Mary Berry’s Best Potato Recipes

I just love all that rustic outdoor cooking and nothing could be more rustic than a Spanish tortilla. Perfect for a picnic. A classic Spanish tortilla is made from just eggs, potatoes and onions but not mine. Before everyone starts to write me letters or emails, I'm adding red peppers and I promise you it's very easy to make at home. First of all I'm going to cook the onion and I'm going to put some olive oil in the pan. Unlike an omelette which of course you cook with butter, a tortilla you cook with olive oil. Just turn that in the oil to start with then do it on a very low heat with the lid on. The red pepper is my twist on this classic. Controversial but I love it and after all these years cooking I think I might be allowed. Then the potato, just one large potato is enough for two people which I've peeled and then cut it into slices. And you can always peel a potato ahead and just keep it in water. To be even cheekier I'm going to add some parsley to it. Its freshness and colour just brings the dish alive. So we're all organised. I think that'll be done now. Those onions smell delicious and they're ready for the potatoes and red pepper. That's going to go on for 15 or 20 minutes on a very low low heat with the lid on so we create steam and that is until the potato you just put a knife in and it's done. Time for the main ingredient. Four eggs will make a generous tortilla for two. So that's the egg beaten just so the egg runs through the fork. Now let's see how the potato is doing. Oh it's a lovely sizzle as you open it. Goes in like butter and the pepper too. That's fine. Season with salt and pepper then mix the vegetables into the egg so they're perfectly coated before putting them back into the pan. Just level that off and then a little bit of parsley on top. I love the colour, the bright bright green and the red. The tortilla will only need a few minutes until the egg has just set in the middle and I can then turn it over to finish it. So I'm going to put a plate on top, flip it over full of confidence. Whoops and it hasn't gone on the floor. How about that then? That's not too bad. Now just back in the pan to make sure it's set all the way through. That's just only going to take a few moments to just seal underneath because it was almost done but I want the parsley on the top so I'm going to flip it over. A wing and a prayer. You see why I wanted it that way up? The parsley looks really good. So that's perfect for a picnic or you could just have it outside cut into squares, hand it round to everybody, drink in the right hand. What could be better? If we're having friends round and I'm doing a buffet I always include a salmon dish. First season three medium salmon fillets and add a good squeeze of lemon. Lemon and fish go very well together. Wrap them in foil. You don't need to seal it because it's going to run away and cook at 160 fan and it'll take about 15 minutes. I've already boiled 500 grams of new potatoes and whilst they cool I can make the dressing. Three tablespoons of Dijon mustard, three tablespoons of white wine vinegar, four tablespoons of oil and then a tablespoon full of sugar and best to use caster sugar because it dissolves quickly. Add a little seasoning and give it a good whisk. Now this is a very mustardy dressing but it goes well with the potatoes. Doesn't take much mixing that's it. Once the potatoes are cool enough to handle quarter them and add them to the dressing. I think a potato salad is something not to be forgotten. So much pasta and rice is served as salads but there's nothing to beat a good potato salad. The warm potato will absorb this lovely mixture of mustard and oil. To add some crunch slice three spring onions and four sticks of celery. When I was young dad used to grow it and we had celery with everything. It was almost too much celery. Next add six tablespoons of mayonnaise and the chopped spring onion and celery. So it is not going on the floor it's going straight in the bowl. That's it and to add a bit of colour a few thinly sliced radishes. Mix all that together. The radishes have a very piquant flavour so if they're thinly sliced they just fit very well with the salad. That's it. Now some wonderful fresh parsley. If you can't be bothered to chop parsley I've got a quick tip to speed it up. Put it in a cup and then just snip it with scissors. And if you've got an extra pair of hands in the kitchen and it's one of your children or grandchildren they love doing this little job. That's it. Then put some of it in here so mix all that together. Parsley works really well in this potato salad because it gives the brightness of the green as well as adding to the flavour. Just going to put that to one side and see how the salmon's doing. There we are. Now that is absolutely perfect. And then you just flake that up in sort of reasonable sized pieces. Potato salad down the centre. I'm trying very carefully not to drip it on the side. So there's the salmon all the way down. And to make it extra special some king prawns. If you get hold of each one and tuck the tails into each other and then lie them across the top I would serve this on an occasion that perhaps it's a special birthday or an anniversary and you've got a crowd round and you want to really push the boat out. I think they look fun and very special. And I've got something to crown the glory. You might call it showing off. I've been dying to grow micro herbs because you can't get them very easily and just look at that. It looks so smart. It's all different kinds of lettuce and mustard so I'm going to snip some and just put it across the top. If you haven't got micro herbs of course you can just put parsley over the top. And I think that looks really special. So how about that for your next very special occasion? Worth trying? There's nothing simpler really than roast chicken. I've got two chickens here. They're nearly two kilos each so there's plenty to go around and I'm going to do it this Sunday. Family are coming around and the boys eat for Britain. I really want these chickens to be bursting with flavour so into the cavity goes fresh sage, bay leaves and lemon. Just put it in there. To make them even more succulent a simple mix of paprika and butter. Just mash that down together. That's it. Season then spread the mixture all over the skin. The paprika will give the chicken a fabulous rich colour and the butter will drip down into the juices under the bird and I'll be making a first-rate gravy from that. There's a clever way to cook these. Throw sage, bay leaves and garlic into a roasting tin with 300 ml of chicken stock and 150 ml of white wine. Having stock and wine underneath means that the steam helps to cook and it really does add a good flavour to them. They are oven ready. I just need to make my delicious scallop potatoes to go with them. It's easy. Using a greased dish layer up thinly sliced potato and onion. A little butter and stock. Season well and repeat the layers. Then really give that a good push down but don't worry that it's going to be proud on the top because it actually sinks down during cooking and then I'm going to make a nice pattern on top and it looks as though you're not going to get all the potato in this dish but I'm jolly well going to get it all in. I think when everybody looks at that they'll think oh she's you know bothered to do it all neatly all the way up but between you and me I haven't as you know. Cover with buttered foil. It's just like doing Christmas pudding when you turn the foil in. The joy of this is the chickens and the potatoes all cook at the same time. You can get on with other jobs and let it keep to its own devices. Cook both dishes in the oven at 180 for about one and a half hours. After 45 minutes remove foil from the potatoes then return to the oven till crisp and golden. Those flavour-packed juices will make a classic rich gravy. Look at that and there's plenty. Two wonderful plump chickens, plenty of scallop potatoes, nobody will notice and lashings of gravy. What a fantastic feast for a crowd. It's often difficult thinking of different meals to serve to the family especially when time is short and I think I've got an answer. It's sort of a cheats fish pie. This is a real favourite of mine and it's remarkably simple to make. Start with 350 grams of potatoes and bring to the boil. Meanwhile I'm going to skin the fish. Take a knife to start from the tail end and do a sawing action all the way along and the skin should come off very easily. And you're very unlikely to go through the skin because it's tough. When I was at college I worked in a fishmongers and they taught me all about fish and so when I see something like this I can tackle it with lots of confidence. That's it and then you never know if you feel here there might be a bone. In our house he that sits at the end of the table nearly always gets a bone in his fish pie and quietly he puts it at the edge of the plate as much as to say you didn't take that extra care I don't comment. I like to cut paddock into good generous pieces. Once the potato has had about four minutes pop in the cauliflower florets. You'll want to make sure they still have bite in them. You need something with fish when it's white potato, white cauliflower and off-white fish. So to set off the colour and flavour of the fish I'm using masses of fresh chives and parsley. Drain the vegetables well and tip them into an ovenproof dish. Then I'm going to put just a soup stone of salt over the top of there, a little bit of pepper. Now for my favourite bit. Grate 100 grams of nutty Gruyere cheese and sprinkle half over the vegetables. As it heats it'll become a little bit stringy because it's Gruyere cheese. Then you can scatter over those beautiful herbs. So the next thing I'm going to do is to add the fish and just mask the whole of the top of it with the fish. If you've got any thin bits of fish there make sure that they point towards the centre because the heat will come from the side. So thickest at the outside. It's a little bit like a chigsaw here. I'm just pushing them in and I can tuck that one with its tail underneath and all that remains is for me to put a very easy sauce over the top. This is a time-saving trick for a creamy sauce. All you need to do is whisk a heaped tablespoon full of cornflour with 300 ml of pouring cream and mix it really well so it's got no lumps. If you use cornflour it gives a good shine to the sauce and it's rather smoother than using flour. Little there. Fairly evenly just pulling it to one side and it'll find its way to the bottom. There couldn't be an easier sauce than that. Then sprinkle the last of that rich Gruyere cheese over the top and to add extra colour I'm going to put a little paprika. So a little pinch of that all over. That goes into the oven at 180°C fan and it'll take about 20 minutes. Bubbling at the edges. It's a gorgeous brown colour. Should be done. What I'm liking is to see all those herbs in there. It looks good and it tastes even better. Great for all the family.