Here are two easy and delicious ways to serve the humble spud; first, a low fat twist on the well known recipe for Greek lemon potatoes which are usually baked in about half a pint of olive oil.

This version goes well with roast leg or shoulder of  lamb (a traditional English lunch); roast chicken, turkey, pork  – or fish.

Vegetarians can replace the chicken broth with water and if like me you make your own Moroccan preserved lemons, use finely minced preserved lemon as a condiment instead of sea salt. Don’t use both or you’ll find yourself overly-salinated.

If you’re lucky enough to own a Mandoline and still have fingers left on your grating hand, this is a breeze to prepare and if someone wants to buy me a French Mandoline with a foolproof safety blade, I’d be thrilled!

Until then I use a very fine-bladed knife to slice the potatoes so that they’re translucently thin.

For those of you who enjoy a crispy roasted spud, the second recipe combines garlic and rosemary and is a robust accompaniment to lamb, pork, chicken, turkey – or whatever.

Notes at the end.

POTATOES BAKED with LEMON, THYME & BLACK OLIVES

(Serves 4)

Ingredients:

6 medium sized red skinned potatoes

1 clove of garlic cut in half

Juice of one lemon

1 cup of organic chicken broth or water

Sea salt OR finely minced preserved lemon (see previous blog), to taste

Few sprigs of fresh thyme

A handful of pitted kalamata olives, rinsed

Extra-v olive oil

Freshly ground black pepper

Action:

Pre-heat the oven to 350F / 180C

Rub the cut garlic clove all over the inside of a shallow gratin baking dish – discard the garlic.

Peel the potatoes and slice extremely thinly. Layer in the dish with a sprinkle of thyme leaves; season with salt or preserved lemon and a small grind of black pepper as you go.

Scatter the remaining thyme leaves and olives on the potatoes and pour over the combined lemon juice and chicken broth or water.

Drizzle with olive oil, cover with foil and bake for 1 hour.

Remove the foil and bake for another 20-30mins until the top is golden and the potatoes are tender when pierced with a sharp knife.

And now for…..

OVEN ROASTED POTATOES & SUNCHOKES WITH GARLIC & ROSEMARY

This recipe can be made with just red skinned potatoes if you can’t get Jerusalem artichokes/sunchokes; it’s just as good.

(Serves 4-6)

Ingredients:

2lbs/900g of combined sunchokes/Jerusalem artichokes and small red skinned potatoes

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

2 tablespoons fresh rosemary, finely chopped

2 tablespoons of extra-v olive oil

Sea salt, freshly milled black pepper

Action:

Pre-heat the oven to 425°F / 220°C

Wash the potatoes (and sunchokes if using) but don’t peel them.

Cut them into cubes approx ½ in /1cm and roll in a dry dishcloth to remove excess moisture.

Put the 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a roasting pan and stick in the oven for a few minutes until the oil is really hot.

Very carefully add the cubed potatoes and sunchokes to the hot oil, sprinkle with the rosemary and garlic and toss around to coat with oil.

Return to the oven and roast for 25-30 minutes or until the potatoes are golden brown and crisp – give them a toss in the pan halfway through.

Season well with sea-salt and ground black pepper to serve.

Notes:

Jerusalem artichokes, AKA sunchokes, sunroot, earth apple or topinambour are the tubers of a sunflower native to North America and have a lovely nutty taste. They can be baked, roasted, boiled, etc. Cut and paste this helpful link to cooking with these knobbly oddities:

http://homecooking.about.com/od/howtocookvegetables/a/sunchoketips.htm

A final word of caution: you can make this entirely with Jerusalem artichokes/sunchokes but if you eat an excess quantity of them, you may be temped to rename them Jerusalem ‘fartichokes’. 🙂