Success: Two Recent Recipe Experiments that Worked!
Recently I pictured something I referred to as a weird roasted potato salad. Not the catchiest name but it was kind of an experiement gone....good! I think Ernie I nibbled half of it out of the pan before we served it! I had planned to roast the potatoes at high heat and then toss them with chopped garlic for the last 15 minutes or so. I was feeling lazy so I tried to chop up the garlic in my coffee grinder that I use for spices but it made kind of a messy paste. To clean that grinder out after spices I usually just chop part of a piece of bread in it to clear everything out. I tried that and ended up with more of a mess....so I added more bread. Then I decided it looked good so I threw in some aleppo pepper and salt and pepper. I tossed the partially roasted potatoes with it and when they came out they were crusty and garlicky and slightly spicy. I tossed them with a tablespoonful or so of mayonnaise and served them just slighly warm. Definitely addictive. I tried them a few nights later and they were just as good. This time I remembered the lemon juice with the mayo. It's kind of a take off on one of my favorite potato salad recipes, but I think I like this version even better!
Cynthia's Weird Potato Salad
1-2 lbs gold potatoes, cut into chunks
olive oil
3-4 garlic cloves
2 slices bread
1/2 teaspoon ground aleppo pepper (or paprika or other spice)
salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons Hellman's mayonnaise
juice of 1 lemon
Heat oven to 425, or 450 if you're slightly impatient. Toss cut up potatoes in some olive oil and scatter in roasting pan. Roast for about 20 minutes until cooked through but not too brown. Toss with breadcrumb mixture and roast 10-15 minutes more or until browned and fragrant. While still warm, toss with the mixture of mayo and lemon juice. It should just barely be coated. Serve hot, warm, or room temperature.
Note: the first aleppo pepper I got was from Penzey's and I loved it. Ernie recently picked up a little tub of ground aleppo pepper from World Harvest. They said they grind it themselves...it's really lovely.
Last night I slid out of work a little early to catch the early showing of Monsters University with Ernie and Owen. Leo lowered his eyelids and just peered out at me somewhat coldly when I suggested that he join us. God I love that boy. The movie was delightful. It can't of course be as good as Monsters Inc but we loved it just the same. I actually am looking forward to seeing it again already! I hadn't eaten lunch because my lunch was some of the leftover VERY garlicky potato salad mixed with some other vegetables and when I smelled it I realized it would be a lousy thing to eat before a 2:00 meeting with a whole bunch of folks. I told myself I'd eat it after the meeting but of course that didn't happen. What that means is that I ate too much popcorn. Aside: although I enjoyed it, why is it that movie popcorn doesn't taste like the movie popcorn of my memory?
So dinner was very late. We were all kind of full from popcorn so were in no rush. Ernie threw a whole chicken on the grill and we figured we'd have corn on the cob with it. I perused the inside of our refrigerator and realized that I'd never used my Sola Gratia turnips from last week's share. I was in a coleslaw frame of mind so I shredded the pretty little things in my food processor. I googled turnips and coleslaw to no avail. I finally shrugged and made a dressing of mayo, Penzey's sweet curry powder and some lemon juice. I didn't even bother with onion or anything else. I felt too lazy. Of course I then realized that we were having a meal in shades of all white and yellow....chicken, corn and curried turnips slaw. Hmmm. By the time the chicken was done it was getting late however and we skipped the corn and just had beautifully grilled chicken with a side of this slaw. I LOVED the slaw. I might do lime juice instead of lemon next time....or play with it a little but it was delightfully cool and crunchy. Perfect if I do say so myself!
Turnip Sweet Curry Slaw
2 bunches of turnips, grated
1/3 cup of Hellman's mayo
1-2 teaspoons of curry powder (Penzey's sweet curry powder recommended)
3 tablespoons lemon juice or roughly the juice of one lemon
1/2 teaspoon aleppo pepper or other spice such as a sharp paprika
salt and pepper to taste
Mix mayo and seasonings and toss with grated turnips. Best chilled.