Food: 'Heinous amounts' of butter, cheese and cream feature in cookbook dedicated to spuds 

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 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, better known as Poppy Cooks on TikTok, where her potato videos first went stratospheric.

In lockdown, unable to do her job as a Michelin-trained chef, O’Toole began posting recipes online, and her potato ones most struck a chord. Since then, her videos have totted up a colossal a billion views, launching her as a cookery book writer.

“It’s quite unbelievable,” she says, noting that 200 people or even 20,000 people in a stadium she can just about imagine, but for her videos to have been viewed a billion times, with people “possibly able to recreate the recipes, or enjoy them, or even if they hate it, they’ve still watched it. It’s quite amazing”.

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.

As for that O’Toole surname? Poppy’s dad died some years ago, but she has a half-sister in Ireland.

The doyenne of the food world, Nigella Lawson, has dubbed Poppy the ‘High Priestess of Potato’ (“I will never recover from that,”), O’Toole did a skit with Elmo off Sesame Street: “They’d made their own special potato just for that, they didn’t have a potato puppet prior, which is just like, wow! Elmo is iconic.”

And she’s been able to work with chefs who she grew up watching and iring, like Michel Roux Jr, who she did a YouTube potato cook-off with (“Hilarious,”) and Rosemary Shrager: “I loved her, and now I’m at her birthday party! It’s like, what on earth is going on?! And that’s all genuinely down to potatoes.”

The taters might have something to do with all this success, but really, it’s O’Toole, who grew up in Bromsgrove, near Birmingham. She radiates fun, is positively gleeful in all her videos, and makes you feel included, capable and worthy of making an effort for yourself when it comes to cooking.

“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 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!”

The way she tackles unsolicited comments from internet trolls is also majestic. O’Toole recently rebutted claims from a prominent male chef that sexism isn’t rife in the restaurant world, and in a video titled ‘Nobody asked’, called out someone that had commented on her weight.

“I do quite enjoy them a little bit. Sometimes they’re good for content,” she its ruefully of such comments. “Anyone can always ask me about food. I’m all good for that. Saying, ‘Oh, you look like you’ve put on weight’, that’s completely irrelevant to everything that’s happening in the world right now. Why is that of any importance to you?”

But generally, her content is full of joy and potatoey goodness.

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

RECIPES 

Poppy's 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 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
• 1/2tsp ground black pepper
• 8-10 raw, deveined prawns
• 50g plain flour
• Few knobs of butter
• For the coleslaw:
• Small red cabbage, thinly shredded
• Small white cabbage, thinly shredded
• 1/2 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 oven to 220C/200C fan/425F/Gas 7. Rub your potatoes with oil and a good amount of salt, and pierce all over with a fork. Place on a rack in middle of oven and bake for about 50-60 minutes, until tender on the inside and crisp on the outside.

2. While 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 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 oil into a deep-fat fryer or 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 a tablespoon of the seasoned buttermilk into the flour, 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 jacket lengthways down the middle, open it up slightly and fork in the butter to melt. Top with large dollop of the coleslaw, and crown with a few of those crispy prawns and a drizzle of sauce.

Poppy's Smashed Potato Nachos

These will feed a crowd.

“A nacho dish... without the nachos. Hear me out, though,” says Poppy O’Toole. “Sometimes, I find with nachos that the toppings are insanely good, but 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
• 1/2 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 jalapenos
• Sliced red chilli
• Sliced spring onions

Method

1. Get 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 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 oven to 200C/180C fan/400F/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 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 jalapeno and chilli slices, then drizzle with the cheese sauce and garnish with a sprinkling of spring onions.

Poppy's 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 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 colander. Place colander over 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 oven to 200C/180C fan/400F/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 potatoes have steam-dried, get the hot tray out of the oven, carefully tip in the potatoes and turn to coat.

5. Roast 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.