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Potatoes

Leek, Potato and Cauliflower Potage

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This is an easy, vegetarian gluten free soup from the website gfzing.com to serve as a first course or as a main course with an accompaniment of gluten free toast or scones.

It is delicious!

In a large pot, place 3 leeks, cleaned, trimmed and chopped, 5 Red Bliss potatoes, peeled and cut in half, and about a third of a head of cauliflower, cleaned and cut in to flowerets.

Pour in water to cover (6-8 cups), add 2 teaspoons of salt and bring to a boil, turn down to a simmer and cook until the potatoes and cauliflower are tender, about 20 minutes.  Add 2 tablespoons of ghee (clarified browned butter) and a 1/2 teaspoon of freshly ground pepper, then puree the soup carefully using an immersion blender stick until it is velvety.  If you do not have an immersion blender, use a regular blender or food processor, being careful not to burn yourself with the hot soup.

Note:  If you are a wheatavore serving a gluten-free diner, make sure to use plain fresh water to make this soup. Don’t use water that was just used for cooking pasta, for example.

Test the soup for salt and balanced flavors, then serve sprinkled with a little chopped parsley if you have some.

It would be fine to substitute other vegetables for the cauliflower – for example: carrot,s sweet potato, broccoli, peas, spinach etc.

Make sure all the ingredients are gluten free.

Potato Salad with Eggs and Carrots

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Potato Salad with Eggs and CarrotsA tasty gluten free potato salad with hard-boiled eggs, carrots and onion.  The cooking is done in the microwave to cut down on the heat in the kitchen.

This is based on the potato salad shown at this webpage: http://www.sachikocooking.com/english/en0106prt.htm, altered to use less mayonnaise and much less sugar.

  • 3 red bliss potatoes – if they are about the size of a tennis ball, the three potatoes together will weigh about a pound.
  • 3 large carrots, grated on the large holes of a box grater
  • 1 cup very thinly sliced onion
  • 1/2 teaspoon table salt
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/4 cup coarsely chopped flat-leaf parsley

 

Sauce:

  • 1/4 cup gluten free mayonnaise
  • 1 teaspoon gluten free ballpark mustard
  • 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
  • 1/2-1 teaspoon sugar
  • 1 teaspoon fresh lime juice

 

Mix the shredded carrots, sliced onion and salt thoroughly and set aside.  Let this rest while you do all the other preparation, so that the salt can draw water out of these veggies.

Clean the potatoes, pierce each one and remove the eyes, microwave them using the potato setting on your microwave.  Set aside to cool, then peel and chop.

“Hard-boil” the eggs in the microwave, adding 1 teaspoon water per egg.  We use a device called a “Micro Egg” for cooking eggs in the microwave.  With this device, it took slightly longer than 1 minute at 100 power to cook the two eggs in one Micro Egg. Set the eggs aside to cool, then dice.

Squeeze the water out of the salted carrot/onion mixture by putting these salted veggies  in a kitchen towel and squeezing firmly.

Put the squeezed carrots and onion in a bowl. Add the chopped cooked potatoes, diced eggs, parsley.  Mix the sauce ingredients in a separate bowl, then fold the sauce in to the carrot-onion-potato-egg-parsley.  Adjust the flavors, chill and serve.

 

 

Chocolate Sweet Potato Cake

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This excellent  flourless chocolate cake is a variation of a recipe that is most often attributed to Marcy Goldman’s  A Treasury of Jewish Holiday Baking.  The glaze suggested here is not from the original recipe.

The quality of the finished cake is entirely dependent on the quality of the chocolate that is chosen – take great care to choose an excellent chocolate.

Cake ingredients

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
6 large eggs, separated
1 1/2 cups cooked and mashed sweet potatoes, baked fresh and peeled – 2 or so
1 teaspoon vanilla
10 ounces good-quality gluten free semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted and cooled
1/4 teaspoon salt

Chocolate Glaze ingredients


1/4 cup water, 2 Tablespoons sugar, 1 Tablespoon corn syrup

4 ounces bittersweet gluten free chocolate, broken up

1 Tablespoon butter

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a 9-inch springform pan with baking parchment.  To line the pan, first trace the bottom of the pan on a sheet of parchment paper, making a circle, then cut out the circle.  Next, measure the height of the pan, and cut a strip of parchment paper that is that wide by 14 and a half inches long. Grease the pan, then line with the parchments paper, putting the circle on the bottom and the strip on the side.  If you like, you can line the bottom and then clamp on the sides, trapping the circle of paper with the sides.

Cake batter instructions:


In a food processor, cream the butter with the 1/3 cup sugar until light. Blend in the egg yolks until light, then the mashed sweet potatoes, vanilla, and cooled chocolate. Mix until smooth.

In a large bowl, use clean beaters to whip the egg whites gently until they are a bit foamy.  You can use a hand-crank-style manual rotary egg beater to do this – it is easy, and great exercise! Then add in the salt and whip harder to make meringue, sprinkling in the last two tablespoons of sugar to form stiff and shiny (but not dry) peaks. With this amount of sugar, you could also dump all the sugar in at once – it won’t make much difference.

Fold the cooled sweet potato/chocolate mixture into the egg whites gradually, keeping the mixture light and airy – don’t beat it now or you will lose all the air you have beaten in to the egg whites. The air trapped in the egg whites is what is going to make the cake rise in the oven.

Spoon the batter into the prepared pan, shake the pan briefly to settle it, and bake  at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes (that is what the first version of this recipe said, but that was not correct – it took over 70 minutes).  Depending on your oven, you will need to check the cake starting at 40 minutes, but leave yourself an extra half hour in case the baking takes longer.  When the cake rises high and looks dry, and slightly cracked on top, it is done cooking – if it doesn’t look like this, give it more time. The middle should be soft but firm – a toothpick tests almost dry.  The cake will have risen really high, but it will fall as it cools.  Don’t worry about it though.

Cool in the pan for 20 minutes, then place the cake (in its pan) on a wire rack.  Refrigerate completely to cool – overnight seems reasonable. At this point, the cake can be removed from the pan and frozen for up to a month (haven’t tried that). Even if serving it the same day, chill the cake for two hours before finishing it with the glaze.   This is a dense cake which holds the heat.

Glaze instructions:

In a pot, mix water, sugar and corn syrup and bring to a boil to dissolve the sugar.  Off the heat add the chocolate (bittersweet is best).  Stir until completely melted, then stir in the butter which will make it shinier.

Remove the cake from the pan, leaving the top side up.  Do not try to flip it over. Put the cake on a serving plate. There will be a slight indentation where the cake has fallen in the middle. The final cake will have shrunk down from its lofty height that it was in the oven – maybe it will be 2 inches high. Pour the glaze into the indentation of the cake and, using a spatula, even out the glaze and urge it along to ooze attractively over the edges in places.

The cake is excellent served with whipped cream, and it seems like it would be pretty good if you used bittersweet instead of semisweet in the cake part too as well as the icing.

Make sure ALL your ingredients are gluten free.  If you are making this for a gluten free friend, take care that there is no stray wheat flour in your sugar canister, transferred there during previous baking adventures.

Sweet Potato Fries

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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.

Sweet Potatoes with Apricots

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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!

Sweet Potatoes with Pineapple and Cinnamon

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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!

Baby Potatoes – are they really worth the $$?

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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!

Hutspot – A Dutch Potato Dish

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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!

Mashed Potatoes with Brie

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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.

Braised Potatoes

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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!

Baked Potatoes

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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.