Category Archives: sides

Baked Sweet Potato “Fries” Ina Garten

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2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled
2 tablespoons good olive oil
1 tablespoon light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, plus extra for sprinkling
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
Halve the sweet potatoes lengthwise and cut each half into 3 long spears. Place them on a sheet pan and toss with the olive oil. Spread the potatoes in one layer. Combine the brown sugar, salt, and pepper and sprinkle on the potatoes. Bake for 15 minutes and then turn with a spatula. Bake for another 5 to 10 minutes, until lightly browned. Sprinkle lightly with salt and serve hot.

Read more at: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/baked-sweet-potato-fries-recipe.html?oc=linkback

Salt-and-Vinegar Potatoes From “Cooks Country” Magazine

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Use small red potatoes, measuring 1 to 2 inches in diameter.

6 tablespoons olive oil
2 pound small red potatoes
14 ounces kosher salt
3 tablespoons malt vinegar

1. Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and heat oven to 500 degrees F. Set wire rack inside rimmed baking sheet. Brush second rimmed baking sheet evenly with oil. Bring 2 quarts water to boil in Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Stir in potatoes and salt, and cook until just tender and paring knife slips easily in and out of potatoes, 20 to 30 minutes. Drain potatoes and transfer to wire rack; let dry for 10 minutes.

2. Transfer potatoes to oiled baking sheet. Flatten each potato with underside of measuring cup until 1/2 inch thick. Brush potatoes with half of vinegar and season with pepper. Roast until potatoes are well browned, 25 to 30 minutes. Brush with remaining vinegar. Transfer potatoes to platter, smashed side up. Serve.

Warm Lentil and Potato Salad with a Garlicky Mustard Vinaigrette, smitten kitchen

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2 large shallots, 1 halved, 1 finely diced,
4 sprigs of thyme
1 small bay leaf
1 cup dry small green lentils (see Note up top for varieties)
1 small bay leaf
Salt and pepper
1 pound fingerling potatoes
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 to 2 garlic cloves, minced or smashed to a paste (I use less)
1 tablespoon smooth Dijon mustard
1/4 cup of your favorite olive oil
2 teaspoons capers, rinsed if salted, drained if brined, and roughly chopped
2 tablespoons cornichons or other sour gherkins, roughly chopped
1 to 2 scallions, thinly sliced
1/2 cup chopped flat leaf parsley

Cook lentils: Pick over and rinse lentils. Place them in a small/medium saucepan with the halved shallot, thyme branches, bay leaf, some salt and 4 cups of water. Simmer the lentils over medium heat for 25 to 30 minutes, until firm-tender. Drain (discarding shallot, thyme and bay leaf) and keep warm.

Meanwhile, cook potatoes: In a separate saucepan, cover potatoes with 1 to 2 inches cold water. Set timer for 15 minutes, then bring potatoes to a simmer. When the timer rings, they should be easily pierced with a toothpick or knife. Drain and keep warm.

Make the dressing: Place the chopped shallot and red wine vinegar in the bottom of a small bowl and let sit for 5 minutes. Whisk in minced garlic, dijon, a pinch of salt, a few grinds of black pepper and olive oil. Stir in chopped capers, cornichon and scallions.

Assemble salad: Slice potatoes into 1/2-inch segments and place in serving bowl. Add lentils, dressing and all but 1 tablespoon parsley and combine. Adjust seasoning with additional salt and pepper if needed. Scatter salad with remaining parsley.

Serve alone, with a soft-cooked egg on top, or as a side to a larger roast, chop or sausages. Reheat as needed. If you plan to make this at the outset of several meals and would like to eat it warm, I’d keep the dressing separate, warming only the lentils and potatoes and stirring in the cold dressing to taste.

Keeps in fridge for up to 5 days. Makes 4 lunch servings, 6 servings as a side dish

Vegetable Tian Recipe, Ina Garten

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Olive oil
2 lg Yellow onions , cut in half and sliced
2 clove Garlic , minced
1 lbs Potatoes,unpeeled , med. round
3/4 lbs Zucchini
1 1/4 lbs Tomatoes , medium
1 tsp Kosher salt
1/2 tsp Black pepper , freshly ground
1 tbsp Thyme leaves (plus extra sprig) , fresh
2 oz Gruyere cheese , grated

1. For this dish to look its best, you want to choose potatoes, zucchini, and tomatoes that are about the same diameter so the slices look similar.

2. Preheat the oven to 375F.

3. Brush a 9 x 13 x 2 inch baking dish with olive oil. In a medium saute pan, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil and cook the onions over medium low heat for 8 to 10 minutes, until translucent. Add the garlic and cook for another minute. Spread the onion mixture on the bottom of the baking dish.

4. Slice the potatoes, zucchini, and tomatoes in 1/4 inch thick slices. Layer them alternately in the dish on top of the onions, fitting them tightly, making only one layer. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, thyme leaves, and thyme sprigs and drizzle with 1 more tablespoon of olive oil.

5. Cover the dish with aluminum foil and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until the potatoes are tender. Uncover the dish, remove the thyme sprigs, sprinkle the cheese on top, and bake for another 30 minutes, or until browned. Serve warm.

Terry’s Notes:

This is a lovely lucious dish. Perfect for a buffet.

This dish multiplies very easily; use any size pan and bake for the
same amount of time. Just be sure you only make one layer.

Ina says that Yukon gold potatoes are particularly good. I used red
bliss.

I sliced everything in the Cuisanart so it was al the elements were
the same thickness.

Served with Tomatillo Grilled Shrimp, cumin rice pilaf and cherry pie a la mode. (cck – 8/9/06)

Celery and Parmesan Salad, Ina Garten

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1/2 cup good olive oil
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice (3 lemons)
2 tablespoons minced shallots
1 teaspoon celery seed
1/2 teaspoon celery salt
1/2 teaspoon anchovy paste
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
5 cups thinly sliced celery hearts, tender leaves included, sliced on an angle (about 12 stalks)
4-ounce chunk aged Parmesan cheese
2/3 cup toasted walnuts, coarsely chopped
Whole flat-leaf parsley leaves

At least 1 hour before you plan to serve the salad, whisk together the olive oil, lemon zest, 1/4 cup of lemon juice, the shallots, celery seed, celery salt, anchovy paste, 2 teaspoons salt, and 1 teaspoon pepper. Place the celery in a mixing bowl and toss it with the remaining 1 tablespoon of lemon juice and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. (Even though these ingredients are in the dressing, believe me-this step makes a difference.) Add enough dressing to moisten well. Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour to allow the celery to crisp and the flavors to develop.

When ready to serve, arrange the celery on a platter, shave the Parmesan onto the celery with a vegetable peeler, then sprinkle with walnuts, parsley leaves, salt, and pepper and serve immediately.

acorn squash stuffed with creamed spinach

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IMG_2373 Scrub squash, cut in half and remove seeds and goop. Place cut side down on foil, bake at 400 for 45 min. Sautee a few cloves of garlic in olive oil, add washed spinach and cook until wilted. Add salt, pepper and grated nutmeg along with heavy cream. Heat through. Put in squash, cover with some bread crumbs and parm cheese. Put back in oven and bake until cheese is melted. Yum yum

Green Bean Casserole from chocolate moosey blog

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Green-Bean-Casserole-Without-Canned-Soup-886516 ounces frozen green beans
4 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup chopped white or yellow onion
2 cloves minced garlic
2 cups sliced mushrooms
2 tablespoons flour
1/4 cup chicken or vegetable broth
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream or milk
1 large shallot, peeled and sliced thin (I subbed more white onion because I live in a town without shallots)
Salt

Preheat oven to 350F. Have a 1.5-2 quart casserole dish ready.
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Boil green beans for 3 minutes. Drain and quickly run under cold water to stop the cooking. Let dry.

In a large deep skillet, melt 2 tablespoons butter. Add onions, garlic, and mushrooms and saute until onions start to brown and soften. Stir in flour and cook 1 minute. Stir in the broth and Worcestershire sauce. Add the sour cream and stir until melted and smooth. Add the cream/milk and cheese. Stir until the cheese is melted. If the mixture is not thick enough, boil for another few minutes. Add the green beans.

Spoon into the casserole dish and bake 25-30 minutes or until the beans are fork tender.
Meanwhile, separate the shallot slices into rings. In a clean skillet, melt the remaining 2 tablespoons butter and cook the shallots until golden brown. Sprinkle with some salt then place on top of casserole.

Green Bean Casserole with Crispy Onions from smitten kitchen

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Adapted a little from Alton Brown and a little from trial-and-error

gbc

 

 

 

 

 

 

Crispy Onions
2 medium yellow onions, halved and thinly sliced
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons panko or plain breadcrumbs
1/2 teaspoon table salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Canola, safflower, peanut or other high-heat oil, for deep-frying

Mushroom Sauce
3 tablespoons butter
12 ounces mushrooms, thinly sliced or coarsely chopped
Few gratings fresh nutmeg (optional)
Freshly ground black pepper
3/4 teaspoon table salt
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups vegetable or chicken broth
1/2 cup heavy cream

Assembly
1 to 1 1/2 pounds green beans, trimmed and halved (see note about volume)

Make the crispy onions: Toss onion with flour, breadcrumbs, salt and pepper. Heat a 1/2-inch or so of oil in a 12-inch cast iron skillet until a drop of water flicked into it will hiss and sputter. Add onions, just a handful at a time in something close to a single layer, and fry until a light golden brown (they’ll get more color in the oven; I overcooked mine a bit, forgetting this). Remove with a spider or large slotted spoon, let oil drip off a little, back into the skillet, then spread onions out on paper towels to drain. Repeat with remaining onions. Set aside until needed; this makes a lot.

Heat oven to 400 degrees F.

Prepare the beans: Bring a large pot of salted water to boil and boil greens for 5 minutes (for standard green beans) or 2 to 3 minutes (for haricot vert, or skinny ones). Drain beans, then plunge them into ice water to full stop them from cooking. Drain again, and set aside. (If you are adamant about only using one pot, you can boil them in your 12-inch cast iron skillet that you use for the other steps. But a saucepan can be easier.)

Make the mushroom sauce: Over medium-high heat, melt butter in the bottom of a 12-inch cast iron skillet. Add the mushrooms, salt and pepper and saute them until they start releasing their liquid, anywhere from 3 to 5 minutes, depending on how they were chopped. Add the garlic and saute one minute more. Add the flour and stir it until it fully coats the mushrooms. Add the broth, 1/4 cup at a time, stirring the whole time. Simmer mixture for 1 minute, then add cream and bring back to a simmer, cooking until the sauce thickens a bit, about 5 to 6 minutes, stirring frequently.

Assemble and bake: Add cooked greens beans to sauce and stir until they are coated. Sprinkle crispy onions over the top. Bake for 15 minutes, or until sauce is bubbling and onions are a shade darker. Eat at once.

Do ahead, a few ways: Onions can be made long in advance (up to a day) and keep at room temperature, loosely wrapped (they’d get soggy in an airtight container). Green beans can be cooked and kept in fridge until needed, at least one day. Green beans can also be combined with mushroom sauce and kept refrigerated for up to a day. Add onions and bake shortly before serving. Finally, it’s less ideal, but the entire dish can be cooked, loosely wrapped (so the crispy top doesn’t get soggy) and then rewarmed in a low oven before serving. Just keep an eye on the topping so it doesn’t get too brown while reheating.

A few notes:

  • I made a half-recipe of this dish (in a 9-inch skillet) as there are only three of us. Yours will be bigger. It was so good, we wished we had more.
  • I recommend a range of quantities for the green beans; if you like your casserole to be heavier on sauce and lighter on vegetables, use the lower amount. If you’d like a more vegetable-heavy dish, light-to-moderately coated with the sauce (as mine is in the photos), use the higher amount.
  • This makes a loooot of crispy onions. We didn’t mind. But you could probably stretch half the onion volume more thinly over your whole casserole (saving the other half for snacking/sandwiches), or you could just say, “It’s Thanksgiving. Let’s do this,” and use them all. Either way, you win.
  • [Apologies, this was originally in the recipe and I’d meant to make it a footnote due to the unevenness of the results.] If you’d like to bake the onions instead of frying them, Alton Brown recommends spreading them on 1 to 2 oiled baking sheets (but I’d use parchment paper next time) and baking them at 475 (but I might try a lower temperature) for approximately 30 minutes (though I’d check it at 20 minutes), tossing them around a few times to ensure even cooking. However, I found this a little pesky — it’s much harder to get them crisp and golden and they’re prone to getting too dark before most of them are cooked. I ended up deep-frying the rest and have zero regrets. It’s Thanksgiving. Let’s do this properly.
  • About the sauce thickness: Alton’s original sauce was on the thin side (2T butter for 2T flour). I thickened it when I made it so that it is a moderately thick sauce — it coats the beans (as you can see in the photos) but it does drape a little bit once baked (i.e. there will be more on the lower half of the pan than the top half when it comes out of the oven). If you’re nervous and want to make sure that your sauce is definitely very thick, you can do so by using 1 extra tablespoon butter and 1 extra tablespoon flour in the sauce — i.e. more roux makes thicker sauces. Draining your green beans well and even patting them out on towels will help ensure they don’t “liquefy” the sauce too much.

creamy chipotle slaw for fish tacos

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Thinly sliced cabbage
grated carrot
thinly sliced red onion
mayo
greek yogurt of sour cream
lime juice
honey
cumin
chipotle powder
s & p
cilantro leaves
optional: diced jalpeno, red cabbage, scallions

this is more a concept than a recipe and is really tasty, mix all ingredients together, let sit a bit and then put on fish for tacos.  yum yum

Daphne Oz’s Cheesy “Pizza” Broccoli

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  • 1 head of broccoli
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 6 tablespoons grated Pecorino or Parmesan cheese
  • 1/2 to 1 teaspoon dried chile flakes
  • 1 teaspoon dried oregano
  • Juice of 1/2 lemon
  • Sea salt and fresh-cracked black pepper
Steam the whole head of broccoli for a lovely presentation, or speed the process along by breaking or cutting into bite-sized florets. Steam the broccoli until you can easily insert a knife into the center of the broccoli head (about 20 minutes) or fork into the large florets (5 to 6 minutes).

Preheat the broiler. Drain the broccoli and place it in a baking dish. Drizzle it with the oil, and sprinkle it withcheese, chile flakes and oregano. Broil the broccoli until the cheese is golden brown, 2-3 minutes. Squeezelemon juice onto the broccoli, season with salt and pepper to taste, and serve.