Potato Cakes

This recipe is another from the book, the British Food Bible. Potato Cakes are delicious for a snack, with bacon for breakfast, or as a nice change with dinner, served with some lamb. It's also a handy way of using left over mash from the night before. According to the book, for a truly perfect potato cake you must use fresh, piping hot mash, but I've done otherwise and it still tastes gorgeous to me!

Ingredients:

550g mashed potato
25g butter
Seasoning
1 egg (optional)
115g plain flour

Instructions:

Whip your mash (either hot or cold) with the egg, butter and seasoning.

Mix together with the flour.  Add 100g of flour at first and keep adding flour when necessary going till you get a good doughy texture.

You could take an opportunity now to mix in an optional extra or two - such as small bits of crispy bacon or some spring onion. I've used some tiny bits of chopped leeks here to match in with the rest of our dinner.

When it has all formed a dough, place onto your work top, which should be well dusted with flour, and sprinkling the rolling pin with flour to give you a helping hand - roll out till the dough is 2cm thick.

Use a pastry cutter to cut into the sizes you desire - larger for a snack on their own, smaller if you wish to serve them breakfast or dinner. If you are preparing these for a dinner party you can make them in advance, dust them well with flour, and place them in between sheets of baking paper. Leave in the fridge till you're ready to cook & eat them.

To cook (from freshly made or chilled and waiting) -  oh a high heat, preheat a griddle (or a frying pan) and sizzle off a small dash of butter.

Cook each potato cake for 2 minutes on both sides, till they turn golden brown. Serve straight away.

Egg Bread

Making egg bread (or French Toast as some call it) is hardly baking; and neither is it something that most people would need a recipe for - but I love it. When you're looking for something satisfying to make, often you need to look no further than simple, buttery, egg bread.

Serves 2

Ingredients:
3 large eggs (If you're only making this for one person, use 2 eggs)
4 slices of thick bread
Splash of milk
2 pinches of salt
Butter, to suit
Dash of oil

Instructions:

• In a wide, shallow bowl, with a fork beat together the 2 eggs, add a small splash of milk and a sprinkling of salt
• In a frying pan, melt together a knob of butter on a medium - high heat, and a tiny bit of oil. The butter browns your bread, and the oil stops it burning
• Halve your bread, and soak each half in the egg mixture for a few seconds, turning over and coating thoroughly before transferring it to the hot pan 
• When the bottom of the slices turn golden brown, turn the heat down, turn the slices over and add a few more dots of butter throughout the pan.
• Plate up, and sprinkle over a little more salt, and to be extra sinful, a little bit more butter.

The richer the butter, the thicker the bread and the longer you soak it - the nicer you make it. Enjoy!