Week 18: Roasted potatoes with spinach

Vegetable ingredient: Potatoes, spinach


Another potato recipe! It was Memorial Day weekend and my brief was to make something that would go well with steak and brats (very appropriate, since "The World's Greatest Brat Fest" is held annually on that weekend). Nothing easier than that! Let me make my signature dish: Roasted potatoes, this time with Spinach. This is the recipe I followed this time, well, sort of. I'm getting adventurous!

Ingredients: 

• 6 small red potatoes, quartered (I used a 1.5 lbs bag from Trader Joe's)

• 2 tablespoons butter (I used olive oil instead)

• 2 cloves garlic, minced (I used one cube of Dorot's frozen garlic -- the whole kitchen smelled of garlic, the food -- not so much)

• 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, chopped (I used dried rosmarin)

• sea salt and ground black pepper to taste

• 1 cup fresh spinach leaves (I used 2.5 cups and sprinkled some grated cheese on top)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Place the potatoes in a single layer in a ceramic casserole dish. Melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add garlic, and cook until golden. Stir in the rosemary, and cook just until fragrant. Pour over the potatoes in the dish. Season with sea salt and pepper. Roast uncovered for about 30 minutes in the preheated oven, until the potatoes are fork tender. Remove from the oven, and toss with the spinach leaves. Return to the oven for 1 to 2 minutes, until the spinach has wilted.

The result was reliably great. Crisp, aromatic potatoes and some greens as well.

Verdict: 9/10. Any time again. 

Week 17: German potato salad

Vegetable ingredients: Potatoes and pea shoots


More potatoes! This time, a potato salad. Not with mayonnaise-based dressing, but warm and with a vinaigrette, German style.

Ingredients:
2 lbs potatoes
1 cup broth
4 TS vinegar
1 ts mustard
pepper
1 onion
chives (replaced with pea shoots)
3-4 TS canola oil or similar

Preparation:
wash potatoes, add salt, boil for 15-20 mins (I did not peel them)
heat broth, add vinegar, mustard, salt, pepper, onion
slice potatoes
pour dressing over potatoes, add oil, onion, chives

 

Since this is really only a side dish, I decided to add store-bought meatballs and "meatless meatballs" from Trader Joe's.

Verdict: 8/10 (for the salad)

Week 16: Roast cod with potatoes

Happy Mother's Day!

I had a request for another potato dish, so potatoes it was again. Another recipe from Mark Bittman: Roast cod white fillets with potatoes. It couldn't get any easier!



Ingredients:

5 table spoons olive oil
2 lbs potatoes (5 medium-sized potatoes)
cod fillets [fresh fillets were sold out at Whole Foods, so I used frozen fillets, 340g for two]

salt, pepper, chives

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 F. Place 4 table spoons of olive oil in a large baking dish (I'm not a fan of Rachel Ray's shows, but I love her orange baking dishes). Place dish in the oven while it preheats. Peel the potatoes (I use my Roesle swivel peeler) and slice them about 1/8 to 1/4 inch. This is when my new Progressive mandoline, a mother's day gift, came in handy! Remove pan from oven, stir potatoes into oil, sprinkle liberally with sald and pepper. Return dish to oven. After 15 minuts, turn potatoes gently with a spatula. Put in the oven for another 15 minutes, turn again. Once potatoes look browned (after 30+ minutes), place the cod on top,  sprinkle with olive oil. Roast for another 10 minutes, depending on thickness of fillets. Sprinkle in chives. Done. I served the dish with buttered peas.

 

 

Verdict: 7.5/10

The potatoes were great, the fish was a bit dry on top. Overall, however, a satisfying dish, especially the potatoes, and so easy to make! The little person ate exactly one potato slice (because it looked like a potato chip). She said it was better than she had thought. I guess that qualifies as a compliment.

Week 15: Simple Potato Gratin

I had a request for "more potatoes, please." So I checked out several potato gratin recipes. I settled on this one: Simple potato gratin.

Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons butter, cut into pieces, plus an additional pat for buttering gratin dish
• 4 large yellow potatoes* (about 1 1/2 pounds), peeled [I used 5 potatoes]
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 cup milk, half-and-half or cream (if using something richer than milk, you can skip the butter)
• 2 ounces cheese, grated or crumbled (Parmesan or Gruyere are the classics, but that doesn’t mean that goat cheese, blue cheese or any of your favorites won’t work as well) [optional]
• I also included 1/2 lb mushrooms (sliced and sauteed) and about 3 table spoons of chives (getting adventurous, alright!)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350°F and grease a 9- by 12-inch gratin dish with the pat of butter. Slice the potatoes as thinly as you can (a mandoline works great for this) and arrange them in a layer, overlapping the edges slightly like shingles. Sprinkle the potatoes with salt and freshly ground pepper and don’t be stingy — this is where the bulk of your flavor comes from and a third of the cheese before before repeating this process with your remaining potato slices. (If you are using a sauteed vegetable filling, this is where you’d want to add half of it.) Depending on how thinly sliced your potatoes are, you should end up with approximately three layers, with a third of the cheese between each layer. [This kind of worked out for me. I used the mushrooms between the 2nd and the 3rd layer.] Reserve the last third of your cheese for later.Carefully pour the milk over the potatoes. It should come up to the bottom of the top layer of potatoes; add more if this was not enough. Dot the top of the gratin with the three tablespoons of butter and bake it for about an hour. Halfway through the baking time, take the gratin dish out of the oven and gental press the potatoes flat with a spatula to keep the top moist. Sprinkle the remaining cheese on top of the gratin for the last 15 minutes of baking. The gratin is done when the potatoes are soft and the top is golden brown.

 

Verdict: 9/10


Very satisfying. We both went for seconds and there wasn't much left afterwards. Another dish one could easily prepare in advance. Definitely better with chives!