The best of the Breakfast Brunch! ...... how to make 'fadge' or Irish potato bread

A Sunday with no guests?......... best day to enjoy brunch!

Maybe you were out last night or had friends round, either way you've had your Sunday morning lie in and are now in need of sustenance, and what better way to start the day than with a good brunch without going to the whole bother of cooking dinner or dolling yourself up to go out for lunch.

I think nowhere does breakfast quite like Ulster and I include Donegal in that!  and the Ulster fry is just the ticket...good for more than just breakfast time it also makes a perfect brunch......but after a night on the tiles maybe we are feeling just a little too fragile to go the whole hog of a fry, so lets go for something a little lighter yet just as sustaining.

For a delicious and filling brunch try simply potato bread or potato cakes with some crisply grilled bacon, you may also like to add a poached or some scrambled egg, and of course a good pint of.......tea!

The basic Irish potato bread or cake, has many different names depending on what area of the country you were raised in......here are some of them

• potato bread or cake
• boxty
• poundies....with scallions of course!
• slims
• potato farls
• tatie bread

But I am going to make 'fadge'.........which is what my father called it........and he was from Derry!

So for the basic potato bread mixture......

you will need:

500 g mashed potatoes
50 g of melted salted butter

100 g plain flour

1 level teaspoon baking powder

salt and fresh black pepper

1/2 level teaspoon grated nutmeg

sunflower or rapeseed oil

potatoes and flour can be a very bland mixture! add plenty of salt and pepper, I use a s & p mill and it takes a good 8 twists of the grinder to achieve a good seasoning.

How to:

• cook your potatoes as normal, drain and return to the saucepan and place on a medium heat to make sure they are really dry and floury
• mash with either a hand masher or use a potato ricer for a really smooth effect...me? I like mine more rustic with the odd lump! ........a word of warning, don't be tempted to put the potatoes in an electric mixer or a food processor, it is too easy to over mix and achieve the consistency of wallpaper paste! and it's too early on a Sunday for papering walls!...now add the butter.
• if using leftover mashed potato the melt the butter and add to the potatoes
• sieve the flour, nutmeg and baking powder, add to the potatoes, begin to mix in slowly, I like to use a fork for this job, eventually as the mixture begins to get dry you can dive in with your hands until it becomes a nice ball of dough
• place your dough on a floured surface and roll out to your preferred thickness, you can leave them thick or roll them quite thin almost like pastry
• cut out shapes to make your potato cakes, try round, triangles, hearts or ovals like I have, you can even roll them in small balls then press them flat like a fish cake.

there are two ways you can cook the potato cake:

1. the 'wet' method.....heat a little oil in a frying pan and pan fry each cake on medium heat until nicely browned on each side, remove from the pan and place them on a baking tray, bake in the oven at 160 degrees centigrade for 8 minutes

2. the 'dry' or more traditional method.....this is how they would have been cooked a hundred odd years ago......you will need......

A quaint whitewashed cottage with thatched roof and roses growing around the door, an open fireplace big enough to stand in, a heavy and well blackened, cast iron griddle pan handed down from your great granny.......a nice fire over which you will cook your fadge, you should be using turf rather than wood with the turf being slightly damp so it gives off a little smoke....this of course adds to the flavour to your fadge!........failing that try a modern flat electric pancake or crepe griddle or a ridged griddle pan which you can use on your cooker top.......heat the pan on medium heat, brush lightly with a little oil then cook your cakes until nicely browned on each side...this is the much healthier 'lower fat' method rather than frying them in oil.....but when it comes to fadge nothing beats frying them in bacon lard so just eat up and SHUT UP!

how to enjoy:

always eat them warm....don't waste your time trying to reheat them, it's just not the same!

you can eat these with some nice crisp bacon and maybe an egg on top....a softish fried egg that is, so when you cut into the yolk it will run all over the fadge...add a bit of ketchup and you're good to go....wash down with lots of tea......chef's orders!