From Hafiz Ladell’s winter recipe collection.
This tasty and nutritious potato pie might constitute a meal in itself, or you may like to accompany it with a light salad. It is also quite delicious served cold.
Assuming you have precooked the potatoes, allow half an hour for preparation and assembly, then a further 35-40 minutes for baking, with the oven set to 205°C, Gas Mk 6.
You will need an ovenproof casserole dish, 9” square or similar; use olive oil to grease the base and sides.
Serves 4
Prep time 30 mins
Oven time 35-40 mins
Ingredients
750 g potatoes
150 g frozen peas / petit pois
200 g tin sweetcorn
2 tsp cumin seeds, toasted
3 Tbs olive oil
300 g onions
1 red pepper
3 cloves garlic
2 birdseye chillies
1 tsp dried rosemary
½ tsp dried tarragon
5 eggs, lightly beaten
150 g mature cheddar cheese, grated
salt
Boil the potatoes, washed but not peeled, in advance. It’s best to use potatoes that are of similar size and not too large, so they can cook at the same rate. Allow them to cool, then strip off the skins with the blunt edge of your knife and dice into a mixing bowl.
Defrost the peas in hot water and drain through a colander. Drain the sweetcorn also, then add to the mixing bowl.
Using a small skillet, dry roast the cumin seeds, keeping them moving, until they become crisp and fragrant. This won’t take long, so pay attention, otherwise you may burn the seeds and ruin their flavour. Using a mortar and pestle, grind into a rough powder.
Peel the onions, slice in half, then into wedges. Remove core and seeds from the pepper and cut into thin, short strips. Peel the garlic and chop finely, together with the chillies and some salt.
Heat the olive oil in a wok over a medium flame. Add the onions, keeping them moving. After a couple of minutes add the pepper strips, followed shortly after by the garlic. Keep stirring until the onions are beginning to caramelise. Remove from the heat and add to the potato mix.
Grate the cheese, adding half to the mix, reserving the remainder for the pie topping. Add the lightly beaten eggs. Add the herbs and ground cumin. Season quite generously with salt.
Now mix everything together thoroughly, and pour into the casserole dish, smoothing the surface level. Strew the remaining cheese evenly on top.
Place in the preheated oven for 35-40 minutes, until all is set and the cheese is toasted enticingly golden.
As published on Hafiz’s website Magic Cookbook Online.
Hafiz has been compiling an online database of the many vegetarian recipes he has written over the course of his catering career. It’s a work in progress – though recent additions to his repertoire are necessarily all gluten-free. Here’s a link to the Gluten-Free! page.
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