recipe - MIDDLE EASTERN POTATO CASSEROLE

[Guest guest]

This is a recipe I made recently and it was so delicious I had to share it.

I am a “pathological recipe tweaker” so I’ll mention the alterations I made

but first here’s the recipe exactly as it is written in “The New Cranks

Recipe Book” by Nadine Abensur. For those of you not familiar with the

Cranks books, they refer to a vegetarian restaurant (now sadly closed) of

that name in London and NOT the state of the cook (LOL).

 

 

 

MIDDLE EASTERN POTATO CASSEROLE

 

 

 

A dish of this simplicity depends entirely on slow cooking so that the

flavours have plenty of time to develop.

 

 

 

Ingredients (serves 8)

 

 

 

1.75 kg/3 ½ lb potatoes

 

750 g/1 ½ lb onions, diced

 

50 ml/2 fl oz olive oil

 

1 tsp turmeric

 

1 tsp ground coriander

 

65 ml/2 ½ fl oz water

 

Dash of Tabasco

 

3 cloves garlic, crushed

 

4-5 strands saffron, dissolved in 50 ml/2 fl oz hot water

 

150 g/6 oz raisins

 

1 tblsp fresh parsley

 

1 tblsp fresh coriander/cilantro

 

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

 

 

 

Method

 

 

 

Peel and cut the potatoes into even sized pieces and place in a pan of cold,

salted water. Bring to the boil until tender but still firm, as they are

going to cook further. Drain and set aside.

 

 

 

Fry the onion in the olive oil until transparent and add the turmeric and

ground coriander. Continue to fry until the spices are well absorbed and

the grittiness is all cooked out. Add the potatoes and half the water. Add

the salt, pepper, Tabasco and crushed garlic and simmer for a further 7-8

minutes. Now add the saffron stock and the raisins, as well as a little

more water if necessary, and continue to simmer for at least another 10

minutes, until the potatoes are tender and the sauce is a rich golden colour

with the flavours mingled into an evocative whiff of the Orient.

 

 

 

Just before serving, add in the chopped parsley and coriander and, if you

wish, a further glug of olive oil, gently stirred in.

 

 

 

 

 

Notes from Marie

 

 

 

I cut the potatoes into chunks approximately the size of a golf ball. (I

own two versions of this book. The recipe is photographed in the hardback

edition but not in the paperback edition. It is obvious from the photo that

the potato pieces should be quite large. Had I seen only the paperback

version of the recipe I think I would probably have cut the potatoes smaller

but, as they are cooked for quite a while, I suspect that they would break

up far too easily if they were cut into smaller pieces).

 

 

 

I had a small quantity of feta cheese left over from a recipe I had prepared

the previous day so I crumbled that and added it to the dish. Due to the

saltiness of the feta I didn’t add any salt at all. The feta melted down

and made the gravy/juice lovely and creamy in texture.

 

 

 

The major change I made was to add some fresh baby spinach (I believe that

fresh spinach is not available in much of USA at the moment die to the

e-coli scare but I would absolutely, definitely and positively (LOL) not use

frozen or canned spinach). I added the spinach about 5 minutes after adding

the potatoes. This gave it enough time to reduce in texture but not

completely ‘melt’ into the sauce and lose its identity.

 

 

 

The recipe does seem to need the optional additional water. I think I used

double the water listed in the ingredients plus there was extra water on the

spinach which I added after washing but not drying it. Adding extra liquid

then reducing it again gave a lovely rich sauce. Of course I have no idea

of how rich the sauce would be if the recipe is prepared ‘by the book’ as I

added the extra liquid then simmered it down again, plus I added the feta

cheese.

 

 

 

I did not add the optional extra ‘glug’ of olive oil.

 

 

 

We sprinkled the finished dish with a few toasted pine nuts.

 

 

 

The flavours of this dish are subtle and slightly sweet (from the raisins

and saffron) and it tastes and smells wonderful.

 

 

 

The recipe appears in the ‘Main Courses’ section of the book. If it is

served as a main course I suspect that the quantities given wouldn’t be

sufficient to feed 8 hungry people. I halved the quantities for the two of

us. I thought it would taste good cold (it does!!) so I wasn’t worried that

there would be left overs. We certainly didn’t eat huge portions last night

but what should ‘officially’ have been sufficient for 4 people provided us

with two main meal servings (no seconds) with less than one similar sized

serving left over.

 

 

 

Cheers from Marie