Grandad's spiced potatoes

Ingredients
- Potatoes
- Extra Virgin olive oil
- Fenugreek seed (ground)
- Cumin (ground)
- Seed coriander (ground)
- a few cardamoms
- a black cardamom
- a couple of star anise
- some crushed fresh garlic
- finely chopped fresh ginger
- finely chopped fresh chilli (to taste)
- a little ground black pepper
- a pinch or two of salt
- a heaped tsp of turmeric
- a combination of oils (can change depending on what is available) - groundnut, walnut, roasted sesame


1. Choose a top variety of pots. Preferably not kept in store for too long. Boil with a pinch or so of sea salt until just cooked, they need to still be firm, drain while hot and return to saucepan.

2. Sprinkle the pots with extra virgin olive oil generously and leave to stand. [use the same management for roast pots too]. Now get the spices etc ready. Mix equal parts of fenugreek seed, cumin, and seed coriander put in a grinder [like a coffee grinder that hasn't been used for coffee!] and spin roughly, a few green cardamoms, a black cardamom, a couple of star anise, some crushed fresh garlic, finely chopped fresh ginger, finely chopped fresh chilli pepper [to taste], a little ground black pepper and a pinch or two of salt, a heaped teasp of turmeric.

3. Warm the frying pan add a mixture of oils [according to what you have] eg groundnut oil, walnut oil,roasted sesame oil [only a teasp of this] etc. warm the oil then add the spices gently moving them about, when the spices are part cooked put a saucepan lid on the frying pan and turn the gas right down to cook the ginger, then add the potatoes and gently stir them into the spices, fry for a while then put under the grill until the pots are a pleasant brown but not burnt!!!!!

I like to do pots exactly like this but there is short cut: boil some pots,drain, tip into a hot frying pan with some butter, add couple of teasp of a good quality Madras curry paste and fry! Bob's your uncle! easy peasy. [but I can tell the difference]