Tuesday 8 May 2012

Chili wedges with garlic cheese cream

Feasting on toast with cheese and piccalilli together with a green salad was not something to last for the whole day. While typing away at work, my mind was already on the potatoes resting in the storage at home. They were bound to become wedges (or shall I say born to become). If they would lick some chili, all the better.
However, that was not soon to come. A workday can be long with driving to and back added to it. On top of it, it was gym-Tuesday (not that I really love it, but ... that is another story). The good thing though, a supermarket is right next door to the gym and therefore no additional loss of time (Did I say, going to work was loss of time? I don't think so. At least I want to make sure, I didn't say that).
Well, now, finally back to the potatoes. That's how it could look like:


Following now the way I did it:

Ingredients (makes for two greedy people or more not so greedy people):

For the wedges:
10 medium sized potatoes
a plate covered with flour
finely ready-chopped chili or chili flakes
salt
oil for frying

For the garlic cheese cream:
2 tablespoons of curd cheese
2 tablespoons of Greek yogurt
2 tablespoons of crème fraîche
2 cloves of garlic
a splash of lemon juice
one spring onion, finely sliced
salt and pepper to taste


Finally, here we go:
After you managed peeling the potatoes without hurting you (Happened only once to me. No, not just once without hurting. Only once I cut with the peeler into the fingernail of my thumb! Well, I was getting hectic again), you are supposed to cook them for 10 to 15 minutes. But remember, they should not fall apart.
While the potatoes are cooking happily, you can concentrate on the garlic cheese cream (don't get hectic). You could even arrange some green salad on a plate. I had some lamb's lettuce. Give just some lemon juice over the salad.
For the cheese cream, you only need to mix all ingredients together in a bowl. Yes, you are right, the garlic cloves go not in as a whole, but I grated them in. Feel free to adjust the taste with salt and pepper until it suits you. 
The potatoes are ready. What?! They are not? Then you worked to fast.
When they are ready, though, get rid of the cooking water and let them cool down for a bit.
Arrange the plate with the flour and mix in the chili and some salt.
Once the potatoes have reached a temperature where you can handle them without hurting your fingers because of the heat, cut them into wedges. I use to put my fingers to my earlobes, when I touched something that was too hot. This should deflect the heat. Others say, it's stupid, but it works for me.
We're getting side-tracked. No worries, we get back to work now.
Get a pan on high heat with about 1 cm height of vegetable oil in it. Once it is screaming hot we are ready for frying the wedges. Here you need to be careful. The earlobe trick will not work once you burned yourself with hot oil.
"Roll" the wedges in the flour and get rid of any excess flour and then fry them bit by bit (depending on the size of your pan) until they are looking nice and golden (or was it rather brown).
You can get rid of some of the fat on the wedges by putting them on a paper towel after frying. When frying is finished test one wedge. If tasted nice, fine for you. If there is not enough heat, add some more chili. Then arrange the wedges on top of the salad and scoop over a nice dollop of the garlic cheese cream (or serve the cream on the side in a small bowl).
Enjoy your chili wedges ... and let me know whether the earlobe trick worked with you.


Hm, there is still the desire for some pudding ...
I tried to make some sweet potato gnocchi, but this is yet another story ...

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