Putting potatoes pride of place

The sheer amount of butter, cream and, of course, potatoes, used in the making of Poppy O’Toole’s new cookbook is quite astounding.

Actually, the word O’Toole uses, with a wicked laugh, is “heinous”.

“Heinous amounts!” she says. “We came into the studio to shoot the book and one whole fridge shelf was just blocks of butter, and another shelf was just cheese and cream. I was like, ‘Wow, this is what dreams are made of. This is incredible.’ There was, like, 50 kilos of potatoes under the counter, and then just cheese and butter everywhere. It was beautiful.”

All of it was in service of her new ode to the spud, The Potato Book, a collection of recipes that take the humble potato and elevate it to levels of previously unseen glitz and glamour.

There’s whipped clouds of mash displayed in coupe glasses, confit garlic butter potatoes cooked over 15 hours and crisped into Turner Prize-worthy sculptures, and a potato cake that is a tiered, wedding cake alternative, complete with potato smiley faces – which she now makes for her birthday each year.

“Potatoes are so not glamorous, so I really wanted to do them justice,” says O’Toole affectionately. Her love of the starchy tuber is completely understandable. “They’ve brought me everything,” says O’Toole, who is better known as Poppy Cooks on TikTok, where her potato videos first went stratospheric.

The spud has changed the 31-year-old’s life. “I have always been a potato fiend. I just didn’t realise it could also be a career,” she says.

“A good meal can really change your day, your attitude, everything. It does for me. If I have a bad meal, I’m like, ‘Oh,’ it ruins the whole evening,” she says.

“I just want to help show people that they can achieve really good food at home. And it doesn’t have to be that intense. It can just be a really good jacket potato. It doesn’t have to be like wagyu steak with gold leaf and all this jazz, because that isn’t what food’s about.

“Food is about enjoyment, embracing each other, the way you feel and the way the food makes you feel.” It’s that idea that got her into cooking in the first place, “as well as wanting to eat loads of food!”

And don’t worry, she truly doesn’t expect anyone to make every single recipe in the book, however delicious they might be. “I don’t really mind if people don’t use any of the recipes as long as they take, maybe it’s a new way of cooking, a new ingredient they’ve never used before but they love, or maybe it’s a spice blend that they like,” she says. “Taking away those small nuggets of information that they can use in their everyday cooking, which hopefully makes it better, is all I can ask for.”

Smashed potato nachos

These will feed a crowd.

“A nacho dish… without the nachos. Hear me out, though,” says chef and chief potato recipe gal Poppy O’Toole. “Sometimes I find with nachos that the toppings are insanely good, but then you dig a lil’ deeper and are faced with those sad, bland tortilla crisps that no amount of cheese can save. I’ve rectified that. Say goodbye to the crisps and hello to golden, crunchy, smashed potatoes.”

Ingredients

(Serves 4)

1.2kg Maris Piper potatoes, halved (no need to peel)

Salt and black pepper

For the spiced oil:

1tsp smoked paprika

1tsp garlic granules

2tbsp olive oil

For the pickled red onions:

1 red onion, finely sliced

Juice of 3–4 limes

Pinch of caster sugar

To serve and garnish:

1 ripe avocado

½ red onion, finely diced

Juice of 1 lime

Small bunch of coriander, leaves finely chopped

3 slices of American processed cheese

Splash of whole milk, or as needed

Sour cream

Sliced pickled jalapeños

Sliced red chilli

Sliced spring onions

Method

1. Get your potatoes into a saucepan of heavily salted, cold water. Place the pan over a high heat and bring the water to the boil. Reduce the heat and leave on a gentle boil for 20–25 minutes, until the potatoes fall off the tip of a knife.

2. Drain in a colander. Place the colander over the pan on the turned-off hob and leave to steam-dry with a tea towel over the top for five to 10 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, heat your oven to 200°C/180°C fan/400°F/Gas 6. On a large baking tray, space out the potatoes and use the bottom of a jar or tin to press them down and crush them so they have lots of edges to go crispy.

4. To make the spiced oil, mix together the smoked paprika, garlic granules and a big pinch each of salt and pepper with the olive oil. Use some of this to brush all over the potatoes, then roast them in the oven for 30–40 minutes, before flipping them over, brushing with a little more spiced oil, and roasting for 15–20 minutes more, until the spiced oil has turned a dark red and the potatoes are cooked and crispy.

5. Meanwhile, mix together the ingredients for the pickled red onions (you want just enough lime juice to cover them) and leave them to soften and infuse for at least 10 minutes, then set aside.

6. De-stone the avocado and scoop out the flesh into a bowl. Smash the avocado with a fork and mix through the red onion, lime juice and chopped coriander. Season well with salt and pepper.

7. In a small microwaveable bowl, microwave the American cheese slices with the splash of milk, on full power in 30-second bursts. Stir after each burst, until the cheese has melted to a sauce. Add in a bit more milk if it is a little thick.

8. Layer up the potatoes with the pickled onions, dollops of guacamole and sour cream, and a few jalapeño and chilli slices, then drizzle with the cheese sauce and garnish with a sprinkling of spring onions.

Salt and vinegar crispy cubes

You’ll want to eat all of these yourself, without sharing.

“If you’re the sort of person who delves to the depths of the chip cone for those crispy scraps bobbing about in a sea of vinegar, this is the recipe for you,” says chef and food writer Poppy O’Toole. “These cubes are perfect served alongside battered cod and some fluorescent curry sauce.”

Ingredients

1kg Maris Piper potatoes, peeled and cut into 2cm cubes

100ml malt vinegar, plus extra to serve

4tbsp neutral oil

Flaky salt, to serve

Method

1. Get your potatoes into a saucepan of heavily salted, cold water. Add the vinegar, place the pan over a high heat and bring the liquid to the boil. Reduce the heat and leave on a gentle boil for 5–7 minutes, until the potatoes fall off the tip of a knife.

2. Drain in a colander. Place the colander over the pan on the turned-off hob, cover with a clean tea towel and leave the potatoes to steam-dry for 10 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, heat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan/400°F/Gas 6 and get the oil into a baking tray. Pop the tray into the oven to get the oil hot. This is important for getting that crispy crunchiness.

4. Once the potatoes have steam-dried, get the hot tray out of the oven, carefully tip in the potatoes and turn to coat.

5. Roast the potatoes for 30 minutes, then give them a mix and put them back in the oven for a further 15 minutes, until super-golden and crunchy. Keep an eye on them in case they need less or more time. (Alternatively, you can fry them in a fryer).

6. Serve sprinkled with flaky salt and an extra dousing of vinegar.

Shrimp po’ boy jacket potato with coleslaw

This is jacket potatoes taken to the next level.

“Enter the collab of the century: prawns and jacket potatoes,” says chef and queen of potatoes, Poppy O’Toole. “You might be partial to a basic bit of prawn cocktail on your spud, but I’ve amped it up by taking some of the flavours of a New Orleans po’ boy and creating the shrimp potato of dreams. If you need me, I’ll be sat alone in the corner demolishing one of these beauties.”

Ingredients

(Serves 2)

2 baking potatoes

Neutral oil

100ml buttermilk

1tsp smoked paprika

1tsp dried mixed herbs

1tsp garlic granules

1tsp onion granules

½tsp ground black pepper

8–10 raw, deveined prawns

50g plain flour

Few knobs of butter

For the coleslaw:

⅛ small red cabbage, thinly shredded

⅛ small white cabbage, thinly shredded

½ carrot, peeled and julienned

2tsp white wine vinegar

2tsp olive oil

Small handful of flat-leaf parsley, leaves chopped

Small handful of chives, chopped

Salt and black pepper

For the sauce:

2tbsp mayo

1tbsp ketchup

Squeeze of lemon juice

Dash of Tabasco

Dash of Worcestershire sauce

Method

1. Heat the oven to 220°C/200°C fan/425°F/Gas 7. Rub your potatoes with oil and a good amount of salt, and pierce them all over with a fork. Place them on a rack in the middle of the oven and bake for about 50–60 minutes, until tender on the inside and crisp on the outside.

2. While the potatoes are baking, make the coleslaw. Mix together all the veg in a bowl. In another bowl, combine the white wine vinegar, olive oil and herbs. Pour the dressing over the cabbage mixture and turn to coat. Season to taste with salt and pepper and set aside for later.

3. Make the sauce by mixing together all the ingredients in a bowl, seasoning with salt and pepper, then tasting and adjusting the ingredients to your preference. Set aside.

4. Once the potatoes are almost ready, season the buttermilk with salt and pepper and half a teaspoon each of the smoked paprika, dried mixed herbs, garlic granules and onion granules, and a quarter of a teaspoon of the ground black pepper, then tip in the prawns. In a bowl, combine the flour, a big pinch of salt to season, and the remaining smoked paprika, herbs, garlic and onion granules, and pepper.

5. Pour your oil into a deep-fat fryer or a heavy-based saucepan (don’t let it come more than halfway up the inside of the pan). Place the pan over a high heat and get the oil to 180°C/350°F on a cooking thermometer (or use the thermometer in your fryer).

6. Sprinkle one tablespoon of the seasoned buttermilk into the flour and stir to form some clumps that will go super-crispy. Shake off the excess buttermilk and, in batches, coat the prawns in the flour and fry for about one to two minutes, until golden brown, crispy and cooked through. Set each batch aside to drain on kitchen paper while you fry the remainder, then season lightly with salt.

7. Slice the jacket lengthways down the middle, open it up slightly and fork in the butter to melt. Top with a large dollop of the coleslaw, and crown with a few of those crispy prawns and a drizzle of sauce.

The Potato Book by Poppy Cooks is published in hardback by Bloomsbury. Photography by Ellis Parrinder.