The supersonic, ultra-crispy wedgie

Making oven-baked potato wedges is hardly rocket science, right? You wedge 'em, dredge 'em, and bake 'em, right? Right, if you fancy eating a plateful of slightly oily wedges, which are delicious for precisely five minutes before they lose their puff and collapse into leathery old brown leaves.

I'm not casting aspersions on potato wedges - these are a brilliant, low-fat alternative to chips, perfect for ravenous teenagers or picky eaters. They take minutes to make, and, because they retain their skins, pack a good nutritional punch.

After much experimentation, I have settled on the following method, which produces gorgeous golden-brown wedges that are crisp on the outside, fluffy on the inside, and have plenty of rustle and snap. (Note: since I wrote this post, I have refined the recipe and added a sprinkling of chickpea flour, which results in a superior crunchiness. Click here for the new recipe.)

First, and most important, the wedges need to be cooked for at least ten to fifteen minutes in rapidly boiling, salted water before they are baked. Yes, I know it's a bit of a hassle, but it makes all the difference: a wedged potato that is tossed in oil and salt and placed in a hot oven without being boiled first will certainly go golden brown and puff up, but its cut surfaces will turn tough and leathery within minutes of your taking it out of the oven.

Second, the water in which the potatoes are boiled should contain a generous amount of salt. I picked this tip up from watching an episode of Heston Blumenthal's In Search of Perfection, in which he conclusively showed that potatoes parboiled in salted water turn a perfect golden brown, whereas those boiled in unsalted water are pallid in comparison.

So here's my method. Preheat your oven to 200°C. Put a large saucepan of water on the stove, add one tablespoon of salt, and bring to a rapid boil boil. Cut each potato, lengthways, into six equal wedges. I have a brilliant device that is specifically designed for wedging potatoes - but you can do it as easily with a knife. As you cut the potatoes, toss them into the boiling water. The water should just cover the wedges.

Boil them rapidly for ten minutes, or until you can easily push the tip of a knife right through them, with no resistance. They should be on the point of breaking up - but not quite. Tip the wedges into a colander and drain off the boiling water. Set aside to ten minutes to drain and dry out. Then give the wedges a light tossing and scruffing so that they roughen around the edges . In the meantime, tip a few tablespoons of olive or sunflower oil into a roasting pan and place over a medium flame. When the oil is sizzling hot, add a good pinch of salt and a grinding of milled black pepper, and what ever flavourings you fancy - some needles of rosemary, flavoured salt, spices, dried herbs, a pinch of cumin, a squeeze of lemon juice, a dusting of cayenne pepper, whatever takes your fancy - and immediately tip in the potato wedges. Give the wedges a good toss so that they are well coated in the hot olive oil, and then place them in the hot oven. Alternatively, you can heat the roasting pan of flavoured oil in the oven for ten minutes before you add the wedges.

Bake for thirty to forty minutes, depending on your oven, tossing and shaking once or twice, until they are golden brown and crispy. Serve immediately.

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Quick, Easy Marinated Mushrooms

These are quite delicious and one of the best ways, I think, to eat rather flavourless white button mushrooms. Serve with plenty of crusty bread. If there's any liquid left over, use it in a salad dressing, or to marinate a new batch of mushrooms - you can use the liquid up to three times over. Keeps well in the fridge. This is one of my family's favourite recipes and I have been making it since I was twelve - although the formula has changed over the years to include new-fangled ingredients.

Marinated Mushrooms

2 punnets white button mushrooms
1/2 cup (125 ml) white wine
1/2 cup (125 ml) olive oil
2 T (30 ml) Balsamic vinegar
1 T (15 ml) Kikkoman soy sauce
1 slice of lemon
juice of 1 lemon
2 cloves fresh garlic, peeled and sliced
2 bay leaves
2 sprigs of fresh thyme
a pinch of sugar
salt and milled black pepper

Wipe the mushrooms and place into a saucepan with all the remaining ingredients. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for ten minutes, stirring occasionally. Now turn off the heat and allow to cool on the stove. Allow to marinate for an hour or so - or overnight. Serve at room temperature.

Serves 4 as a side dish. Print Friendly

Our Gwen Gill gets a slap on the wrist over Delia Smith comment

I see that John Tovey had a go at Sunday Times columnist and veteran consumer journalist Gwen Gill in a letter published in Sunday's edition of the paper. I'm presuming this is the same John Tovey, the hotelier and chef famous for inventing Sticky Toffee Pudding. Here's what he said:

'Gwen Gill reached another profound low with her “Feeling Cheated” (Travel & Food, July 6) about Delia Smith’s latest book.

The opening sentence ending in “her name has suddenly become culinary compost” really sums Gill up and does her no favours.

I have been a close friend of Delia’s for 30-odd years. She has more integrity and talent in her little finger than Gill has in her whole body. The book sold 1.5 million copies: put that in your pipe and smoke it.'

A bit rough, I thought - I am a great fan of Gwen's, and she has integrity and talent by the bucketload - so I went in search of the original article. All I could find was a single sarcastic jab at St. Delia.

I can't imagine why Tovey has his knickers in a knot. All Gwen did, by commenting that Delia's name had become 'culinary compost', was to reflect the angry backlash against her latest bestselling cookbook, How to Cheat at Cooking. Foodies and loyal fans alike were flabbergasted by some of the trashy recipes in the new book, accusing her of, according to an article in The Guardian - ' hypocrisy, betrayal and cynicism'.

And anyway, Ms Smith doesn't mince her own words when it comes to dissing other celebrity chefs. A feature on celebrity chef spats, in The Telegraph, quotes her as saying, about Gary Rhodes and Antony Worrall Thompson, "I hate Gary Rhodes's programmes and I think that Antony Worrall Thompson is worse. He is dreadful, just repulsive. I think that Food And Drink, the show that he is on, is the most disgusting programme on television. I will never, ever know, as long as I live, how the BBC or the general public can tolerate it."

Although I'm also a fan of Delia's meticulous recipes, I haven't read the book, and judging from these recipes, and the comments by tasters, I don't think I want to.

As for Gwen- well, she's just been honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Vodacom Women in the Media Awards, and deservedly so. And I wonder what Tovey means by 'another profound low' and 'really sums Gill up'? Has Tovey ever actually met Gwen Gill?

So Oy, hands off our Gwen, Tovey - she's a national institution here in South Africa. Print Friendly

Organic, shmorganic? A carrot is a carrot is a carrot

Here's a bit of a smack in the broeks for the organic food movement.

According to a report in The Telegraph, a recent study has shown that there is no clear evidence of any difference in the vitamin and mineral content between the organically and the chemically grown crop. Susanne Bugel and a team at the University of Copenhagen's Department of Human Nutrition found that many people are willing to fork out more than a third more cash for organic fruit and veggies in the belief that they deliver more vitamins and nutrition food reared with pesticides and chemicals.

The Telegraph reports Dr Alan Baylis, from the society, saying: "Modern crop protection chemicals to control weeds, pests and diseases are extensively tested and stringently regulated, and once in the soil, mineral nutrients from natural or artificial fertilisers are chemically identical.

"Organic crops are often lower yielding and eating them is a lifestyle choice for those who can afford it."

The study was published in the Society of Chemical Industry's Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture.

What the study didn't look at is the health risks associated with pesticides and fertilisers, so maybe there's still a good reason to buy organic... or is there? I'm personally so distrustful of the entire health-food industry - don't get me started on homeopathy and other purveyors of snake oil - that I am not in the least bit surprised by this finding. Print Friendly