It's All About the Garnish!

Potato Win!

Finally, after weeks of not winning ANYTHING, I emerged victorious from the KSRO Potato Recipe Contest and Cookoff. The full article comes up on Napa.Patch.com later this week, but I can at least share a brief synopsis from the sponsor website and my recipe below. Yay taters!

The KSRO Good Food Hour Potato Recipe Contest & Cookoff recap.

Here's the recipe:

Potato and Prosciutto Rouladen with Red Onions, Radicchio and Roquefort

6 medium red potatoes
1 large red onion, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
2 heads radicchio, chopped
6 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tablespoons flat leaf parsley, chopped
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons butter, divided
1/2 cup Greek-style yogurt
8 thin slices prosciutto (4” wide by 6” long)
2/3 cup Roquefort cheese, crumbled
1 cup panko
1 tablespoon rosemary, finely chopped

Boil potatoes in a large pot until fork-tender, about 30-45 minutes. While potatoes boil, saute onion, salt, pepper and olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat until translucent. Sprinkle radicchio with salt and pepper, then add to the skillet, stirring occasionally for about 3 to 5 minutes or until radicchio is wilted. Remove from heat.

When the potatoes are cooked, drain and return to pot. Add the garlic, flat leaf parsley, 1/2 cup butter, yogurt, salt and pepper. Mash well.

Preheat oven to 500 degrees. On a flat surface, place two slices of prosciutto next to each other, small ends toward you, and overlap long edges by about 1 inch. Repeat with remaining slices so you have four large pieces of prosciutto total. Spread the prosciutto with mashed potatoes, leaving 1 inch of prosciutto exposed on all sides. Sprinkle the bottom third (closest to you) with equal amounts of onions, radicchio and Roquefort. Picking up the end of prosciutto closest to you, roll it over the ingredients and tuck under them, continuing to gently roll away from you, sealing the ends.

Place seam-side-down on an ungreased baking sheet. Melt the remaining butter in a medium bowl in the microwave, then toss with salt, pepper, panko and rosemary. Sprinkle on the rolls, then bake for 5-10 minutes or until panko is light golden brown. Serve. (Serves four)

 

A Foray Into French

In the past year, my cooking skills have advanced quite a bit. Last year, I had never heard of sriracha, bonito flakes or microgreens. Since getting into competitive cooking, my horizons have broadened considerably and I'm always looking for ways to strech myself. So, when I asked my brother and his pescatarian girlfriend over for dinner, I decided to not only serve a variety of fish I'd never dealt with but to also go with a theme:  French.

Choosing a protein is the easiest way to build a meal plan. It sets the tone for the flavor profile and helps when trying to figure out the rest of the food such as the vegetable and starch. I decided on halibut because it's in season and something that would easily pick up the nuances of whatever I cooked it in. Sure, I could do the whole sear-and-bake route, but that's too easy. Watching the various cooking shows such as Top Chef, I knew that poaching was a great way to keep fish moist. But what about imparting flavor? To me, poaching seems just a little more grandiose than boiling! So, because we all know that the secret to French cooking is 'butter, butter and more butter' I decided to poach the halibut in butter, then broil to make them pretty. But every blast of butter needs an acid to showcase it, I went with a lemon gastrique (equal parts vinegar and sugar, plus the zest and juice of one lemon) to drizzle on top.

But what of the side dishes? They needed to be flavorful to be able to stand up by themselves, but without spice because I didn't want to overpower the delicate nature of the fish. For the vegetable, I went with grilled endives, stuffed with a roasted eggplant and garlic puree, topped with caramelized shallots, d'Aubergine blue cheese and fresh tomatoes. They were delicious, with a smoky flavor and supple texture.

Next, the starch...I didn't want to do something trite, like a rice or bread. I felt they would be too heavy and demand the inclusion of spice to keep them bright. Aha! Vichysoisse! To keep things interesting, I first braised fennel and red onions, then added them to the mix, topping the whole thing off with an herbed creme fraiche. The fennel lent just the right amount of warmth to the cold dish, disappearing just before one could slurp up another spoonful. 

I feel really good about this meal; I stepped outside of my comfort zone and worked with ingredients (fennel, halibut, endives) that hadn't yet become part of my repertoire. I can't wait for the next dinner party!

 
 
 
 

 

Christmas Eve 2009: Goat Cheese and Sage Potatoes Gratin

I had sort of a game plan for my Christmas Eve dinner...I was doing Standing Rib Roast and Rosemary Garlic Green Beans with Pancetta, but I was still lacking a starch. Garlic bread wasn't fancy enough, pasta would be too much, rice bores me and mashed potatoes are sort of a cliche. I turned to my trusty source, Epicurious, and used its advanced search option to whittle down my needs. I decided on potatoes, but removed the word 'mashed' and added that I wanted it to be baked. I knew the roast was going to take up my entire oven (I have a tiny antique O'Keefe & Merritt), so I needed something that could be made ahead of time, then warmed back up before serving, while the roast was resting and then being carved. One of the most popular dishes that turned up in my search results was Potato Gratin with Goat Cheese and Garlic. The reviews were great, but suggested that I use more goat cheese and garlic than specified. Also, never being one to follow directions to the letter, I wondered about the nutmeg called for in the recipe. I thought sage would be a better choice and lend itself to the earthiness of the dish. I also briefly toyed with the idea of adding mushrooms as well, but didn't feel like going to the grocery store on Christmas Eve. So, below is my version of the recipe, and it was FABULOUS!

Goat Cheese and Sage Potatoes Gratin

8-10 Red potatoes, sliced thinly using a mandoline

8 cloves of garlic, crushed

11 ounces of chevre goat cheese, crumbled

1 tablespoon of dried sage (or 1 teaspoon fresh)

1 1/2 pints of heavy whipping cream

Freshly ground pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Grease a 9x7 or 8x8 glass baking dish. Mix all of the ingredients except for the potatoes together in a bowl. Place a layer of potato slices on the bottom, slightly overlapping each other. Top with 1/3 of the mixture. Put down another layer of slightly overlapping potatoes. Top with another third of the mixture. One more layer of potatoes, then the rest of the mixture. Bake for an hour. Cover with foil and bake another 15 minutes. You can either serve it immediately, or let it hang out on the counter until 15 minutes before dinner, then warm it back up and serve.

(My camera batteries died before I could take a photo, so here's how it looks on Epicurious.com)

The BEST Dish to Bring to an Office Party: Bacon-Stilton-Garlic Mashed Potatoes!

Times are a little tight. Businesses are downsizing and/or tightening the budget belt. And, that correlates directly to the fanciness (or lack thereof) of The Office Party. What used to be a catered affair is now most likely a potluck effort, and you and your coworkers will be invited to bring a dish to share with others.

I normally don’t have a problem with potlucks (hosted one last weekend, in fact), but when you’re asked to do so during the workweek, when you have many other things to do after work and you certainly don’t want to get up early, it chafes a bit. What can one make ahead of time that will hold, be easy to heat up and not cause an outbreak of botulism? I’ve got your answer below. AND…it can serve as a side dish for your own dinner the night before (just take out your portion) so you’re really not doing any extra work.

Special equipment note: You must have a crock pot for this!

* Boil red or white potatoes in salted water until tender when poked with a fork, about 45 minutes to an hour. How many? I calculate two medium red potatoes per person, and figure that not everyone will have some. So, if there will be 20 people, I would suggest cooking for 10, about 20 potatoes. Remember, the other ingredients will bulk this up.

* While you’re boiling the potatoes, prep this:

1 package bacon (cook then chop into bits)
½ cup chopped green onions
8 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tsp Kosher salt
1 tsp freshly ground pepper

* When the potatoes are done, drain them and mash them with:

½ cup milk
8 oz. whipped cream cheese
1 stick butter

* Add the rest of the ingredients and mash some more. Take out whatever you’re going to have with dinner, and put the rest in the crock pot. Put the lid on the crock pot and let the whole thing cool down for an hour, then put it in the fridge. The next morning, take it out, put it into the heating element and bring it to work. Plug it in on low, stirring every 45 minutes.

* Just before serving, garnish with a few sprinkles of gorgonzola or stilton cheese.

From the Dinner Party: Shallot-Sage Smashed Potatoes

I love this dish because

1) It's easy

2) It's delicious

3) It seems fancy with semi-exotic ingredients

If you can boil potatoes, scoot things around in a pan, then mash them all up together, you can do this. Here's how to make enough for four:

* Put 8 medium sized red potatoes in a large stockpot and add water, enough to cover by a few inches. Add a tablespoon of salt and boil for 45 minutes, or until a fork poked in them slides out easily.

* Meanwhile, sautee four to six thinly sliced and chopped shallots in about a teaspoon of butter. When they've wilted and the edges begin to turn golden, throw in a teaspoon of chopped sage, a teaspoon of sugar, and a tablespoon of rice wine vinegar. Stir for about five more minutes, and remove from heat.

* When the potatoes are done, drain them and put them back in the pot with a cube of butter, half a brick of light cream cheese and the shallot sage mixture. Smash everything up with a potato masher, and add liberal amounts of salt and pepper.

* Garnish with sprigs of sage and serve!

Potato Bomb

No, 'Potato Bomb' isn't the name for some awesome starchy dish stuffed with fried and fatty things. Unfortunately, it's what we had in our kitchen last night after a mishap with a couple of tubers.

In my haste to get a couple of Idaho baking potatoes into the oven, I forgot to poke them. Thusly, without a 'blow hole' to let steam out, the steam escaped via explosion. Don't let this happen to you:

The blast was so loud, the husband and I were convinced someone was directly outside the house shooting skeet. From now on, no potato will go un-poked.