Tuesday 28 November 2017

Celebrating Roast Potatoes


The heart of the simple life is time.  No, time is not money - and would you want it to be? - but it is a luxury.  So: luxuriate.  This week I perfected the art of roast potatoes.  It's something I never would have found the time to do still working full time.  A simple pleasure, and a simple art.  Here are some tips, things you may already know but which I can confirm from experience are effective.

1.  I'm using British white potatoes.  Nothing fancy, 99p for 1.5kg at the Co-op.  Slice roughly into quarters.  Do not peel.  The skins will add to the crispiness, which is what you want.

2.  Bring to the boil for about 5 minutes.

3.  Meanwhile, heat a pan/tray of olive oil in the oven to at least 200 degrees (C).  I use a large perspex dish, the kind you might use for a casserole.  Be generous with the oil.  You need enough to be able to drizzle every potato.

4.  Drain the potatoes.  Shake them around in the pan to allow a little flakiness to emerge.  Again, this provides further crispiness, which is what you want.

5.  Remove pan of oil from the oven and add the potatoes.  Use a spoon to drizzle the hot oil over every potato so that no surface is left unglazed.  This part is very important.

6.  Heat at no more than 180 degrees for about 25 minutes.  Halfway through that time, turn the potatoes to ensure the developing golden crispiness is spread evenly across every potato.

That's it.  Delicious, simple, cheap, marvellous.  You can spice things up a bit with some rosemary and garlic or even - a new discovery - butternut squash seeds.  Add these at the mid-way roasting point when you turn the potatoes.






I really can't stress enough how wonderful it is it if you can find the time to cook for yourself.  What you're cooking doesn't have to be complex or unconventional; it just has to be a joy to prepare and to eat.  In doing this, you forge a connection with your ancient ancestors who discovered fire, and created civilization.  Cooking was essential to this: necessity united with pleasure.  You might want to read a book called "Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human", which I have recommended at least once here before.  It's a good read.  Read, eat, sleep.

Morrissey gets it, too.



"Stop watching the news, because the news contrives to frighten you, to make you feel small and alone, to make you feel your mind isn't your own"



Related posts

Go to Bed
Hibernation and Allotment Planning
A Soup Made of Scraps
Thoughts from a non empty room

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Monday 20 November 2017

Hibernation and Allotment Planning




I received a lovely message the other day from a redditor pointing out that it's been quite some time since I posted anything here.  Indeed it has, and thank you for noticing.  It's funny how you can go from being unhealthily preoccupied with something to forgetting about it almost entirely over the space of just six weeks.  This blog has shifted from the front to the back of my mind as winter has drawn in, and I find myself contemplating various things I won't go into just yet, fighting the will to boredom and complacency and - most of all - sleeping.

I have been sleeping a tremendous amount, but really, why should that be anything to be ashamed of?  The more I ponder it, the more it seems to me that many of the ills of human life are caused by a lack of sleep.  Imagine if we all went to bed whenever it got dark, and slept until the sun rose again, every day, no matter what our waking commitments.  Imagine if society were set up to allow for just such behaviour.  I see no good reason why it shouldn't be.

Naturally, sleeping more means "doing" less, and that includes blogging, and it also includes allotmenting.  This too is as it should be: it's getting to cold to do much digging, though I have found the time to begin my second, re-purposed bookcase raised bed.

Yesterday, however, I spent the afternoon at Sarah and Jon's, and while Jon was at work Sarah and I started planning how we might use the allotment space next year.  I don't know for certain yet if the allotment will actually become "mine" after February when my "trial period" ends, though I'm optimistically working on that assumption.

Sarah remarked several times how she was "jealous" of my having an allotment, and is full of enthusiasm for growing edible things, as I am.  I am also keen to grow in edible things too: as I remarked before, I'd like the place to be as much a work of art as it is a farm.  Anyway, nothing to be jealous about; what's mine is yours.  Property is nothing at all.

I even like the idea of just getting a load of seeds of as many varieties as I can find and throwing them all over the place, with no planning of any kind.  That would be a lot of fun, and the result could be a remarkable sight, but not an edible one.  So some planning is probably for the best.  Here's what we've put together so far:




This isn't perfectly to scale, but it gives you a rough idea of the dimensions of the plot.  Blue is planting space, white is walking or otherwise unused space.  The gate is at the bottom right of the diagram, with the path running between 6 and 7/8.  Here's what we plan to grow where:

1.  This is my "acidic bed" where I've been dumping all the orange a citrus peels I can get my hands on, in the hope that they will acidify the soil and make better conditions for growing fruit.  Thinking raspberries, and maybe other more unusual things like loganberries or some kind of cherry here.

2.  The first raised bed, measuring approximately 8 x 3 feet.  Broccoli, mustard greens, spinach, cress, rocket and other salad ingredients.

3.  The second raised bed.  Sweet potatoes, squash, courgettes.  May require a polytunnel or some other covering.

4.  Blackcurrant bush.  Pruned back and trimmed and ready to go next year.

5.  What I call "bed 2".  At the top end, near to the blackcurrant bush, I have my rose bushes, in and amongst which I've included some cat mint as a companion.  Sarah isn't so keen on these because they're not edible.  But roses look nice, so they're staying, at least for now.  I've dug out the rest of the space and did try some broccoli and onions from seed back in September, but nothing much seems to have happened here.  The plan now is to use the space for peas, beans and sweetcorn, using rosemary, dill and marigolds as companion plants.

6.  "Bed 1".  It began as my herb patch, and that's how I'd like to expand it.  Currently growing sage, rosemary and chives.  Will add thyme, dill, borage, tarragon and any other herbs I like the look of.  Mint will be kept in pots so it doesn't take over everything else undemocratically, as mint is wont to do.  At the top end, near the gate, I've planted some garlic, which is coming on very nicely indeed.  Down at the other end, some spring onions have established themselves, to my delight.  In and amongst I hope to find room for more onions, cabbages and kale.

7.  The greenhouse.  Fairly dilapidated at the moment, but there's a strong frame that's staying put.  I'm thinking of getting a large plastic sheet to drape over and tie in place, rather than going through the more laborious work of replacing all the panels.  Inside the greenhouse: tomatoes (of the cherry variety, probably) various peppers, cucumbers/gherkins and basil.  I'll need to get some kind of shelving in there too for starting things off in the early spring.

8.  Outside and around the greenhouse: lawn chamomile.  Another herb that apparently deters the sort of pests that might take a liking to pepper and tomatoes.

9.  The shed.

10.  The "inedible bed".  Where I plant things that you can't eat, but look nice.  Foliage, and my acer tree.

11.  The space above the fruit bed has still to be cleared out, as has a fair bit of space along the back end, where bind weed, brambles and various other invasive greenery still claims territory.  But that's for another year.  You have to take things slowly.  Don't worry.  Get plenty of sleep.  What else would you rather be doing?  Be honest.




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Related posts

My Allotment: the first two months
Allotment update
Another Exciting Episode Of

See all posts labelled 'allotment'
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