Greenvale Potatoes

Some people may say a potato is just a potato but I beg to differ, I think different potatoes suit different dishes, some are good for mashing some for baking and some are good general all rounders.

When I was approached and asked to give Greevale Potatoes a try my answer was a no brainer, we are a family of potato lovers and I knew we would be able to give them a good test over the festive period.

Greenvale Potatoes are an all rounder of a potato meaning they are great mashed, baked and boiled so to put them to the test I mashed, baked, slow cooked and boiled them to see if they really could do what they say on the packet.

On Christmas Day I used the potatoes two ways, mashed and boiled and the results were great. Sometimes it’s really difficult to get a really good mash from a potato as some types are just not good mashers. Greenvale Potatoes make a lovely creamy mash which doesn’t require any extras to be added although I can’t resist a splash of cream and a grinding of black pepper. When the potatoes are boiled you get a lovely earthy taste rather than the taste of nothing that you often get with a boiled potato.

During the festive period I also made a Game Pie filling in the slow cooker and used Greenvale Potatoes which kept their shape during cooking and added a great bulk to the dish.

Mash was used again to accompany our Haggis and this time we left it as it was and didn’t bother adding any extras and it still tasted delicious.

The potato shown above is the inside of some baked potatoes before cheese and spring onion was added, the skins were perfectly crispy and the insides as you can see were extremely fluffy.

Would I buy them again? Yes, I have. In my opinion these are a brilliant potato and whether you are wanting to cook crisp and fluffy roasties for a traditional Sunday lunch, smooth velvety mash, a steaming jacket or simple boiled potatoes, GreenVale Farm Fresh potatoes are perfect for them all. The potatoes are available nationally in Tesco, Ocado and through Booths in the North West for around £2.50 a bag.

*I received the product mentioned free of charge, to review from my own perspective. All words, experiences and opinions are entirely my own*

Christmas Day

The last thing you want to be doing on Christmas day is spending half of your time in the kitchen, hopefully my easy tips will help you to cook delicious food while cutting down the time you spend in the kitchen.

You can click on the video below or read on. *Video is in editing mode*

To make my Christmas dinner a little more exciting than a usual Sunday roast I like to experiment with flavours, Mini Gourmand prefers the Christmas meal to be serve yourself rather than just put on a plate so my flavour experiments can be tried before deciding to put on your plate which I find saves on wastage. (We always have the leftovers in the buffet dishes as bubble and squeak so no waste)

As I’m cooking this meal before the real Christmas Day (25th december 2013) I’ve used a large chicken to cut down on the cost.

To give my poultry a Christmas feel I like to use Christmas inspired spices so I stuffed the chicken with clove studded oranges and rubbed the skin with maple syrup before sprinkling with ginger. After 3 hours of infusion in the fridge it was baked to perfection and moist and juicy inside. The juices were saved for gravy.

The mashed Swede was cooked the night before and reheated before serving to save on time, the sage potatoes were also partly cooked the night before and cooled. Once they had reached room temperature after being taken from the fridge they were fried with butter and sage leaves until golden.

I prepared Orange and Maple roasted carrots and Thyme and Lemon carrots which were both roasted.

Cauliflower cheese and sprout gratin can both be prepared the night before and reheated in the oven when needed.

Squash with roasted cumin seeds is perfect to serve to your non meat eating guests as it retains it’s shape and has a delicious flavour.

Even the most hardened of sprout haters will love sprouts with caramelised onions as they are sticky and sweet and rather moorish.

And Voilà Dinner is served. On the 25th December I will also be serving a joint of beef and Gammon for Mini and Mr Gourmand, it is Christmas after all! You may have noticed that this plate contains mashed potato, I was sent a bag of Greenvale potatoes for review purposes and deleted my photograph of the mash which was stupid of me! You can read my review of the potatoes in the next couple of days as they really were delicious.