Dazzling crispy new potatoes recipe
Posted by Fiona Nevile in Vegetables and Sides | 11 comments
Photo: fried new potatoes
My father was in the army and my parents were stationed in Germany after WW2. The country was devastated and poor.
“Every single piece of each garden was filled with vegetables. No flowers. No lawns. Just vegetables. I think that a lot of people were starving.”
My mother always described them quietly.
My parents swapped a pack of fresh coffee for their first Min Pin, Nippy. The couple didn’t want money. They longed for coffee – not available in their shops. The pup was named after the Nippies – the waitresses at Lyons Corner House in London. Nippy’s mother, Oushie, was put down after Nippy was born. The couple who owned her couldn’t afford to feed an old dog who had given birth to just one pup. The wife cried when my parents collected Nippy. The husband was delighted with the coffee.
Old family stories that still rock my emotions so many decades later.
In those days each British army officer couple was given a maid and a cook (it was over sixty years ago). And this is where my parents were first introduced to these wonderful reheated new potatoes. They do need a lot of patience. They are perfect fried with an hour of gentle heat. If you try to rush the process they just don’t work. Leave them initially for 15 minutes each side and they will be easy to turn without sticking. After the first 30 minutes you can tweak them when you want. They should just get crisper and crisper. Each time I cook these I think about Nippy and Oushie and the people who tilled row after row of vegetables. And I’m always amazed how good these potatoes taste.
Dazzling crispy new potatoes recipe (for two)
Ingredients:
- 250g-300g of cooked new potatoes
- Half a teaspoon of garlic granules (or a chubby clove of finely diced fresh garlic)
- 1 tbsp of olive oil and a walnut sized wedge of salted butter
- Salt and loads of freshly ground black pepper to taste
- I tbsp of chopped fresh parsley
Method:
- Slice the new potatoes into three
- Add the olive oil and the butter to the frying pan along with the garlic granules.
- Toss the potatoes well in the frying pan so that they are coated with the oil and butter mixture and then leave them to gently fry for fifteen minutes each side, before turning. This means that they will not stick.
- Then cook very, very gently for a further 30 minutes, turning occasionally. Just before serving, add a decent lash of salt and freshly ground black pepper and the finely chopped parsley.
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What a thought provoking story. I must admit to getting annoyed when folk whinge about the “credit cruch” causing them hardship. I sympathise when people have lost their jobs, or are in danger of losing their homes, these situations are terrible, but the ones who can’t afford a holiday abroad this year, or a new car etc get on my nerves. Things were so tough for everyone at the end of the war in this country, and others around the world still have no where near the luxeries that we take for granted every single day. Wonderful story, and I am going to try the spuds this weekend. I have followed your blog for a while now and have added you to my blog list. You are very inspiting.
My father-in-law used to make these potatoes for his sons when they were young. My husband introduced it to me and they are a wonderful (and rare!) treat.
We haven’t tried garlic yet though…!
How sad for Oushie. She gave birth to a brand new life only to lose her own. But this was the start of your very own Min Pin adventures… I always wondered how you became involved with this particular breed.
I will certainly be trying the potatoes. Easy apart from the time to cook but that’s no hardship. They look lovely.
What a beautifully sad story. Thank you for sharing it with us.
Lately, I’ve found myself wondering why governments haven’t begun encouraging a return to the “victory garden” movement, as so many are losing their jobs, homes, savings, etc and could certainly benefit from planting veggies in the nature strip instead of grass.
It’s lovely to reminisce and when we look at how hard things were for people years ago it makes us realise how blessed we are. We spent a week with friends in Romania 2 years ago & it was real peasant economy but we had a lovely time & the people were so generous with the little they had. Apart that is, from the local store owner who barely spoke to us because we were friends with the man whose monthly pension of £800 was just a little more than his considerable wealth! Until he insisted Peter tell him how much his monthly pension was he thought himself the wealthiest man in the village. He’s barely spoken a civil word to Peter since finding out he’s not! (Back then most of the villagers managed on about £100 a month). It did make us laugh, such snobbery. We were amazed though how the hard life had taken it’s toll on the people – the older people looked a good 10-15 years older than they would over here.
I do something very similar but use chopped fresh rosemary as it’s always available in my herb garden. Served with fried free range eggs it’s a tasty meal.
Your story (and recipe) has certainly sent me down memory lane and reminds me of the wonderful times I sat with my parents as a child listening in awe to their similar stories. Their upbringing continued into my childhood because our garden was jam-packed with all sorts of wonderful fruits and vegetables and my sister and I used to get told off for munching out of the garden, making ourselves full before dinner! And my dad was always the best at frying the leftover veggies from Sunday, especially the crispy potatoes.
People out here in rural Latvia still do grow their own vegetables out of necessity but they also take time to grow flowers because they love them so much. The pension can be around 150LVLs (lats are the currency) and 61% of people earn between 299-499LVLs a month and heating last month in our flat was 115LVLs but usually it is around 90 LVLs, food costs for two of us to eat reasonably well and healthily and cheaply is 100-120LVLs. Needless to say people don’t always pay their bills so they turned the heating off yesterday to our apartment block – one off all off – there are no individual stop cocks and there is still snow on the ground and it was -12C last night. We are fortunate we can afford to use a oil-filled radiator and fan heaters as long as we don’t overload the electric system. Makes me mad when people glibly talk about reducing wages here in Latvia in order to cut costs and get the budget under control they don’t know the reality of peoples lives here. Anyway enough of my rant – it is still a lovely place to live. And thanks for the story better than dry statistics like mine.
Reading this has really made me stop in my tracks.
I’ve been having some major issues with my work this afternoon and this evening, which have really upset me. But reading the beginning of your post put these ‘problems’ into sharp perspective. It makes my issues seem small and insignificant – and it made me realise how lucky we really are.
Thank you.
P.S. Next time I cook new potatoes I’m definitely going to cook extra so I can have a go at this recipe!
This was so interesting. How sad about Nippy’s mum being put down – poor upset Wife.
Stories like this tell us so much about how people have to cope and make sacrifices.
The potatoes look very scrummy. x