Recipe #5 - Pan Haggarty

Our mate Joff came round for tea last night so we had a very nice Pan Haggarty. The meal had to be veggie so the only change I made was to use groundnut oil with a dot of butter instead of lard to fry it in. Pan Haggarty is a North-Eastern dish (from Newcastle, I think) and is simply finely-sliced potato and onion layered up in a frying pan with grated cheddar, adding plenty of seasoning on the way, then frying it slowly until it cooks through and then popping it under the grill. The only difficult part would be the slicing-up of the veg, but luckily I've got a slicing attachment for my Kitchen Aid so it was all done in 5 minutes!

In Yorkshire, this dish is called a Pan Aggie - my uncle used to cook it. His way was to layer up potato, onion, garlic, butter and bacon, and bake it in the oven. This way is just as tasty and quite different, but it does take rather a lot longer to bake in the oven than it does to fry on the hob.

#5 Pan Haggarty: 4/5 - a great supper dish - particularly if you need to keep to a tight budget

Here's what Joff said:
"I was very excited at the prospect of this dish and I wasn't disappointed. I'm told it was simple to make but I couldn't have done it! The spuds were particularly perfect. Its the sort of dish one should eat after a brisk walk on a cold, windy day. I shall give it a 4.5/5. Only reason the 0.5 is 'missing' is because there wasn't any left over for a doggy bag!"

And Greg:
"My ruthless critique of Pan Haggarty is . . . yum! Basically it's 'I'm getting a divorce and I've lost my job' style food. Comforting in the extreme. The stronger the cheddar the better I'd say and fanzy pickles/relishes are de rigour. I could a whole one to myself. I'd be sensational and go with garlic too though I reckon. Easy peasy too, esp with a Kitchen Aid slicing machine. 4/5. Well done chef."