Mystery Lovers' Kitchen: Potatoes a la Kelly

Saturday, March 14, 2015

Potato casserole: the luck of the Irish

By Victoria Abbott aka Mary Jane amd Victoria Abbott

We were going to call this post The Luck of the O’Feeneys, but we decided to give you a break.

March always gets our Irish up and of course, the Kelly family in the book collector mysteries can trace their red hair back to Dublin in the 9^th century. They’re not much for fancy cooking (unlike what you might find at Van Alst House, for instance), but we think they’ll join us in celebrating an early St. Patrick’s Day with one of our favorite potato recipes.

Potatoes are important in a happy life if you ask us. This dish used to be known as Party Potatoes around here, but we’ve renamed it in honor of the Kelly uncles in the book collector mysteries. We've lightened it up a bit too and it's still very tasty.

It was one of those recipes passed around from friend to friend ‘back in the day’. We’re passing it to you, friends. Don’t forget to think green in the coming week, no matter who you are!

Even the O'Dachshunds are in on the fun (although they didn't get the garlic and the onions).


We love potatoes but these bows didn't stay on for twenty seconds!

We think this is a great way to dress up your potatoes!

Potatoes à la Kelly

8 nice potatoes (russets, Yukon Gold, any yellow-fleshed potato)

8 ounces cream cheese (we used light, but you can suit yourself)

8 ounces sour cream (we used 5 %, but of course, there are lots of options.

2 tsp salt

2 – 3 cloves garlic, finely minced

¼ tsp paprika

1 green onion – green parts only – finely sliced

2 tablespoons butter

Peel and cube potatoes. Cover with cold water, add one tsp of salt. Bring to a boil and cook until tender, about 20 minutes.

Drain and mash. Add sour cream, cream cheese, garlic, paprika and salt.

We used our trusty immersion blender to whip it all together.

Transfer to a buttered baking dish. Top with dabs of butter and green onions.

Bake for 30 minutes until browned on top.

This recipe freezes well and can be made ahead and kept for a day or so in the fridge. We like the leftovers too. Just sayin’ Oops, there was none left. Uncle Kev? Where are you?

Victoria Abbott is the mysterious collaboration between the artist and photographer Victoria Maffini and her mother, the mystery writer, Mary Jane Maffini

That's us! Strangely enough, our three book collector mysteries, The Christie Curse, The Sayers Swindle and The Wolfe Widow all contain lots of food and Irish relatives. We even have two green covers. Coincidence? We think not.

The Marsh Madness is due out in September 2015.

BUT

YOU CAN PRE-ORDER IT HERE!