Wednesday, November 22, 2006

We Are the Champ, My Friends

I can't even talk about food around Cranky without him suddenly craving whatever I just described.
There is very little hypothetical food chat at our house, because if something sounds good, Cranky is out the door, buying ingredients.
And since I cruise the blogs, that often means we're replicating one another's menus.
I'm guilty of it myself.
I went to Bristol, England, for yesterday's lunch. I happened to be reading Sam's mum's blog, Ms Cellania, in which she blogged about and photographed a great dish of champ, the humble Irish meal of potatoes, leeks and "lashings of melted butter" (to borrow Sam's mum's memorable phrase).
I loved her rough-hewn approach: no need to mindlessly beat the potatoes into velvety smoothness (I like lumpy mashed potatoes).
Utter simplicity. Comforting. Delicious.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm gonna have to second Sam's Mom and you on that, I do like lumpy mashed potatoes, or as I call them, "mashed potatoes with substance."

Anonymous said...

Yum! If you like this, you would probably like the Dutch dish Stamppoten. There are many variations of it, but I have a recipe for one in an early blog post of mine at:
http://mtkilimonjaro.blogspot.com/2005/06/big-disappointment.html

Your photo of champ simply has my mouth watering!!

Catherine said...

I love champ and now I've seen your delicious pic, maybe I'll just pop out and get some leeks!

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much for the mention I am flattered, particularly as I am not a food blog.

Any left overs are quite tasty if you add bacon, mushrooms and cheese and bake see end of this post
http://mscellania.blogspot.com/2006/11/its-nice-to-see-friends.html

Anonymous said...

PS I meant to wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving.

cookiecrumb said...

PE: "Substance"! That's almost too polite. ;-)

Anna: I'm on my way to check it out now! Mm. Potatoes. Local potatoes, from Bolinas!!

Catherine: It's just so filling and soothing... sigh.

ChrisB: All credit goes to you and your mouthwatering pictures. Oh, and "lashings." Just watch, there will be a ripple effect of champ throughout the blogs.
Alas, we were deprived of leftovers. Ate it all up.

Anonymous said...

scallions are the key ingredient for champ - but that looks gorgeous nonetheless

cookiecrumb said...

RoganJosh: Oy. I am such a Yank. (And I even had scallions in the fridge.) Next time, I promise.

Anonymous said...

hehe - sorry for being so pedantic - Love your blog BTW, big fan of San Francisco had a trip out there last year all the way from sunny Co. Antrim, twas the only place on my tour where I stopped sweating.
Keep 'er lit!

cookiecrumb said...

Sher: Yeah, I just found out this year I've got Irish genes too. Great grandmother. County Kerry.