Spuds are It

A wonderful day in New South Wales for piping hot chips.

I always say that I can tell how skillful a chef is by the way he prepares his duck. And the duck confit at Culina's bears testimony to my belief. This confit is crisp to perfection and yet its morsels of flesh are as tender as a duckling's. Then little wonder that my hubby swears that this restaurant-cum-deli makes the best steaks in town, and I'm really stuck into the bowl of potato wedges that comes with his steak, generously dipping them into tomato sauce made Culina style.

Coming into a close second are the French fries Novus cafe dishes up for its fish and chips. They are fried to pale yellow perfection. And it serves these up with such a generous amount of yummy creamy tartar sauce that there's loads to spare for dipping the chips in.

Now before you decide that I'm probably a grease junkie (which I probably am to a certain extent), I steer clear of deep frying my potatoes at home. Rather, I'd serve them up in just three ways: roast them, bake them or mash them.

I love putting this starchy vegetable into the oven to cook as I'm freed to get on with preparing the second dish. So I'll quarter medium sized potatoes, drizzle them in extra virgin olive oil and generously sprinkle truffle salt with chopped fresh from the garden rosemary. But it'll be whole lot larger spuds if I choose to bake them and when they are done, they are served piping hot with in a thick mixture of yogurt and blue cheese.

But the most tasty way to serve potatoes is to mash them. And first boiling them peeled frees you too to get ready the milk, butter and finely grated parmesan cheese to thoroughly stir into the mash. So getting them ready for the plate takes a little longer... but the end result is definitely worth all the labour - a labour of love, that is.