This recipe for orange braised carrots and parsnips was a side dish at my friendsgiving this year. Confession time-I have never before cooked or eaten a parsnip. And while I don;t know how that is possible, I do know that now I am trying to put them into everything that might benefit from a slightly spicy, slightly sweet, all delicious root vegetable presence….
You know those sweet potatoes you see in the grocery store that are about as big as a toddler’s head? Well, I had three of those bad boys in my fridge the other day that were crying out to be used.
Now, I really love sweet potatoes. But, there are also two things I really do not like about sweet potatoes.
So, what have we learned from this post so far? Let’s recap:
Taking our knowledge and moving on…
After I resigned myself to peel and chop these fellows up, I did happen to make a super yummy side dish. Creamy, cheesy, crispy-crusted. Excuse me while I eat the leftovers in my fridge…
Ok, I’m back. And here’s the recipe: {Serves 5- 6 as a side dish}
Ingredients:
Three Large Sweet Potatoes
1/2 stick of butter
1/4 to 1/2 cup of 1/2 & 1/2 or cream
Fresh grated Parmesan cheese (about 1/2 a regular sized block, or 1/2 c)
kosher salt, fresh ground black pepper
Method:
Wash, peel and chop the sweet potatoes (yams?) into 2″ cubes, place then into a pot and cover with water. Add about 2 tbsp of kosher salt to the water (water should taste like sea water)
boil potatoes until tender
Pre-heat broiler
add potatoes to a casserole dish, add butter and toss until melted.
Add in cream and mash potatoes with a fork or potato masher.
Stir in half of the parm cheese
Taste the potatoes-salt to your liking. Pepper to your liking.
make a smooth-ish layer out of the potatoes (leave some peaks for browning and crisping)
Sprinkle on the rest of the parm cheese and place casserole dish in oven until crisped and bubbly (watch carefully- this can go from browned to burnt fast. takes about 5-7 minutes.)
Pork tenderloin made a great companion to this dish {bonus recipe! Pat dry, then salt, pepper, Italian season a 2 lb pork tenderloin. Cook on a foil or parchment covered sheet pan for 40 minutes at 425 covered with foil. Remove foil, cook for additional 15 minutes. I like to make a small cut in the loin to check for done-ness. Should be just slightly pinkish white. Cover and let rest on counter for 10 minutes. Slice Adjust cooking time according to weight.)
**This post was brought to you by a gal who should, but cannot, tell the difference between a sweet potato and a yam. It says ‘yam’ in the grocery store. I see pictures of ‘yams’ that I just purchased from said store featured in recipes…but they are always called sweet potatoes. Help a sister out.
Signed,
I most likely should know this difference, but I’m too busy eating their mysterious deliciousness to care.
~A special thank you to my son for creating this amazing piece of artwork (that you see behind the plate) while I cooked dinner. As Tina Turner would say, you’re simply the best!
After a brief hiatus from posting on The Salty Table, I’m back! While I’ve been away I’ve been writing recipes for my food column at UsaHerald, and I’ve also started a new project (That will be a book in 2015!) Salinger’s Salad, where I take a look at food in literature and offer up a few imaginative lit and food pairings of my own.I’d love for you to follow along with me on these endeavors!
In the meantime, I’ve decided to come home to The Salty Table, my original food blog, to share a bunch of my new recipes and my new food journey of eliminating highly processed foods from my family’s kitchen. It feels good to be back.
First up to share is this roasted red potato and radish salad. This was my first go with roasting radishes. I’ve always loved radishes raw, thinly sliced in salads and slaws or atop a sandwhich, but now I’m really a believer in the roasted version. The roasted radishes really give this potato salad a unique, earthy flavor. And the herb vinaigrette livens up the warmth and crispy-tenderness the vegetables take on after roasting. Yummers.
This dish is great for any time of year and is perfect for parties, picnics, or BBQs because it can be served at room temperature. Try mixing up the herbs to create a different flavor profile.
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes
Serving Size: 4 side dishes
Ingredients
Instructions
This recipe was originally posted by me in my Food column @UsaHerald.
I don’t know if there has ever been a day when someone has asked me if I was in the mood for mashed potatoes and I said no. I could eat them every day. And because of this, I often come up with different ways to make them.
Some times I add cheese, sometimes I add sour cream. Some times I add herbs, sometimes I add horseradish. Sometimes I rhyme slow, sometimes I rhyme fast. (please excuse the early 90’s hip-hop reference) All times I add butter. All times.
These particular mashed ‘taters are a marriage of butter, cream cheese, parsley, and a hint of garlic. The result is a super creamy, yet herb-fresh, side of mashed potatoes. Here’s what you’ll need:
4 medium -large yukon Gold potatoes, quartered, boiled and drained
2 TBSP Butter
1/2 tsp minced garlic
1/4 C milk
1/4 C Cream Cheese
1/3 C finely chopped fresh parsley
Kosher salt & black pepper
Boil potatoes in salted water (it should taste like sea water) until fork tender, drain. while potatoes are in colander draining, melt butter in pot (leave your burner just on low while finishing the potatoes) . And add in the minced garlic an let it cook for about 1 minute from the heat of the pot. Add potatoes back into pan and mash with 1/4 C milk and a potato masher (or a hand mixer if you prefer them whipped). Stir in 1/4 C of cream cheese and salt and pepper to taste. Stir in the parsley.
And that’s all she wrote. When not literally, because I’m going to write a few more things. These potatoes really delivered on feeling like a little something special. The creamy texture, the tang of the cream cheese, and the brightness of the parsley really make them an ask-for-seconds kind of dish.
Stop by on Monday for Monday Coffee Break where we’ll feature the best food finds from the weekend. Want a little hint at the contents? You may want some of these finds for your holiday celebrations. And on Thursday I’ll be sharing my recipe of the week, what will it be?! Oh, the anticipation!
Bon Appetit!
We’re sharing food love over at…
My issue of Food & Wine arrived today and I was very excited to see it was the Thanksgiving issue.
Of particular interest (oh, aren’t we fancy this evening?) was the section on side dishes. Why? Because you already know what the main dish is- It’s a large bird. You can cook it in a paper bag, brine it, roast it, fry it, an even smash it together with other birds and give it a funky name, but, in the end, it’s a turkey.
If your hosting, or cooking food for, a Thanksgiving dinner, what you always end up having to think about are the side dishes- and for me, these little asides often trump the big ‘ol bird. That being said, check out some of these interesing options from Food & Wine
via Thanksgiving Side Dish Recipes: Stuffing, Sweet Potatoes, Cranberries & More | Food & Wine.
Let me start by saying that this dish is super yummy and comforting. I give you this as a preface so you hold on until I am finished telling this tale of when things go wrong in the kitchen (if you’d rather skip the story, I won’t be offended, just head to the end of the post and you’ll find the printable recipe. BUT, I’m pretty sure you want to hear how I get my hand caught In a hand mixer.)
First, here’s a picture of what your reward will be for reading my “kitchen muse takes the day off tale.”
The night began as any other and I was working on a new recipe of a pumpkin beer braised chicken. Yay! It still sounds great… Sadly, instead of making a festive fall flavored pan sauce, I made a completely indelible chicken dish. I mean gross. Like bad. Think brewers yeast poured over chicken. Blech. Eew.
Anywhoo…
I had to save the chicken so I did the only thing I could. I threw out the nasty creation and whipped up a quick BBQ sauce. Why? Because BBQ sauce fixes everything. I finished braising the chicken in BBQ yumminess and it was saved. Now,onto how I almost ripped my arm off making these mashed potatoes…
I usually use a manual potato masher when I make mashed potatoes because I like a little bit of texture, but for these taters I wanted them whipped into creamy submission. A funny thing happened as I was attaching the mixing arms (arms? legs?) to the hand mixer base- I hit the on switch…with my hand caught in between the beaters (beaters! that’s what they’re called.) Thankfully, no serious injuries occurred, but I took that as my final hint to finish what I was doing and get the heck out of the kitchen for the night.
In the end, the inedible chicken was saved by the magic of BBQ sauce, and I made these creamy, cheesy, potatoes from heaven. All was right with the world. Now, without further adieu, the recipe.
You will need:
2Lbs yukon gold potatoes
2 TBSP butter
1/2 C milk
4 oz cream cheese
1 C shredded Cheddar cheese
salt and pepper
Crumb topping:
1/2C panko breadcrumbs
1/4C grated parmesan cheese
1 TSP Italian seasoning
2TSP olive oil
pre-heat oven to 350.
First, quarter your potatoes and place them in a pot of heavily salted water. Bring to a boil and cook until tender. Drain and set aside. In the pot you cooked the potatoes in melt the butter.
Add the potatoes back to the pot. Sprinkle generously with salt and about 1/2 tsp of black pepper
Add in the milk and beat until creamy with an electric hand mixer
Now, add in the cream cheese, stir to combine. Fold in the cheddar.
Spoon potatoes into 4 medium sized ramekins (you can also do this in one large baking dish if you prefer)
Mix the crumb topping ingredients
Sprinkle topping on top of your potato pots and bake at 350, for about 20 minutes, or until the top is golden.
mmmmmmm. Is there anything better than the combination of creamy, cheesy, and crispy?
Bon Apetit! And remember, sometimes the kitchen muse takes the day off. And sometimes this is when the most delicious accidents happen. But, if absolutely nothing ends up being edible, there’s always the wine.
Get the Printable version of this recipe HERE
