The noble potato - part 3

Back in the UK for the winter I've been rummaging through the cupboards, trying to "tidy up" and get rid of junk and clutter we never use.

I found this gadget, a simple microwave safe rack for making snacks from potatoes that look like crisps without any added fat at all. They were all the rage in the Mummy set I inhabited some 20 years ago but are now relegated to the odd items in the miscellaneous sections of online cook and plastic shops. I had a look and could only find them on e-bay.

A compulsion overtook me and I thought I'd try it one more time before consigning it to oblivion.

They're o.k.

You need to slice the potato really evenly and thinly. A mandoline would be good but I couldn't be arsed with the extra need to wash it afterwards so didn't bother. Fill your gadget with one slice per slot, nothing else needed. My hand sliced crisps took about 13 minutes on high in our old microwave, usually only used for defrosting because I'm not a microwave oven fan. Start with five minutes and continue in increments until the crisps are golden brown and puffy.

And you really need the gadget. Trying to stand slices propped up like cards or on their edges just doesn't work and for some reason the increased thickness seemed to encourage the wretched things to blacken and burn instead of crisping up.

So, it's another way to use potato and has some novelty value but it doesn't beat a full fat home fried crisp. I think the gadget may be for the chop.

Late to the Party

This is my birthday cake. It looks better than last year's which is a bit of a relief!

Coconut and cherries make this just a bit more special than that plain golden exterior suggests. It might have been nice with icing but it's sweet enough already and so I decided to keep it simple. With a good cup of coffee it's phenomenal.

Ingredients

450g self raising flour (use plain with an extra tsp. of baking powder)
120g desiccated coconut
1 tsp baking powder
300g caster sugar
200g glace cherries
125ml vegetable oil
400ml (1 tin) coconut milk, full fat is best.
1 tbsp white vinegar (I used rice but anything, even cider vinegar is fine)
1/2 tsp almond essence (or maraschino flavouring or coconut essence)

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Ensure your oven is really at this temperature, too hot will ruin everything.

2. Sift the flour and baking powder into a large bowl and stir in the coconut and sugar.

3. Rinse the sticky syrup off the cherries and allow to dry, cut them in half if you like then toss in a couple of teaspoonfuls of flour to coat. This is supposed to stop the cherries from sinking and may have some good effect.

4. Combine all the wet ingredients in another bowl. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients all at once and mix in gently but thoroughly.

5. Pour half the batter into a greased 23cm/9in springform cake tin and sprinkle the cherries over, then add the rest the batter and level off. Bake for about 55 mins to 1 hour, until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin.

6. Turn the cake out of the tin and serve with coffee. If you serve the cake warm you could put a sweet sauce with it and call it pudding.