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Posts Tagged ‘potatoes’

  1. Greek Octopus Cooked in Wine with Potatoes

    August 6, 2017 by Varga László

     

    A week ago I went home to my grandparents house to escape the heat wave we had in the city. Although there was also incredibly hot, the garden and the trees gave some shelter.
    As always when I’m going home I cook Sunday lunch’ main course. I wanted to cook some fish but I couldn’t find fresh fish to my liking so I bought some octopus.
    I remembered a dish I ate in the Greek island of Lefkada: octopus with potatoes in red wine, so I concocted a recipe similar to that:

    Ingredients (3-4 servings)

    • 1 kg octopus, cleaned

    • 3 tablespoons wine vinegar
    • 100 ml dry white wine
    • 3 tablespoons tomato paste
    • 3 cloves of garlic
    • 4 bay leaves
    • salt and paste to taste
    • 500 g potatoes

    Preparation method:

    1. Boil in advance the potatoes as a whole.
    2. Wash and clean the octopus. Cut them into smaller pieces.

    3. Add the octopus pieces into a pot, garlic and bay leaves, pour over the wine, vinegar and 100 ml water.

       

    4. Cover and cook for about an hour, on medium heat.
    5. After about 40 minute of cooking add the halved/sliced boiled potatoes and the tomato paste and continue to simmer for another 15-20 minutes.
    6. Serve while still hot

    Category Greek, Seafood, Stew | Tags: ,,,,,,, | No Comments

  2. Tortilla Española – Spanish Omlette with Potatoes

    May 5, 2017 by Varga László


    Tortilla Española - Spanish Omlette with Potatoes
    Recently I had some friends over Martin,an Argentinian globetrotter, and Ramona. We had some good time for the weekend, showing them the city, partying and so on.

    On Saturday we had a cooking evening under his supervision 🙂 . The menu included from soup to cake, but the thing i liked the most was Tortilla Española – Spanish omelette with potatoes.

    It is a very tasty and stomach filling meal, below you have the recipe:

     

    Ingredients (4 servings):

    • 2 medium onions
    • 1 kg potatoes

      1 kg potatoes
    • 6 eggs
    • 100 ml vegetable frying oil
    • Salt and pepper to taste

    Preparation method:

    1. Clean and chop the onions

      Clean and chop the onions
    2. Peel the potatoes and dice them into small cubes

      Peel the potatoes and dice them into small cubes
    3. Heat the oil in a frying pan, add the cubed potatoes and fry them until golden.

      fry cubed potatoes until golde
    4. With a slotted spoon remove the potatoes and set them aside in a large bowl
    5. Add the chopped onions to the pan and fry them until golden over medium low heat. Remove them from the pan with the slotted spoon and add them to the bowl. Remove the pan from the fire.

      Tortilla Española - Spanish Omlette with Potatoes
    6. Add to the bowl the whole eggs, salt and pepper to taste, and stir them carefully together.

      Tortilla Española - Spanish Omlette with Potatoes
    7. Heat up the pan with the remaining oil in and pour over the egg- potato mixture
    8. Fry over low heat for about 8-10 minutes.

      Tortilla Española - Spanish Omlette with Potatoes
    9. Place a wide enough flat plate on top of the frying pan and with a single move turn over the fried omlette to the plate, then gently slide it back into the pan, fried side up.

      Tortilla Española - Spanish Omlette with Potatoes
    10. Fry for another 3-5 minutes and then again with the same move as above, flip the omlette to the flat plate

      Tortilla Española - Spanish Omlette with Potatoes
    11. Cut into 8 and serve

      Tortilla Española - Spanish Omlette with Potatoes

    Category Eggs, Spanish, Vegetarian | Tags: ,,,,, | No Comments

  3. Cullen Skink – Scottish Fish Soup Recipe

    January 30, 2015 by Varga László

    Cullen Skink - Scottish Fish Soup 9

    Cullen Sink is a fish soup from North East coast of Scotland, from the fishing village of Cullen – hence its name, skink is a local word in Scots for soup.

    The recipe’s main ingredients are smoked fish (haddock) and potatoes, with addition of milk and butter for its creaminess.  Its somewhat similar to the American chowder and the French bisque.

    I came across Cullen Skink by watching Heston Blumenthal’s – In Search of Perfection – The Fish Pie Episode. He goes to Scotland in search for ingredients and tastes this wonderful creamy soup.

    Next day, on Sunday evening some friends came over and because of the cold weather from outside I wanted to cook something hearty – a soup or a stew. I had the Cullen Skink in my mind for a whole day and decided to cook it. It was a very good choice, all my friends liked it and one of them, Anca, almost literally licked the pot.

    Because she loves fish dishes and specially sops I promised her to cook soon some other fish dish, maybe Hungarian – Halászlé, maybe Italian – Acqua pazza or Brodetto, perhaps some Asian fish soup.

    Although the original recipe had smoked haddock, I had to replace it with smoked mackerel, not being to find haddock in time.

    So here is my recipe:

    Ingredients (6 servings):

    • 500 g of smoked haddock – I used smoked mackerelCullen Skink - Scottish Fish Soup 1
    • 500 g potatoes
    • butter
    • 3 small onions
    • 750 ml full fat (whole) milk
    • salt
    • freshly ground black pepper
    • 1-2 bay leaves
    • 1 green onion

    Preparation method:

    1. Peel and dice the potatoes into 1 cm cubes.Cullen Skink - Scottish Fish Soup 2
    2. Cook them until soft then mash them and set aside.
    3. Place the smoked fish in a pot, add the bay leaves and enough milk to cover the fish.Cullen Skink - Scottish Fish Soup 4
    4. Bring it to boil and poach the fish over low heat for about 8-10 minutes.
    5. Remove the fish from the milk. Carefully flake the fish removing all the bones and skins.
    6. Slice thinly the onions. Cullen Skink - Scottish Fish Soup 5
    7. Melt the butter in a pan and add the onions. Sweat the onions over medium low heat for about 10 minutes, without browning them.Cullen Skink - Scottish Fish Soup 6
    8. From time to time, add some cooking water from the potatoes to prevent the onions from caramelizing.
    9. Add the mashed potatoes and the milk from the fish pot.
    10. Bring to boil and add if needed some milk until the desired consistency/creaminess.
    11. Add the fish flakes, stir gently and season to taste with salt and plenty of freshly ground black pepper.
    12. Serve immediately while still hot, garnished with sliced green onions.Cullen Skink - Scottish Fish Soup 8 Cullen Skink - Scottish Fish Soup 7

    Category Soup | Tags: ,,,,,,, | 2 Comments

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