Archive for the ‘Potatoes’ Category
Serve these awesome baked fries with any dish that has a curry sauce.
For every 2 pounds of sweet potatoes, place the following in a large bowl:
2 teaspoons of Kosher salt (or 1 teaspoon of table salt)
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or to taste)
2-4 TB olive oil
Cut peeled sweet potato in to french fry size – make 1/2 inch slices crosswise, then cut each slice in to 1/2 inch slices. Mix these fries with the oil and spices to distribute evenly. Place the spiced fries on a foil lined baking sheet in a single layer. Do not use a silpat mat because the baking temperature exceeds the tolerance of silpat.
Preheat oven to 500 degrees F. Bake the fries on the top shelf for 15 minutes, stir, then bake an additional 5 minutes. Do not worry if some fries are slightly blackened. The flavor will be awesome.
Serve with any dish that has a rich curry sauce, or as an accompaniment to meat dishes.
4 sweet potatoes or red garnet yams, cleaned, baked and peeled
1 Tablespoon gluten free frozen orange juice concentrate
1 Tablespoon dark brown sugar
salt
freshly ground pepper
1 egg
a very small amount of freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 cup dried apricots, diced and soaked in warm water for 1 hour and drained (discard the soaking liquid and keep the apricots)
Mash the sweet potatoes or yams. Add the rest of the ingredients.
Transfer the mixture to a buttered or greased casserole, (a shallow one is best so the mixture is not too thick and will heat quickly.) Bake for 25 minutes at 350, until slightly browned on top.
You can substitute other dried fruits for the apricots – cranberries, raisin, pears etc. or a combination.
This is based on a recipe in Casserole Cookery Complete, a cookbook from the mid and late-1950s.
Make sure all your ingredients are gluten free!
4 sweet potatoes or red garnet yams, cleaned and baked until soft
Gluten free crushed pineapple, drained
brown sugar to taste
salt
pepper
cinnamon to sprinkle on top
The amount of pineapple should be 1/2 the volume of cooked yams, approximately.
Peel and mash the sweet potatoes (if you can obtain canned sweet potatoes that do not have gluten, you can use them, but why not use fresh?) Add the crushed pineapple and as much brown sugar as you feel is appropriate. Add a little salt and pepper.
Place the mixture in a buttered or greased casserole, sprinkle gently with cinnamon.
Bake at 350 until heated through – if you use 4 yams, you would need to heat this casserole for 30-45 minutes, depending on the depth of the mixture in the dish.
Make sure that your spices are gluten free!
When we visit the produce section those baby potatoes are sitting there in their little plastic potato prisons, enticing us to remember the stories people used to tell, of creamed potatoes and peas on the 4th of July; of new potatoes just out of the ground. However, at upwards of $4 a box these little tubers are pretty pricey! So, the question is, should we spend our hard earned money on them? Are they worth it? A resounding Yes! Baby, or “new” potatoes are a superior braising or boiling potato.
Definitely buy the baby potatoes – - try the Yukon Golds – try them braised, or boiled plain and served whole with butter. You will not be sorry! Buy two boxes because you will want seconds.
Now, here’s a little useful information about potatoes in general:
If you go to spend the big bucks on tiny potatoes, make sure that they are not green – look at them closely and you may see that some potatoes have a green tinge to the skin. The green is due to the presence of solanine, which is a toxin. Potatoes form more solanine when they are exposed to light, which is why potatoes were stored in root cellars in the old days, and why they are often sold in opaque bags today. If you smell a very green potato, you will notice a bitter, grassy smell like that of weeds broken while gardening. This smell, and the green color, should alert you not to consume that potato. Solanine, in large enough quantities, can make you ill. So, avoid green potatoes.
Here’ the dictionary definition of solanine:
http://www.bartleby.com/61/32/S0543200.html
and here’s the chemical composition:
C45H73NO15
Now, you know more about potatoes than you used to!
2 parts potatoes
1 part onions
1 part carrots
water
salt
freshly ground pepper
butter
This is a very simple dish, and completely adjustable. If you use 2 pounds of potatoes, then use one pound of the carrots and onions. If you use more potatoes, increase the other vegetables accordingly. Peel the vegetables, cut the potatoes and carrots in chunks and cut up the onions a bit more.
Put all the vegetables into a pot with a lid. Add water about half way up the vegetables, then salt . Put the top on and cook on medium heat until the vegetables are soft. Drain the extra water (if necessary) – often there is no need to drain it, depending on what kind of potatoes you used. Mash while adding butter and freshly ground pepper. Taste the seasoning, and serve with meat dishes.
A simple dish that expands your potato horizons!
Peel and cut enough potatoes, a combination of baking and waxy potatoes is fine, and place them in a large pot with water to just cover the potatoes. Bring to a boil, cover and cook for 15 minutes. Check the potatoes to see if they are done, and if not you must boil them for another 5 minutes or so.
Remove from the heat, and mash them with a potato masher, while adding sea salt, freshly ground pepper, unsalted butter and chopped up brie cheese (rinds and all.) Add about 1 Tablespoon of butter per serving, and add about 1/10 as much brie cheese as you have potatoes. Adjust the seasoning, and serve.
Make sure all your ingredients are gluten free. Do not try to add blue cheese to this dish unless you are absolutely sure the blue cheese is gluten free.
Enough golf ball-sized potatoes, or potato pieces, to fill a large saute pan in one layer. You want the potatoes to have the skins on! Clean them up, and make them pretty.
3 cloves of garlic
1-2 cups of water or stock
3 Tablespoons olive oil
salt
freshly ground pepper
Put the potatoes, garlic, olive oil and 1 cup of water in the pan. Sprinkle the potatoes with salt and pepper. Cover the pan and simmer for 20 minutes, adding more water if needed to keep the potatoes steaming. Remove the top and stir-fry for another 5-8 minutes until the potatoes are coated with a olive-oil melted garlic coating.
This is the very best way to cook a small potato. Don’t use starchy baking potatoes for this recipe. Use the waxy types of potatoes. That is better. The really expensive little potatoes that come in their own individual boxes are perfect, albeit expensive. Make extra, because you won’t care about the main course, only about having more of these little beauties.
To serve food to gluten-free friends, check carefully with the manufacturers, or on the reputable internet-based gluten free food lists, making sure that all ingredients are gluten free. Or, ask your friends which brands are safe for them to eat. They will appreciate your concern!
Baking potatoes
vegetable oil
coarse salt
scallions
cooked, crumbled bacon
For many years, we bought in to the idea that by using a microwave oven we could obtain a good baked potato in less time, but that is not true. Using the microwave to “bake” potatoes produces a cooked potato, and it is speedy, but that is all. You can stick a fork in a microwaved potato, but is that enough? If you are not satisfied with speedy, uninspired microwaved potatoes then you will want to go back to the old ways, and bake the potato in an oven – that is where the baked potato earned its reputation as one of the great foods!
The baked potato is the staple restaurant starch for the gluten free community, and we always want to reproduce that excellent baked potato at home. Here’s how!
First, obtain some really excellent, large potatoes – Prince Edward Island (PEI) potatoes are that kind of potato, but a nice big russet baking potato will work also. Scrub the potatoes with a brush and clean water, remove any imperfections on the potatoes, and all of the larger “eyes” on the potatoes, with the point of a sharp paring knife. Oil the potatoes with vegetable oil - we use safflower oil. Then, sprinkle them with coarse salt, and be generous about the salt. If you haven’t had to carve out any parts of the potatoes, then prick them each in several places with your knife or a fork. Put the potatoes on a baking sheet and bake at 400 degrees – a hot oven – even hotter is ok – for 2 hours! That’s right, cook them for an hour longer than the cookbooks tell you to!
This long-roasting recipe will give you a beautiful baked potato experience with a crispy tasty skin that you will want to save for last – it is that good. You will be wanting to skip the rest of dinner and just have that baked potato as the main course! Serve your perfect potatoes with butter or margarine or sour cream, some chopped scallions and some freshly cooked bacon crumbled up in pieces, and pass the salt and pepper.