Posted on 06/24/2015 4:55:21 PM PDT by Jamestown1630
I once attended a wonderful wedding dinner given by a Greek lady for a friend of mine. The marriage was a late-life second marriage for both the bride and groom, and they just went off to the courthouse in the morning and 'got hitched'.
That evening, they were feted with the first authentic Greek dinner I'd ever enjoyed, with about fifty people seated at numerous tables that were set up in the home of the hostess. This lady and her husband managed the cooking and serving of the dinner alone, in a feat of efficient, elegant hospitality that left me in awe. They served leg of lamb, a Greek salad, and potatoes like none I'd ever tasted.
There are many recipes for these Greek-style garlic- and lemon-flavored roasted potatoes, most of them pretty much the same. Some recipes include a little lemon rind in addition to the lemon juice; and some have more or less garlic. I'm still trying to get the balance of garlic and onion down, and next time I'll use more garlic; but this recipe has turned out very well. It's adapted from 'Greek Meze Cooking: Tapas of the Aegean', by Sarah Maxwell:
Garlic Roasted Potatoes
2 lbs. large, waxy Potatoes (like Yukon Gold), peeled
1/4 C. Olive Oil
1/2 C. freshly squeezed Lemon Juice
2 tsps. dried Oregano (If you grow or have access to fresh oregano, use twice as much)
3 Garlic Cloves, minced
Salt and freshly ground Black Pepper, to taste
1/2 C. Water
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Cut the potatoes into quarters or eighths lengthwise, and place in a large baking dish (Use a dish or pan large enough to have the potatoes all in one layer.)
Add the remaining ingredients, and stir to coat (hands are best for this ;-)
Bake at the top of the oven, uncovered, for 1 hour, or until lightly golden, crisp on the outside and soft inside. You need to watch this, so that the potatoes don't become too dry; if they do, rearrange them and add a little water during cooking. A little bit of slight burn on edges doesn't hurt, but you don't want them to be so dry they stick to the plate and can't be turned.
Here is another recipe for the same thing, with slightly different measurements, which I will try next:
http://www.food.com/recipe/greek-potatoes-oven-roasted-and-delicious-87782
When I first became interested in Asian food, and was experimenting with various levels of vegetarianism, I read the exhaustive 'Book of Miso', by William Shurtleff. Miso is a savory seasoning made from fermented soybeans, and used very much in Japanese cooking.
From this book, I learned to make Miso Soup, and the Dashi base of that soup; as well as how to handle Tofu. After learning those basics, I was attracted to a potato recipe in the same book that turned out really well.
The book has now been made available as a free PDF, and 'Potatoes with Miso White Sauce Au Gratin; is on page 136 (scroll down about halfway, to find the download):
Mr. Shurtleff and Akiko Aoyagi also manage the Soy Info Center:
http://www.soyinfocenter.com/aboutus-authors.php
Lastly: a great 'Smashed Potato' recipe.
When my husband and I became aware of all the cooking shows on Cable TV, one of the TV personalities we really liked was Ina Garten; so we bought one of her cookbooks, and her Parmesan Smashed Potatoes immediately became a family favorite:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/parmesan-smashed-potatoes-recipe2.html
(Frankly, we've never made an Ina Garten recipe that didn't turn out very well.)
And one more. Loved this-husband not so much. Served this with a roasted lemon chicken.
Roasted Fingerling Potatoes With Dried Figs and Thyme
Adapted from Daniel Humm, Eleven Madison Park/New York
Time: 40 minutes plus at least 4 hours soaking
1/2 pound dried black mission figs or other dried figs
1 1/2 cups brewed black tea, more if necessary
2 pounds fingerling potatoes
1 head garlic
5 sprigs of thyme
1/3 cup olive oil
Salt and black pepper to taste.
1. Place figs in a bowl, cover with hot black tea and let cool. Cover and refrigerate for 4 to 6 hours or overnight, depending on initial softness of figs.
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Wash potatoes well and trim any bad parts. Separate garlic head into individual cloves but do not remove outer skin.
3. Drain figs. In a bowl, combine garlic, thyme, figs, potatoes and olive oil; toss. Place on roasting pan and bake until potatoes are tender enough to pierce with a fork, about 30 minutes. Remove and season immediately with salt and pepper. Serve. Diners may remove skin from garlic at the table and eat along with the potatoes, if they wish.
Yield: 4 to 6 servings.
Julia Child raved over these--version of dish served in a charming bygone NYC restaurant "La Tulipe."
GRATED POTATO PANCAKES / from 2009 "Kitchen Wisdom" cbook.
French cooks call these Potato Galette. Nice way to use leftover baked potatoes.
METHOD Steam 3-4 large unpeeled baking potatoes 15-20 min (not quite tender). cool several hours completely cold. Then peel and rub through large holes of hand grater. Toss w/ s/p.
Divide loosely into 6 mounds.
Spread 2-3 portions in pan of hot 1/8" clarified butter, press together lightly w/ spatula 4-5 min. Saute several min (brown bottom), turn with care, brown 2nd side.
GOOD DO-AHEAD Make entire recpe---reheat 425 deg when ready to serve.
Sweet Potato Bread Pudding / Rum Sauce / La Times Culinary SOS
From Zea Rotisserie and Grill, New Orleans. Dense sweet potato bread
pudding is almost cake-like w/ crunchy pecan topping, thick, sweet rum sauce.
PIC/ (Gary Friedman / LAT)
METHOD In glass bowl, hand mixer 9 eggs. Slowly beat in 3 c sugar, then 3 tb ea pumpkin pie spice, vanilla. Beat in 1 1/2 c mashed sweets thoroughly, then 1/3 lb melted butter. Beat in qt milk thoroughly. W/ hands, mix in lb stale 1/2" French bread cubes, cup raisins. Cover/fridge overnight. Thoroughly stir, no white spots show (soaked bread breaks down w/ stirring); raisins are evenly distributed.
Pour into lightly buttered 13x9" baker. Lightly scatter and press 11/2 c pecans on top. Bake 275 deg til puffed; center custard is set 70-90 min. Cool on rack 2 hours before serving.
RUM SAUCE Heat to simmer 2 c light corn syrup, 1/4 c dark rum, 2 tbl vanilla. Offheat whisk in vigorously cup room temp butter. Hold on counter til service. Copyright © 2012, Los Angeles Times
Makes the house smell wonderful, too!!
Good timing! I have 2 pounds of beautiful red potatoes only about 1 inch around waiting to be used.
Is there a brand you like?
/johnny
That’s not quite a Latke, but looks good; and I can’t believe I posted on Spuds, without including Latkes!
The link below seems to have every possible variation; but my favorite is still the plain, classic Latke, with lots of sour cream (I don’t do applesauce ;-)
http://allrecipes.com/recipes/holidays-and-events/hanukkah/latkes/
-JT
I copied that one, it looks so good. And I concur: always More Cheese!
-JT
Hey, GE! Those sound wonderful!
I do have a question: What kind of Alfredo sauce do you use? Is it one you prepared, or a store-bought item? Also, I thought that kind of sauce used flour as thickener.
I do know that there is a Walden Farms zero alfredo sauce. It isn’t too bad, but not what I would automatically reach for as a comfort food!
As you know, I keep a pantry that has several jars/cans of whatever quick stuff to use - heat and eat.
It just happened that I had some classic Alfredo sauce - Great Value Brand that had a use by date of May 2015. Only 2 carbs per 1/4 cup serving. Plenty for a cup or two of cabbage and a little Broccoli.
As soon as I saw the jar - doing a pantry check, I had this craving for the sauce, especially once I confirmed that the carbs count was small. Did a search and cabbage came up as one suggestion. Cabbage and Broccoli are always on hand these days for quick green legal veggies.
Can you “see” my Happy Face? Big flavor in that sauce! LOL
Only downside - no ice cream tonight. Traded the sat. fat in ice cream for the sat fat in Alfredo Sauce.
All I added was a tsp of EVOO to keep the cabbage from sticking and a little garlic and pepper.
METHOD Sweat 1/8 c sweet butter, thin rounds 2 white part leeks, sliced lge yellow onion. Add 1 1/2 qts chix stock, salt, 2 sprigs thyme, 4 lge peeled potatoes in 1/4" slices. Cook/stir 40 min on med. Add 1/2 c h/cream, BTB.
SERVE hot garnished w/ grated Cheddar, bacon crumbles.
For a complete meal, serve w/ Croque Monsieur (French grilled cheese), pasta-vegetable salad.
Potatoes can use a lot of salt. Steam some whole must be whole potatoes of any size. This keeps maximum flavor in the potatoes.
Make a dipping sauce of olive oil, salt saturated water and ground black pepper. Little diced onion if you like. Use equal parts olive oil and salt saturated water which is water that has the most salt dissolved in it that it can take
When potatoes are done steaming serve with dipping sauce on the side. Cut off piece of potato. Dip in sauce. Keep repeating.
If you let potatoes cool down a bit before serving they taste even better.
You could also serve these steamed whole potatoes with butter and sour cream like a baked potato
Let me know what you think after you’ve made it. We loved it!
METHOD Sauté/soften diced onion in 2 tb butter. Add lge
puréed baked sweet potato, qt veg stock. BTB; simmer/reduce
slightly. Add 1 1/2 c corn kernels, tsp minced jalapenos, 1/2 c
h/cream, tsp salt. Simmer 10 min.
SERVE garnished w/ jalapeno rings, chp scallions.
Ohhhhhh! That sounds wonderful! I think I’ll need to look into that seriously!!!Love the idea of using with broc and cabbage!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.