Baked Eggs in Potatoes

My friend Julie and I have gotten into the great habit of cooking together at her place and listening to fun new music and having wonderful conversation : ) This should be the norm for cooking and hopefully will be just as soon as my mom figure out our new living situation, which is coming along swimmingly, btw.

In the meantime, though, I look forward to every time we do dinner! She is gulten-free AND corn free, which is a particularly difficult combination here in the Midwest. So! Challenge accepted : ) 

For this, I didn't use the rosemary because it was Asian themed, as I served it on a bed of sauteed baby bok choy with ginger and garlic. Delicious! But the Rosemary wouldn't fit. This is definitely something I'd make again, though. Simple and can be served on top of many varieties of green things! Salads, zucchini noodles, carrot-slaw, truly anything. If you don't have time to cook it all in one night (recommended) you can pre-bake the potatoes the night before, as I did (but you'll end up with wrinkly potatoes!)

Baked Eggs in Potatoes
inspired by Our Best Bites

Ingredients:
4 potatoes
4 eggs
8 oz. mushrooms
2 Tbs butter
1 sprig rosemary, dried
salt and pepper
4 Tbs cheese, grated, to garnish

Instructions:
1. Pre-heat oven to 425F.
2. Poke potatoes with fork making deep holes. On a baking sheet lined with a silicon mat, toss potatoes in olive oil and salt.
3. Bake for 45 minutes, until potatoes are fork-tender.
4. Set a medium, heavy-bottomed skillet over medium flame and take oven down to 375F.
5. Chop mushrooms into small cubes. Melt butter in skillet, then add mushrooms, rosemary, and a generous pinch of salt. Cook mushrooms all the way down stirring occasionally, then remove the sprig of rosemary.
6. Once potatoes are cool enough to handle, scoop out the centers of them until there is a cavity large enough for an egg and 1/4 of the mushrooms to fit.
7.Assemble potatoes by putting 1/4th the mushrooms into each potato, cracking an egg neatly on top and sprinkling each potato with 1 Tbs of cheese.
8. Bake potatoes for 20-25 minutes, or until white of the eggs have set.
9. Let potatoes cool, sprinkle with fresh ground pepper, and serve.

Vegetable Curry

Delicious curry that's so close to India! If only I had a curry plant going, this would be pretty much the real thing. One day soon! This again is one of the recipes that Gopal made for me and my roommates when he and his family came over to show us Americans how to cook the Indian way. I still haven't perfected my chapati technique, but hopefully one day soon!

Vegetable Curry
from Gopal

Ingredients:
2 Tbs. oil
green chilies (optional)
1/2 medium red onion
1 handful curry leaves
2 green bell peppers, diced small
1 medium russet potato, diced small
1 roma tomato, diced small
1 small handful cilantro, chopped
1/4 cup coconut paste
1 Tbs. ginger/garlic paste
1 tsp. tumeric
1/4 tsp. black pepper
salt to taste

Instructions:
Note: After each ingredient, stir and saute for a minute or two before adding the next.

1. Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat.
2. Add green chilies (if using), onions,  cilantro, and curry leaves.
3. Add bell pepper, and potato. Cover with lid and let saute for an additional minute.
4. Add tomato, and saute for 3 minutes. Add coconut paste, ginger/garlic paste, tumeric, black pepper, stir well, and cover with lid to cook for 5 minutes.
5. Season with salt to taste, and serve with chapatis.

Chapatis
from Gopal
makes about 12 chapatis

Ingredients:
3 cups whole wheat flour + more for sprinkling
1.5 cups water
1 tsp. salt
oil or butter (optional)

Instructions:
1. Add flour and salt to a bowl and stir to combine.
2. Make a well in the center of the flour, add water, and combine with hands. Knead 5 minutes. Add more water or flour as needed, until all flour comes off the side of the bowl but dough isn't sticky.
3. Divide into 12 balls, and press each one flat by pressing hands together tightly and twisting palms in opposite directions to make compact disks.
4. Let each ball set for 5 - 10 minutes before rolling out
5. Put some flour on the counter, cover both sides of a dough ball, and roll out to about a 5" diameter circle. To roll: roll back and forth one time on a side, flip and turn 90 degrees and repeat. 
6. Pre-heat a skillet to low heat. Add a rolled-out chapati, in crease heat to medium, cook for about 1 minute, flip, then turn head back to low and cook until dough-color has left. Flip back and forth a couple times until black splotches appear on the air bubbles.
7. If using oil or butter, drizzle or spread on chapate with the back of a spoon after the first flip.

Vegetable Biryani with Riata Sauce

This was one of my favorite dishes in India. I pretty much celebrated every time we got it for lunch (instead of our same daily-meal of rice, sambar, chapatis, and similar-tasting curry. Delicious and healthy, but the same thing every day makes a foodie cranky). Since all of our food was delivered I really didn't cook much at all, save for our Thanksgiving day feast. So, to learn how to cook Indian food, we had our amazing, kind, and gentle care taker Gopal come over with his beautiful family and teach us how to cook a few Indian dishes. Gopal pretty much made up these recipes himself, and they're amazing so I'd like to share them with the world.

I finally had the opportunity to make this dish for an Oscar party last weekend, where all the guests were assigned a dish from a country represented in the Oscars. By fortunate coincidence, I got India (from Life of Pi)

Unfortunately, it's fresh curry leaves and fresh double-beans are not stocked in the supermarkets during the winter in the mid west. SO, i substituted curry powder (so not the same thing, I know) and canned red kidney beans (or I would have, if I had realized that I don't actually own a can opener, a fact I have apparently been oblivious of since I moved into my new apartment 3 months ago x.x) Since this is an Indian recipe, you can pretty much substitute/remove/add any vegetables or seasonings you want to this. These are just the ones my dear old Gopal choose to use in his version of biryani.

Note: It's easiest to just prepare each vegetable as you go along instead of preparing all before starting.

Vegetable Biryani
from Gopal

Ingredients:
5 Tbs. oil
1 handful fresh curry leaves
1 small red onion, diced
1 green bell pepper, cut into thin strips and then halved
3 small carrots, cut into 1/4" thick half moons
2 handfuls of green beans, chopped until 1/4" circles
1 small russet potato, diced
large handful of fresh double-beans
1 handful cilantro, chopped
2.5 Tbs. ginger/garlic paste
1/2 cup coconut paste
2 Roma tomatoes, diced
green chillies (optional)
3 cups basmati rice
1 Tbs. salt, divided

Instructions:
     Note: after each individual item is added to the pot, stir to incorporate new ingredients and cook for 1 minute before adding the next ingredient.

1. In a bowl, soak the rice. Dice the potato and soak in a separate bowl, same with the double-beans.
2. Heat the oil on medium heat in a stock pot
3. Add curry leaves, onion, bell pepper, carrots, green beans, potato, and double beans. Cover with lid and let cook for 5 minutes.
4. Drain rice and add fresh water to soak.
5. Add garlic/ginger paste, cover, and let cook for 2 minutes. Add coconut paste, cover, and let cook for 2 more minutes.
6. Add 2 tsp. salt and cover. Then add diced tomato and cover.
7. Add 6 cups water, turn on high heat, add remaining 1 tsp. salt and bring to a boil.
8. Drain rice, add to pot, and cook for 15 minutes, stirring every 5.
9. Set pot aside with lid on for 15 minutes.
10. Serve with raita sauce.

Riata Sauce
from Gopal

Ingredients:
1 cucumber
1/2 medium red onion, diced small
500 mL yogurt
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup diced cilantro

Instructions:
1. Combine all ingredients and serve over biryani.

Borscht

My good friend up at Truman State went to study abroad in Russia last semester and made me promise to make Russian foods for her. Now that it's finally winter-vegetable time, I was able to make this borscht from almost exclusively farmers market ingredients. I felt very eastern European making this dish, scrubbing and grating root vegetables in the kitchen, and then throwing them into a large pot that looked like a bubbling, purple witch's cauldron. Definitely made me miss my Ukranian and Slovokian roommates from France!! This was exactly how they cooked, so I'm dedicating this one to them : )

Note: let soup sit overnight for best flavor.

Borscht
from Moderate Oven

Ingredients:
1 pound beets, shredded
1 bay leaf
pinch of caraway seeds
3 cups vegetable broth
1 lb. cabbage, shredded (I used purple, but the original recipe calls for green)
1 lb. potatoes, chopped into 3/4" pieces
1/4 cup olive oil
1 large onion, diced
1 carrot, shredded
2 Tbs. tomato paste
1 cup canned diced tomatoes, drained (I used 2 medium fresh tomatoes, crushed slightly and drained)
3 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 Tbs. lemon juice
1 Tbs. brown sugar + more, to taste
1 Tbs. salt + more, to taste
pepper, to taste
1/4 cup fresh dill, finely chopped + more, for garnish
sour cream, to garnish

Instructions:
1. In a large stock pot, add half of the shredded beets, 4 cups of cold water, the bay leaf, and the caraway seeds. Bring to a gentle but steady boil and cook for 10 minutes to extract color and flavor from beets.
2. Add the vegetable broth, cabbage, and potatoes to the pot. Return to a boil and simmer for 10 more minutes.
3. Meanwhile, heat olive oil in a heavy-bottomed skillet and sauté onions and celery until soft. Add carrots, the rest of the beets, tomato paste, canned tomatoes, and garlic. Ladle a few spoonfuls of broth from the stock pot into the skillet, and let this mixture cook at a low simmer for 10 minutes.
4. Add skillet vegetables to the stock pot along with the red wine vinegar, lemon juice, sugar, salt, and pepper. Thin soup at this point with more water, if desired. Simmer for 5-10 minutes more, or until potatoes are fork-soft.
5. Remove from heat, add the dill, and season to taste. Serve with lots of sour cream and extra fresh dill.

Cheesy Spinach Soup

A simple, quick soup that's packed full of spinach and lightly flavored with cheese. I used cheddar, but you can use anything you want really (the original recipe suggested gruyere)

Cheesy Spinach Soup
from Annies Eats

Ingredients:
2 Tbs. butter
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
6 oz. potato, peeled and cubed
3 cups vegetable broth
salt and pepper to taste
8 oz. spinach
4 oz. cheddar cheese, shredded

Instructions:
1. Melt butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add onions and saute until just tender (~3-4 mins). Stir in garlic and potato, and cook until just fragrant (~1 min).
2. Add vegetable broth to pot and bring to a boil. Seas on with salt and pepper to taste. Lower heat to a simmer and cover, letting cook about 15 minutes, or until potatos are fork-tender.
3. Stir in spinach leaves and cover pot once more. Let cook just until the leaves have wilted (~1-2 mins). Pour into a blender and puree to a smooth consistency.
4. Pour back into pot and stir in cheese until completely melted. Serve warm.

Pesto Potatoes with Egg

Pesto Potatoes with Egg
from Naturally Ella

Ingredients:
1 Tbs. olive oil
1/2 red onion, diced
3 cups small potatoes, 1/4" slices
1/3 cup pesto
2 eggs
Parmesan cheese

Instructions:
1. Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add onion and cook until softened.
2. Stir in potatoes, add 1/4 cup water, reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and cook until tender (about 15 minutes), stirring occassionally.
3. Stir in pesto until potatoes are well covered, make a well in the center, and crack the eggs in. Cook until egg whites are set, sprinkle with Parmesan cheese, and serve.

Tartiflette

Tartiflette
adapted slightly from  Meilleur du Chef

Ingredients:
1.2 kg potatoes
2 small onions, sliced thinly
1 reblochon
2 tablespoons of creme fraiche
200 g. of seiten (I got smoked seiten), in small cubes
1 cup white Savoie wine (optional)
2 Tbs. butter
pepper

Instructions:
1. Scrub the potatoes and place in a pot and cover completely with cold water. Put on medium-high heat, and boil until a fork slides easily through the potatoes.
2. Pre-heat oven to 430 F (220 C).
3. Heat a frying pan on medium-high heat, melt the butter, then add the onions and a pinch of salt. Cook for 10 minutes, then add the seiten and cook until onions are caramelized and seiten is caramelized on some sides, stirring time to time.
4. Cut potatoes into 1/2" thick slices width-wise, and cover the bottom of a gratin dish and sprinkle with pepper. Spoon half of the onion/seiten mix over the potatoes, drizzle 1 Tbs of the creme fraiche over then place the rest of the potatoes on top, sprinkle some more pepper, then put the rest of the onions, and the last 1 Tbs. of creme fraiche.
5.  Cut the reblochon in half lengthwise, and place on top of everything (cutting into shapes so there isn't reblochon overlapping, if possible). If using, pour the cup of wine over the top.
6. Bake for 20 minutes, until reblochon is melted and bubbly on top.

Raclette

Make sure to account for several slices of raclette cheese for each potato.

Very delicious! And it's a fun interactive dinner. Sorry these pictures are so blurry. Goes perfectly with a side salad.

Raclette

Ingredients:
1 regular package of Raclette cheese
4 large potatoes
3 small onions, thinly sliced
2 cups  sliced mushrooms
2 Tbs. butter
small spicy pickles
2 large tomatoes, diced
salt and pepper to taste
veggie faux pork bacon chunks (optional)

Instructions:
1. Scrub potatoes, and put in a pot of cold water so that potatoes are completely covered. Put pan on high heat and bring to a boil, then turn down medium-high heat and keep at a rapid boil until potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes.
2. While the potatoes are boiling, heat a skillet on medium-high heat, melt the butter, then add the mushrooms and onions. Sprinkle a little salt onto the mixture, and sautee until mushrooms and onions are caramelized. Put aside in a bowl to serve on the table with the raclette. Same with the diced tomatoes and the pickles, put into bowls and serve at the meal.
3. Sautee the faux meat, if using, until caramelized on some sides. Add butter if needed for the faux meat you're using.
4. Turn on raclette machine to 3/4ths the maximum temperature (probably depends on the raclette machine).
5. Lay out the raclette cheese on a plate in an overlapping pattern (traditional), and put the potatoes and (optional) faux pork chunks on top of the raclette machine to keep warm.
6. While at the dinner table, put a piece of raclette cheese in the machine, take a potato onto your plate and cut in half, put as desired on top diced tomatoes, onions, and mushrooms, and salt and pepper if desired. When the raclette cheese starts to bubble and brown, take out, and scrape onto your potato using the (wooden) scraper that comes with the set.

Gnocchi

Gnocchi
from bon appetit

Ingredients:
1 lb. white potatoes (old if possible)
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
2.5 oz. grated Parmesan
1 cup flour, plus more for sprinkling
1 tsp. salt
2 dashes (1/2 tsp) nutmeg

Instructions:
1. Boil potatoes for 25-30 mins, or until tender throughout. Drain and let cool for a bit.
2. Peel potatoes and using a ricer, rice the potatoes (if you don't have such a thing, mash them as well as possible, getting ALL lumps out.
3. Whisk egg and the yolk together, then add all other ingredients to the potatoes, combining with your hand.
4. Onto a well-floured counter, kneed the dough for a bit until not sticky on the outside. Then divide into 4 parts.
5. Keeping the other parts of the dough covered while working with one part, roll into a 2-ft long strip, and then cut a gnocchi into 1" pieces.
6. Hold a gnocchi with your thumb, and then with a thin-tined fork, push your thumb up against the gnocchi in a rolling motion. (Good tutorial here) Place finished gnocchi on floured surface (baking sheet, cutting boards, whatever you have that's large and flat)

Now there are two paths:
7a. Using gnocchi immediately:
use in 0-4 hours from making, keeping out. Set a pot of water to boiling, and throw gnocchi 12 or so at a time, . Take them out when they begin to float, adding more and taking out while floating until completely finished.

7b. Saving gnocchi
Place the long flat board where the finished gnocchi where put and place that in the freezer. Once completely frozen, you can transfer to a bag and keep them until read for use. There's no need to un-thaw before cooking, and cook as described in step 7a.

Potato Balls in Tomato Sauce

Potato Balls in Tomato Sauce
from Mango Tomato

Ingredients:
3 medium potatoes, diced
3 Tbs. olive oil, divided
1 medium onion, diced
14 oz. tomato sauce (recipe here)
1 Tbs. Mexican or Southwest spice mix
dash of sugar
3 thyme sprigs
creme fraiche (to garnish, optional)

Instructions:
1. Cook the potatoes in salted water until tender.
2. Meanwhile, saute the onion on high heat with 1 Tbs. olive oil and a pinch of salt until mostly carmalized (or fully carmalized if you're patient) stirring frequently.
3. Heat the remaining 2 Tbs. olive oil in a skillet on medium heat. Mash the potatoes and add the caramelized onions, and form into balls. Fry in the oil, browning on at least 3 sides.
4. In another pan, combine tomato sauce, spice mix, sugar and thyme sprigs on medium heat. Heat until bubbling.
5. Serve potato balls over tomato sauce, with a drizzle of creme fraiche.

Roasted Thyme Potatoes

Roasted Thyme Potatoes
from Taste Food

Ingredients:
3/4 lbs. potatoes, 1" cubes
1 clove garlic, minced
1 Tbs. olive oil
salt and pepper
2-3 sprigs thyme

Instructions:
1. Pre-heat oven to 425 F (220 C).
2. Combine potatoes with olive oil in an oven safe pan with a lip, where all the potatoes can be spread out without touching.
3. Sprinkle garlic, salt, and pepper over and stir again to combine. Spread potatoes out on pan, top with the thyme sprigs.
4. Bake for 30 minutes, stir and then bake for 30 more minutes.

Potato Gratins

Serious deliciousness. Just make sure your potato slices are really thin.

Potato Gratins
adapted from taste food blog

Ingredients:
3/4 lbs yellow potatoes
4 oz. melty cheese
1 cup creme fraiche (or sour cream)
1 clove garlic (crushed with garlic press)
butter
salt and pepper

Instructions:
1. Pre-heat oven to 350 F (175 C)
2. THINLY slice the potatoes (using mandolin preferably).
3. Combine garlic, creme fraiche, and salt and pepper in a bowl.
4. Butter 4 ramekins with the butter. Then layer potato, creme fraiche mix, and cheese (occasionally adding more salt and pepper in the layers) until all ingredients are used up, ending with a cheese layer.
5. Bake uncovered for 1 hour (if cheese starts to burn, cover with foil).

Hasselback Potatoes

This recipe turned out absolutely superbly. I'll definitely be making this again for my family over the summer.

Hassleback Potatoes

adapted from Sophistimom

Ingredients:

1 large potato, scrubbed

1 clove garlic, thinly sliced

olive oil

salt

any toppings desired (I used some left-over sour cream dill dip)

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 400F.

2. Using a sharp knife, cut down the potato width-wise 3/4 the way down about every 2 cms along the length of the potato. Make sure not to cut all the way through your potato!

3. Stuff a thin slice of garlic into each crevice, making sure to use all garlic slices, and cutting some slices into half if there aren't enough.

4. Place potato into a pan (I used a cake pan, worked nicely). Drizzle olive oil slowly and evenly over top of the potato. Salt to taste.

5. Cover oven pan (I placed another cake pan on top) to avoid splattering, and place into oven. cook for 1 hour.

6. After the hour is up, place oven-friendly toppings on potato (cheese, sour cream, bacon, etc.) and place potato, uncovered, back into the oven for 5 minutes.

7. Take out, place non-oven friendly toppings on potato (chives, etc) and serve immediately.

Garlic Foccacia

This is a recipe friend Julia got me. I had this once at her house when her step-dad made it. It was pretty much the best bread I've ever had.



Garlic Foccacia
from 2006 in 2006

Ingredients:
9 oz. peeled and diced potatoes
1 bulb garlic
3 1/2 unbleached flour
1 1/2 t. yeast
1 1/4 t. salt

Instructions:
1. Place peeled and diced potatoes in a pot, and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil, then drop the temperature down to a simmer, and simmer for 15 mins. Drain the potatoes, reserving 1 cup. potato water, then mash the potatoes.
2. Peel all the cloves of garlic. Place in a small sauce pan, cover with olive oil, and simmer for 15 minutes.
3. In a large bowl, combine flour, yeast, and salt. Stir in potato water until dough forms a shaggy ball. Then add in mashed potatoes and 2 T. of garlic-infused olive oil, and mix until just combined.
4. Transfer dough to oiled bowl, cover, and let rise for 40 minutes.
5. Tear dough into two rounds, flatten into a circle on an oiled oven pan with a lip, cover, and let rise for another 40 minutes.
6. Preheat oven to 425. Once dough has gone through it's second rise, using an oiled finger, poke holes into the bread to stick the cloves of garlic into. Use all cloves, and pour oil evenly over the two rounds until all the oil is used.
7. Bake for 23 minutes.

Parsley Potato Salad

I had some left-over parsley from my Bulgarian pepper experiment, and Google lead me to this recipe! Great side dish, I liked how it turned out.


I found some spring onions around the university, and decided to pull some big ones up. These came in handy today, because I didn't have a whole onion for the recipe, and these substituted nicely. They can be found in lightly-grassy areas. To dig them up, just dig out the earth around a clump of them until you can see the tops of the onion bulb. Then grab the entire group, rotate in a circle pulling up slightly until they give.


To prepare, get rid of all the green parts, and chop off the roots at the end. Then carefully peel off the outside of the white part, and use just the inner bulb.



Parsley Potato Salad
adapted from All Recipes
Ingredients:
1 onion, diced (I used half an onion and 6 or 7 spring onions)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 lbs potatoes, scrubbed
1 cup vegetable broth
1 T. olive oil
1 cup minced parsley leaves (all stems removed)
1/2 t. ground black pepper

Instructions:
1. Peel a strip of skin off the potatoes around the center, and put into a pot of warm/hot water, and set aside.
2. Heat oil in skillet on medium heat, and add diced onions and garlic. Saute for 5 minutes, or until soft. Add in parsley and broth, and bring to a boil, then turn off heat.
3. Pour out water on potatoes, dice potatoes, refill pot with salted warm water, add potatoes. Bring to a boil, and then cook on low heat for 10 minutes.
4. Strain potatoes, add in pepper to parsley mix, and toss potatoes with parsley mix. Garnish with more parsley leaves if desired.

Spanish Migas with Acorn Squash and Potato

I've always lamented the fact that there were so many recipes out there that call for chorizo, yet, being vegetarian, that cut me off from a whole world of taste. A couple weeks ago, in the dreaded Wal-mart, of all places, I saw soyrizo! the vegetarian version of chorizo. I grabbed it without thinking, no particular recipe in mind. Then, again, luck struck! I bought a couple acorn squashes at the farmers market, with plans to make the cover recipe for last issue of Vegetarian Times, but that recipe did not entice me as much the cover picture. Third stroke of luck: I stumbled upon a chorizo recipe using acorn squash, and I realized the stars had aligned. It was finally time for me to make a soyrizo recipe. Here it is:




Spanish Migas with Acorn Squash and Potato
Adapted from Chef Wanabe

Ingredients:
1/4 loaf day-old bread
1 length of soyrizo
1 potato
2 eggs
paprika
1 large clove garlic
olive oil
salt
pepper
red pepper flakes
rosemary

Instructions:
1. Heat oven to 400 F. While heating, slice acorn squash into inch-thick horizontal slices. Scoop out the seeds. Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Combine about 2 T olive oil with a sprinkle each of rosemary, red pepper flakes, salt, fresh ground pepper, and brush over slices. Slice a clove of garlic length-wise into as many sections as you have slices of acorn squash. Place in the middle of each piece. Then, place tray into oven and bake for 25 mins.
2. While acorn squash is cooking, dice bread into small cubes, sprinkle with salt, paprika, and a little water. Stir, and set aside.
3. Dice potato in to the same size chunks as the bread. Microwave chunks for 1:50 mins. Set aside.
4. Take out frozen or defrosted soyrizo, place with another T of olive oil into frying pan. Let cook, occasionally chopping with pancake turner until it is mostly browned.
5. When the acorn squash is finished cooking, take out of oven, and add bread to frying pan and stir. Drizzle another T. of olive oil on top of bread/soyrizo mix.
6. Occasionally stirring the frying pan mix, peel the acorn squash, and then dice into the same size cubes as the bread and potato. Also mince the garlic that was roasting with the acorn squash. Add squash and garlic to the pan mixture. Cook all together for about 5 mins. Then take off heat.
7. In a separate frying pan, fry an egg until well done. Put as much of the soyrizo mix into a bowl, top with fried egg, and enjoy!