Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Are parsleyed potatoes an English thing?


I've read that potatoes cooked with butter and parsley is an English dish, but -


When we were little, my parents were friendly with an older couple. My mother thought this friendship was especially important because there were no grandparents, and so these good people were as close to that as we could get.  They had a very small Italian restaurant in the city, where we'd often go on Sunday evenings; my brother enjoyed being allowed to set the tables (red checked tablecloths!) and refill the shaker jars with red pepper flakes and grated parmesan. The wife did all the cooking herself and the husband waited tables - they were well into middle age back then, and worked hard! Her spaghetti sauce was like nothing I've tasted since.

Anyway, she was an excellent cook, and made a couple of things which still stay in my mind, and one of them - this will probably surprise you - was to slice canned potatoes, and sort of fry them in butter with parsley. We ate plenty of canned veg when I was a kid, and I didn't mind potatoes canned (don't think I'd want them now).

Anyway, tonight I was putting my brother's dinner together - he works late - and there is some leftover chicken and some boiled potatoes. I sliced them up, and browned them in butter with some parsley. They're good; better than just warmed over.

But, isn't this an English thing?

9 comments:

  1. what a lovely memory and a really special older couple! neat!!! I don't know if it is English but sounds like a great idea!

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  2. I agree! Such a special memory to have! I haven't ever had potatoes in parsley and it does sound very good. It might not be an English thing but then I come from southern England - it could be a northern speciality and I could be completely wrong! Canned food was *the* food to eat before fast freezing and before everyone had refrigerators. There has been a recent study into how nutritious canned food is and it has been found that it is just as good for us if not better in many cases than fresh and frozen food. Canned food in tests had retained more vitamins than fresh vegetables (unless cooked immediately) which begin to deteriorate as soon as they are harvested.

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    1. Here's something, Clare, but she's also using lemon: http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/international/european/british/lemon-parsley-potatoes
      I hadn't heard about the canned food study - interesting.

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  3. We just heated them up out of the can and mixed in butter and parsley. I'll have to try slicing and frying them. That sounds good. We still like them and have them. :-) Have a good weekend ♥

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    1. Anne, my brother never cared for them, so even though I remember them fondly, I probably won't bother to try it again myself, but I hope you enjoy it if you try it.

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  4. I've been surprised in the last few years to discover how versatile parsley is, and how good it can be when used as a major ingredient in a recipe. For example, a salad of tomatoes and parsley, with lots of parsley... I always try to keep some parsley growing in the garden, and next time I cook potatoes, I'm going to try your Italian/English idea :-)

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    1. Gretchen, large amounts of parsley is something I haven't tried, but I'll keep it in mind. I hope you like the potato recipe when you try it. :)

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  5. I forgot about parsley potatoes! My mom used to make them all the time! Her cooking is not British - Germanic if anything.

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