There has been an awful lot of apologising going on in the Helm-Baxter household these past few days weeks. Sorry, I forgot to make dinner, Sorry, I beat you at Slam, Sorry I forgot to make dinner, Sorry I forgot to pick up your dry-cleaning. Sorry, I forgot to make dinner. Again. Sorry, I beat you at slam, again. Sorry, I intended to make dinner but marathon training got in the way. Sorry, I thought you were out for dinner tonight- no? Hmm….must have dreamed it.
I have a very forgiving husband.
So when I started apologising for the lack of inspiration behind this meal Don replied “What?! This is great! I had no idea you could make chips as good as this in the oven!” Either he was just being overenthusiastic in the hopes of encouraging me to get back on dinner duty or he was just overwhelmed that he had come home to something better than the usual well, nothing. Meals like this take me back to my childhood and I can’t really say why because I don’t remember ever being fed this by my mother but it just has a decidedly kiddy-feel to it. So of course, being kid-like I had to serve it with beans. That’s Heinz Baked Beans- the things I used to eat on a near daily basis through school and college and then after college to up until I went to cooking school and decided if I was going to be a serious cook I ought to start eating something other than beans. And look what has happened, all that serious cooking business and I’ve done a full circle that bought me back to beans.
But the beans are just the side to this otherwise one-pan meal. The rest consists of roasted Yukon Golds (or Maris Piper/King Edwards) because they have a creamy flesh and they crisp up nicely on the outside. They also taste ridiculously good dipped in a mixture of mayonnaise and Sriracha chilli sauce. R-I-D-I-C-U-L-O-U-S. Where was I? Oh right, roasted broccoli- because broccoli tastes so much better with lightly charged edges, grape or cherry tomatoes, ideally on the vine (I couldn’t find any) because I like the way the skin bursts in the hot oven and good free range organic eggs (pasture raised if you want to upgrade this meal from dinner to dinner deluxe). I tossed the potatoes in olive oil, sea salt and freshly ground black pepper and fresh thyme leaves- you could use rosemary but I find it’s slightly overpowering and wintry. But to be honest if I’d had rosemary instead of thyme in the fridge then I probably would have used it anyway- just slightly less and finely chopped.
600g yukon gold potatoes (or maris piper)
few sprigs of thyme, leaves pulled off
4 garlic cloves (in skin)
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 small head of broccoli, in florets (or asparagus)
handful of cherry or grape tomatoes, on or off the vine
Salt & freshly ground black pepper
2-4 large free range organic eggs
Sautéed spinach & Heinz baked beans, to serve (optional but highly recommended)
• Heat the oven to 225C/425F/Gas mark 7 . Line a large baking tray with silpat. Cut your potatoes into chunky chips ( I usually go 3 slices across and then 3-4 slices to make into chips (using 2 potatoes each weighing 300g).
• Toss your chips, thyme and garlic cloves with 2/3 of the olive oil (or just lightly coat in olive oil) season with salt and pepper and spread out in a single layer on your baking tray. Place in the oven for 20 minutes, carefully turning each chip over once, after 15 minutes. Toss the broccoli and tomatoes with the remaining oil and add to the tray. Return to the oven for another 5 minutes.
• Make little wells in your tray and into each well break an egg ( it’s really up to you how many eggs you add) so that each egg is enclosed by the veggie mix. Return to the oven for another 5-10 minutes, until the white on the egg is set and the chips are golden and crunchy. Serve with quickly sautéed spinach and baked beans!
