If this meal were a bit less haphazard, we might have taken the time to come up with a better name than Sludge, but culinary hindsight is a great thing. Round our way, a suggestion of Sludge for dinner is greeted with the kind of enthusiasm you’d reserve for a lump of Beluga caviar (if anybody liked caviar).
It’s not so much an ingredient list as a random selection of items from the fridge. The number of ingredients could be six, or 66, depending on your food management strategy.
Come to think of it, there’s not much of a method to this either.
The one item with which there can be no compromise is potatoes. Ideally cooked potatoes, but they can be raw, as long as you give them a bit more time alone on the pan. But you are not looking for chips here. Non-floury varieties are better, so stand away from the Roosters.
Now imagine there are just six, very specific ingredients and we fancy up the method. We’d better rename it too – Patatas con Pimiento y Chorizo, anyone?
What you’ll need and how to make it:
Serves four
6 leftover cooked potatoes, peeled
2 red onions
1 red, one yellow pepper
1 courgette
Chorizo sausage
Handful feta cheese
Roast the skins off the peppers by grilling in a hot oven, or over a flame. Once the skin has blackened, put the peppers into a sealed container for a few minutes. When you remove it, rub the skin off. Cut into strips.
Heat a good dash of olive oil in a pan over a medium heat.
Dice the potatoes roughly and add to a pan. Make sure the pan is not too hot, you don’t want chips, more crushed potatoes with brown bits.
While the potatoes are cooking, dice the onions, courgette and feta and slice the chorizo.
Once the potatoes have browned a bit, add onions and courgette, then chorizo. Swill it around on the pan sporadically.
Finally, add the feta. Pop the pan in a heated oven to finish. Season and sprinkle with chilli flakes, or za’atar to serve.
– Deirdre Veldon is deputy editor of The Irish Times
