Gordon Ramsay’s Homemade Spicy Baked Beans with Potato Cakes

Ingredients

• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 4 slices bacon or pancetta diced into pieces
• 1 red hot chilli or jalapeño pepper finely chopped 
• 2 fat cloves garlic crushed 
• 1 medium red onion finely diced
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon dry sherry or cider vinegar
• 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
• ½ cup passata (strained tomatoes)
• 2 cups cooked navy (haricot) beans

Potato Cakes

• 1kg potatoes, peeled, boiled drained and mashed
• 2 tablespoons half and half (10%) cream, heated in the microwave
• 60g (4 tablespoons, ½ stick) soft butter
• 50g (5 tablespoons) all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons olive oil for frying
• 60g (4 tablespoons, ½ stick) cold butter diced into cubes for frying

Instructions

1. Cook the beans: Heat the olive oil in a skillet and add the bacon or pancetta and cook until browned (you can drain rendered fat at this point). Add the hot chilli pepper or jalapeño and garlic, and cook for one minute. Add the onion and cook five minutes, until soft, then add the brown sugar and continue cooking until it forms caramel. Add the dry sherry or cider vinegar to deglaze the pan. Add the Worcestershire sauce, then the passata and bring to the boil and simmer uncovered about 5 minutes. Finally add the baked beans and bring back to the boil and let simmer another 5 minutes until the beans absorb the flavour of the sauce.
2. Make the potato dough: Add the cream and butter to the mashed potatoes then add the flour and mix until it transforms into a smooth-like dough. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Form the potato dough into 75g (2.8oz) patties on a lightly floured surface.
3. Fry the potatoes: Heat the olive oil in a large skillet until hot and fry the potato patties 3-4 minutes on each side. Add the butter cubes around the potatoes as they fry until they turn crisp and golden in colour.

Tips on frying perfect potato cakes

• Do not mash potatoes and make the potato dough in advance. The potato dough will become sticky as it sits around doing nothing. Mash and make the dough when you’re ready to fry them.
• The potato cakes should be about 3¼ inch (8 cm) in diameter and have a thickness of  ½-inch (1.2 cm). Don’t make them thin. They will be difficult to handle during frying. I used about 75g (2.8oz) of potato dough mixture for each patty.
• Your aim is to make them very crisp on the outside. This will take about 3-4 minutes on each side over medium low heat. They will of course remain soft on the inside.
• 1kg of potatoes will make 12 potato cakes of about 75g each.
• Last Updated: 28 August 2019

myfavouritepastime.com