Easy Salmon Dinner

Sunday Dinner: Roasted Miso Salmon with Lemon, really easy recipe!

The only thing that I did different from the recipe is the amount of cooking time. The recipe says to cook the salmon and potatoes at the same time, for the same amount of time :( Totally can't cook potatoes completely without overcooking the salmon. Instead, I put the potatoes in about 15-20 minutes before the fish, then left both in for another 10-15 minutes.

Also did asparagus with garlic, s & p, red pepper flakes, and lemon...easy and yummy!

Smoky Chipotle Corn Chowder

I know corn chowder seems like a weird thing to make when it's 95 degrees out and 300% humidity, but man, this chowdah hit the spot.

I've made bacon-based corn chowder in the past, but I didn't have any bacon in the house this weekend, and it was too hot to venture out to get some. So I thought the smoky chipotle in this recipe might make up for the smoky, meatiness of the bacon. It definitely did, no meat required! Thick, spicy, hearty... mmm.

The only changes I made to the recipe were to skip peeling the potatoes, used Cheddar instead of Monterrey Jack, pureed only half the chowah to keep some of the chunks, and skipped the ham.

Waffleized Hash Browns

I ran into this awesome website a few weeks ago that boldly and hilariously strives to answer the age old question: will it waffle?

I decided to take a stab at their waffleized crispy potato hash browns recipe this morning using purple potatoes from the CSA. Totally fabulous: a no-brainer recipe that doesn't involve carefully watching hash browns on the stove top to make sure they don't burn. The hash browns came out super crispy and delicious.
Give it a try!

Honey Ginger Carrot and Potato Latkes

Remember when I made these honey ginger carrot and parsnip latkes? Well, I made them again, but substituted potatoes for the parsnips, and they were still excellent.

Served with sour cream and homemade applesauce.

Crispy Stuffed Potato Skins!

Crispy, cheesy, bacony... fantastic. I'm bringing these to a football party tonight.

This method from Simply Recipes is a little bit labor intensive, but not difficult. It involves 3 separate baking times: first to cook the whole potatos, then to crisp the scooped out skins, then to melt the cheese. Totally worth it, though.

I used chives instead of green onions, but otherwise followed the directions. Mmmm.

Potato, Leek and Cheddar Soup

We had a ton of potatoes from the CSA that have been accumulating, and I just got some leeks in this week, so potato leek soup it was! I combined several recipes to make my own...

Cooked 4 slices of chopped bacon in my stock pot, took out the bacon pieces, then cooked 2 sliced leeks, 5 cloves of garlic, and a bunch of diced potatoes in the bacon grease. Then I added 2.5 cups of chicken stock and some salt and pepper and let it simmer until the potatoes were soft. Pureed with the stick blender, then added 1/2 C milk, 1/2 C sour cream, a cup of shredded sharp cheddar, and some smoked paprika and stirred until combined. Served with extra cheese, bacon bits and a ton of chives. Mmmm.

Beet and Potato Fritter/Latke

I had a bunch of leftover roasted beets from this salad, and also needed to use up some of the plethora of purple potatoes I've gotten from the CSA recently, so I thought this beet and potato latke/pancake/fritter thing would be a good idea.

It's hard to see from the photo, but I made one large frying pan size fritter, and cut it into fourths.

This was pretty good- it toned down the super sweetness of the beets and gave them a nice crispy outside. I added some herbs to the fritter: parsley and cilantro, based on the flavors from Eileen's famous beet dip. I served it with a lime cilantro sour cream to brighten it up, and sprinkled it all with toasted walnuts.

Indian Deliciousness, Take 2: Chicken Tikka Masala and Cauliflower Curry

After my last foray into Indian (which was mostly successful), I was watching TV and happened upon an episode of America's Test Kitchen on PBS in which they were making Indian food. I looked up their recipes online to see if they might be the magic bullet. Their method seemed pretty easy, and I know they obsessively test their recipes repeatedly, so I thought they had potential.

With cauliflower and potatoes from the CSA this week, I thought this was a good time. Plus, I could tell Tony wanted to bust out some of the Bollywood dance moves he learned from last week's Psych episode (which, funnily, featured Madhur Jaffrey, a famous cookbook writer who specializes in Indian and vegetarian).

The chicken tikka masala was really good- marinating the chicken in a yogurt mixture and then cooking it separately from the sauce made it really juicy. The veggie curry was good, too! My hands definitely still smell like the curry spices now, though, 4 hours later. Such is the price for a tasty dinner.

French Country Sorrel Soup

Randy and Chris from Star Hollow Farm gave us this sorrel souprecipe and all of the ingredients to make it in last week's CSA box. Pretty tasty! Lemony and light.

Here's the recipe:

Country Sorrel Soup

1 1/2 TBS butter

1 small onion, diced

1/2 lb potatoes, peeled and cubed

1 1/2 C tightly packed sorrel, stemmed

3 C stock or water (I used 2 cups chicken broth, 1 water)

1/4 C sour cream

lemon juice (I used the juice from 1/2 lemon)

salt & pepper

• In a heavy pot, melt butter and saute onion until soft, but not brown.
• add potatoes, sorrel and stock.
• bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer 10-15 minutes until vegetables are soft.
• cool and puree until smooth
• add sour cream lemon juice and salt & pepper
• heat through, but do not boil

Chicken with Mustard Sage Sauce

The first time I made this, I asked Tim to get me some whole-grain mustard at the store... he was confused, so I clarified by describing the mustard as "the one with all the tiny balls in it." That seemed to work for him.

I've made this chicken recipe a bunch of times and it's really tasty and easy. Made even easier if you use chicken tenders like I did... they don't take very long to cook. I used sage from our rooftop garden. I like the flexibility of this sauce- you can make it as is, or you can splash some cream in. Mmm.

Served with roasted potatoes with garlic and rooftop rosemary (the potatoes were fresh from the soil as of today... picked by yours truly at Amy's CSA farm). Also, roasted broccoli with garlic, red pepper flakes and lemon juice.

Indian Deliciousness

UPDATE: When I originally wrote this, I forgot to tell you that when Tony was asked his opinion of this meal, he said it made him want to dance in a train station.

I bought some okra from the farmers market this weekend, and decided to try this okra/tomato curry recipe. It was ok, but nothing special- it needed a little less of the cinnamon-y flavor and a little more heat, I think.

The other dish fared a little better: spicy Indian potatoes. Chuck made these and they were really tasty. We used a pound of small mixed potatoes- purple, red, etc.- rather than the 2 Russets the recipe called for. We didn't peel them.

Neither dish is much to look at, as you can see from the photo. But the potatoes are definitely worth making again! Served with rice and some garlic naan from Whole Foods.

Corn Chowdah

To all my loyal readership (ha!): I apologize for the break in regularly scheduled programming. I spent the week in Iowa on a "biofuels tour," which involved visiting corn and soybean farms, touring ethanol and biodiesel plants, and generally being harassed by industry representatives.

So in honor of my trip to Iowa (the corn state, the state where there are more hogs than people), I made a corn chowder, using this simple recipe from Tyler Florence, and sprinkled it with bacon bits. I used purple potatoes, corn, onion and parsley from my CSA, and substituted chicken broth for the veggie broth, and half-and-half for the heavy cream. Delicious and super easy! Say it, Frenchie: CHOW-DAH!

Mushroom and Asparagus Hash

Yes, yes. Another asparagus recipe.Earlier this year, the Washington Post did a whole article on hash and included recipes for this vegetarian mushroom asparagus hash, a sweet potato andouille hash and a traditional corned beef hash. I think Mom has tried the sweet potato hash recipe... Mom?

This one was fine, but a lot of effort. I like last night's risotto much better as far as asparagus goes. But the bright side is: now I have some peppered Boursin in the fridge.

Hash!

Last night we had Mom's BBQ pulled pork sandwiches for dinner (mmmmmm), and this morning, Chuck, Tim and I all have the day off, so I made hash with the leftovers. I used regular and purple potatoes, an onion, and eggs fried over easy from my CSA, sprinkled with cilantro. Finally, we topped it with some of the leftover BBQ sauce. Pretty damn good.