato rosti : grated potato formed into patties and fried
http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/8257/potato-rosti.aspx?o_is=LV