How to Roast Potatoes to Perfection ♥ (Maybe) My Grandfather's Recipe for English Roasted Potatoes

A two-step technique for roasting potatoes that produces potatoes crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. Not just vegan, "Vegan Done Real".

So I've been thinking about Chocolate & Zucchini's post for Perfect Roast Potatoes for two months now. Seriously, Clotilde, you stopped me in my tracks three ways. Such is the power of blogging, yes?!

THE BIG IDEA First, the idea of mastering, really nailing, the simple recipes you'll make again and again. Until now, my own practice has been all about variety, throwing noodles against the wall to see how each one sticks. That's well and good but what, you know, if you'd just like to roast some really good potatoes? You want to know exactly how to do that. Thank you, Clotilde, this idea has embedded itself in my brain, it won't let go.

SIMPLE IS GOOD BUT IT ISN'T ALWAYS BEST Second, Clotilde's recipe for roasted potatoes. Yes, it takes two steps and usually, I'm all about eliminating steps. But these are by far the crispiest, most evenly cooked roasted potatoes, to emerge from my oven. I've made them every couple of weeks since mid-January, they're fabulous. The lesson is, some times, not always but some times, a little extra effort pays huge dividends.

JUST MAYBE, A FAMILY CONNECTION Third, I call this Clotilde's recipe but all her commenters from Britain are asking, "Isn't this how everyone roasts potatoes?" In a funny way, I keep thinking that this is my grandfather's recipe for roast potatoes -- a grandfather who died when my mother was young, so not a man I knew, but he was English, and family lore says that he loved Sunday dinner's roast beef with roasted potatoes. What a funny recipe connection, this. If my Canadian family ever updates the family cookbook, I'll include this recipe and call it "Grampa's English Roasted Potatoes".

So what's the big deal about these roasted potatoes? Technique, technique, technique.
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Irish Soda Bread

Irish soda bread is awesome, and it's that time of year when the supermarket starts stocking it and the recipes are in every food magazine and Website. So I'm joining the crowd. It's hard to believe that up until past week, I've never made it. According to Irish chef Rory O'Connell (in Bon Appetite's online article), both the white and the brown Irish soda breads are traditional, and butter was not an original ingredient. The recipe I read about was made with 50% wheat flour and had butter, but not too much, and that's nice compromise in my mind.

The recipe came to my attention in the doctor's office. That seems to be when I get inspired to cook - looking at the recipes while I wait for my appointment (just seeing how my wrist is doing). This time, I brought along the latest issue of Bon Appetite. There was a fabulous article about Andrew McCarthy's (the actor) search for the Irish soda bread of his youth. It was a great read and the recipe was a tempting one for me. Though I had every intention of disgracing Andrew McCarthy's concept of what Irish soda bread is by adding nuts and currants.

The results were mixed. Things I did like were the oat flour and walnuts. But there were issues with the dough being too dry, my overworking it, and the difficulty cooking it through without burning on the outside (I scrapped the worst parts of the piece in the picture).

Based on the issues with the first loaf, I also made some changes which worked out well. I was pleased with the loaves when I took them out of the oven.


The flour mixture was 2 1/2 cups of white, 2 1/2 cups wheat, and 1 cup oat. If I were to make the recipe a third time, I would make change it to 2 1/2 cups white, 2 cups oat, and 1 1/2 cups wheat. If I don't become completely sick of Irish soda bread, I see a third batch in my future!


Irish Soda Bread
Inspired by Bon Appetit

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup oat flour
(note: I also enjoyed 3 cups white flour and 3 cups oat flour)
1/2 cup (packed) brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) chilled margarine or butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
2 cups buttermilk + 1/4 cup reserved to the side in case the dough is too dry
2/3 cup currants
1 cup toasted and chopped walnuts

Preheat your oven to 400°F.

Whisk the flours, sugar, baking soda, and baking powder in medium bowl to blend. Add the butter and cut it into the dry ingredients with a pastry blender (aka dough blender). It will be ready when the bits of butter are the size of peas.

Add the buttermilk and stir until the ingredients are just blended. There will be clumps at this stage. But if you notice that there is no way that the dry ingredients are going to be able to become one with the dough, you should immediately add more buttermilk.

Turn the dough out onto lightly floured work surface. Knead until the dough comes together, about 10 turns. Be careful not to overwork the dough!!! If you kneed it too much, the bread will be tough.

Shape the dough into two 6" rounds and cut large "x", 1/3 inch deep, in the top of the dough.

I read that cutting the "x" on the top serves several purposes. For the bread, the cut helps the bread cook because it is at the thickest part of the bread. For the people of Ireland, it signifies the cross, and is a way that the bread is blessed. It also is a symbol for breaking the bread - which is easier to do once the bread is baked.

Place dough on prepared (oil-sprayed) baking sheet. Mine baked for 42 minutes, but I suggest checking the dough's progress at 35. I did the toothpick test, but with a wooden skewer. Poke it into the thickest part of the bread, and you'll know it's done by a lack of resistance when you pull it out, and when you look at it, it's clean (there's no dough on the toothpick/skewer).

Let it cool completely before cutting it.

My favorite way to eat it is toasted, with butter and honey.

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Crispy Salty Kale Chips ♥ Recipe aka Why Did I Wait So Long to Bake Kale in the Oven?

Today's vegetable snack: Fresh kale rubbed with a little oil and mustard (or a vinegar, anything with a little acid) and then baked until crispy and salty. Weight Watchers 1 point. Not just vegan, "Vegan Done Real".

A couple of St. Louis restaurants are famous for their flash-fried spinach. People like the spinach so much, I get tempted again and again. But to my taste, it's just a greasy pile of greens, especially because it cools down so fast, becoming a cold greasy pile of greens. Eww.

I figured that the food-blog famous kale chips would be the same. But not! They taste fresh and alive and I just love the crispy-salty texture. I have the idea that they'd make a quick pre-supper snack, a way to stave off hunger with something hot and nutritious while cooking the meal.

There's a Woody Allen line about the difference betweeen Episcopalians and Catholics: "All of the pomp, none of the guilt". The same applies to kale chips and flash-fried spinach: "All of the greens, none of the grease."
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Dried Shitake Mushrooms

Shitake mushrooms give fantastic flavor to Chinese food. But they can be either hard to find or expensive. The solution? Dried shitake mushrooms!

Dried shitake mushrooms are a great deal. First of all, they seem to last forever if you don't use them. I'm not exaggerating when I say that the shitake mushrooms I just used in my Orange-Soy Glazed Tofu dish were probably over five years old. And they were no worse than they were the day I bought them.

But not only are they good for how ever long you store them, but they are good for your budget. If you have an Asian food market near you, you'll see what a great deal they are. But if you don't have an Asian market, or if you feel intimidated to go in, you can buy them online. I did a search on Amazon.com and found numerous good deals on dried shitake mushrooms.

This is what they will look like:


To use them, you have to rehydrate them. Put them in a bowl or plastic container and add boiling water - enough to cover them.



Then, you have to push the mushrooms down with something so they are submerged. I used a smaller lid and it fit perfectly so that I didn't have to weigh the lid down with something.


But chances are you'll have to put something on top of the lid to hold it down and keep the mushrooms submerged.

Then cover the bowl or container to keep the water good and hot.



In about 15 minutes, the mushrooms will be ready.

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Butternut Squash Soup Recipe That Actually Tastes Like Butternut Squash ♥

Today's butternut squash soup recipe: Just four ingredients plus water and salt, yet the butternut squash soup that emerges is luxuriant, silky-smooth and almost custardy. And oo-la-la, if it doesn't taste like butternut squash too! This stuff is so elegant, I considered serving it in wine glasses!

They had me at "butternut squash soup that tastes like butternut squash". There's no counting the recipes I've tried, reaching in vain for that color of honeyed gold, making one after another Sisyphean trip up the hill of butternut squash soup worth making, for its own sake, for its own silky-soup winter squash glory.

Finally. I loved this soup, I think you will too, I want you to love this soup!
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Spicy Cauliflower Soup ♥ Recipe

A quick 'n' easy cauliflower soup, spicy with spice, not spicy with heat. Low carb. Weight Watchers 1 point. Not just vegan, "Vegan Done Real".

Can't say I know, exactly, what gruel is, but I suspect it might look a lot like a pot of Spicy Cauliflower soup, smudgy and watery, muddy-yellow and dirty-brown.

But please don't judge this soup by its appearance. What it lacks in aesthetics, it compensates in flavor. The spices are 'Indian-style' – coriander, cumin and turmeric, plus a little chili powder for a small measure of heat. That's right, this soup is spicy – but not spicy-hot, just spicy. I found it a spare and satisfying antidote to a weekend of too-rich food and too-little exercise.

My soup bowl remained monastic and rustic, just the soup itself and a gorgeous loaf of rye bread from St. Louis' bakery The Daily Bread. But the inspiring recipe called for topping the soup with yogurt, chopped cilantro and a squeeze of lime juice, go ahead, live it up.
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Sweet Potato & Butternut Squash Tagine ♥ Recipe

Today's tagine recipe: A magical pairing of sweet potatoes and butternut squash, healthy 'bright orange' vegetables married with a medley of Moroccan spices, cooked in a tagine and served tableside. Beautiful color to banish the mid-winter blues! Works as a side dish or a vegetarian supper. Not just vegan, "Vegan Done Real".

You know how you cook something and it's so good that its memory lingers? A week, a month, some weeks later you're still feeling all dreamy? You intend to make it again, but then the moment passes, and yet the memory still lingers? And best of all, then you finally make it again and reality matches the memory?

When we made this a year ago, it was a side dish. But when I remade it this week and paired it with Oven-Baked Brown Rice, whoa, it made for a fabulous vegetarian – vegan even – supper. I was completely blown away. The ingredients are 100% familiar and yet, together, they create something entirely new and magical.
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