Roasted Fingerling Potatoes with Chive Pesto

This is a good side for chicken, or whatever else. The chive pesto is delicious.


Roasted Fingerling Potatoes with Chive Pesto
From: Bon Appetit

Ingredients

1 3/4 pound fingerling potatoes, halved lengthwise
1 tablespoon plus 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup chopped fresh chives, plus more for garnish
1/2 cup packed chopped flat-leaf parsley
2 tablespoons chopped pine nuts of walnuts
1 garlic clove
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

2. In a medium bowl, toss potatoes with 1 tablespoon olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Arrange potato halves in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet. Roast potatoes about 25-30 minutes, until golden brown.

3. While the potatoes roast, combine 1/2 cup chives, parsley, nuts, and garlic in a food processor. Pulse into finely chopped. Gradually add olive oil and pulse until it's incorporated. Transfer pesto to a small bowl and add lemon juice and 2 tablespoons of water. Season with salt and pepper.

4. Transfer potatoes to a platter and toss with half of the pesto. Top with extra chopped chives and serve with remaining pesto.

Potato Salad with Honey Mustard Vinaigrette and Bacon

I'm a sucker for recipes that claim to be the best, and this is Bittman's "best (and simplest)" potato salad.  I'm also a sucker for mayo-less potato salads, and this one is pretty good.  I added some crunchy bacon pieces to it because no recipe should be called the best without bacon in it.

Another note: I made a fish recipe to go along with this, which I'm going to post next, and the honey mustard vinaigrette tasted really good with the fish. I imagine it would be a good salad dressing as well.


Potato Salad with Honey Mustard Vinaigrette
Adapted with bacon from: Mark Bittman


Ingredients

1 1/2 pounds small red potatoes, cut into bite sized pieces
1/4 cup red onion, chopped
1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1/2 cup (or more) mustard vinaigrette (see below)
3-4 slices bacon, cooked until crispy

1. In a medium sized pot, cover potatoes with water, add a little salt, and bring water to a boil. When water starts boiling, reduce the heat to low and cook the potatoes for about 12 minutes, or until tender but not mushy. Drain.

2. In a skillet, cook bacon until crispy. Cut (or rip) into small pieces.

3. Toss the potatoes with the parsley, onion, and bacon and add as much honey mustard vinaigrette as you'd like (I used the whole mixture, which was just a little too much). Add salt and pepper to taste.
  
Honey Mustard Vinaigrette

1/2 cup olive oil
3 tablespoons wine vinegar (I used red)
1 heaping teaspoon of Dijon mustard or other good mustard
1-2 tablespoons honey

1. In a blender, mix together all ingredients until creamy (takes 2 seconds).

Roasted Cod with Potatoes, Onions, and Olives

I'm clearly on an olive kick. Oh well, so good and salty. This recipe was really simple and delicious ... I added some lemon zest to it for a little more flavor. Someone in the comments section of the recipe said that it comes out looking nice and rustic, and they're right! 

The cod was from the Greenpoint farmer's market ($17/pound - which was actually way more fish than I expected). I tweaked this recipe a little bit and this is what I got:

(Serves 3-4 for dinner, with a side)

Note: I heard that my adjustments on this recipe made it come out a little oily (sorry!) so I reduced the oil from 1/3 to 1/4 cup. 

Roasted cod with onions, potatoes, and olives
Adapted from: Bon Appetit

Ingredients

1 pound cod fillet - bones removed
1.5 onions, thinly sliced
4-5 large garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3 large potatoes, peeled and sliced into 1/4 inch thick slices
1 cup kalamata olives, pitted and sliced
1 lemon, zested and juiced
1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped

1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

2. In a large skillet, heat the vegetable oil over medium heat. Add the onions and cook until they start to soften, then add the potatoes and garlic. Cook the potatoes until they start to turn pale golden and/or are soft.

3. Remove the skillet from heat and add to the mixture the rosemary, parsley, olives, salt and pepper.

4. In a rimmed oven safe dish, place the uncooked cod in the center and season both sides with salt and pepper and cover with lemon zest.  Add the potato/onion mixture to the dish, arranging it around the cod.  Roast in the oven for 20-25 minutes, until the fish starts to flake when you push it with a fork.

5. Cut the dish into servings and squeeze lemon juice over each dish.


Cod:

I cod have eaten this dish all day long... hehe. 

Dish arrangement in case you need a visual: 

Home Fries

I'm having this problem lately where I buy a five pound bag of potatoes because they are on sale, and then I feel like I have about two days to eat all of them before they go bad.  Consequently, lots of mashed potatoes and home fries have been made, and I've just about tweaked my own home fries recipe to the way I like 'em.

Ingredients

6 medium-sized potatoes, diced
1 small onion, chopped (shallots work too)
3 tablespoons peanut oil
1-2 teaspoons salt (depending on how salty you want them)
1/2 teaspoon paprika
3/4 teaspoon fresh thyme

1. Heat 2 tablespoons of peanut oil in a saute pan over medium heat until hot. Add chopped onion and cook until translucent.  Add potatoes and remaining peanut oil and cover for about 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until potatoes are tender.

2. Uncover potatoes and add salt and paprika.  Increase the heat to medium-high until potatoes and stir occasionally until potatoes are golden brown/crispy.  Add thyme and mix together; cook for another minute or two. 


Mmm potatoes:

Gettin crispy:

Red Potato Salad with Blue Cheese, Chives and Bacon

I'm losing my mind a little bit lately. I made a small to-do list of errands to do after the gym this morning, but that didn't help me because I forgot to bring the list with me. The point of this story is that the last recipe I posted - the red potato tart - called for a pound of small red potatoes, which I bought - twice. Whoops. At least my forgetfulness left me with an extra pound of red potatoes. I also still had some blue cheese, bacon and chives. What to do?

I found Martha Stewart's recipe for red bliss potato salad with blue cheese, bacon and chives. This recipe was even more awesome because I also had leftover buttermilk from a cake I made recently. I changed it up a little because I didn't have red wine vinegar though (I used white wine vinegar) and I only had 2 strips of bacon - but it was tasty regardless. Also very easy and quick to put together and makes a good side for dinner or a quick "snack," if by snack you mean eat almost half of the bowl ... whoops again.

Ingredients

1 - 1 1/2 pounds red potatoes
1/4 cup blue cheese, plus more to top with
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon red or white wine vinegar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/4 cup fresh chopped chives
2-8 bacon strips (I only had 2, but it was fine), cooked and crumbled

1. Cut potatoes into bite-sized pieces and put them in a medium saucepan with salt. Cover potatoes with water and bring to a boil. Let simmer for about 10-12 minutes until potatoes are tender.

2. Meanwhile, whisk together mix blue cheese, buttermilk, vinegar, and mustard in a bowl until well combined.

3. Combine potatoes, dressing, chives, and almost all of the bacon in a large bowl. Garnish with blue cheese, chives, and remaining bacon.

Red Potato Tart with Blue Cheese, Bacon and Chives

I've been drooling over this recipe from Smitten Kitchen for a while, and I finally bought a tart pan to make it happen. I also had a package of bacon and some chives, so I modified the recipe a bit because blue cheese, bacon, chives and potatoes belong with each other ... if not twice baked from The Habitat, then in any other way.

**You can retain the original vegetarian-ness of this recipe if you leave out the bacon.

Ingredients

1 tart shell:
1 1/4 cups flour
1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons corn starch
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces
1 large egg

1 pound small red potatoes, sliced to 1/4 inch thickness
1 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup crumbled blue cheese
1 large egg yolk
1/4 cup chives
5-6 slices bacon, cooked crispy and crumbled
Sea salt/regular salt

Tart Shell
1. In a stand mixer or food processor, combine the flour, cornstarch and salt. Add in the butter, which should be cut into very small pieces.
2. Add one egg and mix everything until a dough forms. If you don't have a stand mixer or food processor, you can mix with a fork until a dough forms and use your hands to knead it together.
3. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to a 12-inch circle. Place the dough in a 9-inch pie plate or tart pan and press into the pan, leveling the edges. Refrigerate for 30 minutes before filling.
Filling
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a medium saucepan, cover the sliced potatoes with 2 inches of water and boil until tender, about 10 minutes. Drain and dry potatoes with paper towels.
3. Arrange the potatoes in the tart shell in circles, slightly overlapping their edges. Sprinkle the blue cheese over the potatoes.
4. Whisk cream and egg yolk together and pour into tart shell.
5. Sprinkle chives, bacon crumbs and sea salt over the filling.
6. Bake tart for 45 minutes or until golden brown (over a cookie sheet in case any filling spills over).

This tart shell was super easy to make in the stand mixer:

Mmmm.

I ate way too much bacon this week and the gym is closed today. Darn.

Potato and Goat Cheese Salad

This is my most favorite potato salad ever. It has no mayo, and it has goat cheese. Need I say more? 

The recipe is from the New York Times Recipes for Health section. I don't really make too many changes to the recipe besides making it slightly less healthy by adding in some extra goat cheese. I use small red potatoes because it can be hard to find fingerlings if you're not near a farmer's market.

I usually just mix everything in together, dressing and other things, and then just add the warm potatoes to everything at the end. This is only a little different than the original recipe.

Works great for potlucks, barbecues, and side dishes!
Ingredients
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1 tablespoon white wine vinegar or sherry vinegar

1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

Salt to taste

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1 small or medium garlic clove, minced or pureed

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil, or for a low-fat dressing use 1/4 cup low-fat yogurt or buttermilk and 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 1/2 pounds Yukon gold, fingerling or red bliss potatoes

Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

2 to 4 tablespoons finely chopped red onion (to taste)

2 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley

2 ounces soft goat cheese

1. Make the dressing. Whisk together the lemon juice, vinegar, mustard, salt, pepper, and garlic. Whisk in the olive oil or the yogurt and olive oil. Add salt, pepper, onion, parsley and goat cheese.

2. Scrub the potatoes and cut into 3/4-inch dice if large. If using fingerlings cut in 3/4 inch slices. Steam above 1 inch of boiling water until tender but not mushy, about 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from heat and toss while hot in a bowl with dressing.

Dressing:

Potato leek soup

Looking for another excuse to use the good ol' immersion blender, along with a spontaneous potato purchase at the farmer's market, I ended up searching recipes for potato leek soup. This Simply Recipes recipe is so simple, that I'll write it out. It's very creamy, which I love because I'm not really into broth-y soups, and also very filling, if you need a quick reheat for a late night dinner. However, there is no actual cream in this soup! Woo!

I don't have the best intuition when it comes to cooking, so I am trying to start small with improvising while mostly following recipes. For this soup, I added 4 small cloves of garlic, and probably could have added a little more. I'd also recommend using a tiny bit less than the half teaspoon of dried thyme. If there's one thing I hate doing, it's pulling thyme leaves off the stem, so I used the dried kind.

Lastly, I don't plan to make or post about a ton of soups, so for a great soup blog, check out Monday's Soup.

Ingredients

• 3 large leeks, cut lengthwise, separate, clean. Use only the white and pale green parts, chop.
• 2 Tbsp butter
• 2 cups water
• 2 cups chicken broth (or vegetable broth)
• 2 lbs potatoes, peeled, diced into 1/2 inch pieces
• Marjoram - dash
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme, or 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• Tabasco sauce or other red chili sauce
• Salt & Pepper

1 Cook leeks in butter with salt and pepper in a medium sized sauce pan. Cover pan, cook on low heat for 10 minutes. Check often. Do not brown leeks! Browning will give leeks a burnt taste.

2 Add water, broth, and potatoes. Bring to a low simmer and cook for 20 minutes. Scoop about half of the soup mixture into a blender, puree and return to pan. Add marjoram, parsley, and thyme. Add a few dashes of chili sauce to taste. Add some freshly ground pepper, 1-2 teaspoons salt or more to taste.
Serves 4-6.