Delishytown

Potato Planting

These organic potatoes sprouted on our counter, there are two varieties here, Russet, and waxy red. Home grown potatoes are delicious, easy to grow, and harvesting them is so much fun. The first thing I do is cut them apart to create more "seeds" so that you get more plants growing. I cut them into big pieces, with one or two sprouts on each piece. Let them dry a bit and callous over, just overnight, so they don't rot in the ground. These will get planted at the bottom of a 5 gallon fabric pot, with the sides rolled most of the way down, in organic potting soil. As the potato plants grow up and get leggy, you need to "hill them up" or add more soil. This is where the soft sided fabric pots come in, because they allow you to keep hilling up the potato plants, unrolling the sides of the pot and adding more soil as the plants grow taller. You hill them up because the stems will turn into roots, and more potatoes will form along those new roots. I usually unroll the sides of the pot and hill the potatoes up 4 or 5 times in the course of a 2 to 3 month growing season. I add a thick layer of straw mulch on top to keep the sunlight from hitting the potatoes on the top layer. Sunlight is what turns potatoes green, and green potatoes are toxic. When the plants start to die back, you just dump the pot over and harvest your potatoes.

The last 2 pictures are potato plants growing in our garden and potatoes we harvested. Yum!

Kale and Potato Latkes

These are extra crunchy, delicious and easy to make. I used kale from our back garden and mixed it into the potato mixture. If you've ever made soggy latkes and wondered how to get them crispy, this is how. The Kale gives you lots of health benefits, the crispy potatoes make you happy.

Shred 1 or 2 large organic russet potatoes into a bowl of ice cold water, no ice cubes though. The water will rinse off the starchy stuff that turns color, and the potato starch will sink to the bottom of the bowl. Carefully pull the potato shreds out of the ice water, squeezing the water into the bowl. Place the potatoes in a colander and let them drain for a few minutes, then put them in a clean kitchen towel & squeeze to remove as much water as possible.

Let the water in the bowl settle. Slowly pour off the water to reveal the white potato starch that sunk to the bottom of the bowl. If you add this potato starch to the potato mix, it helps dry out and crisp up the latkes. It works. You could just throw some flour or organic corn starch into the mix. But, I hate wasting, especially if the good ingredients are right there to be used. 

Thinly slice one sweet onion. Add the onions and shredded potatoes to the bowl with the potato starch. Add 2 eggs, 1 cup chopped kale, 1 tblps dried dill, fresh chopped parsley, salt and pepper, and 1 tsp corn starch, optional. Mix thoroughly.

Heat 1 inch of high heat oil in a cast iron skillet.  I used Sunflower Oil.

Form latkes on a tablespoon, fry the latkes in batches adding more oil to the skillet between batches as needed.

Drain on paper towels. Season with salt once they come out of the fryer. Serve with plain yogurt, or sour cream, applesauce or fresh sliced apples.

Parmesan Crusted Kale, Leek and Potato Cakes with Red Quinoa and Meyer Lemon

This was my delicious lunch today. These were amazing! They kind of tasted like a healthy  version of tater tots, only better. This is one of those dishes where every bite you go, "Mmmh! Ohmygodisthisgood, mmmpfh" And then you devour it. I've been trying to eat nutritious food in order to be cured from a cold. The Kale in these crispy treats was grown in our back yard garden. I love growing winter vegetables. Rain + Seeds = Free Food.

For this dish I combined 3/4 cup leftover mashed potatoes with thinly chopped leeks (white and lightest green parts only, sliced in half first and rinsed to get rid of any sand and dirt, then sliced crosswise) and 2 cups blanched kale, which I rinsed in a mesh strainer then pressed out all the water from. I mixed this with 2 eggs, 1 minced garlic clove, 1/2 tsp dried dill, 1/2 tsp flour, and salt and pepper. I pressed the patties in a ring mold and then dusted them with a combo of bread crumbs and grated parmesan cheese before frying in butter & olive oil. I cooked red quinoa on the side, and dressed the whole plate with a giant squeeze of fresh Meyer Lemon juice, also from our back garden. These were so much more tasty than I thought they'd be. Did I mention that this was delicious?

Happy New Year Tumblrs! Please have the Best and Most Fun Year ever! 

Chipotle & Cinnamon Kale Hash and Eggs

This was our delicious breakfast this Halloween morning. My husband and I got up early to go to work. I made this hearty breakfast so we won't have to think about having lunch until much later today. And by "lunch" I mean candy.

In a cast iron skillet, 1 diced sweet onion and 2-3 diced potatoes with 1 tblsp butter and a drizzle of olive oil. Season with salt and pepper, add a big sprinkle of cinnamon and a pinch of Chipotle powder to taste. Crush and mince 1 garlic clove and add that to the skillet. Cook until the potatoes are golden and crisp up, about 10 minutes.

Wash, stem and chop a big handful of fresh kale. Add it to the skillet with the potatoes and cook until wilted. Once everything is cooked, scoot the potatoes to the sides and make 3 or 4 openings in the potato mixture, add a tiny bit more butter in each one, and crack one egg into each of the openings. Let the eggs cook to desired doneness. 

Serve with coffee and juice. Yum! Happy Halloween!

Delicious Potato Lasagna

This is so delicious! Sorry my pictures aren't so great here, I like to wait until nighttime to turn the oven on. If you're growing zucchini (or any kind of summer squash)  and tomatoes, I highly recommend this easy dish. My husband and I ate seconds and thirds. 

This isn’t actually lasagna, there are no noodles, no tomato sauce or béchamel. This is so much easier than making a lasagna! It's just sliced fresh vegetables, cheese and aromatics, including red potatoes, plum tomatoes, zucchini, mushrooms, garlic, shallots and fresh basil, parmesan and cheddar cheeses, and drizzled at the end with olive oil and white wine.  The delicious "sauce" comes from the bubbling wine and aromatic ingredients. 

To prevent the cheese from burning before all the veggies are cooked, cover the dish with parchment before baking. Twist the corners to get it to stay on, and cut a slit in the center to let the steam escape. I cook this until there's no longer any bubbling liquid in the bottom of the dish.

Here is a word diagram of the layers in the casserole dish, I season with a little salt and pepper between layers. Butter the pan generously before adding vegetable slices:

Top layer: chopped shallots and grated cheeses

drizzle of olive oil and 3/4 cup white wine

sliced potatoes

sliced mushrooms (I used mini portabellas)

chopped garlic, basil, grated parmesan, & olive oil, salt and pepper (I call this the pesto layer)

sliced plum tomatoes

sliced zucchini

Bottom layer: peeled and sliced red potatoes, salt and pepper

buttered casserole dish

Once you have the layers assembled, before you put the cheese on top, press down on the whole thing gently with your hands. Add the rest of the chopped shallots and cheese. Cover with parchment with a vent cut into it. Bake at 375 for 35 minutes. Turn the oven down to 350 and bake an additional 15 minutes until most of the the liquid is absorbed. Yum!

We grew potatoes!

This was my harvest yesterday morning from the the front yard garden. This is my first time growing potatoes and I'll tell you (in the geekiest way possible) how much fun it was to dig around in the dirt and find all of these potatoes.

I planted these in mid January from sprouted organic russet potatoes. I decided to plant them in organic potting soil in a large fabric pot by the front door just to try it and see what happens. It worked! The plants never blossomed, (which is a sign that new potatoes have formed), but we still got potatoes.

These were very easy to grow. Plant sprouted potatoes in well drained soil, hill up the soil around the plants when they get about 5 inches tall. Muulch with straw so the growing potatoes aren't exposed to sunlight, which makes them turn green and toxic.

Next Day Steak & Eggs with Garden Salsa

Last evening I went to the store for dinner. I didn't know what I was going to make. In the meat case they were having a sale, a filet mignon roast for 24 bucks. It seemed like enough for 10 or 12 steaks. Two bucks for a steak is a good deal. So I bought it, along with some salad stuff, plain yogurt, lemons and mini tangerines. 

When I got home I put 5 small russet potatoes in the oven and sliced off two steaks for dinner and one small one for the next day. I put the rest of the roast in the freezer. It's good to have something like that in the freezer because when the apocalypse comes, and everyone in the town is screaming and running up and down the streets, I'll be grilling steaks out in the back yard. 

Season the small steak with a rub of coriander, cumin, ancho chili powder, & salt and pepper. Put it in the fridge, along with the leftover baked potaoes. 

The next day you just start two pans, one for the leftover potatoes and a cast iron skillet for the steak. Chop a med onion and put half in each skillet with a tblsp of olive oil.

Let the onions cook for a minute. Slice the potato and cook it with the onions. Sear the steak in the cast iron pan on med high for about 5-7 minutes.

Chop garden tomato and cilantro, mix with a smashed garlic clove and dress with tangerine juice and red pepper flakes. Cook an egg or two any way you like. Yum!

Corned Beef, Kale and Carrot Hash

If you make corned beef and cabbage for St. Patricks day, maybe use the leftovers for corned beef hash and eggs. It’s easy, delicious, and with the addition of carrots and kale, much healthier than the kind you might get at the diner.

Cut up 1 small onion or shallot and saute in a bit of olive oil. Add some of the leftover cooked potatoes and carrots from your corned beef dinner, a few slices of the cooked corned beef, diced, a sprinkle of smoked paprika, and some celery salt. Saute until the potatoes start to turn crisp and then add some chopped kale. If you want the potatoes really crispy, add a few tiny slices of butter. Try not to flip them around a lot, let them sit in the pan for a few minutes on medium low heat so the bottom gets nice and crispy.

 Salt and pepper to taste. Serve with an over easy egg, some rye toast and fresh fruit. YUM!

p.s. You can also do this with corned beef you buy at the deli counter. Just chop it up and cook with leftover cooked potatoes and shallots or onion.