Mexican Potatoes With Cheese Sauce

Mrs B's Note:

This recipe comes from “Preserved” by Nick Sandler and Johnny Acton. I haven’t made it, but it sounds like a good vegetarian main dish or go with anything side dish. The recipe calls for 8 potatoes, but the authors fail to specify a size or weight. As there is no instruction to cut or slice the potatoes, my guess is that you’ll need 8 medium potatoes or between 1 and 1 1/2 lbs, depending on how and what you plan to serve this with. Posted for Zaar World Tour 2005.

• Total Time: 30 mins
• Prep Time: 10 mins
• Cook Time: 20 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 3

• salt & freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 lemon, juice of
• 3 dried hot red chilies, deseeded and crumbed
• 1 onion, sliced into rings
• 8 potatoes, peeled
• 1 fresh chili pepper, cut into thin strips (green or red)
• 2 hard-boiled eggs, halved, to garnish
• 12 black olives, to garnish

SAUCE

• 175 g mozzarella cheese, roughly grated
• 225 ml heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 fresh chili pepper, finely chopped (green or red)
• 3 tablespoons olive oil

Directions:

1. Mix the lemon juice and dried chillies in a bowl, season with salt and pepper, add the onion rings and leave to marinate until required (you could do this step more in advance if you like).
2. Boil the potatoes in lightly salted water for about 15 minutes, or until cooked.
3. While the potatoes are cooking make the sauce by combining all the ingredients except the olive oil in a blender; then heat the oil in a pan, add the blended sauce ingredients and simmer for about 5 minutes until the sauce thickens.
4. TO ASSEMBLE THE DISH: drain the potatoes and place in a warmed serving dish, pour the sauce on top; drain the onion rings and scatter them and the chili strips over the top of the dish; garnish with hard-boiled eggs and olives.

Reviews

[NcMysteryShopper]

Beautiful potato dish! I was surprised at how easy this dish was to put together...great instructions! I cubed the potatoes and then boiled them as Pot Scrubber did. The onions were such a great complement to this dish as was the garnish - I would not forgo the garnish. The sauce was excellent. The only thing i did differently was to add serrano peppers to the cheese sauce.

[Pot Scrubber]

A very nice dish with a lovely flavor. I didn't change the ingredients at all but I did vary the cooking technique. I cubed the potatos and boiled. After the sauce was ready I assembled it in a casserole dish, topped with additional cheese, and baked at 400 til the cheese melted. A very nice mexican version scalloped potatoes.