Spanish Potatoes

I've been sick for the past 2 weeks. It was all because of the jin dui. I ate one straight out of the wok, burning my mouth and throat. Like the seagull that ate the toasted marshmallow (which glued his beak) I threw it one day a long time ago in Canada, I flipped my eyes but stubbornly swallowed the steaming hot glutinous ball down my poor gullet. The next few days my throat felt sore but I thought it'd go away. I avoid going to doctors here because they  both treat and dispense meds and routinely subscribe antibiotics for everything. A week later I couldn't swallow and was weak from fever, my throat so badly infected I couldn't eat or sleep. I started taking meds last wed and am recovering.  I hardly ever get sick, thank God, and this reminds me again how good life is when everything is fine and normal.

This recipe is straight off BBC GoodFood's current post. Wey doesn't seem to be growing upwards and I blame it on too much white rice, which he loves, and too little veg, which he hates. What a growing boy needs to eat is spuds, which have more vitamins and minerals than white rice. My friend X has very tall kids and she thinks it's the potatoes. "They never eat rice," she says in a way that rice is inferior. Strange, since they are Chinese. Well. I'm desperately feeding Wey more veg and potatoes before his growth 'window period' (a term everybody seems to be using, causing me panic) closes. The last week we've had more potatoes and pasta than we had rice. Heck, maybe I'll grow taller too.

I liked this, mainly because I love potatoes and tomatoes. You can use a mixture of potatoes and sweet potatoes like I did (pulled from my garden, planted by Vero) or all potatoes. I left the skins on, for the minerals and fiber. And for sheer savings, do you realize how much peelings are unecessarily thrown away? I'm serving it with roasted chicken tonight but fish or lamb would be good too. And don't forget some fresh crisp greens. Again, simple is best.

Spanish Potatoes

1 kg potatoes, or mixture of regular potatoes n sweet potatoes,  in small chunks

3 T olive oil + extra

1 t smoked paprika (I used paprika)
3-4 T tomato puree
5 garlic cloves, smashed
juice from 1/2 lemon (I used kasturi limes)
1/2 t salt (or to taste)
freshly ground black pepper
flat-leaf parsley, chopped roughly

1. Oven at 180 C, fan on. As preferred, you can have the pototoes peeled or unpeeled. Put potatoes into a bowl and mix them with 3 T oil, garlic, tomato puree & paprika.

2. Drizzle oil on baking tray and scatter potatoes on tray. Sprinkle salt & pepper over and roast 30 minutes or longer for larger chunks.Turn the potatoes halfway through. Sprinkle the lemon juice and parsley and roast another 5 minutes. Serve hot.