NOW CLOSED: Tell us what you think of James Martin’s recipes and win a £50 Love2Shop voucher

[AnnMumsnet]

This month, Celebrity Chef James Martin has sent our Mumsnet Potato Councillors the choice of two of his exclusive recipes that he has made for www.manyfacesofpotatoes.co.uk. The Councillors are to make one of them for their families and feedback their thoughts on this thread.

The recipes are Goat's Cheese and Potato Tart and Chicken and Potato Kebabs - both can be prepared in around 30 minutes. Photos on my profile

We want to give all of Mumsnet the option to try these two recipes, so feel free to try them this week and add your feedback on this thread - do tell us: how easy it was to cook, whether your family enjoyed it, and if you included your own twist? Everyone who does so will be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £50 Love2Shop voucher.

James has also given us his top potato tips; see below:

If you can add to them or suggest any other top potato tips such as cooking, chopping or slicing potatoes then share them on this thread with the community and you will also be in the running for the £50 voucher that is up for grabs this month.

If you have any further questions on potatoes, feel free to post onto the thread and we?ll endeavour to answer them asap.

James Martin top tatty tips

1 Baking small new potatoes and stuffing them with cheese and crispy bacon makes a great canapé for a party
2 Always store potatoes somewhere dark and cold as this will make them last longer
3 If your curry is too spicy when cooking, add a potato as it will take out some of the heat
4 Peeled potatoes can be stored in cold water in the fridge for up to 24 hours before cooking
5 Use up leftover cooked potatoes in an omelette or frittata

In addition, for 100s of 30 minute recipes or if you would like more information on which varieties of potatoes are best used with specific meals then go to
www.manyfacesofpotatoes.co.uk.

James is also helping manyfacesofpotatoes search for Britain?s Best Potato Recipe for full details and to enter see manyfacesofpotatoes.co.uk/competitions

Thanks, MNHQ

Glad that these were really easy to prepare. Hardly any time at all in fact. Good job with the children being off!

Goat's Cheese and Potato Tart

My lot don't like goat's cheese so I used crumbly lancashire instead. It was lovely and even the children had a go. The potatoes were lovely and crispy. Loved the balsamic vinegar touch. Added extra flavour and I wouldn't have thought of putting it in myself. Have already made it again for the hungry hoards in this house. Result!

Chicken and Potato Kebabs

Bit of a disaster with this one first time round. Six minutes doesn't seem to be long enough for the potatoes as mine were still a bit hard which ruined the overall effect. However, I did them again but this time I put them in the oven on a tray and they were lovely. Seems to keep much more of the moisture in. I also added peppers and onions as we thought just the chicken and potato was slightly bland (even with the marinade).

Loved both recipes and will definitely do them again.

Hello. Have some responses to questions for you - more to come!

crikeybadger asked "I'm gonna give the tart a try as I'm a veggie. Would like to have suggestions for the variety of potato though as I get a bit confused between them all"

The Potato council say "James' delicious recipe suggests using firm potatoes, such as the Charlotte variety - great for baking, boiling, steaming or sautéing. For more information on the different potato varieties check out www.manyfacesofpotatoes.com/uk/potato-varieties/"

zipzap asked "Are there any slow cook potato recipes around? I use my slow cooker a lot, especially in winter but tend to avoid potatoes as I don't want them hard and have read they can take longer to cook than the meat. So any tips or good recipes for using them in the slow cooker please".

The Potato council say "The perfect thing about potatoes is that they're quick and easy to cook and, from prep to plate, can be ready in no time... a jacket takes just 6 minutes in the microwave and mash can be rustled up in a mere 20 minutes. So whilst slow cookers are great for some recipes, they're not a necessity for potatoes".

And she also asked "Are there any sweet recipes - or maybe not specifically savoury recipes is maybe a better way of putting it - for potatoes? Maybe for cakes or muffins or I don't know - just something a bit different or surprising..."

And they say "From a Chocolate Potato Cake to a Potato & Lemon Cheesecake, there are lots of sweet recipes out there for you to explore. Check out www.manyfacesofpotatoes.co.uk for details on how to create these different dishes"

Made the tart yesterday and it was a total hit....I was hoping some would be left to take to work for lunch today but the dcs polished it off! I served it with a green salad and a warm green bean & tomato salad, and it made a lovely change from pizza express for Sunday lunch :)

Thanks!

I make a casserole in my slow cooker quite a bit and pop in the New Potatoes - with the meat they always seem to be ok! Maybe the skin helps?

@AlwaysWild thought I was the only one who remembered :)

@AnnMumsnet (MNHQ) why did you just remove AlwaysWild's post? it was not offensive shame on you!

Going to try both on Friday, serving both with the salad.

I struggled a bit this month, as we are a (largely) dairy free household!

I did try the kebabs, using oatly cream instead of yoghurt. it was a bit runny!, but worked overall I htink.

like others, the potatoes (charlotte) were a little underdone.

it was easy enough to do, but I wouldn't do it again. not really enough bite/spice, or variety - I would have added a couple of different veg to the kebabs fo variety/flavour.

it's a shame both recipes were dairy based (and not really easily substituted). I will try th goats cheese tart for my supper next time dh is away on a business trip, as ti does sound like somehting I would like (and I am the only one who can eat dairy!)

the dds were a bit dubious about the kebabs. dd1 ate it, but then she will hoover most things at the moment (growth spurt!). dd2 nibbled the chicken and declared /normal/ chicken is much nicer!

thisnickname - not sure what you mean?

This seems like the perfect thread to have a laugh about James Martin and his "delicious looking dick."

He said it on Saturday Kitchen. I'd link to a you tube clip but can't figure it out on iPad. I have been proper lol'ing at it.

Later again this month!

I did the potato and goats cheese tart .

How easy was it to cook?
Slighty more complicated than normal, and as someone else said, I didn't have an oven safe frying pan, luckily git a loan from dm! Ingredients were l simple to get and prepare, had most of them already. Cooking time was pretty much as stated.

Did we enjoy them?

Well, only Dh and I had them, and neither of us had ever had goats cheese before, so was a tad apprehensive! I liked the potato case, although it was definitely a wee bit greasy, loved the onion, thyme and goats cheese filling, which is good because Dh hated the whole thing, so I got the lot. Mostly because of the goats cheese I suspect.

Would you make it again?

Probably not in this incarnation, but possibley with a different cheese filling, and maybe less oil.

Anything surprising about potatoes?

Well, I suppose I'd never thought of using them as a tart case before, so yes!

Thanks AnnMumsnet for the answers to the questions and the tip about the new potatoes in casserole.

But yes - TeamEdward you hit the nail on the head - I know how quick potatoes can be to cook if you do them from scratch and they can be ready a few minutes later. But with a slow cooker if it is nice to be able to just spoon out the contents as you need them and come in to lovely dinner-ready smells, so having to stop and cook potatoes at that point defeats the object somewhat! Will try a slow cook potato curry, dh would love that.

Guess I was just hoping they would say that you could do a potato and cheesy bake or something (the something being the thing I was hoping they would know!) in it that came out beautifully and could be prepared in advance, stuck in the slow cooker and then be ready within moments of getting in rather than minutes!

Intrigued by the sweet recipes - thanks for them. Very tempted to try the potato cheesecake just to see the look on bil's face when served up to him - whilst he adores cheesecake, he is seriously unadventurous when it comes to food (spaghetti bolognaise is considered to be adventurous foreign cookery and as for a basic chicken korma - he complains when my sis buys one to eat for herself when he is out that it is a step too far and not proper food

I did the potato and goats cheese tart last night for a friend and myself.

How easy was it to cook?
Easy to prepare, but clearly not easy to get right as my potatoes were not cooked at all. And there was no way it would have all stuck together enough to get out of the pan in one piece, even if they were cooked.

I am a reasonable good cook and cook a lot but got this totally wrong.

And I managed to burn both my hands, one quite badly and it now has 3 small blisters on it as a result. I had put the pan in the oven but the potatoes weren't cooking enough, so removed the pan and put on hob to see if it would help a bit. Forgot pan had been in oven and held the handle :( Big burn resulting in lots of running water and then an ice pack all night! And 2 minutes later did same but not so bad on other hand! Ouch.

Did we enjoy them?

No idea. Never tried the tarts in the end. The potatoes were just not done enough and by the stage where they were getting there the onions and goat cheese were overcooked. I binned them.

Would you make it again?

Not sure - maybe if I parboiled the potatoes first.

Anything surprising about potatoes?

Not really. I should have realised before that there was no way the potatoes would cook in that little time.

I also made the potato and chicken kebabs last night for three girls - DD (9), DD's friend (9) and another friend (6) - and later on DH and friend.

How easy was it to cook?

Pretty easy. Prep didn't take long although I did the potatoes for a little longer than the recipe initially, so the grilling worked fine.

Did we enjoy them?

The three girls appeared to enjoy them although found the potatoes a little dry. One girl wasn't sure about the dressing.

Dh and friend enjoyed theirs but I used more oil on the potatoes under the grill, and I served it with additional marinade as a sauce. Dh and friend both said the marinade sauce was tasty.

Would you make it again?

Yes, I think so. May try with tuna or quorn for myself too.

Anything surprising about potatoes?

No really. The marinade smelt nice and made the potatoes taste nice too.

CoffeesGoneColdAgain Thank you o much for the peelings tip. I tried this and really enjoyed it, will definitely be doing that again

Oh rubbish, that was obviously meant to be so.

Have I missed the link for March's feedback ?

Are we adding our feedback to this thread or are we getting a March thread?

CBM I emailed Ann at MNHQ and she is looking into it as was not aware that we had been sent another recipe

Sorry - guys new feedback thread coming soon for the fishcakes! Best A

Sorry for the delay - sherbetpips was selected as the winner of the £50 Love2Shop voucher. Well done. New feedback thread coming soon with another chance to win a voucher.