The Susanne

The Boy­friend has given me the most won­der­ful gift I have ever received: The New Con­cise Larousse Gast­ro­nomique! Oh my lord! How can I study for exams with that abso­lute gem in my pos­ses­sion?! I tell you, it’s pos­sible but extremely dif­fi­cult.
Since my trip to the post office to pick up the mys­ter­i­ous pack­age I have per­used my treas­ure and am now in the pro­cess of making my first ‘real’ stock! It’s been sim­mer­ing for about three hours and has another three hours to go accord­ing to the Larousse. Well, I have noth­ing but time. I can’t wait for tomorrow’s dinner, just make a guess if there will be sauce…

Ok, so I was too impa­tient to wait until it was fin­ished before trying it. I used some for tonight’s dinner, which was sear-​roasted chicken breasts with a garlic and herb rub, and mashed pota­toes. I deglazed the chicken pan with some bal­samic vin­egar and then added about 2 dl of my unfin­ished stock. Reduced to about 1 dl and drained through a piece of muslin. And let me just say: wow! I really had no idea what I was miss­ing, muck­ing about with that store-​bought boul­lion all this time. No more! Here’s a pic­ture of my chicken dinner:

As usual I’m too lazy to write out the recipe, but I will share the secret of my amaz­ing mashed pota­toes! Being lactose-​intolerant I often have to think twice (and resign myself to some uncom­fort­able hours to come if I decide to indulge myself) before tuck­ing into food cooked by other people, and there are cer­tain foods I miss immensely such as pizza (oh my love, why must you hurt me so?). And I used to miss mashed pota­toes. But then I thought of a way to make them just as deli­cious but 100% dairy-​free.

What you’ll need is:

your desired amount of new pota­toes (I keep the skin on for its lovely taste and its nutri­ents),
some non-​dairy mar­gar­ine,
water
and salt.
(and some pepper if you like)

Here’s what to do:

Chop up the pota­toes before cook­ing to drastic­ally shorten the cook­ing time.

Then boil them in some lightly salted water until they are very tender and almost fall apart on touch.

Pour some of the water into a jug before drain­ing the pota­toes in a colan­der, and then throw them back into the pot (off the heat!)

Now add a big slab of mar­gar­ine, and mash away.

Pour in some of the water whilst mash­ing until you reach your favour­ite consistency.

Season with addi­tional salt and pepper to taste, and—

Enjoy!

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