Potato Tacos

I'm really into bean-alternative, vegetarian taco fillings right now. If it's even possible to be "into" a category as vague as that one. Recently I made acorn squash enchiladas, which were terrific. I didn't manage to get a picture of them, but the recipe was basically the same as the acorn squash tacos I made last Fall, only covered with red sauce and cheese, then and baked for 15 minutes. And I love to order the potato tacos from Irazu.

The other night I wanted to try making an approximation of those tacos with their light, potato-y filling and complex mole dipping sauce. But it was evening and we were already hungry by the time I realized how seriously involved mole was. Lacking the sauce, I decided to focus more flavor on the filling itself by roasting the potatoes with a mixture of dried spices.

The result was nothing like Irazu's version, but delicious still.

4 medium potatoes, chopped into 1/2 inch cubes
1 small onion, quartered
2 large cloves garlic, peeled and cut in half
1 banana pepper, roughly chopped
1/2 red bell pepper, roughly chopped
olive oil
salt
red pepper flakes
cumin
coriander
paprika
oregano
1/2 cup or more milk
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup cheddar cheese
lettuce
salsa

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Toss the potatoes, onion, garlic, and peppers with olive oil, then spread them out in a single layer on a large baking sheet. Sprinkle them generously with salt and the various dried spices. I didn't include amounts here, but the idea is to give the vegetables a pretty good spice-coating.

Roast for about 30 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender.

Mash the roasted potatoes, onion, garlic, and peppers with the milk, sour cream, and cheese. This may be a bit difficult because roasting dries out the vegetables. I enlisted, with restraint, the help of an immersion blender -- which I wouldn't recommend for regular mashed potatoes since it makes them kind of gummy.

Fill flour tortillas with the mashed potatoes, lettuce, and salsa (or whatever garnishes you like!)

Makes about 10 small tacos.

Baked Eggs with Red Russian Kale, Apple, and Gruyere

This dish is a riff on my friend Emily's delicious breakfast sandwich and the baked eggs I made last Easter.

1/2 pound red Russian kale, stems removed, leaves chopped
1/2 golden delicious apple, peeled and chopped
2 cloves garlic
4 shallots
2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for the baking dishes
four pieces thinly-sliced soft bread
4 eggs
1/4 cup shredded Gruyere
1 teaspoon chopped fresh sage
salt, pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Oil two small casserole dishes or four ramekins.

Saute the kale with the apple, garlic, and shallots until the kale is tender but still has a bite. Place the bread slices into your baking dishes. If you are using small ramekins you may need to cut the slices in half and curl them around the dish. Or you could chop the bread into small cubes and use those to line the bottom of your dishes.

Spoon the kale mixture onto the bread, followed by the Gruyere and sage. Crack the eggs on top of all, being careful that they don't spill out the sides of your dish. Season to taste and bake for 15-20 minutes. I overcooked my eggs because I wasn't paying attention. Don't do as I did!

Chocolate Stout Cake

My aunt, uncle, and cousin just got back from a really remarkable trip to South Africa, complete with ostrich rides and fence-free rhino sightings. We went over to their house for dinner recently -- an African-themed dinner which was roundly wonderful, but whose highlight, for me, was the peanut sweet potato soup. I don't think I've ever had peanuts in quite that way and it was terrific. Inspiration for a future post...

For dessert, I made and brought this cake. And, an aside: I really need a cake carrier. Riding with this uncovered on my lap from the West Side to the North Side was kind of harrowing.

It was a really chocolatey cake. Dense, moist, with depth. And beer-as-secret-ingredient made it novel and fun.

I made the Smitten Kitchen version with just two variations: whole grain pastry flour instead of AP and an organic chocolate stout from the Green Grocer in place of Guinness.

Beet Farm Salad

This salad came mostly from last week's CSA box. I can't say enough good things about Angelic Organics. Every bite from their farm is the most delicious bite.

This salad contains:
1 cup fresh, uncooked spinach
one cooked golden beet and one red beet, chopped
4 large scallions, chopped*
2 tablespoons goat cheese, crumbled
2 tablespoons pine nuts, toasted
salt, pepper
and was dressed simply with a tablespoon or so of balsamic vinegar and a couple swirls of extra virgin olive oil.

Serves two.

* The scallions came from our wonderful neighborhood organic grocer.

Kale Cauliflower Mash

This cauliflower mash is a delicious alternative to mashed potatoes. A perfect Monday night dinner to reign in a weekend of chocolate-stout cake-eating (coming Friday!).

1 head cauliflower, cut into small florets
olive oil
salt
pepper
4 cloves garlic
1 head kale, tough stems removed, leaves chopped
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup parmesan

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Toss the cauliflower with some olive oil, salt, and pepper and spread it out in a single layer on a cookie sheet or in a roasting pan. Roast for 30-45 minutes, until tender and beginning to brown.

Meanwhile, preheat a saute pan at medium-high then add more olive oil, kale, garlic, salt and pepper. Saute for a few minutes, until the kale is tender.

When the cauliflower is done roasting, mash it with the milk and parmesan. I followed a potato masher with an immersion blender. If you steam or boil the cauliflower it will be easier to mash, but you'll lose the delicious roasted flavor. Once mashed, stir in the kale.

Potato Leek Gnocchi

The last time I made gnocchi, it didn't turn out very well. Happy to report this time things went quite differently.

This week's CSA produced a few potatoes and a leek, and at first I thought to make a soup with the classic combination. But though the night temperatures have reached all the way down into the 50s, I wasn't ready for soup. I suppose I could have served it cold, but these are no dog days either.

So I set out to make gnocchi, what seemed like a comfortable ease-into-fall dish. It turned out to be exactly that. Welcome and warm.

4 medium redskin potatoes, not peeled
salt
3/4 - 1 cup flour
3 tablespoons butter (divided)
1-2 leeks, sliced lengthwise, then chopped into thin half-moons
5 sage leaves, julienned
1 tablespoon olive oil

Boil the potatoes in salted water until very tender. Peel them with a small paring knife, then mash. Add flour and stir until a dough forms. Knead lightly, and roll the dough out into long, narrow logs, about a 1/2 inch thick. Cut into inch-long pieces. These pieces are traditionally rolled off the tines of a fork before cooking. Traditionally.

Meanwhile, saute the leeks with a pinch of salt in 2 tablespoons butter over medium heat. Once the leeks soften, stir in the sage, cover, and turn off the heat.

Once you form the gnocchi, you could boil them in salted water until they float for a minute or so. But I decided to saute instead: heat one tablespoon olive oil and one tablespoon butter in a large nonstick pan. Place the gnocchi into the pan in a single layer and cook for about 2-3 minutes per side. You'll likely have to do several batches. I did three, and found I had enough fat to get the job done. It's possible you may have to add a little more.

When all the gnocchi are nicely browned, combine them with the leeks and serve.

Serves about two people, depending on the size of your potatoes, (or stomachs).

Arepas

I made these arepas last week, and they were great, even though I burned them a little.

Kale and Poached Egg over Barley

This was maybe the best thing I've ever eaten. And that was a big surprise to me, because I don't often cook grain-anchored dishes like this. Clearly, something I need to experiment with more.

1 cup uncooked barley
vegetable stock
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups uncooked kale, tough stems removed, leaves chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
salt, pepper
2 eggs poached (I used this method, and also took inspiration from that dish for this one)
1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted

Cook the barley in the vegetable stock. I left the amount of stock off because I used a rice cooker for this, but if you use a pot-on-the-stove, you may need up to three cups of stock/one cup of barley.

Meanwhile, preheat a saute pan at medium-high then add the olive oil, kale, garlic, salt and pepper. Saute for a few minutes, until the kale is tender but still a bit chewy.

Place the barley in the bottom of a large bowl, followed by the kale, the poached egg, and finally, the pine nuts.

Serves two, heartily.

Guest Post: Green Mango Corn Salsa

We spent Labor Day with my sister-in-law, brother-in-law, and our two super-great nieces. We had a lovely time, and Karin (today's guest-blogger-in-law) made us two lovely dinners. To go with the second meal: this salsa, which was straightforward and delicious, with a nice balance of tangy and sweet.


I rarely make anything I see someone on a cooking show demonstrating, but on occasion, a recipe is presented that is so simple, so foolproof, and so easy to remember, I can't help but give it a try. This applies to the delicious-looking semi-homemade* corn and mango salsa I watched someone prepare one morning on the Today show. Since I happened to have the ingredients on hand, I mixed up a batch that evening to go with dinner. It turned out great. So great, in fact, I made it a second time for my brother and sister-in-law while they were in town last weekend. Actually, Becky did most of the preparation the second time. I supervised. And drained the corn.

Here's my version:

1 small can no-salt added corn, drained
~1/2 jar green salsa (I used Archer Farms roasted tomatillo salsa verde)
1 mango, peeled and diced
Mix together and serve.

After tracking down the original recipe in preparation for this post, I discovered I had left out a couple of the original ingredients (namely the lemon and lime juice) and changed the proportions slightly. You can find the original (hidden within a fish taco recipe) here.

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*Editor's note: speaking of semi-homemade, have you seen this? DELICIOUS!

Salad Pizza

As far as I know, salad pizza was invented by New Jersey. My friend Gina, another of Jersey's sparkling creations, confirmed this history one hot night in Chicago. So it must be true.

Before I moved to Chicago, I lived in Brooklyn and commuted 80 miles a day to my job in New Jersey. It was my first job out of college and I was lucky to have it. But that commute! That commute that led to me being rear-ended on the Staten Island Expressway! That led me to seek physical therapy! Which, oh irony!, was precisely the business that my company was engaged in.

But no matter the commute, because in Morganville, NJ, I had access to salad pizza. Which I (big-L!) Loved. When I first heard of it, I imagined some wilted, creamy-dressed, iceberg sogg-fest. But what I got instead was a beautiful crispy-crusted pie, piled high with tender greens, and dressed with a sweet [heavy-on-the-]balsamic vinaigrette (or, actually, it might have been a reduction -- I can't remember now).

For this crust, I used the same recipe as for the grilled pizza of lovely mid-Summer. But prior to baking, I brushed the dough with olive oil and threw some minced garlic on top of that.

1 1/8 cups warm water
1 packet active dry yeast
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons olive oil (plus more)
2 cloves garlic, minced

With your pizza stone inside, preheat your oven to its hottest setting.

Mix the yeast and water. Set aside. Put the flour, sugar, and salt into a food processor and pulse a few times to combine. With the processor running, add the olive oil, then the water-yeast solution (once the yeast is dissolved). Continue with the machine running until a ball begins to form. Remove the dough and form it into a ball, then dump it into a large bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm, non-drafty place for an hour or so.

Roll out the dough, brush with olive oil and sprinkle with garlic, then bake on a preheated pizza stone for about 10 minutes. Makes two crusts.

Here, I made a vinaigrette, but you could also try a balsamic reduction for a thicker dressing. Maybe I'll try that next time.

3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon real maple syrup

Whisk ingredients and toss with fresh salad greens. Pile the salad on top of the baked crust, top with tomatoes and grated parmesan.

Zucchini Fries

Need something to bring to a barbecue? How about these?

Salsa

Fresh, good, in-season ingredients are the key to good salsa (and good raw anything). So, northerners, make these now, when corn and tomatoes are as they won't be for another year. Happy Labor Day!

4 tomatoes, seeded and roughly chopped
3/4 bell pepper of your choosing, roughly chopped
1/2 jalapeno, roughly chopped
2 shallots, quartered
1 clove garlic
1/4 cup cilantro
juice of 1/2 lime
1 tsp maple syrup
salt + pepper

kernels from 3 ears of corn
3/4 bell pepper of your choosing, roughly chopped
1/2 jalapeno, roughly chopped
2 shallots, quartered
1 clove garlic
1/4 cup cilantro
juice of 1/2 lime
1 tsp maple syrup
salt + pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil

For each of these recipes: Use a food processor to chop up all the vegetables (except the corn kernels), then stir them together in a large mixing bowl. Add the lime juice and (my secret ingredient) [real] maple syrup. Season to taste with salt and red or black pepper. Stir some olive oil into the corn salsa if it's dry.

Baguettes

Overnight baguettes from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. These turned out so well! Chewy and crusty.