Nice and Rosti

As well as baking bread for the Chili Party two Saturday nights ago I took some time out to make a main meal during the day. To find some inspiration I dug out a cookbook that was originally published in the early 1980s. When I read the book it was interesting note how approaches to cooking have changed since that time. Indeed some of the recipes were so old-fashioned that comedian Peter Kay could have used them for one of his stand up routines in which he reminds his audience about things they had previously forgotten years earlier.

I chose to make Rosti from the recipe book, which is basically Switzerland's answer to potato fritters. I began by weighing out 2lbs of Red Potatoes and took care to cut out any bad bits from them whilst still leaving on the majority of the skin. I also cut out any shoots growing out of the Potatoes. I then soaked the Potatoes in a bowl of water for about 5 minutes to make sure they were as clean as possible.

I brought a plan of water to boil and stuck the Potatoes in water and boiled them for exactly 8 minutes, no more no less it has to be 8 minutes. I then drained the Potatoes and left them to cool for about two hours, which turned out to be the same length of time as the rest of the afternoon.

After the Potatoes were cooled I peeled them and grated them into a mixing bowl. They are surprisingly easy to grate once they have been boiled and their flesh is as soft as White Stilton Cheese. I next cut up a small White Onion and mixed it well with the Potatoes before pouring a teaspoon of black pepper over the mixture.

It was then time for the tricky bit. I poured enough olive oil into a frying pan to cover the bottom and added two ounces of margarine. I turned the heat on and melted the margarine and then added the mixture. I fried it for at least twenty five minutes constantly turning it with a wooden slicer to stop it sticking to the pan as I did so. Once I was sure the mixture was cooked I pushed it together and fried for another ten minutes.

Once I was sure the mixture was cooked I removed it from the pan and served it with the rest of my tea which on this occasion was Glazed Carrots (pictured to the right of the Rosti) with Marjoram Vegetarian Sausages cooked in onion gravy. Although this Rosti is a little tedious to prepare it's worth it as you can't beat the taste of fried onions and potatoes in sunflower oil. It seems therefore that cheese with holes in it and Toblerone are not the only tasty foodstuffs to come out of Switzerland.