A salad for an interesting potato

FREE TO READ: a springtime recipe from my book Rough Patch to celebrate it turning one month old

Mar 12, 2025

Rough Patch is a month old

My book, Rough Patch, a memoir with recipes, is one month old. And goodness me, it’s been quite a month. Here’s a summary:

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Sorry to gush but…

Look, I know these things always sound icky and cringingly #blessed, but I’m genuinely gobsmacked by the support I’ve had and the lovely comments from people who have made the effort to get in touch having read Rough Patch. Thank you all.

Now I’m at the coalface all non-celeb’ authors find themselves at - pressing copies into the hands of strangers, counting every sale, begging people to ‘rate and review’ (which you can do here and here or for the audiobook here, please and thank you). I was especially delighted with this reader review:

The Eat, Pray, Love of our time. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I am crossing my fingers it sells even 1% of what that book did.

But it’s all happy work and I love it, so watch this space for a spring and summer schedule packed with festivals, supper clubs, bookshop talks and events.

Buy Rough Patch

To celebrate, this month’s free recipe is taken from the book. You’ll find a few more recipes to try here as well:

Publication Day Special

February 6, 2025

Read full story

But first, a quick bit of housekeeping

I’ve got a bit out of synch with what you receive when lately, haven’t I? (What? You hadn’t noticed?) Well, that’s because I’m rearranging things a bit. So, once I’ve finishing the spring clean, here’s what I’ll be sending out:

Free subscribers: one free recipe + one newsletter a month
Paid subscribers: a weekly recipe with recipe card. One of which will be a live cookery class from the greenhouse (like this). Plus the monthly newsletter. For 76p/week. Bargain.

So very little change for you, but a sense of neatness and order for me.

A salad for an interesting potato

Most of the manuals will tell you to plant different potatoes at different times: beginning with first earlies (new potatoes) in mid-March, following with second earlies (also new potatoes) in mid-April, and then maincrop (old potatoes) in mid-to-late April. But we’ve already established the problem with manuals, so I plant the whole lot anytime in mid-to-late April.
That’s if I grow them at all. A potato, in my view, is a potato, whether shop- bought or home-grown (controversial, I know) so I often don’t bother and save the space for something more interesting. If I do find space for potatoes, it will be for a row of something interest- ing, like Anyas, which are nutty and creamy. I will admit, digging up their caramel, pink-flecked tubers in August is like digging for diamonds. I do it more for the joy of harvesting than the eating.
(Extract from Rough Patch, by Kathy Slack)

Serves 4 as a side

300g Anya potatoes
150g broad beans, podded weight
2 egg yolks
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
Up to 100ml of your best extra virgin olive oil
6–8 radishes, trimmed and halved
Small handful of lambs lettuce, baby spinach or salad leaves
4 spring onions, finely chopped
1 tbsp finely chopped parsley
1 tbsp finely chopped mint
2 tsp baby capers
3–4 cornichons, sliced

Place the whole potatoes in a pan of cold, salted water, bring to the boil and cook for 15 minutes or until a skewer pierces the middle without effort.

When the potatoes have just a couple of minutes to go, add the broad beans for 2 minutes. Drain and tip into a serving bowl, halving any large potatoes as you do.

Meanwhile, make a mayonnaise. Put the egg yolks in a bowl and whisk in the apple cider vinegar and a pinch of salt. Ever so gradually, whisk in the extra virgin olive oil, pouring it in a thin stream so the mix doesn’t separate. Yes, you can do it in a food processor, but where’s the romance in that?

Spoon the mayonnaise into the bowl of warm potatoes.

Add the radishes, leaves, spring onions, herbs, capers and cornichons and toss gently. Serve while still warm.