“Bubble and squeak is a dish created out of leftovers and it’s become one of our great British recipes. The first recorded recipes for it were written in the early 1800s, when any roasted shredded meat or vegetables left over from Sunday’s dinner would be fried in the pan the next day to create this big and beautiful veggie patty. But it’s so damn good you shouldn’t have to wait for leftovers to enjoy it, so I’m giving you this recipe as a guide. As long as you use 60% potato, you can make the rest up using whatever you’ve got to hand – vegetables, crumbled chestnuts, herbs, crispy bacon or leftover meat. In the cockney cafés they call this ‘bubble’, and serve it alongside eggs for breakfast. Because it often sits in the pan for ages getting dark and crispy, it tends to take on a fairly dark grey and rather ugly colour, but ironically, those are often the tastiest bubble and squeaks of all. ”
Ingredients
- 1 kg fluffy potatoes , such as Maris Piper
- 600 g mixed vegetables , such as carrots, swede, turnips, parsnips, kale, Brussels sprouts… anything you like!
- 40 g unsalted butter
- olive oil
- a few sprigs of fresh herbs , such as rosemary, sage, thyme or whatever you have knocking about in the fridge
Method
- Peel and trim all the vegetables, cutting the root veg into 2.5cm dice.
- Cook the veg in a large pan of boiling salted water for 10 minutes, or until they are all cooked through.
- If you’re using swede or turnips, put them in about 5 minutes earlier than everything else as they take slightly longer to soften up. If using kale, just blanch this for a few minutes right at the end.
- Once all the veg is cooked, drain and leave to steam dry for a few minutes.
- Melt the butter and a lug of oil in a medium non-stick frying pan (roughly Put a medium non-stick frying pan (roughly 26cm–28cm) over a medium heat.
- Pick and chop the herb leaves, then add to the pan with the cooked vegetables. Season well with sea salt and white pepper, then mash everything up in the pan.
- Pat everything into a flat layer and cook for 3 to 4 minutes, or until a lovely golden crust starts forming underneath. Fold those crispy bits back into the mash, then pat and flatten down and repeat the process for about 15 or 20 minutes. Concentrate on building up flavours, character and crispiness.
- Halfway through the cooking, flip it over using a fish slice, or like a pancake if you’re brave. If it breaks don’t worry, just push it back together.
- Let it crisp up on the underside then nick a bit and taste it. This is the time to correct the seasoning. Once you’re happy, serve it with a blob of HP sauce and whatever else you fancy.
Tips
What do you do with leftover bubble and squeak? Well, it’s a rare occasion that you’ll need to worry about that, but you can always push it back into the pan, grate over some cheese and pop it under the grill, or even use it as a topping for a shepherd’s pie.
Source: Jamie Oliver
