Grilled Potato Salad with Bacon, Shallot and Brown Sugar

The first time I made this recipe was back in the late '90s, when my aunt, uncle and cousins were visiting Ottawa from Yarmouth, N.S. Wanting to veer away from the traditional mayonnaise based salad, we decided to try a recipe from Martha Stewart's Great Parties book. It's one of Martha's earlier books, but I still use it regularly. The recipe for Grilled Peach Chicken is a staple in our cottage cooking, just as this potato salad is.

Fifteen years after first making it, I've made several tweaks (the original recipe serves 14!) to the amount of oil and vinegar, and I always up the amount of bacon required.

In fairness, just because I cook more bacon, doesn't mean the bacon makes it into the salad. Sometimes quality control needs to ensure the freshness and... uhm... deliciousness of the bacon.

This potato salad is, compared to both the mayonnaise types and the German types, quite dry. And, that's the point. It's not meant to be swimming in dressing! It's a refreshing change from tradition and a great accompaniment to ribs and baked beans.

I've given amounts to serve 2-3 people. Adapt up as you see fit!

Grilled Potato Salad with Bacon, Shallots and Brown Sugar

(adapted from Martha Stewart's Great Parties)

Ingredients

1 lb red potatoes (new are especially nice), scrubbed
2 slices really good bacon
1 large shallot, peeled, halved lengthwise and sliced into half moons
1 tbsp + 1 tsp packed brown sugar
2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp + 1 tsp olive oil, divided
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Place potatoes in a large pot of cold, salted water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until potatoes are almost fork tender, amount 15 minutes (for large potatoes). You want to get them out just before, as you'll be finishing these off on the grill.

2. While potatoes are cooking, cook bacon in a skillet over medium-low heat until crispy. Remove bacon, and drain on a paper towel. Crumble and set aside. Pour off all but ½ tbsp of bacon fat from pan. Add shallot to pan and cook until golden brown, about 5 minutes. Stir in brown sugar, cider vinegar and 1 tsp olive oil. Stir just until brown sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and set aside while you finish off the potatoes.

3. Remove potatoes from heat and cut into halves, if potatoes are small, or thick slices if potatoes are large. Try to leave the skin intact wherever possible! Brush with remaining 1 tbsp of oil and place on a greased grill to get brown and crispy, about 3 minutes on each side. Remove from heat. If you're using the thick slices, you may want to cut them again into bite sized quarters. Toss with reserved dressing and season with salt and pepper.

My Husband's Favourite Curry Recipe

We got this recipe from the people who make Perfect Taste Curry Powder. Now, I don't usually go in for premade spice mixes, but we tried their stuff at a tasting at our local grocery store last year, and were blown away by depth of flavour of the spicy blend. Served with their caramelized onion chutney (which is the finest I have purchased to date), this really is a winner.

Plus, they work out of Niagara-on-the-Lake, which I think is all kinds of awesomely local.

The original recipe is significantly higher in oil, meat and sodium content, so I reduced all of them.

Ground Chicken Curry with Potatoes and Chickpeas

(adapted from Perfect Taste)

Ingredients

3 tbsp canola oil
2 medium onions, sliced
2" ginger, peeled and minced
5 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
3 tbsp mild curry paste
1 tbsp hot curry powder (preferably Perfect Taste)
1 lb ground chicken
1 28-oz can whole, peeled tomatoes
1 large waxy potato, peeled and diced
1 19-oz can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 tsp salt
2 cups water
1 palmful cilantro, chopped

Directions

1. Heat oil over medium heat. Add onion and cook until golden brown, add ginger and garlic and stir until just fragrant. Do NOT let it colour. Add in curry paste and powder. Mix well with onion mixture. Add meat and stir to break up large chunks. Let brown, and then add tomatoes with their juices, potato, chickpeas, salt and water. Stir well. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer gently for 30 minutes for a quick dinner, or 1 hour if you want something with more flavour.

Serve, sprinkled with cilantro, with basmati rice, chutney and naan. We find it makes between 6-8 servings.

A trip to P.A.T.

One of my favourite things about Toronto is all the distinct little cultural neighbourhoods. We straddle the border of the university-student supported sushi strip and Korea Town. Now, aside from awesomely cheap fruit and vegetable stores, my favourite part about this area is the P.A.T.

Photo from yelp

One of the many, many reasons I love this place is their vast selection of both Korean and Japanese foods. This is where I go for all of my Japanese pantry staples, but if I'm really lucky they'll have something pre-made that reminds me of Phil's local grocery store in Tokishi.

Today, for example, we scored two awesome finds:

Potato Korokke (link here for a recipe). Mashed potatoes, a few peas and grated carrots. Serve with tonkatsu sauce and you're in business! Honestly, you're probably in business without the tonkatsu sauce (it's a ketchup-worcestershire-allspice type sauce, if you didn't know). Deep fried potatoes are hard to mess up!

But really, the super find was this little beauty, which reminds me of something I'd get from the Gifu city train station:

 

It's a danish. 

With chopped hotdogs. 

And cheese. 

And mayo. 

And ketchup. 

Topped with parsley and nori.

The first time I had it, I thought it was the grossest thing ever. I thought it was going to be a sweet pastry, so the seaweed-mayo combination was especially distressing. I may have shouted "What is wrong with this country?" at the top of my lungs.

In the end, I don't know what prompted me to try it again, but I did. And then I did it again. And now I totally love that I can relive the taste, even if it's something I eat for nostalgia and smiles rather than for a taste-bud explosion of happiness.

Mmm. I feel like I'm confessing a dirty secret here! Perhaps the title of this post should be Things that Taste Good but Shouldn't. 

But, what's the fun of loving food if you're snobby about it? I'd call this little number the Vince Vaughn/Will Ferrell flick of the food world. Something like Dodge Ball.

Tell me I'm not the only one! Do you secretly love a food that you'd be embarrassed to admit to your foodie friends?

The Best Roast Chicken I've Had in a Year (at least)

One of the things I love most about winter cooking is roasting a gorgeous bird. As part of our New Year's resolution, Phil and I are trying to buy locally produced meat as often as possible. And if it's free range and antibiotic free to boot, even better!

So when he picked up a gorgeous Rowe Farms chicken last weekend, I knew we were in for a treat... I just didn't realize how amazing this bird was going to be.

I'd like to think it's a combination of this recipe and the bird's providence.

And don't get me started on the sandwiches we made throughout the week with the leftovers. The chicken was moist, perfectly salty and blow-your-mind-tasty. I swear to you, I've never cooked a bird like this before. It puts all those tiny little things you can buy at Loblaws to shame.

So, though this bird cost us 12$ as opposed to 8$, I think those extra 4$ were well worth it.

Two days after roasting it, I made chicken stock with the leftover carcass, some shallots, carrots celery and a bay leaf. After simmering away on the stove for 2 hours, we were left with an intensely chickeny stock. Gorgeous. We got a lot of meals out of that bird - not to mention two litres of stock sitting in my freezer right now!

Glorious Chicken

As a side note, this really is a great way to do potatoes. Cooking them first and throwing them in around the bird lets them soak up all those delicious juices (and fats) and get extra crispy in the oven. They're everything a roast potato should be!

Crisp Skinned Chicken with Rosemary Potatoes

(from Martha Stewart Living January 2011)

Ingredients


6 russet potatoes, peeled and cut crosswise, 3/4 inch thick
Coarse salt
Extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon cornstarch
1 whole chicken (about 4 1/2 pounds)
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened
1 small bunch fresh rosemary
3 sprigs fresh sage (my addition) 

Directions

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Cook potatoes in salted boiling water until tender, 11 to 13 minutes. Drain. Return potatoes to pot, and shake over low heat to dry and fluff. Coat with oil, and season with salt. 

Mix together 1 1/2 teaspoons salt and the cornstarch. Pat chicken dry with paper towels. Rub skin with butter, and season with salt mixture.

 

Close up of the butter and salt mixture.

Stuff some rosemary into cavity. Pile remaining rosemary on a rimmed baking sheet.

Place chicken, breast side up, on rosemary, and tuck wings under. Tie legs together with kitchen twine. Scatter potatoes around chicken. Roast for 30 minutes. 

 

Oven ready

Remove from oven, and flip potatoes. Return to oven, rotating sheet. Roast until chicken juices run clear and an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of a thigh reaches 165 degrees, about 30 minutes more. Let chicken rest for 10 minutes before serving. If potatoes aren't golden, toss with rosemary, and return to oven.

Potato Pizza

If you know me, you know I love Nigel Slater. The man - gah - he makes me love food and cooking more than I already do, which seems like a pretty big thing, because my baseline level of loving food is pretty high.

When I was in my first year of kindergarten, my taecher wrote on my report card:

Alyson likes making lists of food.

And not much has changed.

So yes, I adore Nigel. His recipes are reliable and accessible and he makes me wish I had a garden. He also has a great recipe for a thin crust potato pizza.

It's the perfect antidote to a cold night when your pantry is almost bare.

Potato Pizza

Adapted from Nigel Slater's Real Food

Ingredients

3 tbsp whole wheat flour
225 grams white flour
½ tsp salt
2¼ tsp yeast (or one 7g package)
1 tbsp milk
2 tbsp olive oil
½ cup warm water

5 fingerling potatoes, thinly sliced
2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, sliced
5 sprigs thyme
a hunk of cheese that you have lying around in your fridge, sliced or roughly torn up
shavings of parmesan
bonus: truffle salt

Directions

1. Stir together flours and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Mix in yeast. Add milk and oil and water. Mix for 5 or so minutes, until dough pulls away from the side of the bowl and is smooth and elastic. (Alternatively, you can do this by hand!)

2. Remove dough from mixer bowl. Grease a new bowl. Place dough in it, tossing to coat with oil. Cover and set aside in a warm, draft-free place for 30 minutes.

3. Place potato slices in a pot of cold, salted water. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and drain.

4. Heat oil over low heat. Add onions and cook, stirring frequently, until golden.

Side note: is there anything better than the smell of frying onions?

And those golden, crispy bits? That's the stuff dreams are made of.

5. Preheat oven to 450º. If you have a pizza stone, place it in the oven now, before you start heating the darned thing up. If you don't have a pizza stone, don't worry about this step!

6. Roll out pizza dough into a 12-14" circle-ish shape. Feel free to not care about symmetry. (If you're not using a pizza stone, transfer the dough to a baking sheet here.) Top with onions, potatoes, cheeses, thyme and a healthy splattering of more olive oil. Transfer to pizza stone.

7. Bake for 17-20 minutes, or until cheese is golden an bubbly. Sprinkle with truffle salt for an added element of class and denial that your cupboards are bare. (You've got truffle salt! You can take on the world!)

As an added lesson here: place the onions on the bottom. I put mine on top of everything and they got a little... overly crispy. Not so sexy, I must say.

Nutty Oat Bread with Maple and a Bonus Soup Recipe

This is my second batch of the bread, and, barring some potentially over-toasted nuts, I think the tweaks I made this time round were big improvements to the loaf. Of course, this second one I was making for my family, not for a party, which meant that (of course) it turned out much better.

I should probably do this in reverse: test recipes on family, perfect for company.

As much as I thoroughly enjoy getting my hands dirty and taking out my frustration on dough, the fact that I'm still in Ottawa and have access to a bread machine (and am currently sporting an awesome blister from my failed croquembouche attempt) means I don't have to knead away. And I choose to take the easy way out.

Nutty Oat Bread with Maple

(Loosely adapted from Canada's Best Bread Machine Baking Recipes)

Ingredients

1 1/3 cups milk (1 cup milk, 1/3 cup water for traditional/non bread machine recipe)
1¼ tsp salt
3 tbsp maple syrup (the real stuff please, none of that Aunt Jemima nonsense)
2 tbsp butter (if you have walnut oil, which I didn't, you might want to use it instead)
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 cups all purpose flour (or bread flour)
½ cup quick cooking (not instant) oats, large or medium flake
¼ cup finely chopped nuts (I recommend either walnut or pecan)
1½ tsp bread machine yeast (if you're not going the bread machine route, I'd just use 2¼ tsp regular yeast)

Directions Bread Machine

1. (Totally optional, but highly recommended) Preheat the oven to 350º. Place oats and nuts on a baking tray and bake, stirring frequently for 10-15 minutes or until brown. Hello flavour country!

2. Measure ingredients into baking pan in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Insert baking pan into oven chamber. Select Dough Cycle. Let the machine do its thing.

3. Remove dough to a lightly floured surface. Let rest for 10-15 minutes.

4. Form the dough into a loaf shape (we're talking free form here). Place on a lightly greased baking sheet and let rise 30-45 minutes or until doubled in volume. Add a few decorative slashes to the top here, if you're so inclined.

5. (Totally optional step #2) Gently brush the top with water or milk and sprinkle with a few extra oats. 

5. Bake at 375º for 35-45 minutes or until loaf sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom. If you have an electric thermometer, you can test with it to see if the loaf is done. Once it reaches 190º, you're golden.

6. Let cool on rack before digging in!

Directions By Hand

Repeat as above, but substitute the following for step two!

2a) In a large bowl stir together1/3 cup warm water (about 100-110º) and ½ tbsp maple syrup. Once dissolved, sprinkle yeast over the top of the surface, and set aside for 5-10 minutes, until yeast blooms (gets all foamy).

2b) In a saucepan, stir together milk, butter, salt and remaining maple syrup and heat just until butter melts. Pour into yeast mixture. (Be sure that the milk mixture isn't too hot! Don't forget that yeast is a living thing and can be killed by high heat at this stage.) Stir together.

2c) Using a wooden spoon, stir in whole wheat flour, oats and 1½ cups white flour. Turn onto floured board and knead for 10 minutes, adding additional white flour, 1-2 tbsp at a time as needed. Form into a ball.

2d) Place dough in a greased bowl, rolling dough to coat with grease on all sides. Cover with tea towel and set aside in a draft free location to rise for about an hour, or until doubled in bulk.

2e) Proceed to step 3.

Bonus Recipe: Root Vegetable Soup

Ingredients

1 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
1 parsnip, chopped
1 sweet potato, roughly cubed
2 potatoes, roughly cubed
4 cups broth (I used leftover turkey stock)
juice of ½ lemon (or orange)
salt and pepper
3 leaves sage finely minced (optional)
1 green onion, minced (optional)

Directions

1. Heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onion, carrots and celery, stirring until beginning to soften.

2. Add parsnip, potatoes and broth. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover and simmer for 20-25 minutes, or until tender.

3. Working in batches, puree soup in a blender until creamy (for a slightly coarser texture, use a hand blender)

4. Add lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste. For a sweeter soup, you might want to try orange juice instead of lemon.

5. Ladle into bowls and garnish with chopped sage and green onion. Serve with the Nutty Oat Bread!

Home Fries for a Sunday morning

Back when I was in university, one of my then boyfriend's roommates used to make home fries on Sunday mornings. Home fries were something reserved for greasy spoon diners; they were not something that ever appeared in my family's house.

And although those particular home fries weren't the most amazing in the world, they were certainly very comforting, if occasionally a bit crunchy.

See, the roommate always fried the potatoes low and slow for however long it took... Occasionally the onions would overcook and burn. Occasionally the potatoes would get soggy. But still, I loved them.

So this week, while Phil was writing his exam, I attempted my own home fries. I partially cooked a potato in the microwave first, cut it up into cubes and threw it into a pan with butter, olive oil, a large handful of chopped sweet onion and a good dose of thyme. Twenty minutes later I had crispy on the outside, soft in the middle and herbilicious homefries. The onions were on the right side of dark golden brown.

Topped with a fried egg (eggs are something loathed by my husband), I was supremely chuffed. They remind me of being 22 and thinking I was an adult.

It's funny. I'll be 31 soon, and, taking a page from my father's book, now I know better. Adulthood is not a number. It's a state of mind that I choose not to enter into.

Potato-Beer Bread

Moist, hearty and a great accompaniment for soup. This is another Beerbistro recipe, but let me tell you, the writers of the cookbook made some serious mistakes with this one. I'm a pretty decent bread maker (I do it a few times a month), so I could tell when things weren't going right. So, here's their ingredients with my instructions.

Ingredients

16 oz flour
1 tbsp sugar
½ tbsp salt
2¼ tsp active yeast (one package)
½ lb potato, cooked and mashed (about two small-medium sized ones)
2 tbsp softened butter
2/3 cup beer
½ cup buttermilk

Directions

In the bowl of an electric mixer with the dough hook attachment on, mix together flour through yeast. Keep mixing on low and add in the butter and the potato.

Add the beer and buttermilk to the bowl, turn the speed up to high and let it do its thing for 7 minutes. Over this time, I added about a ½ cup more flour to the dough to keep it from sticking. It should form an elastic ball that comes away from the sides of the bowl.

Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl. Cover with a tea towel and let it stand in a warm, draft-free location for about 2 hours, or until the dough has doubled in size.

Punch the dough down. Remove from bowl, shape as desired and place on a greased baking pan. Let sit for another 15-20 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 350º. Bake loaf for 45-55 minutes, or until internal temperature reads 190º (use an instant read thermometer for this).

Let cool on rack.

A fun way with potato salad

I won't lie to you. The pictures I have here aren't pretty. But, please don't let that turn you off of this potato salad! This is a very free form recipe, based on a Nigel Slater one from his book Tender I. I swear, I've never met a book that makes vegetables sound so sexy.

The secret ingredient? Walnut Oil.

Ingredients

2 large potatoes (or several small new potatoes), unpeeled and cut in 1 inch hunks.
3 slices meaty bacon
handful chopped parsely
1 tbsp dijon
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
3 tbsp walnut oil
healthy pinches of salt to taste
freshly ground pepper

Bring potatoes to a boil in cold, salted water. Reduce heat and simmer until potatoes are just tender. Meanwhile, cook up your bacon until crispy and drain it well. When cool enough to handle, break into pieces.

Now you're ready for the dressing!

Whisk 1 tbsp Dijon mustard with some salt (like I said, free form) in a medium bowl, add 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar, whisking thoroughly. Next comes the fun emulsifying part. Add in 3 tbsp walnut oil very slowly to the mix, whisking constantly. You'll find that it all comes together beautifully and thickens up like mayo! To this add heaps of freshly ground black pepper and a tbsp of water. Whisk. Whisk. Whisk.

It should be creamy and glossy when you're done.

Toss the potatoes together with the bacon and parsley, then stir in the dressing. Enjoy with a smile on your face... perhaps with leftovers!

Next up? A really lovely bulgar and cranberry salad!

Farmer's Market Bounty: A Pea Convert

I've always hated peas. As a child, I loathed their mealy boiled texture. Peas were a straight-from-the-freezer abomination that my brother loved - I tried to slip him mine whenever I could. While I no longer try to pawn the little green nuggets off on anyone, they're certainly weren't my favourite vegetable.

Fresh Ontario Field Peas

 This summer, though, has really caused me to rethink peas. Early in July, my Mum and I picked some up from Ottawa's Parkdale market. I wasn't expecting much after spending a goof half hour shelling them, so I ate a raw one reluctantly. They were like nothing I'd ever had before. Tender, sweet without even a whiff of mealiness. My eyes were opened to new possibility. That night, after plunging them in boiling water for 20 seconds, we tossed them with butter and mint.

Sweet, sweet green gold.

 I won't like to you, I ate every last remaining pea in the serving dish once everyone had had their first helping.

Shelling the peas.

Tender I

This time, I didn't have mint in the house, but I did have Nigel Slater's Tender to guide me. (If you haven't picked it up, Tender I is his guide to growing and eating vegetables. It's phenomenal.) The man said lemon and olive, and that's exactly what I did.

Okay, I substituted butter for the olive oil. Everything is better with butter.

How to:
Throw some butter in a pan, let it melt. Throw in your peas, and squeeze half a lemon over top. Season with sea salt and freshly ground pepper. Eat immediately and wonder why you didn't purchase more. Then remember how long you spent shelling those peas. Reminisce over the good old days when you were actually eating the peas.

Okay, it didn't look pretty, but let's not just rely on looks!

I served this with his potato cake, and apologize for the vague directions after the jump.