Monday night I won the Potato Potluck cook off contest at the Potato House Society’s annual general meeting, with my grated home-grown potato/cheese baked dish.
It must have been the organic Yalakom garlic and touch of Yalakom squash that pushed it over the edge. Or maybe the organic spiced feta cheese from Goertz Gouda, or organic shallot onions from Mackin Creek Farm. I don’t know.
The dash of home-grown basil might have helped, or the squeeze of half a lime, or the final topping of grated feta and cheddar, I don’t know.
Maybe all of the above baked long and slow in my cast iron pot. In contests such as these it always bodes well to vote for your own dish. But that’s a secret ingredient I hesitate to tell.
Ingredients as above:
1) Peel and grate four large potatoes into a large mixing bowl.
2) To the grated potato add two diced shallot onions; two large cloves of garlic chopped up small; half a cup of steamed honey squash; half a cup of grated spiced feta cheese; the juice of half a lime.
3) Mix well.
4) Heat a cast iron Dutch oven on the burner of your stove until it is quite hot, then add a generous dollop of butter.
Once the butter has melted, add your grated potato mixture topped with some dried basil and salt and pepper to taste, and another generous dollop of butter. Bake in a 300 degree oven for an hour with the Dutch oven covered.
5) Remove your dish from the oven and sprinkle on top another half cup of grated spiced gouda, along with some grated cheddar cheese for colour, taste and texture.
6) Place the dish back in the oven for 15 minutes with the cover removed.
The success of your dish will always be enhanced by the quality of the ingredients you use. Mine happen to mostly be organic, grown with loving hands in the bioregion extending from Lillooet (garlic and squash) to Salmon Arm (organic cheese), to Mackin Creek (onions), to my own backyard (potatoes & basil). I bought the cheddar, butter and lime in the grocery store. I purchased the feta at our local grower’s co-op.