Spice crusted potatoes

These little beauties are proving very popular at the moment. Either as a big buffet bowl, or with a tamarind dip as a little finger food-y canape wotsit.

Dead simple to do. If you 're making ahead then boil the new potatoes until they're cooked through, then leave aside to cool. Then follow Step1. but you 'll only need to put them in the oven for 10mins to crisp up.

If eating straightaway then:

1. Prepare spice mix....for 1kg of spuds use...
1 tbsp coriander seeds
1 tbsp cumin seeds
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp veg/groundnut oil
Bash the seedy ones up in your pestle and mortar, then combine with the rest of the ingredients.

2. Put your potatoes in the roasting tin then distribute your spice/oil mix evenly. Then into a hot oven they go for about 35-45 mins until golden brown.
Done!
Ooooh let's have a closer look at those tantalising tubers
We had them for dinner with carrot and coriander salad. Some lucky clients got them with 'Harissa coated legs of Loaghtan lamb'

I Love ManxChef - The launch

Last Friday saw the launch of a new cookery competition on the Isle of Man - I Love ManxChef

We're looking for people who can cook local food with flair. A modern look at Manx ingredients is bound to score well with the judges, or knock us out with your grandma's winning cake.

For the launch, with the help of Phil Gawne MHK (that's a Manx politician) and Ray Craine (he's a farmer yessir), we created an array of dishes:

• Miniature steak sandwiches with homeade mayo and mustard cress
• Pan-fried plaice with Gujurathi-style beans and a curry foam
• Quesadillas with black peppercorn cheddar, shredded lamb and crispy lettuce
• Rhubarb Fool with rose petal garnish

Sounds pretty good hey! It was Manx produce top to bottom, the only exceptions being the sugar/salt/spices.

For more information and to download an application form go to: www.ilovemanx.org

Spring.....ba-doing!

Spring is officially is progress. How do I know this? Because Manx asparagus is in season....yeeha! My brother kindly brought me some round as a present (yes my Italy-residing brother, but no goodies from Italy this time boohoo).

The Stokes and I had the asparagus tonight with mayo and pan-fried steak, plus those beautiful little puppies above. We have been perfecting our chip technique and have settled on the following method:

Cut potatoes into big chip size chunks

Boil in unsalted water until tender

Remove from water and leave to steam dry on a rack

Now deep fry for about 10 minutes until golden brown

Add lovely sea salt and dive in!

Potato Dauphinoise

Oh my god. These were just so delicious, almost obscenely so and they look beautiful as well. Here you can see John lurking for scrap while Darrin cuts them into perfect little rounds to go with our lamb main. Key to getting these right was using a mandolin to cut the potato into precise and perfectly even slices that would stick together and cook evenly.

Just look at them! If you are not drooling over these then I don't think you should be reading a food blog.

Antipasti plate

Mmmmmmozzarella, it is so delicious. We're ecking the remains of the food we have left in at the moment because I'm going away for a couple of weeks on Sunday. It is nice to see that we can stil conjure up a decent meal despite not going to the shops since Saturday. Where am I going on Sunday? I'm sure you're dying to know. Well I'm off to do two weeks of cookery training at Ashburton Cookery School www.ashburtoncookeryschool.co.uk can't wait! I will post and take pics while I'm there so expect some beautiful food on here from Monday (and if I mess up my dishes I can always pretend other people's are mine hehehe).

So ......back to dinner.......pepper and baby tomatoes go into a baking dish, brush with olive oil, add salt and pepper. Roast at 160 degrees fan..........fall asleep on sofa.........wake up and stumble to oven to find slightly overdone vegetables. Tear mozzarella and basil and arrange on plate with remains of vegetables. Drizzle with olive oil and eat

No chocolate cookies tonight......I miss them :o(

Sides for ribs

Okay I confess we had ribs again, so good! Stokesy and his mate Pete had gone to price some work so needed some man food when they got back. Pete is a...errmm....selective eater so I didn't want to make anything too adventurous. But I got some quesadillas on the go as soon as they got home and he loved them.



I wanted some vegetable-ness to go with the ribs so after rummaging in the fridge decided on some coleslaw. finely sliced cabbage, carrot, red onion, plus a bit of parsley mixed with mayo and natural yoghurt.

This weekend I'll finalising the recipes for next weekend's Saturday cookery class 'Back to Basics', plus planning for a birthday party on the Sunday. For the birthday party the client has chosen lots of different finger foods, I love doing finger food and canapes because you can make everything look wicked! The two mini puddings are Torta di Ciocolatta and Mini Pavlovas, I'll try and get some pics if I have time on the day.