beet and potato kind of girl

I used to hate beets.  I mean HATE them.  I worked as an apprentice to a woman who made me beet and mayonnaise sandwiches. I told her I didn't like beets and that I think mayonnaise is gross but she insisted on making me lunch everyday, couldn't conceive of a different sandwich without meat in it.  So, I ate it, sometimes without chewing.  (I only lasted 6 months or so at that job.) 

But last year since I had some extra space in the spring garden, I decided to grow beets.  I did some research on how to cook them and now I love them!  (not so much on a sandwich, though.) 

Tonight we had beets, beet greens, potatoes, and salmon with Dijon mustard vinaigrette and it was delicious.  (serves 4)

6 or 8 small beets and their greens (it's nice to use a mix of colors, event though I didn't last night.)
6 or 8 small potatoes
1 lb salmon
olive oil
1/2 cup diced shallots
1 tablespoon dried dill
1 tablespoon chopped tarragon leaves
3 tablespoons chopped flat leaf parsley
salt and pepper

Dijon vinaigrette
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 1/2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 cup olive oil

Heat your oven to 400º.
Peel and cut the beets into 1 inch ish cubes, toss them and the shallots in olive oil, season with salt and pepper and put them on one half of a big cookie sheet. Chop the potatoes into same sized cubes, toss them in olive oil, season with salt and pepper and put them on the other half of the cookie sheet.  Roast the beets and potatoes for 20 to 30 minutes until the beets are tender and the potatoes cooked through and lightly browned.

In the meantime: chop the beet greens.  Heat a large saute pan over medium heat, add the beet greens and a little water and steam them for a few minutes.  When they are wilted, stir in the dill, tarragon and parsley and set aside.
Make the vinaigrette.  Whisk together the yolk, mustard, red wine and lemon juice and add the olive oil in a steady stream whisking constantly until thickened.
When the beets and potatoes are done,  turn the oven to broil and cook the fish on the top shelf for about 6 minutes until done.

Toss the beets and potatoes together with the greens and herbs, and put it all on a large plate. Add the salmon, drizzle with the vinaigrette and serve.

YUM!

gnocchi

For a long time I was scared of making gnocchi.  It always seemed like too hard a trick to get those little dumplings the right kind of dense and not have them end up like tiny potato hockey pucks.

I read somewhere that if you add a sweet potato to the regular potatoes, even if you are a less skilled gnocchi maker, you will still end up with good gnocchi because it lightens the dough.  I'm not sure it's true, but it cured my gnocchi phobia, so I'm sticking to it.  (The sweet potato also tastes good.)

Last night Lisa came over and since it's gotten COLD and gnocchi is a great 'stick to your ribs' dish for winter, I made sweet potato gnocchi with corn, hedgehog mushrooms, and sage.

I am sorry there are no photos from the gnocchi making process.  My hands were too sticky and I was the only one home, but there's a pretty good video to help you out here.  (although, I don't shock my gnocchi in cold water after boiling it because Steven says it's just not done.  He grew up in Italy so about this kind of thing, I don't argue.)

Sweet potato gnocchi

3 pounds potatoes, including 1 large sweet potato (all homegrown :) )
1 1/2 to 2 cups flour
1 extra large egg

I like to bake my potatoes because we keep the house pretty cold in the winter and it gives me an excuse to hang out around the oven, but most recipes call for boiling them.  Whichever you decide, it's best to cook the potatoes whole.  It takes a long time to boil them that way, but it's important because keeps the potatoes from getting too watery.

Once your potatoes are cooked, let them cool a little and peel them.  Push them though a ricer on to a lightly floured, big, wooden cutting board.  Sift some flour on top and make a well in the middle.  Crack the egg into the well and using a fork begin to incorporate the flour, egg and potato.  Bring it all together and form a nice soft dough.  Knead the dough for a few minutes until it's dry to the touch.   Cut the dough into chunks and roll it into little snakes about 3/4" around.  Sprinkle the snakes with a little flour and cut them into chunks about 1" long.  Then flick the chunks off the end of a fork to give them that nice gnocchi shape.

Boil a big pot of water and cook the gnocchi in batches, removing them with a slotted spoon when they begin to float.  Toss them with a little vegetable oil, lay them out on a cookie sheet or platter and set them aside.

At this point you can also cover them and store them in the fridge for up to a couple days.

For the corn and mushrooms

2 tablespoons olive oil
5 tablespoons butter
1 pound hedgehog mushrooms torn into bite sized pieces
3/4 cup finely chopped shallots
1 tablespoon thyme
1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage (I don't know if it's fair to call it fresh sage, since I picked it off the frozen plant in our backyard, but whatever.) 
2 cups corn (homegrown and then frozen this September)
salt and pepper
1/4 cup chopped flat leaf parsley

In a big frying pan heat the 2 tablespoons of olive oil.  When it's hot, add 2 tablespoons of butter and wait until it foams and melts and add the mushrooms, half of the thyme and a pinch of salt.  Saute them until they are cooked through, resisting the urge to stir too soon so they don't release their water and get all soggy.  When the mushrooms are done, add the corn and some pepper and stir to make sure it's all mixed together and heated through.  Remove the vegetables from heat and set aside. 

For this next part I used two big, non-stick frying pans, dividing things up evenly between them.  I have a love/hate (mostly hate) relationship with non-stick pans, but for this they are pretty useful because you can get your gnocchi crispy without them sticking.

Heat the remaining butter and when it starts to brown add the shallots, remaining thyme, the sage and a pinch of salt.  When the shallots are soft, add the gnocchi and cook them until they are crispy and brown them on two sides.  When the gnocchi is ready add the corn and mushrooms and saute until it's all heated through.  Stir in the parsley, check the seasoning and serve on a big platter.

This recipe probably serves 8 to 10 people, but if you're serving just 3, don't worry, it's delicious left over.  (I'm having it for lunch right now.)

risotto

 We still have dozens of butternut squashes from the garden so last night I made butternut squash risotto.  It was a whopper of a squash (7 1/2 pounds!) so I made a ton of risotto and will be having it for lunch for the next few days.  It's a good thing it's super delicious!!

I didn't pay that much attention to exact amounts, but this is pretty much what I did.  You could easily halve the recipe for a more normal sized squash!!

1 giant butternut squash
3 cups Arborio rice
12 cups vegetable broth (I used Better than Bullion mushroom base)
1 onion, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
a few glugs of olive oil
5 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons fresh sage, finely chopped


First step is to roast the squash.  Preheat your oven to 400º.   Halve the squash the long way, peel one half and chop it into 1/2 inch cubes.  Toss the cubes in olive oil, and spread them out on one side of a cookie sheet.  Brush the other side of cookie sheet with olive oil and put the other half of the squash, face down, on it.

While you're at it, clean the seeds and roast them.  You can do it the same time you are roasting the squash.  They are just as good as pumpkin seeds!  

When the cubes of squash are cooked and browned, remove them from the oven and continue cooking the half squash until it's tender.

When the half squash is cooked, let it cool until you can handle it easily (I stuck it outside in the cold for about 15 minutes to hurry things up.).  Scoop it out and mash it.

Heat the stock until almost boiling and keep hot.

Heat a few glugs of olive oil in a big stock pot over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until tender.  Add the rice and stir until it's coated in oil and looks translucent.  Add a cup of the hot broth to the rice and stir until the liquid is almost completely absorbed.  Add another cup of broth and repeat until the rice is about half way done.

Add the garlic, ginger and mashed squash with the next cup of stock and stir until well combined.

At the same time, fry the sage in 2 tablespoons of butter until crispy.

Keep cooking, adding a cup of stock at a time and stirring until the rice is slightly firm, but creamy and still pretty wet.  Add the cubes of squash, 3/4 cup of the Parmesan cheese and 3 tablespoons of butter and stir until the cheese and butter are melted and the squash is heated through.

Serve immediately, topping with some fried sage and Parmesan.  Yum!

squash+spinach=yum!

Step one in my quest to use up all our butternut squashes from the garden:  Butternut Squash, Creamed Spinach Gratin.

I found a recipe on epicurious and tweaked it a bit.   Here's what I did.

4 pounds spinach
5 tablespoons butter
1 cup finely chopped shallots
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1 cup heavy cream
5 pounds butternut squash (I think this is two normal sized ones, but was just one of our giant ones.) 
1 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper

First step is to make the creamed spinach.  Every recipe I've ever seen has you boil the spinach first, but I always think that's weird because you're adding water you end up having to take out.  So, after washing it and removing the stems, I just heat a big pan over medium heat, throw in the spinach in with about a tablespoon of water to keep it from sticking, put a lid on and steam it for about 2 minutes.  With this much spinach I had to work in batches, but I still think it's faster than boiling a giant pot of water and blanching it.  And at the end there are fewer dishes.

Once all your spinach is cooked, and cooled a bit, squeeze it out and chop it.

Using the same pan you steamed the spinach in, heat 3 tablespoons of the butter over medium heat.  Add the shallots and garlic and cook until soft, about 2 minutes.   Add the spinach and stir until warmed through.  Add the nutmeg, cream, and about a teaspoon of salt and a little pepper and simmer until the liquid is reduced by about a third and set aside.

preheat your oven to 400º.

Peel your butternut squash and slice it into 1/8" slices. 

Then it's time to assemble the gratin.  Grease a baking dish that's about 9"x13" with a little butter.  Arrange a layer of butternut squash slices, followed by a layer of spinach 4 times, beginning and ending with a layer of butternut squash (5 layers squash, 4 layers spinach), using the funny looking butternut squash slices in the bottom layers and saving the pretty ones for the top layer.

Pour any extra cream left in the spinach pan on top, dot it with the remaining butter and sprinkle with the cheese.

Cover the pan tightly with aluminium foil and bake for about 35 minutes, until the liquid starts bubbling.  Uncover and bake for another 10 to 15 minutes until the top is browned and the liquid thickened.

It's delicious!

hot potato

I have been very neglectful of my Monday food blogging, but in part because I am so inspired by Brandi's wonderful new food blog  I'm gonna try and be a bit better.

So, here's one of my favorite recipes ever: Tomato/Potato Gratin.  It is perfect for this time of year when the days are getting cooler and shorter but the tomatoes in the garden are still coming.  (Yup, they're still coming.)

It takes some time to make, but it's worth it and beautiful and none of the steps are difficult. Another nice thing about it is that it's one of those dishes that is even better reheated, so you can make it the day before a dinner party, reheat it and have it ready when your guests arrive.

I've made something similar with potatoes, rutabagas, parsnips and carrots that is delicious too.  I'll post that recipe when the root vegetables from the garden are ready.  But for now:

Tomato Potato Gratin

5 tablespoons olive oil
9 cups thinly sliced yellow onions
2 tablespoons thyme
2 tablespoons butter
2 1/2 Yukon Gold potatoes
3/4 cup heavy cream
3 1/2 pounds tomatoes
1/2 cup chopped basil
salt and pepper

First step is to carmelize the onions.  Heat 5 tablespoons of the olive oil in a big skillet over high heat and add the onions and one tablespoon of the thyme, a little salt and pepper.  Cook for 5 or 6 minutes, stirring often.

Turn the heat down to medium, add the butter and cooked for another 15 minutes, still stirring frequently.  Turn down the heat to low and cook for another 10 or 15 minutes (still stirring) until the onions are super sweet and a nice golden brown.  Remove from heat and set aside.

Preheat your oven to 350º.

Thinly slice the potatoes and toss them in a bowl with the rest of the thyme, the cream and some salt and pepper.

Thinly slice the tomatoes and arrange them on a big platter or cookie sheet and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Now for the fun part, assembling the gratin.  Spread half the onions in the bottom of the pan.

Alternating them, arrange a layer of tomatoes and potatoes, sprinkle with half the basil and drizzle with a little bit of the cream the potatoes.  It's ok if this first layer is kinda messy because you're going to put another layer on top of it so go ahead and practice making it look nice and use the homely looking tomato slices and potato butts.

Spread the rest of the onions (it's easiest to add them in little clumps) and use a spatula to scrape out and add all the juicy stuff left in the bottom of the pan.

Make another layer of the tomatoes and potatoes, making sure it's pretty (it will still taste good even if it's not!).  Add all the cream from the potatoes and any tomato juice that's left on the plate and sprinkle with the basil and some more salt and pepper.

Smush the whole thing down with your hands so that the cream rises up and coats the top layer.  Cover the whole thing with aluminum foil and bake for 2 hours (you read that right, 2 hours) until the potatoes are tender.

Uncover the pan, (watch out for the steam!) turn the oven up to 450º and bake for another 30 to 40 minutes until the cream has thickened and the top has browned.

Remove from the oven and let set for 5-10 minutes before serving.