Pan-roasted baby potatoes with herbs

Cut baby potatoes in half, season with salt and pepper and steam for 10 minutes.  Do not over cook.  Make sure they are half cooked only.

In a heavy bottomed frying pan, add 2 Tablespoons of vegetable oil. Add a few sprigs of rosemary, add the potatoes.  Occasionally shake the pan to move the potatoes whilst roasting so it won't stick to the pan.  Add dried basil.  Season with salt and pepper.

Perfect for serving on the side of any main dish.

Pan-fried fish with oatmeal

An easy nutritious meal indeed! Been trying to incorporate some fibers in our diet and this just popped out in my mind. I’ve tried making this before but I used batter to coat the fish with oatmeal. This time, its just plain oatmeal and very little flour.

For the mashed potatoes, I used to make it creamy and yummy by adding a knob of butter while it’s still hot and a little hot milk to make it soft and fluffy, but this time, I made it simpler, just to cut some fat. It was still great and I’m pretty satisfied with it.

Ingredients:

2 slices of Fish

4 Tbsp. Oats

Salt & Pepper

Oil to pan fry

Procedure:

Wash slices of fish and pat dry with a kitchen towel. Season the fish with salt and pepper and coat with whole grain oats. In a heated pad, add about 2 Tablespoons of oil, pan-fry for about 2-3 minutes each side over medium heat until golden brown. Do not over cook, otherwise the fish will be dry inside.

Mash Potatoes:

Peel Potatoes and slice into quarts, boil in salted water until done. Mash with a potato masher or fork. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve in a bed of mashed potatoes.

Fried Potatoe cubes

Fried Potato cubes

Ingredients:
4 Tbsp. oil
4 large potatoes
2 tsp. ginger powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
a dash of cinnamon powder
2 tsp. cornstarch

How to:

Slice potatoes into small cubes set aside. Heat oil in a pan, add potatoes and fry until done. When the sides begin to turn slightly brown, add ginger powder, garlic powder, cinnamon powder, salt and pepper. Toss all together and sprinkle cornstarch. Continue cooking 1 minute more until golden brown. Serve while still hot.

Mash potatoes or grilled potatoes could be boring if used as side dish frequently. I tried other ways of cooking potatoes.

Fish Cake

Fish Cake

Cooking oil for frying
2 Fish Fillets (medium size)
4 potatoes (medium size)
2 Cups water
½ Cup flour
½ Cup Milk
1 egg (slightly beaten)
salt & pepper

How to:

Peel potatoes and bring to boil with water until tender. While the cooking the potatoes, in another saucepan put the fish and milk, bring to boil with low fire, season with salt to taste, continue cooking until fish is well done. When the potatoes are done, drain them and mash with potato masher or fork while still hot. Drain fish and mash in with potatoes until fish is flaky but not so fine. Season with salt and pepper, (more peppers tastes good and smells good as well). Shape this mixture into round or squares using the hands and set aside. In separate plates, place slightly beaten egg and in another plate place flour for coating (as shown in the photo)

Heat oil in a shallow pan. Dip each shaped potato mixture into each plate with egg first, then flour and fry until golden brown. Remember that the mixture is already cooked, no need to fry too long. Serve immediately.

This recipe is quite messy but its worth it! To enhance your coating with whatever you fry with coating, add breadcrumbs, salt & pepper to the flour. It adds flavor and smells great too. With this recipe, you can use leftover of fish instead of fresh fillet and use the same procedure. Could be a good treat too! And for those who doesn’t like fish very much, this is a good alternative way of cooking… It doesn’t tastes so fishy as it is well blended with the potato. I saw the method of cooking on a TV show but the cook used green peas and potato and mint jelly, which I honestly haven’t encountered yet. It was a bit complicated but it looks nice because the color inside is green and yellow on the outside. But I can’t get fresh green peas here, so I made something similar with different ingredients, but less complicated. Here it is!!!!

Potatoe Soup with croutons

Potato Soup with Croutons

Ingredients :
4 peeled potatoes
1 onion
7 cups water
croutons

How to:
Boil potatoes and onion until tender, blitz the mixture into a blender or food processor, add croutons and garnish with coriander. How to make croutons: Cut bread into small cubes and semi fry it with oil and garlic until sides turn slightly brown.

Vegetable Frittata

Vegetable Frittata

We just declared a no-fry week at home to ovoid greasy foods and came up with this one, but still I can’t resist to put some cheese! Ohhh, its more or less the same thing, I think, but okay, its forgiven! The method of cooking was from a “vegetarian meals” cookbook. The original recipe has asparagus and zucchini which I don’t have stock at home and never had, hence, I put eggplant instead of asparagus and to have some green color, I put green pepper instead. The original recipe doesn’t have cheery tomatoes, but before I put the dish back to the oven, I thought it would look better to have a vibrant center piece of the dish. Just a few steps to the garden and picked up some cherry tomatoes. They just look wonderful at the center, don’t they?

Ingredients:

2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 onion, (sliced very thinly)
2 potatoes (sliced very thinly)
1 red pepper, cut into long strips
1 green pepper, cut into long strips
3 eggs, beaten
1 eggplant
5 cherry tomatoes
Gouda or flamingo cheese
Salt & pepper

Preparation:

Drizzle olive oil over the base of medium size circular baking pan. Arrange potatoes and onions alternately in the base of the pan. Cover pan with aluminum foil and bake at 180oC or Gas 4 for 30 minutes or until potatoes are tender.

Arrange the red & green peppers and eggplant like the spokes of a wheel onto top of potatoes, then pour beaten eggs and season with salt and black pepper to taste. Scatter cheese on top and place cherry tomatoes at the center.

Bake, covered, for 15 minutes or until frittata is firm. Cool for 10 minutes. Cut into wedges and serve.