Feeding My (Potato) Habit

I have a confession to make. I love potatoes. There. Said it. Ok, so it's not on the level of a heroin addicition, or a wicked bad scratch-ticket habit, but still ... in some settings, this carbohydrate-lovin' habit is harder to confess than ... well a lot of things.

I do love a french fry, so in order to be able to consume as much crispy-starchy goodness as possible, I have mastered the art of the oven fry (and other oven-baked potato yummies).

Oven fries are a great way to feed your french fry habit, without stinking up the house with the smell of frying oil or the stigma of deep fat frying. They don't take too long to prepare, and they are really easy to make.

The tricks are as follows:

• Russets (baking potatoes) or Yukon Golds will get crispiest. You can use these techniques with sweet potatoes too. They contain more sugar, so you will want to bake them at a lower temp (around 350-375).
  
• Get your oven nice and hot. Preheat it to 400 before you start cutting the potatoes up.
• Cut your potatoes into similar sizes. You can make fry-like batons, or wedges, cubes (large or small) - even matchstick fries. Just make sure they're all about the same size.
• Oil your potatoes, not the baking sheet. Put the cut potatoes into a bowl with some olive oil. Use your hand or a spoon to toss the potatoes around, you want them each to have a little coat of oil. You use less oil and it's easier than trying to drizzle oil on a buncha little pieces of potato.
  
• Season well. While you're oiling the potatoes, toss in some salt and pepper as well. You could also add other dry spices at this point (paprika, cayenne, etc.).
  
• Make sure each potato piece has adequate elbow room. For adequate browning, you want the hot air in the oven to be able to flow around the pieces. If you have a convection oven, use the convection setting for this.
  
• Turn the potatoes at least once (usually after 10 minutes or so) to make sure they get nice and browned from the hot pan. The only exception would be for the galettes (see below).
  

Here are two sets of pictures, showing different approaches.

First, for oven-fried steak fries, cut your potatoes (these are Yukons) into wedges. Depending on the size of the potato I get 8-12 wedges per potato. Toss them into a large bowl and drizzle on olive oil and sprinkle on salt and pepper. Lay the wedges on a baking sheet and bake at 400 for about 10-15 minutes. Flip them over to brown on the other side.

Make these oven fries by cutting the potatoes into fry shapes, or matchstick fries but cutting the potatoes into ... you got it ... matchsticks. With any shape, the principle is the same: toss with oil, bake spread out on a sheet.

For a super classy approach, make galettes. Cut potatoes into thin slices (a mandoline or V-slicer is good for this). Toss them with oil and salt and pepper in a bowl. Make little flowers with them on a baking sheet (I like to put them on a sheet that's been lined with a Silpat or parchment paper). Bake for about 20 minutes at about 375.

Black Magic

One of the things I love most about cooking, is seeing how simple ingredients come together to produce a dish that's greater than the sum of its parts. Sometimes it feels like magic.

This recipe is one I read on Chocolate & Zucchini, truly a wonderful food blog. I can't urge you strongly enough to wander through it some afternoon. You will find at least a dozen things you must try that instant! Really, it's that lovely a site. Green beans and almonds in a soup don't seem a likely combination. But, think of that classic side dish, green beans almondine - really a classic pairing, and quite nice if prepared with care.

This soup is just great and I have lifted the recipe pretty much word for word from Chocolate & Zucchini. I can't recommend it enough, read the original recipe here. You will be amazed by how nicely the flavors come together: the soup won't taste beany, it will just taste fantastic. We had ours tonight with grilled ham and cheese sandwiches (I love my panini press).

Trader Joe's sells almond meal, which is what I used for this dish. You can make your own ground almonds, by pulsing almonds in a food processor until finely ground.

Green Bean and Almond Soup (a la Rose Bakery, a la Chocolate & Zucchini)

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 onions, peeled and chopped
• 1 garlic clove, peeled and smashed
• 3 carrots, peeled and sliced
• A pound of green beans
• Salt and pepper
• 1 quart vegetable or chicken stock or water
• 1 cup almond meal

Heat the oil in a medium soup pot. Add the onions, garlic, and carrots, and cook over medium heat, stirring every now and then, until softened and very lightly golden. In the meantime, trim the green beans and rinse them well. Add to the pot, season with salt and pepper, and cook for five minutes, stirring from time to time.

Pour in the stock or water, bring to a simmer, cover, and cook for 30 minutes, until all the vegetables are soft.

In the meantime, pour the powdered almonds in a dry skillet. Set over medium-high heat and toast for about two minutes, stirring constantly and watching closely, until golden and fragrant. Set aside in a bowl to prevent overtoasting.

When the vegetables are soft, add the almod meal to the pot and stir well. Remove from heat and let cool slightly. Using an immersion blender or working in batches in a blender, purée the soup until completely smooth. Taste, adjust the seasoning, reheat over gentle heat if necessary, and serve.

4 -6 servings (very nice with a grilled ham and cheese sandwich)

Week of March 25

This weekend was very busy. I didn’t even have time to go the supermarket until Sunday (I usually try to go on Saturdays after I’ve done my meal planning). Fortunately, I have really been loading up the freezer lately so I knew I’d be able to pull together a good meal plan for this week. There’s an (f) after any item that got defrosted for the week. An * shows what I made on Sunday.

Sunday
Dinner
Sauteed haddock with lemon, chilies and spring onions
Potato galettes
Roasted asparagus

Monday
Lunch
Navy bean soup (f)

Dinner
Soup & Sandwich: Green bean soup with almonds* and grilled ham and cheese sandwiches

Tuesday
Lunch
Calzone with broccoli, spinach and smoked mozzarella *

Dinner
The most amazing chili I’ve ever made (f)

Wednesday
Lunch
Monday night leftovers

Dinner
Broiled chicken with Indian spices
Dal (f)
Palak paneer (Trader Joe’s)
Naan (Trader Joe’s)

Thursday
Lunch
Wednesday leftovers

Dinner
Polenta lasagna (f)

Friday
Lunch
Wednesday leftovers

Dinner
Pizza * (made the dough on Sunday)

Turkey Burgers

Thank you Andrea & Mike. This recipe was a referral from them and worked out very nicely. It's based on a MSL Everyday recipe. Find the original recipe here. We had our burgers on onion rolls from the deli.

We ate them with oven roasted potatoes, chopped fennel and cherry. We had fresh spinach, ketchup and lowfat mayonnaise on the burgers.

Turkey Burgers

• 2 slices whole wheat bread, cut or torn into small pieces
  
• 1.25 pounds lean ground turkey (7% fat) (my market only sells turkey in 1.25 pound packages - the original recipe calls for 1 pound of turkey)
  
• 1/2 cup reduced-fat sour cream
• 2-3 tablespoons of your mom's green tomato chutney, if you don't have any of that use prepared mango chutney, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon salt

In a medium bowl, with your hands or a spoon, blend the burger ingredients together. Shape into 4 firmly packed patties. Make sure they aren't too thick, or they will be hard to cook.

Freeze on a baking sheet until firm, about 30 minutes, then wrap each burger in plastic; place all burgers in a resealable freezer bag, label, and date. Freeze up to 2 months.

To cook: Thaw burgers overnight in the refrigerator. Heat broiler with rack set 4 inches from heat. Place burgers on a rimmed baking sheet; broil until firm and cooked through, 4 to 5 minutes per side.

Serve on a toasted roll with all the burger fixings.

Shrimp with Snow Peas

This was a modification of a recipe from this month's Fine Cooking. It's not too far from the original, except the original called for asparagus. Well, the asparagus at my supermarket looked like CRAP, but the snow peas looked okay. So, there you go then ... Shrimp with Snow Peas. We served it over orzo (pasta) which had some chopped parsley and olive oil stirred in. Fairly easy. (Although the difficulty rating does increase as the level in your wine glass gets lower. Ahem.)

Garlicky Shrimp with Snow Peas (or Asparagus)

• 1 pound shrimp, shelled
• olive oil
• 4 cloves garlic, sliced thin
• 2 large handfuls of snow peas (or 1 bunch of asparagus, sliced into 2-3" lengths)
• zest of 1 lemon
• 2/3 cup chicken broth
• 1 teaspoon cornstarch stirred into 1 tablespoon of water (really optional for me - it does add more body to the sauce, but don't get too wound up if you don't have any)
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  

Coat the bottom of a large skillet with olive oil and heat over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot hot, add you shrimp in a single layer. Cook for 2 minutes on one side, and another 1-2 minutes on the other. Remove the shrimp to a plate (they will be a little underdone, s'ok).

Heat a little more oil in the same pan and toss in the garlic, snow peas and lemon zest. Saute for a few minutes, then add the chicken broth. Let everything simmer for a minute or two, then add the shrimp back in.

Toss the shrimp in the broth and get everything heated through. If you are concerned about the doneness of the shrimp, cut one in half to check that they are now cooked through (the smaller the shrimp, the faster this will happen). Stir in the cornstarch mixture if using and squeeze the lemon juice in. Let the mixture simmer a few seconds more - it will thicken a little if you've used the cornstarch. Salt and pepper to taste.

Serve over rice or pasta.