Scalloped Potatoes

Last weekend, there was a lot of sausage making going on. This year, the event included more hungry friends, a new venue (thanks, C and A!), and many different types of sausages. While some would argue that one could live on homemade sausage alone, I believe in side dishes. Scalloped potatoes can be made ahead of time and easily reheated when your crew is ready to eat. This dish is simple and, as one person stated, “Tastes like potatoes.” (I’ll take this compliment to mean that it is a casserole that doesn’t have any competing flavors, like cheese or onion. Just delicious potatoes!)

Serves 6-8

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Butter a 9X13 pan (or comparably sized baking dishes.)
2. In a bowl, mix:
   2 tbls. flour
   1 1/2 tsp. salt
   1/8 tsp ground pepper
3. Set aside a measuring cup, filled with 2 cups whole milk.
4. With a mandolin or box grater, slice about 2 pounds of washed potatoes into 1/8 inch thick slices.
5. Create layers in your baking dish by slightly overlapping the potatoes. Every few layers, sprinkle with a little of the flour and dot with butter. (You will use a total of 2 tbls. of butter for the layers. Pour the milk over the top.
6. Cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes. Then, remove the foil and reduce the heat to 325F. Bake for an additional 45 minutes.

Rosti: A quick breakfast potato

You may have noticed that our posts have been a little sporadic lately. Thanks to everyone who keeps checking back in! We have a new little guy in our house and things have been busy.

We’re still cooking – one has to eat, of course – but our experimentation has slowed down a bit. We’re cooking a lot of recipes that are already familiar to us (check out our seasonal recipe tab). Lately, a lot of our other cooking is basically just meals that don’t really require a recipe, but instead, just rely on eating up some of summer’s great produce.

Here’s one that I love. It’s so simple that it’s almost a non-recipe, but I wanted to share because everyone deserves to take a break and have a good breakfast now and then. Serve with your favorite, fresh egg, toast, and fruit.

Rosti, for one

one potato
salt, pepper
about 1/2 tbls. butter
one happy baby in a bouncy seat

1. On the large side of a box grater, grate one potato onto a towel. Bundle up the towel and squeeze out the potato’s liquid over the sink.
2. Melt butter in a skillet over medium-low heat.
3. Spread the grated potato out over the skillet and press down. Season with salt and pepper.
4. Add a lid and continue to cook for 6-10 minutes. During the cooking time, lift the lid at least twice and wipe the moisture off of it.
5. Slide the pancake onto a plate and then flip it back into the pan, uncooked side down. Season. Cover. Cook for 6-10 minutes more, wiping the lid.

Potato Bagel Recipe

I’m in love. It’s not a phase. This is the real thing.

The potato bagel and I go way back. When I used to live in Pittsburgh, about the only food experience I could afford was the potato bagel. I was living in Squirrel Hill very close to an Einstein Brothers and it was too tempting to pass by without going in for one. I’ve been dreaming about them ever since. Simply, no other bagel compares.

Taking what I’ve learned from Peter Reinhart’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice and this recipe, I think I’ve found a way to replicate that nostalgic potato bagel at home.

For plain bagels, see this previously posted recipe.

Makes 2 dozen bagels (easily halved, if you want only one dozen)

Day 1:

Make the potatoes:
Peel and rinse about 6 potatoes (enough to result in 1 1/3 c. mashed potatoes).
In a medium saucepan, cover the potatoes with about 6 cups of water.
Simmer for a half hour.
With a slotted spoon, remove potatoes to a bowl. Reserve potato water.
Mash the potatoes, adding in a little potato water, to create a smooth consistency. Set aside for the dough step.

Mix together the sponge:
1/2 tsp. instant yeast
6 cups bread flour
4 cups warm potato water

Mix the yeast into the flour and then gradually mix in the water. Your mixture should be very sticky (like pancake batter.) Cover with plastic wrap and a dry towel. Ferment the sponge at room temperature for about 2 hours.

Prepare the dough:
2 tbls. honey
1 tbls. malt syrup
6 tbls. olive oil
1 1/3 mashed potatoes, room temperature
5 1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. yeast
about 8 cups bread flour

With an electric mixer and dough hook, add the liquid ingredients (honey, malt, oil) to the sponge. Add mashed potatoes, salt, and yeast.  Add the flour 2 cups at a time. Continue to knead for about ten minutes until you’ve got an elastic, satiny ball. (The resulting dough will be somewhat wetter than a plain bagel dough.)

Divide the dough into 4 1/2 ounce pieces and roll into smooth balls. Roll each ball in a light coating of flour. Cover the balls with a damp towel and let them rest for 30 minutes.

Line 3 sheet pans with parchment and mist lightly with olive oil.

After the dough has rested, shape by poking a hole in the center of the ball with your thumb and gently stretching out into a bagel that is even on all sides. Make the holes slightly bigger than you think they should be.

Place the bagel on the pan, mist with oil and cover with plastic wrap. Let the pans sit for 20 minutes. Now, it’s time for the float test! Slip one bagel out from under the plastic wrap and test to see if it will float within 10 seconds in a bowl of water. Pat it dry, return to pan, and place your bagels in the fridge overnight. (If your bagel does not pass the float test, do not despair, just wait a little bit longer and try again.)

Day 2:

Boil and bake:

Fill a stock pot with water and bring to a boil. Preheat the oven to 500F. Add 1 tbls. baking soda to the boiling water. Stir.

Take your bagels from fridge and drop, in batches of four, into the boiling water. Cook for one and a half minutes per side – flip your bagels over with a skimmer, slotted spoon, or tongs. While your bagels boil, sprinkle your parchment with semolina flour or cornmeal.  Place boiled bagels on the prepared sheet.

Dust the tops with flour and slash three times. (This looks appealing and lets some of the moisture out as it cooks.)

Bake at 500F for 5 minutes. Reduce heat to 450F and bake for another 5 minutes or until light golden brown. Remove to racks to cool.

Notes:

• Any potato will do, but I’d recommend a drier, brown potato (Russet). This will give a stronger potato flavor.
• I tried the beautiful star bagels shown in this recipe, but it was a disaster. They were hard to get off the parchment, fell apart in the water, and came out of the oven unevenly cooked and gooey. What a shame.
• Try a potato bagel with herbs. Yum!

Thrice Baked Potatoes with Green Garlic

Green garlic and goat cheese put some ‘spring’ in this spud. Baking the potatoes twice (and the shells once) result in the perfect combo of crispy shells and soft potatoes.

Serves 2

3 medium potatoes
2 stalks green garlic, chopped finely
1 -2 oz. goat cheese (depending on your preference)
sprig of marjoram, chopped finely
2-4 tbls. whole milk
salt and pepper to taste
1 tbls. butter

1. Wash and poke a few holes in your potatoes. Bake for 1 hour at 400F.
2. Prepare your garlic, herbs, and other ingredients.
   
3. When potatoes are baked, slice a small lid in two of them. The third potato will be solely used as filling.
4. With a spoon, carefully scrape out the potato into a bowl. Mash with the rest of your ingredients until smooth.
5. Melt 1 tbls. of butter. Paint the inside of the potato shell with butter. In a small baking dish, bake at 400F for 10 minutes.
6. Stuff the shells. Paint the remaining butter over the top and sides.
   At this point, this dish can be held for later. If you’re going to refrigerate, let them first come to room temperature or add a few minutes onto the final baking time.
7. Place back in the 400F oven and bake for 15-20 minutes.

Potato Cabbage Gratin

We took a field trip over to the Ballard farmers’ market last weekend and got, among other delicious things, some beautiful cabbages. This recipe, a filling main dish, is almost straight out of Local Flavors.

1 pound yellow potatoes (about 3-4)
about 1 pound green cabbage
4 tbls. butter, plus more for dish
1 garlic clove
1 1/3 cups milk
3 eggs
1/2 cup grated cheese (Parmesan or other hard, white cheese)
1/3 cup AP flour
salt and pepper

1. Preheat oven to 350F.  Butter a 2 quart baking dish. Put a large pot of water on to boil.
2. Peel and slice potatoes to 1/4 inch thick.
3. Slice the cabbage roughly into ribbons.
4. Add potatoes and 1 tbls. salt to water.  Boil for 5 minutes. Remove potatoes to a bowl.
5. Drop cabbage into water and cook for 5 minutes. Remove cabbage from water and place on an old dish cloth. Squeeze out as much excess water as you can.
6. Melt butter in small skillet and toss garlic in for one minute.
7. Gently toss cabbage, potatoes, butter and garlic,  and salt and pepper (to taste) together.  (Your potatoes may break up a little, but no worries, it will all bake up nicely.) Pour into baking dish.
8. Whisk milk, eggs, cheese, and flour together. Pour over potato mixture. (Reserve a little cheese to sprinkle on top.)
9. Bake  for 50 minutes and cool slightly before serving.

4 to 6 servings
We served it with crusty bread and sausage, but this could easily be a vegetarian main.

Potato Pancakes

It was time to make a big batch of applesauce again and what goes better with applesauce than a crispy potato pancake? Yes. You have my permission to eat these for dinner. It’s winter. Live dangerously. Some people also like a little sour cream on the side.

3 eggs
1 1/2 tsp. salt + a few sprinkles of pepper
a scant 1/8 tsp nutmeg
2 pounds yellow potatoes
1 medium onion
1/4 c. flour

peanut oil + olive oil for frying

1. Grate onion.
2. Peel potatoes. Grate them on the large side of box grater. Wrap the grated potatoes in an old cloth and squeeze out the liquid over the sink.
3. Mix remaining ingredients all together with a fork.
4. Heat a skillet over medium. Heat a 1:1 amount of peanut oil and olive oil until shiny (about 2 tbls. of each).
5. Using a fork so that you can shake off the extra liquid over the bowl, splat about a 4-inch pancake in the pan. Fry about 3 minutes on a side.  Peek to see if it is brown, but try not to disturb it. Flip and cook second side.
6. Drain the potato pancakes on a paper towel and eat right away.

French Fries, Without the Fry

Well, since there’s been a lot of ketchup experimentation going on here, it’s only right that we should post a french fry recipe, even it is is a very simple thing to do. Spread the potato love a little.

We bought ourselves a mandoline at the annual City Kitchens sale and have been having fun playing with it. (If you live in Seattle and have never been to City Kitchens, go there. It really is the best store ever. If you get on their mailing list, they’ll send you some unbelievable coupons once a year which you can use on top of the sale.)

good yellow potatoes
olive oil and peanut oil (equal parts)
salt, pepper
fresh sage, chopped finely

1. Preheat your oven to 475F. (Don’t cheat. It must be hot.)
2. Slice potatoes into shoe strings on your mandolin.
3. Rinse potatoes in bowl of water at least twice. Place on a clean, dry dish towel and pat to remove excess water.
4. Toss fries, oil, salt and pepper together and spread onto a parchment-lined baking sheet.
5. Bake for about 10 minutes. (Keep an eye on these potatoes at the very end. Because they’re so thin they’ll go from perfectly golden to burnt in an instant.)
6. Remove from oven and toss with sage. Mix and serve.

Notes:

• Use the same technique for larger cut fries, just increase the baking time.
• The inspiration for the sage comes from Skillet. One of our favorite restaurants, Agate Pass Cafe, serves their shoestring potatoes with rosemary, which I thought couldn’t be beat until I had a sage potato. Try them both. See what you like.