Archives for May 2010

One of my favorite sights of summer is all the colorful produce that comes to your grocery store and local market. We discovered these mixed bags of small colorful potatoes and they added the most amazing look to one of my favorite things, potatoes sauteed with herbs. You can use whatever herb you love the most, I have used oregano, dill, rosemary, thyme, and more. This is one of my favorite mid-day snacks, but would make the perfect side dish to summer picnic or barbecue fair. I think with the lemon garnish it would go great with salmon (but in case you haven’t noticed from our lack of dishes with meat posted so far, both BTS guy and I are vegetarians!)

You’ll need:
– 1-2 lbs of small potatoes cut in half or larger potatoes cut into 1″ cubes (it’s really important that they’re all very close in size so they cook evenly)
– 1-2 tblspoons olive oil
– salt to taste
– pepper to taste
– herb of choice (in this case fresh dill)
– lemon to garnish

Evenly cut potatoes, skin still on.

Olive oil (or another substitute) You can test to make sure it’s ready by placing the end of a wooden spoon in the oil. Here you can see ours has been used for this a lot!

This makes sure your food doesn’t soak up oil but that the oil is so hot it will sear whatever hits it creating a seal that helps steam later on.

You’re going to leave it on high or med-high the whole time, halfway through you’ll add just a tablespoon or two of water and re-cover with the lid.

Potatoes sizzle when they hit the hot oil, add them slowly so you don’t reduce the oil’s temp too much.

When they’re all in, salt and cover with a lid. Leave them alone while you get the herbs ready.

If you’re using fresh herbs you can take this moment to chop them, but wait to add them until the potatoes are off the heat. You want fresh herbs to keep their color and not get burnt in the hot pan.

If you’re using dry herbs wait about 5 mins and then add them directly to the hot potatoes in the pot. The heat will re-animate the flavor in your dry spices/herbs.

Now would also be a good time to add the tablespoons of water mentioned before, when you replace the lid this will work to steam cook the potatoes the rest of the way through.

Make sure to remove the lid when they’re almost done, this will keep them crispy.

Here’s a really great alternative to cheese and crackers. It would work just as well with your favorite micro-brew or white wine, and it features a lot of those fresh tastes that your summer palette craves.

If you buy a full loaf you can easily make enough of both to serve 2-4 people (depending on what else you’re serving).

You’ll need:
One loaf of bread (preferably a baguette but an italian style loaf will do as well)
-2 or 3 ripe tomatoes
-1 lb/ 16 oz. of fresh mozzarella
-1 bunch of fresh basil
-1 bunch of broccoli rabe
-about 8 oz of riccota cheese
-2-3 large cloves of garlic
-lemon juice/zest to garnish
-olive oil  and balsamic vinegar to finish
-salt and pepper

Prep:

Slice the loaf on the diagonal in 1″ thick slices

Place bread on a flat baking sheet coated with oil or spray

If you have a broiler you will drizzle olive oil over the slices and broil until golden, flip once if you prefer them crispy on both sides. If you don’t have a broiler you can use a toaster oven or your oven. Drizzle with olive oil and bake keeping a close eye to make sure the slices don’t burn

if you do burn some edges, you can use a knife to scrape the burnt part off.

When the slices are cooled down enough to handle, you’re going to take the peeled whole garlic and use the bread as a grater. The residual heat and the crusty surface will basically grate the garlic and add a nice garlicy bite.

-Boil water to cook the broccoli rabe. Cut off the ends and place in boiling pot, pull them out when their color brightens and if you can place them in an ice bath (this will keep them from cooking after removed from heat and keep their color green)
-Clean and pull leaves from Basil, be sure to remove all the grit from the leaves.
-Wash, and slice tomatoes.
-Slice the mozzarella about 1/4″ thick

Assemble:

Bon Appetit!