Potato Bread Spread

© All rights reserved, Thorsten Kraska, 2010

The Original title of this recipe is "Waldviertler Erdäpfelkas". Waldviertel is a region in northwestern of Austria. Poatatoes are often called Erdäpfel (apples grown in soil) in Austria. Kas is a shorting for Käse (cheese), but it doesn't mean that there is cheese in it, but the consistency is like that of cheese or reminds one of cheese. I found this recipe in a book for bread spreads. This one is rustic and easy to make. You can easily make it in advance.


Waldviertler Erdäpfelkas (potato bread spread)
(no idea how many this will serve)

200g potatoes (flour type)
1 egg (hardboiled)
50g butter (softened)
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 onion
2 anchovy filets
1-2 pickled gherkins
1 teaspoon paprika powder
1/2 teaspoon caraway (grounded)
1-3 tablespoons yogurt
salt to taste
chives
dark rye bread (or any other kind of rustic bread)

Peel potatoes and cook until soft. Let cool. Then mash the potatoes. Divide hardboiled egg into egg white and yolk.

Chop anchovy filets, onion, gherkins and egg white. If you like you can leave some bigger pieces. If you want a smooth spread chop to small pieces.

Mix softend butter, mustard, hardboiled egg yolk, grounded caraway and paprika powder until smooth. Add the mashed potatoes and mix until well blended. If the mixture is not smooth enough for you, add yogurt until desired consistency.

Then add the ochopped anchovy filets, onion, gherkin and egg white. Mix carefully but do not mash. Add salt to taste.

Serve this spread with your favorite bread. Sprinkle chopped chives over the spread.


About the photo
The idea was quite easy. Because it is a very simple and rustic bread spread I used a rustic and easy looking seeting, which could represent the idea of a quick and easy snack. I used the top down angle with the food not taking much area. So there was more room for the rustic setting. I kept the background mainly in grey tones with the wooden board as main element. I have several of these wooden boards. I buy cheap ones and paint them the colors I like or find appropriate. The main compositional element are lines. There are thre from lower left to upper right (1st by the little board with the bread on it, 2nd made by glass and little plate, 3rd towel). These thre lines are counterparted by the line of the knife. The wooden board is bringing in the vertical line which is also used by the spread (on bread and on plate). The brown plate is taking the lead here, the eye seem to rest on it longer. This was intentionally done, because it gives some tension to the food on the bread. I tried to give the spread on the plate more attention, because one could see the texture of the spread here better than on the bread.
Lighting was easy. Natural hard light from a window on left. A fill light from lower side and another fill light from rigth side to brighten the shadows.