Proper Food Meets A Cookbook Collection

Donna Hennessy is the brain behind A Cookbook Collection.  But even more importantly, Donna is the heart behind her blog.

Because that’s what she is Donna, all heart. She’s friendly, approachable and encouraging. She engages with every one and you can feel the passion in every single one of her blog posts. Her recipes are a feast for the eyes but they are so much more. Every single one of them tells you a bit of a story. When I read A Cookbook Collection, I always feeling like I’m sitting at her kitchen table. And I love a good kitchen table. So it’s with great pleasure that I bring you this recipe from our Donna. I hope you enjoy it, but even more so I hope you make it, because I know I will. 

Donna, how did you come to blogging? 

I was late to discover food as a pleasure, it was always purely functional. I was a fairly plain eater and not very open to discovering new tastes. I was probably in my twenties before I discovered cooking and what a pleasure it could be. It’s a cliche but I started watching Nigella Bites and loved how she made everything look so easy and appealing. So I bought a few books and started experimenting.

When I joined Twitter in 2011 I discovered the world of food blogging. I knew there were bloggers but didn’t know how big a community it was. In 2013 I decided to start my own blog after some encouraging words from Aoife of Babaduck.com and Roseanne from Like Mam Used to Bake. When I look back at my earlier posts now I cringe at the writing and the pictures but I think it shows that I have improved over the years. I love blogging. It makes me challenge myself and keeps me trying new things. It has opened up a lovely community of friendly and supportive food lovers.

And what are you going to cook for us? 

The recipe I am going to share is a very basic but very tasty recipe for Potato Salad. Yep, Potato Salad. Nothing groundbreaking but oh so delicious. It is based on a recipe that my Mam has made for as long as I can remember. And anytime I make it for others, everyone asks for the recipe. None of your healthy yogurt, sour cream or creme fraiche here – this is full on mayonnaise. My Mam always made it from leftover mash so I think there was also plenty of butter in her version. Calling it a recipe is a bit of a stretch as really we just make it by tasting as we go. The key is plenty of seasoning, potatoes need salt. I have added chorizo to it, another relatively recent discovery. Leave it out if you like but add a retro sprinkling of smoked paprika instead.

Make this when you are having your next barbecue and I promise you it will be as popular as the burgers!

A Cookbook Collection’s Creamy Mashed Potato Salad with Chorizo

Ingredients:

• 4 medium or approximately 800g of potatoes – I use rooster

• 50g of cooking chorizo, finely chopped

• 90ml or 6 tbsp of mayonnaise

• 4 spring onions finely sliced

• 1½ tsp of salt

• ¼ tsp of pepper

• A pinch of garlic granules

• Some fresh parsley

Method:

• Start by cooking your potatoes. You can bake them but I prefer to peel them, cut them up and steam for about 25 minutes.

• While the potatoes are cooking, fry the chorizo pieces in a dry pan until they have started to crisp up and set aside to cool.

• Once the potatoes have cooked, drain them and mash in a large bowl. Season with the salt and pepper and garlic granules and leave them to cool.

• Once the potatoes have cooled stir through the mayonnaise and spring onions. Taste the salad to see if it needs more seasoning or add more mayo if you like.

• You can either sprinkle the chorizo on top or mix it through so that the lovely orange oil from the sausage mixes into the potato.

• Garnish with parsley if you like. Cover with cling film and store it in the fridge. Allow it to come up to room temperature before serving.

I can’t recommend that you read more from Donna and the Cookbook Collection directly here. If you do, tell her I sent you.