How to Make Farl made with dried mash

This is a very overdue recipe from Meal Plan 3. Farl made with dried potato. With many thanks to Miss South who came up with dried mash gnochhi and farl

Makes 2 servings

Asda dried potato, 120g/28p pk, 12p
90g plain flour, 45p/1.5kg, 3p
15ml veg oil, £1.25/1 litre, 2p

For the sauted veg
120g onion, Asda 2kg/£1.08, 6p
120g carrots, Asda 1.080kg/83p, 9p
100g swede, Asda 97p/kg,  10p
25g salami/chorizo, Asda 100g/£1.50, 37p
salt and pepper

Total cost 79p, per serving 39p

per serving 412 calories, 12g protein, 14g fat, 59g carb

The potato packet says to use roughly half milk, but I just used water for the gnocchi, and it was fine. If using the mash as it is, you would really need to add butter or something, but for farl and gnocchi, water is fine.  I made up the mash using the recommended amount of water and it came out a very wet and loose dough. So I tried again and halved the water, added the flour, then added a tiny bit more water. The first, wet, version cooked up fine and were tasty, but the second, drier, version were much firmer, and tastier.

So….. Make up the dried potato using half the amount of water, cold is fine. Add a tsp of salt, and several grinds of pepper if you have it, freshly ground if possible. Tip in all the flour and mix well. Add a tiny bit more water, I only needed another tblsp, enough to make a firm dough.

Divide the mixture into two, and pat each half out with your hands to a rough circle and cut into wedges. Layer them between greaseproof paper or baking parchment, they get very sticky as they stand. They can be kept in the fridge for several days until you need them, or freeze them.

Chop all the veg into small dice. Chop the salami/chorizo into small pieces. Put the chorizo/salami into a frying pan and saute until the oil runs, add all the veg and saute gently until they are cooked through. You may need to add a little oil, cover them while they are cooking if you like. Keep an eye on them, we don’t want them to catch.

While that is happening, using a large frying pan, add half the oil and gently fry the farl until one side is looking golden, add the remaining oil and flip the farl over to cook the other side until crispy. You may need to add a little more oil. Or try cooking them with no oil at all. Different, but just as good.

Serve immediately.

Having done half the batch, I did the other half as one big one.

These are sort of like fried bread. If you are not following Meal Plan 3, you can serve these with a myriad of items.  Eggs, fried, poached or scrambled, a couple of rashers of crispy bacon, baked beans,  mushrooms, tomatoes, in short, all the breakfast type stuff in any combination you like. Or with fruit compotes or fresh fruit.  I still have some soaked and cooked dried apricots, a wedge of farl, some apricots and yogurt would make a lovely breakfast. As they are so bread like, you could spread them with peanut butter, marmite, soft cheese and olives. Or anything else that takes your fancy. You could use them in a lunch box. I would try a little pot of soft cheese with olives on top and some carrot, celery and red pepper sticks. Yum.

When I was testing the recipe today, I tried a bit hot and straight out of the pan with some apricot curd, oh me oh my, it was delicious. I’ll post the apricot curd recipe soon. It is very similar to the cranberry curd, but using dried apricots I got from  Approved Food 

DP has just tried a bit with a slice of cheese on and said it was lovely, but then spoiled it by saying, mind you, anything tastes nice with cheese. Sigh. He then did offer a very good suggestion tho and say that they would be good with a curry, his favourite food group, so using them like a paratha he said.

You could add other things to the mix before cooking. So some spinach, either fresh and wilted in, or frozen, tinned and well drained. Tomato purée would be good. Some grainy mustard, horseradish or chilli.  Or maybe some kale, or caramelised onions. Have a play and invent something good.