Post by Chuckie on Feb 21, 2021 13:32:55 GMT -5
OK, this was in the Irish Times that I read daily online, WAY before Christmas: www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/food-and-drink/recipes/potato-parmesan-and-red-pepper-cake-1.4216789
I kept "threatening" to try it! S-O-O-O-O-O her family had their monthly "Great Bake Off" today (like the TV show), and the subject was "POTATOES", so an EXCELLENT opportunity presents itself!!! The measurements are in mil and grams, translated to American Yankee (in blue) as best as I could! I assembled it, and put it covered in the icebox to cook for supper tonight, so will update this later.
Potato, Parmesan and Red Pepper Cake
2 red peppers, deseeded and cut into 1cm (1/2 inch) chunks
3 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, finely sliced
1 sprig rosemary, finely chopped (I only had dried leaves, used approx 1TBS)
1 tsp smoked paprika (I FORGOT this, and THAT pi$$e$ me OFF!! )
850g potatoes, peeled, boiled and drained (about 2#, I weighed ours AFTER peeling to get correct amount--mine were 8 good sized white russet spuds. BTW, 2# spuds creates 1/2# peels!)
100g butter (1/2 cup or 1 stick--and yes, 2#'s spuds WILL swallow this amount UP!)
150ml milk (.0634013 cups--I used a STRONG 1/2 cup Half-n-Half)
Salt and pepper
Pinch of nutmeg
150g freshly grated Parmesan (3/4 cup)
4 eggs (I set them on the thermowell lid before I started, to get them to room temp)
1 mozzarella ball, sliced (we bought one of the 8oz ones from Aldi's. Leave in icebox until ready to slice REALLY thin)
For the base and the top:
40g butter (1/3 cup)
4 tbsp white breadcrumbs
1 Pre-heat your oven to 200 degrees, or equivalent. (390° American per my calculations)
2 Cook the red peppers gently with the olive oil, garlic, rosemary and smoked paprika. Allow them to become soft and jammy. This will take about 15 minutes over a low heat. Season and set aside.
3 While they are still warm, mash the potatoes with the butter and milk, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Allow to cool a little. Beat the eggs and add to the potatoes, along with the Parmesan.
4 Butter a 20cm (just under 8", our pan is 9" & you can SEE how FULL it is!) spring-form cake tin and sprinkle in some of the breadcrumbs. Spoon over half the potato mixture into the tin.
5 Layer the red peppers on top, followed by the mozzarella, then spoon the remaining potatoes on top of the peppers.
6 Smooth over the potatoes with the back of a spoon.
7 Sprinkle the remaining breadcrumbs on top and dot with the butter.
8 Bake for 30 minutes, until golden and crisp. Allow to stand for 10 minutes before unclipping the tin.
Here's a few pre-cooking pix. First one shows spring form pan w/the "little over half" the potatoes added. Notice the "batter" is THIN for mashed potatoes, but a rather thick "cake" batter. The eggs & Parmesan give it kind of a "golden" colour:
Next came the sauteed red bell peppers/garlic/rosemary mix:
Topped w/the thinly sliced Mozzarella ball:
Lastly, topped w/the rest of the spuds, more breadcrumbs, and pats of butter--a far cry from their recommended 1/3 cup though! I MAY add a few more pats before baking:
OK, I STOPPED here, as we're having it for supper tonight. I will post finished pictures later, wish me luck!!
CHEERS!
Chuckie
UPDATE: It came out alright, not like a FIVE STAR recipe or anything. I think IF I were to make it again--as a nod to the Italian cheeses--I'd brown some hot Italian sausage, and add to it. Here's a few pix of the end results. Same kinda texture as mashed potatoes, maybe a HINT of custard(?) taste/texture, but more like mashed spuds:
Out of the oven, top nicely browned--BUT it took almost 45 minutes to achieve this brown:
We let it set nearly 15 minutes before "unclipping it", as it was a wee bit "jiggly" in the center. Also--when trying to lift the spring-form pan off, it was sticking, so we used a thin bladed metal spatula to slide around the inside edges to loosen things up. Didn't knock TOO many breadcrumbs off the side!!
Here ti's, sliced. You can see how gooey the center is. And we used parchment paper on bottom--N-O-T a good idea, didn't stick, and PP interfered w/removing the "cake". Can see it wadded up below where cut piece was:
Is it a "keeper" recipe? It IS pretty good, but--again--NOT spectacular IMHO. Next time will add browned/drained hot Italian sausage when adding/beating eggs/Parmesan cheese into spuds, and it'd be a meal unto itself--not that it WASN'T!!
CHEERS!
Chuckie