Heavy enough to fell an intruder, light enough to flip

01 August 2013 - 03:19 By Andrea Burgener
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Andre Burgener has been immersed in all things food since she took over the making of the family's lunch box sandwiches aged eight (her mom could make a mean creme brulee and a staggering souffle, but could never butter the bread all the way to the edges.

LE CRUSADE

I'M ON an anti-cast iron campaign. I know the colours on enamelled cast-iron cookware are beautiful. I know a certain (bizarrely) pricey brand of the stuff is extra-ultra-beautiful, but the truth is that, unless you're a farmer in the Han Dynasty in China, there are better options out there; well, for stove-top cooking anyway.

Cast iron weighs a ton and often costs the earth, the enamelling comes off with time, and if you drop it, unless you're wearing steel-capped boots, you're looking at crutch time. It's good for roasting, but that's all.

Stop wasting money on pastel pretty stuff and look at what industrial kitchens use: thick-bottomed stainless steel pots and pans, and French steel pans (larney kitchens have copper-bottomed stuff, but there's no need for it). Get it all from any good catering supplier.

If you go for French steel pans, the critical thing is to keep them rust free, which means drying immediately after cleaning and wiping interiors with a bit of cooking oil. Also, they need to be "seasoned" before the first cooking: just heat a dollop of any oil in the pan, spread all over, throw vegetable scraps in, and get the oil smoking hot. Chuck it all out, clean and you're ready. The more you use them, the more naturally non-stick they are. They're perfect. Heavy enough to fell an intruder, but light enough for your darling children to flip pancakes with ease.

MASH HEAVEN

What to do with leftover mash? The age old question that has baffled ancient Greek philosophers and school lunch-ladies alike, since mash began. Potato cakes are obvious, but if you want to try something a little more oblique, try Potato Doughnuts. The potato doesn't make them heavy, just wonderfully velvety. The recipe uses up one cup of mash, which is the amount usually found muttering at the bottom of the pot after a meal.

Feeds four: 3 cups cake flour / 3 tspn baking powder / ½ tspn nutmeg / ½ tspn salt / 2 eggs / 1 cup caster sugar / 3 tbs melted butter / 1 cup mash / 1/3 cup milk.

How: Sift all dry ingredients. In separate bowl, beat eggs and sugar, then add butter and potatoes. Mix until smooth. Add milk. Add dry ingredients and mix just until flour disappears. Cover and refrigerate from 2 hours to overnight. Flour work surface, and roll clumps of dough to ½ inch thick. Cut out with cookie or doughnut cutter (cut hole with knife or apple corer if no doughnut cutter has ever graced your kitchen). Deep-fry on a low, slow bubble, so the outside doesn't brown while the innards are still raw. Immediately sprinkle with a cinnamon caster sugar mix and eat post-haste.

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