Sweet Potato Fries and Homemade Mayonnaise

When only "CHIPS" will do.

Potato chips in the UK are not the same as potato chips in the USA. CHIPS in the UK are potato fries in the USA and CRISPS in the UK are what they call CHIPS in USA.

Now I've confused you, I can tell you that these are probably one of the most simple things you will ever make and calling them fries or even chips isn't really right as they are not even fried - they're baked !

You may or may not remember the 80's tv advert for McCains Fries. It's about two little girls and one asks the other - "What do you prefer - Daddy or chips ?". It's a rather iconic advert and I still remember being in the car with my brother and the two of us saying "Daddy or chips ? C-h-i-p-s !"

Well - McCains Homefries are probably the best UK freezer cabinet chips you can buy in the UK, but they still don't beat home made. Home made baked and not fried have to be better health wise too !

The sweet potato fries are nothing more than sweet potatoes cut into 12mm (approx) rings and then cut length ways into 12mm  finger like lengths. Toss in olive oil and sprinkle with cleery salt. Place on a baking tray on the top rack of your halogen oven and turn temperature to approx 230deg C. Cook until edges are turning crispy and brown - approx 12 minutes. Alternatively, preheat a regular oven to a similar temperature and shove them in there for around 30minutes.

HOMEMADE MAYONNAISE

This has to be the best with chips. Homemade mayonnaise is quite a vivid yellow colour. If you have got good free range eggs as we do, it will be very vivid indeed. As much as I like homemade mayonnaise, I find it far too strong tasting for memade with olive oil. I far prefer using rape oil or sunflower oil. Groundnut oil works well too. If it's too thick and cloying, add a teaspoon of water at a time right at the end and beat it in. This will significantly lighten the colour and lighten the taste. I usually have to add a touch of water. Lemon works well too - but keep tasting or it can get very lemony !

Ingredients

290ml sunflower oil
2 egg yolks
1 tsp salt
1 tsp colman's english mustard (bit more if powder form)
squeeze of lemon or couple of tsp vinegar

Beat the eggs , salt and mustard together. Add a drop or two of oil and beat it in. Keep adding the oil just a few drops at a time. It is easiest to do this with a hand mixer. After a couple of minutes, add the oil in a very slow and steady stream. As it starts to get cloying and lumpy, add in the vinegar or lemon to let it relax and then continue adding the rest of the oil.

Taste. It's probably going to be a bit cloying again by now. If not too acidic, add a tiny bit more vinegar or lemon. If it's slightly too acidic or you think it's right but just too thick, combine in a teaspoon or so of cold water at a time which will lighten it up and relax it.

Cover mayonnaise not being used immediately in the fridge with cling film over the top. I like the film to touch the mayo to prevent a skin forming.

Sarah-Jane Nash - http://www.siliconemoulds.com/ - halogen ovens and halogen cooker recipes

Spanish Omlet

Spanish omlet is an easy and quick meal made from only 3 main ingredients and yet tastes so good .

Serve it hot or cold - as a main meal, picnic food or lunchtime snack. I've made this a few time recently as now the chickens are in full lay, I've got more fresh eggs than I really know what to do with. It's also ideal for small children to eat too given it's not loaded with spices

Recipe

2 large white onions

500g new potatoes

6 > 7 fresh eggs

salt and pepper to season

some fresh herbs - sage works well

2 cloves of garlic.

In advance, boil 500g of new potatoes - or waxy salad potatoes such as Charlotte or Anya. I like to leave the skins on for added texture. Once cooked, slice into rounds and toss in enough olive oil to coat. Leave to cool.

Cut the onions in half and then thickly slice. Sweat these off in some olive oil with the garlic and chopped sage in a non stick fry pan until they start to carmelise at the edges.

Add the potatoes and fry for just a few minutes. Meantime, break up the eggs in a bowl with a fork. Pour this over the egg and potato mix. Gently crush / squash down protruding potato slices - but don't worry about them too much if not totally covered.

Once it is about 3/4 cooked, gently slide off on to a large dinner plate. Put the fry pan over the top and whilst holding the plate, invert so the uncooked side is face down in the fry pan.

Cook a few minutes more until just done, then slice into wedges and serve with a crisp, fresh salad

Sarah-Jane Nash - http://www.siliconemoulds.com/ - March 2011

Rainy Day - Hollow & Chocolate Mallow Eggs

This is a lovely project to do with children on the run up to Easter.....

We've been making a silicone bakeware mould for quite some time now to make small chocolate eggs, cakes or even soaps which you can see here. They finish about 50% larger than a standard hens egg. Absolutely awesome to make as a chocolate shell and fill with homemade fondant or caramel. Just big enough to make as a small hollow egg and fill with jelly beans, smarties or similar.

Well - you wanted one a bit bigger. Not massive, just bigger enough to make a hollow chocolate shell to house a smaller chocolate egg, chocolate bunny or simply decorate and wrap in cellophane.

This photo shows the size difference between the two moulds quite well. The bigger one is around twice the volume of the smaller one..

On a rainy January weekend, Oliver and I had a play with these. I wish I'd taken some chocolate face photos - but alas, my camera battery went flat at a really inappropriate time.

First of all, we I coated the inside of the moulds with molten chocolate, letting each layer dry and then repeating until all the cells had about 3 coats.

 

These are the bigger sized eggs, coated and waiting to fully harden.

I'm glad I was not paying too much attention to how much chocolate Oliver managed to consume that afternoon. I think I'd be horrified if I actually knew !

Then, I made the marshmallow for the middle of the smaller eggs.

James Martin's marshmallow recipe has never let me down and results in fluffy light mallowy pillows of gorgeousness. I normally flavour it with rosewater instead of vanilla and just simply cut into squares and roll in cornflour and icing sugar mix. However, it seemed like a good idea to try using this as a filling for some chocolate eggs.

As normal, it worked and set beautifully. In my opinion, these needed a little bit of something else. Next time, I'd put a big dollop of homemade strawberry / raspberry jam in the middle or perhaps some gooey caramel.

Marshmallows - James Martin

9 sheets sheets leaf gelatine

450 g sugar

1 tbsp liquid glucose

200 ml water

2 large egg whites

2 tsp vanilla extract (or try rosewater !)

icing sugar

cornflour

Lightly oil one of these silicone multi-purpose trays unless you plan to make filled eggs with your marshmallow.

Soak the gelatine sheets in 140mls of cold water and set aside.

Put the sugar, glucose and water into a heavy base saucepan and boil until the temperature reaches 127deg C on a sugar thermometer. Slide in the gelatine sheets in water and stir to dissolve.

Immediately remove from the heat and transfer into a metal jug or another empty saucepan.

Whip the egg whites into soft peaks and then start pouring in the hot syrup whilst still whisking. You really need a stnad mixer where possible with this. I totally burnt out my last hand mixer making a previous batch of marshmallow as I managed to bung up the vents with mallow whilst whisking !

Don't panic over adding syrup too quickly, jusst keep the beaters going flat out for about 10 > 15 mins. It WILL thicken up and get really fluffy. I thought I wrecked my last attempt as I poured the whole lot of the hot syrup in to the eggs in one go after forgetting to decant first into another pan. The stuff was red hot and although it went pancake flat to start with, it whipped up to scratch no problem.

You know your mallow is ready when the mallow from the beaters starts setting as it runs back to the bowl. Mine was spoonable at this point - but was standing up from the bowl to the beaters on it's own

Spoon into the chocolate shells (I think we made about 20 eggs - including 12 large ones !) from this batch of mallow. Once it's set, cover with some more chocolate.

The small egg mould is a super size for filling with mallow / caramel etc. The large one works far better to hide smaller eggs or sweets inside or simply leave hollow. You could fill them with mallow. I dropped a load into nursery the next day with Oliver. There weren't any complaints and none came home again, but they were on the  verge of requiring a knife and fork (if you know what I mean !!)



Small sized egg in blue checked mug, large size egg in the bunny mug.

Sarah-Jane Nash, http://www.siliconemoulds.com/ - silicone bakeware, Feb 2010