Chef Thomas
A Proper Ploughman's Board
A board of good cheddar, thick ham, proper pickle, hard-boiled eggs, and crusty bread. Not cooking so much as assembling with conviction, and one of the finest lunches the English kitchen has ever produced.
Culinary Explorer
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Lancashire Cheese Puffs
Created by Chef Thomas
Crisp, golden puffs of potato and crumbled Lancashire cheese, fried until the outside shatters and the inside goes soft and molten. A northern bar snack made at home, for the people you want to feed.
Appetizers & Snacks
British
Dinner Party
Potluck
30 min
Active Time
15 min cook•45 min total
YieldAbout 20 puffs, serving 4-6
The smell of something frying in a warm kitchen on a cold evening. That's where this starts. Not with a recipe, not with a plan, but with a pan of oil and a bowl of leftover mash and a piece of Lancashire cheese that needed using before the week was out.
Lancashire cheese puffs belong to the same family as croquettes, as arancini, as all those quietly brilliant things made from potatoes and cheese and hot oil. The north of England has been making versions of these for longer than anyone has bothered to write them down. They turned up in pubs, at cricket teas, on the side of a plate at someone's aunt's house. Nobody called them anything special. They were just there, and they were good.
The trick is the cheese. Crumbly Lancashire, the proper sort, with that lactic sharpness that cuts through the richness of the potato and the frying. You don't blend it in. You fold it through in uneven pieces so that when the puff hits the hot oil, some of the cheese melts into soft, salty pockets and the rest holds its shape just enough to give you something to bite into. The outside goes crisp and golden. The inside stays soft. There are few better feelings than putting a plate of these in front of someone and watching them disappear in minutes.
A recipe is a conversation, not a contract. These are forgiving. If the mixture feels too loose, add a touch more flour. If you want more mustard, add more. Your kitchen, your rules. We're only making dinner.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
floury potatoes
Quantity
500g
peeled and cut into even chunks (Maris Piper or King Edward)
Lancashire cheese (crumbly)
Quantity
150g
broken into small, irregular pieces
large egg
Quantity
1
beaten
plain flour
Quantity
2 tablespoons, plus extra for dusting
English mustard powder
Quantity
1 teaspoon
spring onions
Quantity
2
finely sliced
fine sea salt
Quantity
to taste
black pepper
Quantity
to taste
sunflower oil
Quantity
about 1 litre
for deep frying
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| floury potatoespeeled and cut into even chunks (Maris Piper or King Edward) | 500g |
| Lancashire cheese (crumbly)broken into small, irregular pieces | 150g |
| large eggbeaten | 1 |
| plain flour | 2 tablespoons, plus extra for dusting |
| English mustard powder | 1 teaspoon |
| spring onionsfinely sliced | 2 |
| fine sea salt | to taste |
| black pepper | to taste |
| sunflower oilfor deep frying | about 1 litre |
Equipment Needed
- •Deep, heavy-bottomed saucepan for frying
- •Potato ricer or masher
- •Slotted spoon
- •Kitchen thermometer (helpful but not essential)
Instructions
- 1
Boil and mash the potatoes
Put the potatoes in a large pan of well-salted cold water. Bring to the boil, then simmer until they offer no resistance to a knife, fifteen to twenty minutes depending on size. Drain them thoroughly and return them to the hot pan for a minute, shaking it gently over the heat to drive off the last of the moisture. You want a dry, fluffy mash. Any wateriness will make the puffs fall apart in the oil. Mash until completely smooth. No lumps. This matters.
A potato ricer gives the smoothest result with the least effort. If you don't have one, a masher will do, but work the potatoes while they're hot. Cold potatoes turn gluey under pressure. - 2
Build the mixture
While the mash is still warm, stir in the mustard powder, the sliced spring onions, and a good grinding of pepper. Let it cool for five minutes, just enough that it won't cook the egg on contact. Then stir in the beaten egg and the flour. The mixture should be firm enough to hold its shape when you roll it, not sticky, not crumbly. If it feels loose, a little more flour. Now fold in the Lancashire cheese. Don't overwork it. You want pieces of cheese unevenly distributed through the potato, not blended in. Those irregular pockets are what melt and go molten inside the puff.
Crumbly Lancashire is what you want here, not the creamy sort. It has a sharper, more acidic bite that cuts through the richness of the potato and the frying. If you can't find Lancashire, a young Cheshire will do the job, though the character is different. - 3
Shape the puffs
Dust your hands with flour. Take a generous walnut-sized piece of the mixture and roll it into a rough ball. Not perfect. A little irregularity gives you more surface area, more crisp edges, more of the good bits. Set each one on a floured plate or board. You should get about twenty. If you have the time, put the tray in the fridge for fifteen minutes to firm them up. It makes them easier to handle and less likely to break apart when they hit the oil.
- 4
Heat the oil
Pour the oil into a deep, heavy-bottomed saucepan to a depth of about eight centimetres. Heat it to 170C if you have a thermometer. If you don't, drop a small cube of bread into the oil. It should sink, then rise to the surface fizzing steadily, turning golden in about forty seconds. That's your temperature. Too hot and the outside burns before the inside warms through. Too cool and they absorb oil and turn greasy. Trust your eyes and your nose here.
Never fill a pan more than a third full of oil. Keep a lid nearby in case it spits. And never leave hot oil unattended. This isn't fussiness, it's common sense. - 5
Fry in batches
Lower four or five puffs into the oil using a slotted spoon. Don't crowd the pan. They need room to bob about and colour evenly. Fry for three to four minutes, turning once with the spoon, until they are a deep, even gold all over. The outside should be properly crisp, the kind that resists slightly when you press it. Lift them out onto a plate lined with kitchen paper and season with a pinch of salt while they're still glistening. Let the oil come back to temperature before the next batch.
- 6
Serve warm
These are best eaten within ten minutes of frying, while the outside is still audibly crisp and the cheese inside is soft and yielding. Pile them on a warm plate, nothing fussy, and put them where people can reach them. They won't last long.
Chef Tips
- •Seek out a proper crumbly Lancashire from a cheesemonger if you can. Kirkham's is the one I reach for, with its open, buttery texture and that sharp, almost citric finish. Supermarket Lancashire will work, but it won't sing in the same way. The cheese is the whole point of the thing.
- •Leftover mash is perfect here. If you roasted a chicken last night and have cold mashed potato sitting in the fridge, you're already halfway there. Just make sure it was a dry mash to begin with, no cream, no milk, or the puffs will be too soft to hold together.
- •Serve them with something sharp alongside. A blob of apple chutney, a mustardy mayonnaise, or just a wedge of lemon squeezed over the top. The acidity lifts the richness and makes you reach for another one before you've finished chewing the first.
- •If you're making these for a gathering, you can shape them ahead of time and keep them covered in the fridge for up to four hours before frying. The cold ones hold together better in the oil, which is reason enough to plan ahead.
Advance Preparation
- •The potato mixture can be made and shaped into balls up to four hours ahead. Keep them covered on a floured tray in the fridge until ready to fry.
- •Fried puffs can be kept warm in a low oven (120C) for up to fifteen minutes, though they are best eaten straight from the pan. Reheating is not worth the effort. Make them, eat them.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 155g)
Calories
385 calories
Total Fat
29 g
Saturated Fat
8 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
20 g
Cholesterol
65 mg
Sodium
490 mg
Total Carbohydrates
20 g
Dietary Fiber
2 g
Sugars
1 g
Protein
11 g
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