Cooking the HD Way – Potato Chops

Cookery is not my specialality, in fact up to the age of 30 yours truly thought Angel Hair Pasta was a Caribbean rap singer and Pho Bo was one of the teletubbies. With my “kookery” CV still clearly in your mind take this chance to reboot your computer now.

Today’s post may come as a massive shock to your digestive system and help you discover that your bathroom needs re-tiling, but I am going to attempt to offer all you Thailand ex pats a little something that just might tickle your taste buds. Cooking the HD Way – Potato Chops.

Potato Chops sounds a typical English type dish but it actually originates from Goa on the west coast of India in the region of Konkan. This easy to make dish was first introduced to me by one of my Goan work colleagues and all the ingredients are readily available in Thailand at minimal cost.

Potato Chops

proudly sponsored by HD Sauce

Ingredients (2/3 servings)

1 bottle red wine

1.5 kilo (3 lbs.) potatoes

1/2 kilo (1 lb.) lean ground beef

2 medium finely chopped onions

1 minced red chilli (two if you adore tiling)

1 clove garlic

1 tbsp crushed fresh ginger

1 egg

Breadcrumbs

The bottle of wine is not actually needed for the potato chops and is merely included to drink whilst you slave away in a hot kitchen on a beautiful summers day. Before we start pour yourself a large red wine and listen in on a HD cookery tip.

Chopped Onions

The easiest way to achieve finely chopped onions is to take the HD approach. Invite your grandmother over and position her next to the TV and put on a DVD of the “Titanic.”  If your grandmother is on a similar surface level to mine, six foot below, then invite the oldest female you know into your abode. Place the onions, chopping board, bowl and knife into their lap and scream into their lesser waxed ear “I’ll be back in five minutes.”  You will return to finely chopped onions and a grandmother who thinks she’s crying over the movie. As you carry the onions to your kitchen shout at the top of your voice “Peeling potatoes doesn’t half bring me out in a hell of a rash.”

With everything prepared and Kate Winslet prancing about on a boat with Leonardo DiCaprio in front of your tearful grandmother, it’s time to get “kooking.”

First cut the potatoes into medium sized pieces and boil in readiness to make mashed potato. Pour one tablespoon of cooking oil into a suitable pan or wok. Gently cook the chopped onions until golden and then add the garlic and ginger, let the flavours blend together for a few minutes and then add the chilli. Turn up the heat slightly, add the ground beef and cook until browned. Reduce the heat and cook for a further 10/15 minutes. Drain the excess fat and then add salt, pepper and your favourite spices, cook for a further two minutes. Prepare the mashed potato making sure it is not to creamy and then allow to cool for a good half of an hour.

With the movie  “Titanic” now well into it’s plot, position yourself once more next to the old, wrinkled, lesser waxed ear and empty your lungs with the following “Most of them die at the end, now bugger off home.”  Peace and quiet at last giving you a chance to catch up on some sport.

Fed up with watching TV sport and with your grandmother having beaten a hasty retreat, do similar with the egg. Take the egg and lightly beat until you’re fed up. Now mould the mashed potato into tennis ball sized amounts. Break open the top of the potato ball and insert one heaped tablespoon of your cooked beef mixture inside and then reshape the potato into a chop like shape. Lightly coat the potato chops with beaten egg mix and apply breadcrumbs. Shallow fry for for about two minutes each side or until golden brown. Best served with salad.

If any of you have tried Potato Chops before then let me know what your opinion of them are. What I really want is a few of you ex pats to try them yourself and let everyone know what you think, I’m sure you won’t be disappointed. Cooking the HD Way – Potato Chops in association with HD Sauce. Enjoy. Hoo Don.

Credits
Photograph One Egg     © Dmitry Maslov | Dreamstime.com