potato-cabbage hash with bleu cheese

well, i live in helsinki now and i've been cooking almost every day, since restaurants are comparatively more expensive than in the states ..

.. and almost every day i've been eating potatoes.  i think it's just a finnish thing.

despite my love for roasted potato wedges, i think it takes too long to heat an oven.  so if i'm not roasting peppers or other veg at the same time, i tend to boil them.

the problem is that boiling is often boring, seemingly without flavor.

---

so below is a chunky version of colcannon or champ, with a bit of bleu cheese for the sake of umami ..

• 1 large or 2 small potatoes, roughly diced
• 1/8 head of red cabbage, chopped in strips
• 1 scallion, julienned
• 1 chunk bleu cheese 
• salt, pepper, and olive oil to taste

first, set the water to boil [1].  while boiling the potato(es), there's usually time to:

1. heat a dry pan;
2. chop the cabbage [2];
3. saute the cabbage .. and while doing so,
   chop the scallion and the bleu cheese;
4. melt the pieces of cheese into the saute,
   adding a little water and oil to keep it from burning;

to thicken the gravy, just take a few potato pieces, mash them, and stir into the water.  (there's no need to add flour or cornstarch.)

once the potatoes are ready, add them into the saute pan, and stir.  add raw scallion on top for savoriness, and you have a hearty entree.

(i usually wait for it to cool and chop a quick salad in the meanwhile.)



[1] electric tea kettles are awesome.  i never knew this trick before, but water for pasta and potatoes boils much more quickly in a kettle ..!

[2] if you eat meat, then you can start a hot pan at the same time as the water boil.  at the same time as the potatoes, you can fry a few strips of bacon or a diced chorizo sausage.  trust me; it takes no more time to chop the sausage than for the pan to heat up.