The Cottage Smallholder

This is our entry for Waiter There’s Something In My… Pie, hosted by Jeanne at Cooksister. These blog events are a good idea. They focus attention. This sort of event forces us to think of a new dish as all of the recipes on The Cottage Smallholder are original and straight from our kitchen, apart from the conrtributions fom friends.

We thought it would be fun to develop our potato croquette recipe and try to make something that could be a starter or side dish. Our croquettes are baked in individual ramekins or a large shallow dish. This creates an all over golden crust that holds a soft creamed potato filling. Why not see if the crust could hold something more?

We really wanted to contribute to this event but have been totally distracted for the past few weeks. We were lucky tonight. This was the do or die last day for entries. These prawn croquettes turned out very well. The potato in the base of the dish soaked up the juices from the prawns and combined with the crème fraiche to create a rich sauce (no sweating over a béchamel).

Danny has a massive appetite and said two of these prawn and potato treats would suffice for his supper. I plan to serve them as starters when we have a delicate main course or find smaller ramekins. If you use smaller ramekins remember to adjust the ingredients and time accordingly.

Ingredients for 4 ramekins (150ml size):

• Two generous servings of cold creamed potato (using hot mash does not work as the potato needs to be shaped). Don’t panic at this stage, the potato always looks grey and lumpy but will transform
• 16 king prawns (we used both cooked and uncooked king prawns this evening. The texture and flavour of the uncooked prawns was much better).
• 4 dessertspoons of crème fraiche
• A quarter teaspoonful of garlic granules per ramekin (I know that supremo chefs will blanche at this addition. Ordinary garlic can be used- a quarter medium clove. Granules are great are great if you are pressed for time and we think that they work better in this sort of dish.)

Method:
Preheat the oven to 200c (180c fan)

1. Half fill each ramekin with mashed potato and, using a teaspoon, spread the potato (0.5 cm thick) around the wall and bottom of the dish. This creates a well in the centre with just enough space to accommodate four king prawns.
2. Place these in the well. Sprinkle with a quarter teaspoonful of garlic granules and top with a dessertspoon of crème fraiche.
3. Cover the top of each ramekin with the remaining potato. Fork the surface, brush with olive oil and bake for 20-25 minutes.