Patates Yahni Me Elies - Potato Stew with Olives
This is a recipe that has been shared in my circle of friends for longer than I really care to admit to. It's a great dish for parties, easy to prepare and can be made with store cupboard ingredients and staples. The fact that we're all still making it after ...mumble... years is a measure of just how delicious it is.
Because it's so good for crowds I'm going to give you the full quantities for 8. I made just a fraction of it for myself but leftovers are easy to heat up and taste just as good or it can even be eaten cold with a dash of lemon juice.
Olive oil
1.5 kg potatoes, peeled and cut into bite sized pieces
4 large onions, sliced thinly
10 garlic cloves, sliced thinly
1 red chilli, deseeded and chopped
150ml wine (you can use red or white, I prefer red.)
2 tsp dried oregano
750g chopped tomatoes, tinned or fresh
150g black olives, pitted and rinsed, whole
2 tbsp olive paste (use olive tapenade if you have it, if not mince some more black olives finely)
Parsley
Heat oven to 190C/375F/Gas mark 5.
Put a big splash of olive oil in a frying pan and and sauté the potatoes for five minutes - in batches if necessary. They don't need to cook through, just have the rawness taken off and a little colour added.
Remove potatoes from pan to an oven-proof dish large enough for them to lie in a shallow layer. Use a slotted spoon so the oil is left in the pan. Sprinkle the whole olives over them.
Add more oil if necessary, and saute the onions, garlic and chilli for a few minutes. Then add the wine, tomatoes, oregano and olive paste. A little black pepper doesn't go amiss but be careful with salt as the olives will be very salty. Cook for a minute or two, then pour this sauce over the potatoes and olives in the baking dish.
Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour until potatoes are cooked through and tender. Top up with water or wine if it gets too dry during cooking but you won't need much. Sprinkle with chopped parsley and eat.
It is possible to make this almost oil free, by parboiling the spuds and using a minimal amount of oil in the sauce but where's the fun in that!
2 comments:
Tis really interesting to see that picture - my udnerstand of the instructions led to me running potatoes through the slicing side of the box grater, which is the most enormous faff, but is the closest I have to a mandolin. Yours look more like wedges, which would take a lot less time!
Were you following the instructions on Cix? I think it says bite sized pieces there too. Normally I would cube the spuds but these were Pink Fir Apple, already sausage shaped so I just chopped them into slices.
You could treat yourself to a cheap mandoline (not that you need it for this) but affording the mesh glove for H&S makes it prohibitive. I'm still saving for mine.
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