A perfect, creamy heritage potato accompaniment for roast Shetland lamb.
September in Shetland, my remote archipelago home in the North Sea, means the return of many things. The winter gales, for starters, blowing away any remnants of summer one might have forgotten in the garden. I envy my North American cousins and their seasonal garden decorations – if I put out any Halloween or Christmas garden ornaments they’d be blown to Norway in a heartbeat! Just imagine that poor Norskie, minding his own business walking down the street when a Christmas wreath lands on his head from Shetland! It also brings the seemingly relentless attack of the horizontal rain. I only say this because it’s been raining for days and days now. It does stop, occasionally, and if we’re lucky we might be treated to a most spectacular display of the ‘mirrie dancers’ (Northern Lights).
September also means Shetland Black potatoes are ready for harvesting and you can put in your lamb orders with local suppliers. Shetland Blacks, pictured right, are a gorgeous small purple skinned potato with a yellow flesh, floury texture and distinctive purple line around the inside edge.The stories say that this heritage potato was originally salvaged off a Spanish Armada shipwreck in 1588.
I really enjoy cooking with the Shetland Black potato. They’re nice roasted, with the skins still on with a bit of sea salt and rosemary, or even thinly sliced and made into crisps. There’s something intensely satisfying about their appearance, for me, and the fact they’re a rare variety of potato makes them something special indeed. I’ve read that Waitrose sells them, so all you readers on the mainland might be able to find some there, but I’ve also heard that the ones at the supermarket are not nearly as nice as those actually grown in Shetland soil. I’m sure you could order some from Shetland, should you wish to try them yourselves.
September also means the return of warming winter comfort foods such as the potato gratin. This dish is a comforting, creamy, flavoursome dish perfect with slow roasted lamb, braised red cabbage, steamed vegetables with plenty of butter and some freshly made bread. Any variety of floury potato will do for this dish, if you can’t get your hands on some Shetland Blacks.
As I do with many of my dishes, I’ve included Shetland seaweed in this recipe. This is optional, but if you want a chance at winning one of your own Shetland seaweed grinders do enter my very first blog giveaway before the end of September: Bod Ayre Shetland Seaweed Giveaway #1
- 250 grams Shetland black potatoes
- 250 grams fennel bulb
- 284 ml heavy cream
- 50 ml full fat milk
- sea salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- Shetland seaweed, ground (optional)
- 1 tbsp parmesan cheese
Prep time: Cook time: Total time: Yield: Serves 4
Spiced Tomato & Courgette Chutney
This is a great potato recipe, always nice to have a variation on straight forward potatoes
I’m really enjoying the design and layout of your site.
It’s a very easy on the eyes which makes it much more pleasant for
me to come here and visit more often. Did you hire out a designer to create your theme?
Fantastic work!
Very fine looking potatoes – I’ve looked in Waitrose, but I haven’t found any yet. I’m a big fan of fennel, so this would see me through a winter night very nicely.
They are gorgeous, aren’t they! I wonder if Waitrose still stock them? I read online that they did… hopefully you’ll find some soon.
This recipe makes me glad that I have a self-catering flat when I come to Shetland for Wool Week in October! I’ll have to find some of the potatoes and give it a try. I found your blog when I was googling for a bannock recipe! I’m on my second batch and they’re getting better.
oooOh how exciting! You should be able to pick up the potatoes from Scoop Wholefoods in town. I do hope you try the recipe and like it! Enjoy Wool Week! 😀
I’ll be honest, never heard of shetland black potatoes, but the pictures of them are beautiful. Love fennel in bakes though, so my general though is that this looks lovely 🙂 Love the story about them having been salvaged from a Spanish Armada shipwreck. Brilliant blog, glad I found it today! 🙂
They’re not a commonly available potato, so a lot of people haven’t heard of them, which is a shame as they are so lovely! Thank you for your comment and I’m so glad you’re impressed with my blog 🙂
What a great idea adding in the fennel! A most underused veg in my opinion but it adds such an interesting flavour to dishes. This looks like a really comforting potato bake…one that would work with endless things. Bookmarking x
I’m fairly new to having fennel in my kitchen. It’s something I have seen in the supermarket but have never experimented with until it started arriving in my veg box. It works really well in this gratin, I think!
Wonderful comfort food – sounds perfect for your weather – and those potatoes look beautiful – it is warming up in Melbourne but the rain is still sweeping through intermittently – though ours is vertical and we don’t have such wind (though I always like to remember a day in scotland when I had to ring work and say I couldn’t get to work because we had gone away on holiday and the wind had cut off all transport!) I will miss the winter comfort food but am excited about getting outside more with sylvia – do your kids get cabin fever when you have days of rain?
Thanks Joanna 🙂 When I was England last summer they had some wonderful warm vertical rain. It was such a joy to stand in it! Here, especially in the winter, the sky can hurt! The children can usually manage a few days indoors, but they do eventually start getting a bit shack happy, as I do!
I came to your blog from Frances’ pony blog, and would love to win a Shetland seaweed grinder! I love roasted, salted seaweed; how is seaweed marketed there? I hear that what washes up on our nearby Pacific Coast is edible, but have never tried it.
Welcome! 🙂 I’ve never tried roasted, salted seaweed. I bet it’s fantastic! There’s a local company here in Shetland who have their own naturally seeded seaweed farm and they dry the seaweed and sell it in a grinder. You can enter to win on the giveaway page here: https://www.elizabethskitchendiary.co.uk/2013/08/bod-ayre-shetland-seaweed-giveaway-1.html Good luck! 😀
Elizabeth, I have just started reading your blog ( I came across it from a link on Twitter of your family animation) . Lovely writing and I think I might try fennel and potato gratin, alas not with Shetland black potatoes, but some subsitute.
I am forever buying fennel and then throwing it out a few weeks later as I cant quite find a place for it .
Thank you for your lovely comment! It’s comments like yours that make it feel worthwhile blogging. Thank you for making me smile 🙂 I hope you enjoy the gratin, when you try it!
at first I read that headline as Shetland Black Pony Gratin and thought you’d taken things a little far… but on closer inspection you’ve created a beauty… never heard of these potatoes but they look wonderful and anything with fennel and cream is always good in my books… this really looks glorious!
Heehee, nah, I’ve not become THAT creative with local ingredients yet. 😉 I think the neighbours would notice if one of their ponies went missing anyway! The Shetland Blacks are a lovely heritage variety of potato. Keep an eye out in your local Waitrose, they might stock them!