My mouth is watering as I just look at the photo above. I wish I didn’t enjoy mashed potatoes like I do – I really do my darndest to avoid them if I can just because they’re not all that good for us – well me, anyway. Especially with all the fixin’s, the bacon, chives, cream and cheddar cheese and it’s nothing short of scrumptious, and fattening. Left to my own devices I could probably just eat this for dinner. Period.

So, does that tell you enough that you want to make these? Phillis Carey whipped these up at last week’s “Meat & Potatoes” cooking class. I wanted to lick the plate! They were served with the Beer Marinated Steaks – the little bit of gravy you see at the bottom of the potatoes above is the peppercorn sauce that went with the steaks. Yummy.

Phillis told us something that I’d never heard before – when you cook any vegetable that’s grown below ground (potatoes, carrots, parsnips, beets, tubers of all kinds) they should be brought to a simmer in COLD water. Somehow the cell structure is different for these below-ground tubers that don’t take kindly to being dropped into boiling water. Okay. I can remember that, I think.

Use russets or Yukon types for this – you want that drier, flakier kind of finished potato, not the dense type like white potatoes. Phillis suggested you cut each potato into about 4 pieces, cook just until tender, then drain and allow to air dry for 5 minutes. This helps make these the fluffy type you’re hoping for. It allows more of the water to drain off. At the class the potatoes were simmered in pasta pots (with the insert) and when they were done the helpers just propped the pasta strainer full of the potatoes up on an angle to drain and dry, and the potatoes benefited from the steam below (to help them stay warm). You don’t want to allow them to get cold, because you make this and serve it immediately.

The whole idea is that you want these potatoes to look almost like the baked potato with the toppings – so the cheese is still barely melted, but not streaked through the potatoes at all. It gives a completely different look to the potatoes than making it into a casserole.

Phillis also gave us an option for preparing this ahead. I’ve mentioned it here before, that for Thanksgiving I make the mashed potatoes several hours ahead – with cream cheese, buttermilk, butter, seasonings – then they go into the crockpot to be kept at a low heat for several hours. It’s the cream cheese that’s the secret – it helps keep the potatoes bound together so they stay fluffy and soft.

If you’re not wanting to use whipping cream, try substituting buttermilk in these – that’s my favorite go-to dairy for mashed potatoes. Or maybe half cream and half buttermilk. Buttermilk just lightens up potatoes beautifully. Try it next time if you’ve never done it that way. Have all the ingredients ready (the cheese, the bacon, the chives) when you mix it in – be all ready to serve as these are best when they’re mixed up and 1-2-3 right onto your plate.
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Files: MasterCook 5+ and MasterCook 14 (click link to open MC – 14 contains photo)

A year ago: Corned Beef

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What can I tell you. This relatively simple side dish got raves at the dinner party the other night. I mean, really, it’s just mushrooms, some toasted bread cubes (from some good challah bread), half and half, eggs, Parmesan, a tiny bit of garlic, shallots, butter and parsley! Several people wanted to know if we were going to have the leftovers for breakfast. Uh, hardly. I made nine. We ate nine. No leftovers.

The recipe came from Gourmet in December, 2007. It was in an article about a whole beef tenderloin, so since I was serving fillet, these seemed like a perfect fit. It can be made ahead by a couple of hours (I did) and they’re baked for just 30 minutes before unmolding. I used a knife to make sure each ramekin wasn’t sticking around the sides, then turned the pudding out into my hand, and quickly righted it before putting it on guests’ plates (without the little parchment round in the bottom). If there was anything fussy about it, it was cutting out the parchment rounds that perfectly fit the bottom of the 6-ounce ramekins. But I had a measuring cup that was a perfect size for a stencil and it really only took about 3-4 minutes to cut out the papers.

I’d advise you that if you didn’t do the parchment rounds, likely this bread pudding would stick. But, on the other hand, you could serve them right IN the ramekins and not bother. Just butter the ramekin well. The recipe called for using wild mushrooms. Well, I opted to use button mushrooms instead, and I’ll just say it tasted great, but if you want to forage or pay the premium for fancy mushrooms, it would probably be off the charts wonderful. In any case, you should make these. It can also be made in a single gratin dish (and be passed at the table). It could also stand in as a vegetarian entree as well. Next time I make these I think I’ll add just a little bit of thyme. Just because. Especially if I use button mushrooms again. If using wild mushrooms maybe not.
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A year ago: Fish Chowder with a Thai Twist

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Oh yum. Yes. Ever so good. I didn’t have the ingredients on hand to make the full Calabacitasrecipe that we luv so much (I lacked the poblano/pasilla chiles, fresh corn and zucchini). But I DID have yellow crookneck squash, frozen corn and cilantro, so I created a quick and easy southwestern style calabacitas.

A bit of onion was sauteed, then the squash was added, along with some salt, pepper, some Chilean seasoning called Merken Mapuche Spice, a bit of ground cumin, then corn was added, and a tad of fat-free half and half. At the very end I sprinkled in the chopped cilantro.

The MerkenChile/Mapuche Spice was something I picked up recently at an upscale market. Had never seen it, so therefore I had to try it. According to the label, it’s unique to the Mapuche indigenous people of Central and Southern Chile. The bottle is actually a spice combo: powder derived from the cacho de cabra chile peppers (also called goat’s horn), coriander seeds, cumin and salt. The story of how they make this unique spice is delightful – the Mapuche  are rural people in Chile, and every cook has her/his own combination for merken (sounds like curry powder in India). A small business has sprung up in cooperation with the Catholic Church in Chile to help these indigenous people distribute their organic products. If you’re interested, it’s imported through the Chilean Gourmet. They don’t yet have any recipes at their website, but I’ll keep checking back for them in the future. (They also sell honey and olive oil in case you’re interested!) The photograph of the bottle is from their website.

The merken, though, is fairly spicy, so this Chilean chile pepper must be some hot stuff! But I like it, so I leave it out near my stovetop so I can sprinkle it on other things if I’m so inclined.

What I don’t know is how they use this spice in their cuisine, other than as a sprinkle on just about everything (kind of like we use pepper, I think). Perhaps my use of it in a squash and corn concoction would meet with their approval!

Our son-in-law, Todd, is visiting for a week, and I thought he might just lick this vegetable dish right out of the frying pan it was made in, he liked it that much. It was easy. Really easy, especially if you have frozen corn on hand. I suppose you could even use canned corn, but I wouldn’t recommend it. But make it you should, if you enjoy these kinds of flavors . . .
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A year ago: Mustard & Herb Chicken

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If I hadn’t put a title in there you’d likely not even know what that lump of green stuff IS! Right? Not very attractive in the photo. I think it would be best using this as a bed for something, rather than a side veggie sitting there, green and all. Or else I should have garnished it with some Italian parsley. Or something. Anything. But the taste is what it’s all about, and this DID have good flavor.

I must admit, I’ve never given much thought to turnips. I haven’t particularly liked them, cut up and served like potatoes. I think my mother would occasionally serve them with a Sunday roast. Kind of dried and shriveled. And, they have . . . uhm . . . a kind of bitter taste. And from what I read about them, once turnips get to be mature, they do develop some bitter flavors. But then, I read that turnips have a low glycemic index. They’re only like a half a carb – I think I read that a turnip has less than 10 grams of carbs. So I wondered if I could eat turnips as a sort of carb, like as a mashed potato kind of carb. But I only had two small ones. Hence I prowled in the vegetable drawer and had leeks.

Next step was glancing at some turnip recipes. I turned to Deborah Madison’s tome, Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, and there was a puree recipe. I decided not to follow it closely, but at least used it for preparation advice.

First I cut up the leeks and washed them. Then combined them with water and the turnip chunks and simmered them until the turnips were tender. I pulsed the batch with a bit of chicken broth (very little since the puree was thin enough as it was) and a tiny splash of milk, then some butter, and that was it. Very easy, really. Healthy as long as you don’t count the butter. Ha. Anyway, it was delicious. Really, really good. The leeks did become the predominant flavor, and I hardly knew there were turnips in this. I don’t know if that was the idea or not. In any case, I liked it and would make it again. Next time I’d drain the hot veggies for a minute or two to remove more of the fluid before whizzing up in the food processor.
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The story about this recipe is certainly unusual. (I love these kinds of providences.) My friend Joan H. brought this pasta salad to our investment club Christmas potluck last month. In my effort to pass on carbs, I chose the protein and green salads instead. Then somebody raved about the pasta salad, and someone else told me that I really needed to try it because it was different. Oh my, was it ever! The group eating at my table determined right away there was curry in it, but it took me a few bites before I detected chutney. It was later that I learned it was Joan’s contribution, so I immediately sought her out at our gathering. Knowing that Joan frequently makes her own chutney, I thought perhaps this was a new recipe from her native South Africa. Well, no, it wasn’t. In case you’re interested, I have one of Joan’s recipes on my blog already – her South African Bobotie – a kind of ground beef casserole that is served with chutney.

Joan (pictured right with another friend, Jackie) and her husband Scott put together an extensive trip to Africa some months ago. It was while their group was staying at a lodge in Namibia that they had a buffet dinner at the n’Kwazi Lodge Randu, on the Caprivi Strip of the Okavongo River. One of the owners of the lodge, Valerie Peypers, provided the recipe for Joan. The curry proportion below is a guesstimate, as the original, pencil-scribbled recipe said one spoonful. Well, how big a spoonful is that? In a Namibia kitchen for a much larger quantity that could have been a huge soup spoon. Or, who knows. The curry flavor, however, was quite prominent, so 1 1/2 tsp. may be quite insufficient to your tastes. Use your own judgment on how much to add and taste it as you go! I’ve cut down the sauce part by half to make it a bit more manageable for a home kitchen, but still the quantity of curry powder is up to you. So is the quantity of pasta to sauce mix, but Joan uses the below proportions.

Above left is a photo of the resort itself. The photo at right shows the evening entertainment. Thanks, Scott, for the photos!
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For a dinner party last weekend I wanted a fairly neutral carb. Not some highly seasoned or distracting kind of carb that wouldn’t complement the pork roast with spicy apricot glaze I was serving for a main dish. Rice seemed like the right fit. I turned to a cookbook that I don’t refer to very often – the San Francisco Chronicle Cookbook. Now, brown rice isn’t exactly my favorite thing. It is nutty. Chewy. Healthier for us. But it doesn’t have any flavor to me. White rice is bland too, but with some salt and pepper, and maybe a tetch of butter, I could enjoy some white rice. I mostly don’t fix rice anymore (carbs that I don’t need). But cooking brown  rice that same way kind of leaves me cold. But it’s what I had on the shelf. So I mixed the basmati brown rice with wild rice, onion and fennel, and topped it with pine nuts and Italian parsley.

Nobody at the dinner party said much about the rice – but then the vegetables were festive and tasty, the salad was a big hit, and the pork was amazing, so the fact that nobody said much about the rice is okay. That’s sort of how it should be, I think. I don’t know that I’d add the fennel if I made it again – I couldn’t even taste it. Seems like a waste of a big bulb of fennel to cook the whole thing and not know you ate it, right? The leftovers were tasty enough too. But next time I’d make it with white rice.
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When you want a very tasty, VERY green, and very EASY side dish, this will fill the bill. The only hitch is that it must be made at the last minute in order to keep the peas fresh and bright green. Peas can go from perfect to over-the-hill in no time flat. These were seasoned with some crumbled thyme (dried) and a couple of pinches of sugar. Some salt and pepper and you’re done. I sauteed them in a mixture of extra virgin olive oil and butter.
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You know, this blog thing is always fun for me. I like to write. I enjoy cooking. And not that this post wasn’t fun – it was – once I got past the angst over wanting to write up this dinner at all. So you say, what’s the problem? Well – I’ve already written up these two. Instead of making something new and different, I craved the tried and true. Two of my/our favorite things. The Amazing Glaze steaks and the garlic green beans. You see, we food bloggers are somewhat driven – to keep making new and different things, to keep you, our loyal readers, interested. But just in case you haven’t made these two recipes from my previous postings, I’m telling you again, YOU NEED TO MAKE THESE TWO DISHES. Okay. Whew. Got that off my chest.

THE GREEN BEANS: they’re so easy. So garlicky. So delicious I have a hard time keeping my fingers out of the skillet after dinner is all overwith. Even when the green beans are room temp cold. The other night was no exception. I can eat these refrigerator cold too. Since they’re coated in extra virgin olive oil, they’re just as easy to eat chilled as room temp, or hot. But hot is my favorite. These call for an abundance of garlic, smashed and minced with salt on the chopping board, then lightly sauteed in a big skillet. The green beans are simmered in water until they’re just under-done, drained, and added to the garlicky skillet. Cook until the beans are done and serve hot with just a tiny glitter of kosher salt on top. Click HERE for the write-up about them.

THE RIBEYE STEAK: nothing short of awesome. I spotted some USDA Prime ribeyes at Costco the other day and that’s all it took. Had to have them. And there was no question what I’d do with them. Amazing Glaze. The best part is that I still have some of the sauce (the glaze) leftover from months and months ago when I made them last. It hasn’t even been in the freezer – just in a small container in the refrigerator. In all its barbecue-y, smoky chipotle goodness. My DH fired up the grill, and he used the Hugh Carpenter method of grilling the steaks – over the heat long enough to get grill marks on both sides, then on a rack on a pan off the heat for a few more minutes until the ribeye registers 123° or 124° on the meat thermometer. Briefly it rested under a foil tent (and I spread some of the amazing glaze over the steaks while they rested and re-absorbed all their juices), then we dug in. Click HERE for the write-up about the steaks and the amazing AMAZING GLAZE.

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My cousin Gary has come to visit us for the holidays. He’s very much into photography – has a rather large SLR (single lens reflex) Canon camera and a very sturdy tripod. We took side by side pictures, and oh-my-goodness, is there a difference. Guess I’m going to have to save up to buy an SLR. My little good quality Canon point and shoot (which is fabulous for traveling because it will fit in my purse or pocket) takes good pictures, but nothing like his. So the photo above is one he took. Couldn’t you just dive right into that bowl? Something I noticed right off the bat is the depth of color. My photo I enhanced some, but it still doesn’t have the color of his. I like the bit of fuzzy in the foreground and the background. That’s one of the things that’s hard to do with my smaller Canon. My cuz says it’s a lot to do with “white balance.” Below is MY photograph. Notice the difference in the color.

The yam and carrot mixture was very simple to make, although it’s not exactly like just whipping up the yams. You have to shred/grate/food process the ginger, add a few other things (a splash of soy sauce, salt and pepper, butter, and I added a bit of milk). The ginger is elusive. People couldn’t figure out what it was – thought it was citrus. It does add a hot zestiness to the dish that might not be to everyone’s liking, particularly if people are sensitive to heat. Reduce the amount of ginger if you’re at all concerned. My opinion is that the ginger is what makes it, so certainly don’t eliminate the ginger altogether. This came from an ancient photocopy from my local paper, the Orange County Register. Definitely a good side. Can be made ahead. Is easy. Bake or heat in the microwave, either one. Simple, huh?
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Files: MasterCook 5+ and MasterCook 14 (click link to open in MC – 14 includes photo)

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Oh yes, this is yummy. I needed to prepare a carb side dish to take to a family gathering the other night. Since I’ll be making mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes for a huge family dinner on Christmas Eve, I opted for rice. My cousin is visiting and he’s wheat intolerant (a form of celiac), so while he’s here I’ll be preparing lots of non-wheat items.

The recipe came out of a recent Bon Appetit – they were doing a retrospective of favorite recipes over the history of the magazine, and this one won for 1989. It’s just so good you might be tempted to sit down with just a bowl of this in front of you and not eat anything else. Not quite, but close. I made this to serve 12, and there was just about a cup left. There were 7 adults, so either that tells you it was exceptionally good (yes), or they have the proportions wrong (maybe). Several people returned to the dish for seconds.

There’s nothing too unusual in this (unless you think poblano/pasilla chiles are unusual), and it’s not hard to make. It’s rice, corn (canned, even), the poblanos, sour cream, cheddar and some cilantro. The best part – I could make it ahead – even a day ahead. I didn’t but could have. It bakes in the oven, and I put it in a new thermal serveware “thing” I have that keeps food hot for up to 4 hours. Perfect for us, since we were going to a church Christmas concert that evening and didn’t want to go back home before continuing to our son’s home.

The poblanos must be broiled (to easily remove the skin), but everything else is just so easy. It took me about 25 minutes to make it altogether. Another 25 minutes to bake and it was done. The poblanos this time were hotter than usual (you never know when you buy them whether they’ll be hot or not), so it was definitely for an adult palate. But make this you must.
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