This is a new entry on the menu this week; served with ham hock, pea shoots, soft boiled quails’ eggs and a proper home-made mayonnaise piqued with English mustard.
The recipe here is solely for the potato terrine, although it’s not really intended to be eaten by itself. It works best in a supporting role, either as a starter or main course side dish and it would partner foods that you might serve a potato salad with, as it does need to be served cold.
Saying that, to suggest it’s a direct swap for a potato salad is underselling it somewhat. This is far more sophisticated – it slices beautifully into neat and geometrically pleasing serving portions, revealing bright green chive and cross sections of pea, marbled with buttery new potatoes.
The method couldn’t be simpler: just blanch a few peas, parboil a few spuds and toss them together with a few herbs and some melted butter. You’ll need a loaf tin to set it in, and it’ll need a good 6 hours chilling before attempting to slice it, other than that it’s a doddle and a guaranteed feather in your cap.
Ingredients
(Makes one 28cm loaf – enough for 12+ starter sized servings)
1kg new potatoes
200g butter
¾ x teaspoon salt
1 x teaspoon ground black pepper
250g frozen peas
3 x tablespoons finely chopped chives (1 small supermarket packet)
Grease the inside of the loaf tin generously with vegetable oil. Line with an oversized piece of cling film and fill with recently boiled water from the kettle. Adjust the cling film so it lies flat and without too many creases then carefully pour away the water.
Peel the potatoes* and cover with cold water in a medium sized saucepan. Add a pinch of salt and bring to the boil. Simmer until tender to the tip of a knife.
Melt the butter in a small pan and set to one side. (There’s no need to clarify the butter for this recipe). Bring another pan of water to a boil, add the frozen peas and blanch for 2 minutes once the water returns to a simmer. Drain through a sieve and refresh the peas in a bowl of ice cold water to ‘set’ the colour and prevent further cooking.
Break the potatoes into chunks and mix everything together in a clean bowl, adding the salt, pepper and chives. Transfer to the lined loaf tin and press into place, making sure to go into the corners and smoothing the top flat.
Refrigerate once cool and leave to set for a good 6 hours before slicing.
*Under normal circumstances peeling a new potato would be deemed unnecessary, however removing the skin not only improves the look of the dish, but also helps to create more starchy debris to bind with the butter and hold the ingredients together.