Sweet Potato and Rosemary Gratin

I’ve mentioned before that "A" and I signed up for a summer CSA with Equinox Community Farms… but I haven’t mentioned that we signed up for an additional three winter share boxes. While I loved all the summer splendor of the fresh fruits and veggies, I might like the feeling of being inundated with potatoes, onions and carrots a bit more. Not familiar with the feeling? Imagine once every three weeks picking up two boxes that have no less than 10 pounds of potatoes, 10 pounds of sweet potatoes and enough carrots and onions to bring the total weight up to a metric ton.

It might be redundant to say, but that’s a lot of storage vegetables. Unfortunately we live in a “studio plus” (or “one bedroom minus”) apartment that, while lovely and fits our needs perfectly, isn’t known for having a lot of extra storage. So where do all these vegetables settle away for their long winter nap? Our average-sized, run-of-the-mill fridge. With every new box, there is a slight panic to eat everything in sight. Not because of my intense love of potatoes and carbs, which is very real, but because food gets very lost, only resurfacing after a grueling excavation mission.

So “A” and I creatively think of new ways to eat potatoes. Our lives have been enriched by many stews, soups, gnocchi’s, hash browns and breakfast dishes. The breakfast dish of this post was discovered on Spoon Fork Bacon - one of my favorite food blogs in my queue. Not only are their photos stunning, but I feel like almost all of their recipes are realistic. Yes, some of their meat dishes I don’t even make or eat but if I WANTED to, I could! 

This was an easy dish to throw together of a very lazy weekday morning and the leftovers kept in the fridge for well over a week.

Sweet Potato and Rosemary Gratin 

Adapted from Spoon Fork Bacon

Ingredients:

• 2 sweet potatoes, sliced into 1/8” rounds
• 1 cup goat milk, mixed with 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar
• 3 garlic cloves, minced and divided
• 1 tablespoon minced rosemary
• 2/3 cup freshly grated Pecorino Romano, plus more for topping
• salt and pepper to taste
• garnish:
• 1/2 teaspoon minced rosemary

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375˚F. Line a round 8” cake pan with parchment paper and set aside.
2. In a small bowl, mix together goat milk and apple cider vinegar. Let sit for 5 minutes and until milk has started to curdle.
3. Place sweet potatoes, goat milk mixture and 1 clove of minced garlic into a large mixing bowl and toss together. Allow mixture to sit for 30 minutes.
4. Line the bottom of the cake pan with a single layer of potato rounds. Some overlapping is okay.
5. Sprinkle the top with some garlic, rosemary and Pecorino Romano. Season with salt and pepper and continue layering gratin until all ingredients have been used.
6. Tightly cover with foil and bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until fork tender. Remove foil and invert onto an oven safe dish. Sprinkle top with Pecorino Romano.
7. Turn oven onto broil and return gratin back to oven. Broil for 2 to 3 minutes or until cheese is bubbling and top has crisped up.
8. Allow gratin to cool for at least 8 to 10 minutes before slicing and serving.

Roasted Pear Rosemary Upside Down Cake

This cake impresses people.  When I went through the car wash and this cake was riding shotgun, the man taking my money said he'd take the cake in exchange.  Considering that shelling out $10 for just a car wash makes my stomach turn, I would have taken him up on his offer.  As luck would have it, I think he was kidding and I really wanted to savor some of the cake when I got home.

Cut to pre-Christmas.  My friend Ann & I got together to cook some dinner and wish each other a Merry Christmas before I left for Michigan.  That, and I honesty couldn't remember the last time we hung out so saying we were overdue is an understatement.  We made a chicken tajine, sautéed cauliflower and for dessert, you guessed it, this cake.  The rosemary contests nicely with the slightly more blunt flavor of cornmeal; I just couldn't stop thinking about it!  I was able to take a nice big wedge of it home with me and I knew I needed to make it as soon as I got back from Michigan.

If you'd be so kind to press fast-forward on your handy dandy remotes, we'll jump to the last night of 2010.  After working a long shift at work, I rushed home and immediately got to work on baking.  Julie was hosting the New Years Eve party and my sole job was to bring some bubbly and dessert.  Naturally I didn't plan well and left the baking to right before I needed to be at the party.  You really don't want to see me when I'm baking and simultaneously getting gussied up, it doesn't mix well.  My BCBG dress (that I got for $20 on ebay!!) made it out of that battle alive, but don't think that I didn't show up to the party without some rosemary in my hair or butter on my face.  I was in such a rush that I made my date take the bus to the party because I didn't have time to pick him up.  Erm… oops... At least I made one cake too many and was able to take the extra one home with me.  I didn't plan it like that or anything... I don't know what you're suggesting.

But this cake makes everything ok.  All was well when this cake enters the scene.  My only qualm with it, that is completely my fault, is that it doesn't work well with coarse ground cornmeal.  I found that out the hard way.  I realized I only had coarse ground on hand, semi-successfully tried to grind it finer in the blender and made it work as best I could.  I also didn't (but NOW I do!) have a cast-iron skillet so I used a 9-inch cake pan and it worked wonderfully.

This message is for my sister (but you can read it too if you want): Caroline, I wanted to let to know that my next three posts will be using the lightbox you got me for Christmas!  Keep an eye out for it!  Love, Sis

Parmesan Crackers with Garlic & Rosemary

Ironically, last night I made crackers from scratch because I was craving something crunchy but was too lazy to go out to the store to buy crackers.  And boy, am I glad I didn't!  I can't stop munching on these crackers - the flavor is so amazing and elegant!  It sure kicks any other cheesy-ish cracker I've consumed to the curb!  Another added bonus is that these aren't hard to make at all - while I did use my blessed food processor, this wouldn't be difficult to put together with a pastry masher or even a fork (...but it would take longer).  I don't think I'll ever buy crackers again because the batch I made yielded what would be in a normal sized box of cheese crackers!  Even after offering my housemates one, they kept on asking (and just going back) for more.  The greatest part about this recipe?  It's TOTALLY customizable with whatever spices you have in your pantry or whatever your craving... I'm still thinking about what combination I want to do next!


Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling
• 1 tsp. salt
• 4 tbsp butter
• about ½ cups water, plus more as needed (I used about ⅛ of a cup more)
• ½ cup freshly grated parmesan
• ~4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp dried rosemary
• a few turns of fresh cracked pepper

(these are the herbs/flavors I used, but feel free to substitute with whatever you like!)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 F.
2. Place the flour, salt, and butter together in a large bowl or in the container of a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Blend with a fork or pulse, until the flour and butter are combined. Add about 1/4 cup of water and blend, then continue to add water until the mixture holds together but is not sticky (see ingredient list above)
3. Add in parmesan, rosemary, garlic, and pepper (or any other herbs/cheese/flavorings) at this point and give a final stir or pulse.
4. Roll out on a lightly floured surface until 1/4 in. thick, or even less (thinner = crunchier).  Score lightly with a pizza cutter if you want to break these into nice squares or rectangles later on & poke holes with a fork in the top. Bake on a lightly floured baking sheet, or directly on baking stones, until lightly browned, about 20 minutes. Cool on a rack & store in an airtight container.

Focaccia (Olive Oil Bread with Fresh Rosemary)

As you can tell, I did a lot of baking/cooking today. In fact, I'm no where near done posting recipes for all the things I made today! It was very very rainy and there were a bunch of recipes I wanted to try out. This recipe comes out of the Tassajara Bread Book (thank you Alex for getting me this a few years back) - it is THE BIBLE FOR BREAD MAKING. I cannot praise this book enough. If you already bake bread, or are considering learning how to, please run out to your nearest local bookstore/Borders and buy this book now. Not available in a brick and mortar store? Order it on Amazon....NOW!

Focaccia Bread

Adapted from the Tassajara Bread Book

Ingredients:

• 2 cups warm water, under 125 degrees Fahrenheit
• 2 tablespoons active dry yeast (3 packets)
• 3 tablespoons fresh rosemary, minced
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup unbleached bread flour (I use King Arthur flour)
• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 
  
• 3 cups unbleached bread flour
• olive oil for glazing
• coarse sea salt

Directions:

1. Stir the yeast into the water, then the rosemary, olive oil, and salt. Stir in the one cup of bread flour and the 1 and a half cups of whole wheat flour. Beat about one hundred strokes.
2. Fold in two cups of bread flour, one-half cup at a time. Turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead for several minutes using up to one more cup of flour to keep the dough from sticking. Knead the dough until smooth and elastic.
3. Let the dough rise for about an hour until it doubles in size. Punch don and let rise for another 40 minutes.
4. Divide the dough in half, shape into two loaves.
5. Place on an oiled pan and brush top with olive oil. Sprinkle with coarse sea salt.
6. Let rise for 20 minutes, and then bake at 375 degrees for about 28 minutes until browned, top and bottom.

TIP: place a pie pan of boiling water on the bottom of the oven to help a crust form on the bread.