Our Bella Cucina » Potatoes

Potato Frittata

sarah — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 08:00:49 +0000

It’s no secret that I love to bake, even though making dough is intimidating and I tend to avoid it, I still love to bake and I also love to read baking blogs.

That is how I found Joy The Baker.

Her site has lots of wonderful yummy things, one of which is this recipe for Potato Frittata. It is such a delicious combination of ingredients that is perfect for a Sunday brunch and will turn out yummy……if you’re not like me and don’t rush it. You know how it is, week night dinner time, kids driving you crazy, hungry husband on the way home and you’re trying to fix dinner. Brinner? Anyway, I was rushed, not being careful about slicing my potatoes thinly enough, and definitely not noticing that my potatoes seemed too big to include them all in the pan. I ended up with very crunchy potatoes that my family couldn’t eat, all because I didn’t slow down a bit and pay attention.

Don’t be like me.

INGREDIENTS
5 tablespoons canola oil, divided (I used olive oil)
1 small yellow onion, sliced
4 large russet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/8-inch thick slices (mine were too large, so don’t take “large” too literally when picking them out!)
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
Kosher salt
Freshly ground pepper
7 large eggs
2 tablespoons minced flat-leaf parsley
2 tablespoons minced chives
2 tablespoons heavy cream

DIRECTIONS
Adjust the oven rack to the middle position and preheat to 400 degrees F.
Heat a medium saute pan over medium high heat and drizzle with 2 tablespoons of the oil. Add the onions and cook until caramelized, about 8 to 10 minutes.

Deglaze the pan with 1/4 cup of water, scraping any brown bits from the bottom with a wooden spoon. Cook until the water evaporates and the onions take on a uniform brown color, about 5 minutes.

Transfer the onions to the roasting pan and toss with the raw sliced potatoes.

Ignore my beat up old baking pan. She may be ugly, but she is good at her job!
Yes it’s a she. Got a problem with that?

Add 1 tablespoon of butter and the remaining 3 tablespoons of oil. Toss with your hands and season generously with salt and pepper.

Cover the pan with foil and bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until the potatoes are tender.

Set the potatoes aside to cool for 15 minutes and reduce the oven heat to 350 degrees F.
Meanwhile, whisk the eggs, herbs and cream together. Season with salt and pepper.

Heat a 10-inch cast-iron skillet over medium high heat. Melt the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter in the skillet, making sure that melted butter greases the side of the cast iron as well and add the cooked potatoes to the pan.

Top with the egg mixture.

Cover the skillet with the previously removed foil and bake for 30 minutes, then remove the foil and bake for 10 minutes more.

Slice and serve directly from the skillet, warm or at room temperature.

I will definitely make this again sometime when I have a little more time to prepare it so I can pay closer attention to slicing the potatoes….and not use such mutantly large potatoes!

♥

Pioneer Woman’s Potato Skins

sarah — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 08:00:09 +0000

These make great appetizers, but for the purpose of preparing this post, we actually had them for dinner alone. I know, hardly nutritionally sound, but damn they were good!

INGREDIENTS
8 slices thick cut bacon
6-8 russet potatoes
Oil (recipe says canola but I used olive)
Kosher salt
1 1/2 cups sharp cheddar cheese
1 cup sour cream
4 green onions, sliced

DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Scrub your potatoes as clean as you can get them.

Brush or rub the potatoes liberally with oil and bake them for 45-60 minutes.

While the potatoes are baking, fry your bacon, allow it to cool, then cut it into small pieces. This is also a good time to ban your children and spouse from the kitchen or you might find your bacon mysteriously disappearing. Just saying.

Once the potatoes are cooked, slice them in half lengthwise and remove the flesh, leaving a small amount of potato in the skin to provide support and prevent the skin of splitting.

Brush both sides of the skin with oil and sprinkle some salt over both sides. Place the skins upside down on your baking tray and return them to the oven. Bake for 7 minutes then turn them over and bake for 7 minutes more or until the skins are crispy.

Sprinkle some cheese and bacon in the skins and return them to the oven just till the cheese is melted.

Serve topped with a tablespoon of sour cream and sliced green onions.

Man, these photos are making me hungry. The perils of writing a food blog!

♥

Potage Parmentier

sarah — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 09:00:42 +0000

I swear, recipe titles always sound more impressive when they’re in French! Translated, “Potage Parmentier” means plain old leek and potato soup, but sometimes it is the simple things in life that are the yummiest. Sometimes a bowl of soup just hits the right spot!

INGREDIENTS
2 quarts water
1 tablespoon salt
1 lb leeks, thinly sliced
1 lb potatoes, peeled and quartered
1/3 cup cream

DIRECTIONS
Pour the water into a big pot and bring to a boil.

I need to get myself a new stock pot. This one has been around for over 10 years and is quite beaten up!

While the water is heating up, use the time to peel and quarter your potatoes.

As well as to thinly slice your leeks. For those who have never used fresh leeks before, just cut the root tip off and then start slicing all the way up to where the green bits start to branch out.

Add the salt.

The potatoes.

And finally the leeks.

Then put the lid back on the pot with it vented slightly and boil for 45 minutes. You want everything nice and soft!

Once you have finished the boiling process you have two choices. If you like your soup slightly lumpy then go ahead and use a potato masher to smooth it out somewhat. It will still have texture because you won’t get it perfectly smooth with a masher.

If you’re like me and like your soup smooth as a baby’s bottom, then ladle some into a blender. We’re going to blend this in batches, so have a spare saucepan or a big bowl handy to empty the blender into to make space for the next batch. Just don’t get impatient and fill it more than half way or you’re going to have a soup explosion and a big mess to clean up!

Then pulse it a few times until it is as smooth as desired.

Once everything is mashed or blended, return the soup to the saucepan and reheat it. Then turn off the heat, add the cream, and stir till fully combined.

Serve and eat! It goes great with some crusty French bread.

I wish I had remembered to buy crusty French bread!

♥

Potato Bake

sarah — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 09:00:28 +0000

As delicious as this is, I’m embarrassed to post these pictures of it. Everything was going great in the cooking process until things got kind of crazy in my house right when the oven buzzer was due to go off…and it got slightly burned. So I beg your forgiveness and ask you to use your imagination to envision a lightly browned cheesy top and creamy moist layers of potato beneath it. Really!

INGREDIENTS
5-6 medium-large size potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
3-4 medium size cloves of garlic, crushed
1 cup mozzarella cheese
1 cup cheddar cheese
1 tablespoon butter
1 cup whole milk
salt

DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Use the butter to grease a medium size baking dish.

Evenly dot the garlic around the bottom of the dish.

Start layering the potatoes.

Periodically sprinkle a little salt and keep on layering.

And layer some more until you reach the top of the dish.

Mix your two cheeses together then evenly distribute it over the top.

Carefully pour the milk into the corners of the dish.

No that’s not milk in the picture – all I had was 1% so I had to use cream. Bad Sarah!

Then pop it in the oven to bake for 50-60 minutes.

Just don’t be like me and get distracted and end up with a dry, burnt disaster!

One more thing. We sometimes put some diced bacon or ham into the layers as we are stacking the potatoes and that adds a great new flavour to this dish. Try it sometime!

♥

PW Wednesday – Roasted Potato Wedges

sarah — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 09:00:02 +0000

I made this yesterday for my boys for lunch and it was a huge hit! I only seasoned them simply since I was feeding a 2 and 4 year old but they were so delicious and I’d love to try them again sometime with garlic and other herbs on them!

INGREDIENTS
Potatoes (number and variety of your choosing; russets work well)
1/4 – 1/3 cup of olive oil
Salt To Taste

Optional Ingredients:
Fresh Herbs, to taste
Garlic, Minced
2 Tablespoons (to 3 Tablespoons) Balsamic Vinegar
Cayenne Pepper
Paprika

Basically throw in there whatever you think might taste good on potato wedges!

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 450 degrees
Wash potatoes.

Cut each potato in half length ways then cut each half into quarters length ways so each potato yields 8 wedges and put them on a baking sheet.

Toss with oil, salt, and whatever else you’d like: garlic, balsamic, spices, etc. I just drizzled them over but next time I think I would put them in a Ziploc bag or something to make sure all of them got a good, even coating of seasoning.

I used olive oil, kosher salt, and balsamic vinegar.

Pop them in the oven and roast them for 15 minutes. Then take them out, shake them around a bit to loosen them and turn them over before returning them to the oven for another 15 minutes. Just keep an eye on them so they don’t burn – like mine did a little!

Serve immediately.

♥

Sweet Potato Bake With Apples

sarah — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 22:54:08 +0000

This has become my signature Thanksgiving dish. I saw it years ago on the Oprah show and have been cooking it every year since. We go to Thanksgiving at a friend’s house each year and I always bring “my” sweet potatoes!

INGREDIENTS
4 pounds (about 6 large) sweet potatoes
1/2 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
1/2 cup heavy cream
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter, melted
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg.
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon.
2 teaspoons Salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper.

3 tablespoons butter
2-3 apples, peeled, cored, and cut into eighths (I like to use Braeburn).
3 tablespoons light brown sugar

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 375°.
Scrub potatoes, then prick several times with a knife or fork.
Bake 1 hour, or until very soft when pierced with a knife.
Combine orange juice, cream, butter, brown sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, salt, and pepper.
Remove potatoes from oven. Once cooled, scoop out the insides with a spoon.
Place the sweet potato meat into the bowl of an electric mixer.
Add juice-and-cream mixture, blend until combined but not smooth, and pour into a large baking dish.

Melt butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat.
Add apple wedges and brown sugar.
Cook for about 10 minutes, turning apples occasionally, until lightly browned on both sides.

Place on top of sweet potatoes and bake 30 minutes, until heated through.
(Note: If refrigerating before baking, cook 45 minutes, or until heated through.)

This recipe was originally double the size but I have halved it and it serves 6-8 people.

♥