Roast potatoes by Mankimbo (original concept by Heston Blumenthal)

After seeing a FB status update 'having Chips & Gravy for lunch' I decided to try and make the best chips & gravy I could muster.  You Tube was extremely helpful and after checking out a few clips I changed my mind from chips with gravy to roasted potatoes. Who can go past Heston Blumenthal for finding the best of the best. The man is a genius. But he is no Jamie Oliver 30 minute man. So the next challenge was to find a spare 2 hours to make them. Luckily for me my wife also wanted to have them and she entertained a three week old and a two year old for an hour while I did the preparation. Note well, this is not an easy task especially with our playful son but Nicole is pretty amazing and made it seem very easy.

The end result was a roast potato with an amazing crispy outside and a soft, cloud-like centre.

Served with a slow cooked beef casserole I could have beaten any remaining contestant on Masterchef Australia!

Roast potatoes by Heston Blumenthal (Converted from video to text by mankimbo)

 Turn oven on to 190⁰C & have some boiling water ready to go

Wherever you can save time in making these then you should do it. Having a preheated oven and a pot of simmering water on the stove will save you at least 15minutes.

 Peel & cut potatoes leaving some edges (save peel)

The edges of the potatoes are going to break down once you boil them and will create extreme crispiness

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Run potatoes under cold water for 2 mins to get rid of starch

Starch has no place in this dish

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Simmer for 15-20 mins with skins in a muslin bag

The skins will infuse flavour into the potatoes as they boil. I did not have the water to a high enough temperature and it took about 30mins to get there.

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After 15 mins look for edges of potatoes to have broken up

This is dependent on what type of potatoes you have used. If they were waxy then the edges won’t break up until you touch them

Drain potatoes. Small bits that have broken off, keep for roasting

I scooped them out of the pot with a spaghetti server and placed them into the colander so I didn’t smash them into mush

 Rough up edges by shaking colander gently

The potatoes love it and so will you

Leave in colander for 10 mins for steam to evaporate and potatoes to dry out

The wetter the potato when you start roasting them more soggy they will be in the middle

Add to hot olive oil and coat all of potatoes in oil

The oil will crisp the skin as it roasts. This step is key but also the step I found a little difficult. You don’t want to mush the potatoes but any bare bits will dry out. Consider using an oil spray to finish off.

 Oven temp at 190⁰C

Cook for 45mins to an hour

The original recipe said an hour but use your own judgement here. Once they turn golden brown they are ready to come out. I left mine in a little long and they almost burned. Luckily I got them out in time. Next time I would also turn them over after 30 mins

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Add rosemary & garlic about 10minutes before end

They also need salt and this could be the time to add it. Otherwise wait till they come out.


Wait until they cool to eat them!!!! Serve with everything.

Dad II- 4 July 2011

4 July 2011

Did the lazy 6km run last night. 34min is OK for me

Reality check about 3am this morning. Aghhhhh what are we gonna do??? We are having a second baby and we are just not ready. Ok, conduct a quick revision of what is causing these thoughts. Hmmmm, nothing immediate comes to mind. Well perhaps the money side of things could be a bit (read, a lot) better but apart from that things are looking quite good. Finishing off all of those last jobs. Today included Windexing more windows and clearing a walkway from my side of the bed so that in the middle of the night I don’t stumble with a baby or toddler in my arms.

Went to get a quote for setting up a toddler seat in the car as well as changing the baby seat back to a basinet style. Unfortunately my vehicle was just before the compulsory installation of baby seat anchors so I have to get an anchor installed as well. After 15 minutes of waiting I had already decided not to go with these guys as they obviously did not know what they were doing and rang up Littles from Blacktown who installed our last anchor point & seat. Fortunately they were close by and could do the job today. $300 later but feeling a whole lot more confident about the whole situation both bassinet and toddler seat were installed. Thanks mum for your kind donation!

There must be a stage in life where everyone thinks about a second/third job and then has to have a quick look at what you are qualified for. Now my dad, being a truck driver into his mid 60’s, is pretty lucky that way as there is always someone that wants a long haul driver but that would kind of defeat the purpose of taking 3 months leave if I had to be away for a few days & nights. Anyhow, enough of that sort of thinking. Number 2 baby is on the way and from all reports it is going to be ‘busy’!

Went through a box of Kaelan’s memorabilia today and it was great to feel the joys that particular items brought back.  2 years is not that long a time. My favourite was definitely the umbilical cord clamp which was the one still attached to him after I cut the umbilical cord. Although he was already separated from the placenta at that stage. Too many nervous dads dropping medical instruments for anything else to occur these days.

Home made hamburgers and pre frozen chips for dinner.

No more major jobs to do except :

Fix the side gate
Clear out the medicine cabinet
Clear out the bottle cupboard
Tidy up the man-cupboard
Restack the granny flat
Clean the kitty litter
3 more loads of washing
Start to consider packing for hospital
Mow the lawn (oops that’s right the mower blew up)
Reconnect the gutter downpipe after replacing the thing that rusted
 

to be cont....

 

Dad II- 2 July 2011

2 July 2011

The more we clean the house and get ready for the imminent birth the more cluttered it becomes. 5 loads of washing, 4 garbage bags of old baby items gone through, vaccuum the floors, clean the windows, a wonderful day wrestling with Kalean and I managed to cook up some pretty good chops, chips & salad for dinner!

Starting to get a bit nervous about the birth. Buts it’s pretty hard to have time for your own feelings & thoughts when your wife has massive heartburn, is the one that is going to go through all the pain and a crazy son who just wants to climb as high as possible and throw himself into your arms! So I find a little solace in getting jobs done and trying to make everyone as comfortable as possible. Which does not always work. Not that I am complaining. It’s just the way it is.

I wasn’t sure if I was ever going to have a family but here it is and it is the greatest. Long term focus and goals is one of the keys! The little day to day stuff can really get to you in a huge way if you let it and you would have to have to be made of something quite indestructible to not occasionally let it in.

No running tonight. Might do a lazy 5km tomorrow. Had a few beers and they are going down better than last night. But looking back at my post it seemed I enjoyed those as well. Just not as many as tonight. Might be the last night for a while (starting to get repetitive now).

I am on the early shift tomorrow. Which means that I give Kaelan breakfast and look after him while mum gets a sleep in. And yes, I had a sleep in this morning! Condemn me if you will.

Dad II- 1 July 2011

1 July 2011

There are only xxx more days (less than 2 weeks) to go until my daughter 'xxxxx' will be born. I don't think I will post this until after the event as it will contain info not yet shared with family including date of birth and name. Or maybe I'll just blank it out.



How do I feel about having a daughter? At the minute her almost 2yr old brother is crowding any introspective thoughts right out of my head so in time honoured tradition I am putting pen to paper so to speak. That should get me thinking.



It's 2105 or 9.05pm on Friday night. The beginning of a new financial year and day 1 of 95 days leave from work. A wonderful holiday. lol. I would not miss it for the world. I took 4 months off for Kaelan but this time round could only get 3 months leave (including some LSL). I have just finished running 10km in a time of 58.02 and that was after putting Kaelan to sleep. So my night sort of started at 7.30 when his mother got back from the pizza shop with dinner and relieved me from sleep duty which I had been attempting for 30mins. So now almost an hour and a half later and my Friday night can start.



By the way I also have an open beer which is going down very well. Best enjoy them for the next xxx days cos I don't think there will be many in the very near future. And as a matter of Interest Nicole just asked me if I wanted a cup of tea. hmmmmm, not yet. Maybe tomorrow night.



Running, why the hell did I start running after avoiding it for 25 years? Possibly because I have a 2 year old boy and an almost new born girl and by the time they turn 18 I will be into my sixties! My aim this year is to run the Sydney (C2S) City to surf (Bondi) a total of 14km with a 2km 'heartbreak hill' 7km in. I started plogging (plod & jog) November 2010. I kind of was half assed about it and took 3 weeks off over Xmas and it was once again the motivation of my wife who got me started back. Then this silly idea of the completing the C2S entered my head. I think I have my brother in law Shannon to blame. He started running this time last year and recently completed his first 45km ultra marathon in 3.5hrs, and his first competitive runs were the Sutherland to Cronulla surf followed by the C2S. More on this later.



Nicole has been great. I think I have been in denial. Last time we didn't know what we were in for. This time we do. But perhaps we don't. Baby xxxx'x room has just been trim painted in a nice pink and I have moved all my stuff out of her cupboards and into the granny flat / poker room.



To be cont…