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Spicy Ginger Garlic Potatoes and My Favorite Raita

17 May

If it not entirely obvious by now, I tend to go on extended cooking benders that involve certain types of foods.  Sometimes the focus of my cooking will be a particular item, while other times I’ll becomes enamored with cooking food from a particular country or region.  Last week, perhaps inspired by the arrival of unseasonably hot weather, I could not stop making Indian food.

The best, and yet simultaneously worst, thing about making Indian food is the rather insistent habit I have of never, ever just making one Indian dish at a time.  If there is a main dish, there will be a side dish, and when there is a side dish, there will be an added starch, and when there is an added starch, there will be spicy pickles and cooling raitas and on and on and on.  On more than one occasion, I have taken to inviting people over at the last minute to help us devour the feast of food I just spent an afternoon preparing, because when I took a step back and really looked at the Thanksgiving-like spread of food I had just laid out, I actually got a little embarrassed.  When it comes to Indian food, I do not mess around.

So, though it might be a bit late to declare this week to be Indian Food Week on Savory Salty Sweet, I have a stockpile of lovely Indian recipes to share, and I will likely be spending the next few posts talking about just that.  I’ll start with this great staple of any Indian meal I make: gingery, garlicky potatoes topped off with a fresh, cooling raita.  If you’re looking for a simple place to start your journey into cooking Indian food, you can’t find anything easier than this.  This dry sauté of wonderfully seasoned potatoes comes together in a flash, and you can throw the raita together in the time it takes the potatoes to finish.  It’s the perfect gateway into Indian cooking, which is good if you are looking for a simple place to start, but perhaps not so good if you one day find yourself so smitten with cooking Indian food, you’re forced to throw an impromptu dinner party every time you break out a jar of cumin seeds.  You’ve been warned.

Last Year: Blueberry Biscuits

Spicy Ginger Garlic Potatoes and My Favorite Raita Recipe

Spicy Ginger Garlic Potatoes

1 pound small or medium potatoes, whole and unpeeled

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

¼ teaspoon whole cumin seeds

2 tablespoons finely grated fresh ginger

2 tablespoons finely grated or minced-and-smashed garlic

1 jalapeno pepper

salt to taste

In a small pan, cover the whole potatoes with water and bring to a boil over high heat.  When the water begins to boil, lower the heat and simmer the potatoes until they are tender enough to be easily pierced with a fork (this should take about 10 to 15 minutes).  Drain the potatoes and allow to cool enough to be handled.

When the potatoes have cooled enough to touch, peel the skins form the potatoes and then dice the potatoes into 1-inch chunks.

In a large skillet, melt the butter over low heat.  When the butter has melted and is just stating to foam a bit, add the cumin seeds.  Stir the cumin seeds, allowing them to sizzle and pop for about 20 seconds.  Add the grated ginger and garlic, and stir over low heat for 1 minute, until the ginger and garlic are very aromatic, but not browned.  If you see your ginger and garlic beginning to brown, remove the pan from the heat and keep stirring the ginger and garlic until their sizzling subsides a bit and the browning has stopped.

Turn the heat under the pan to high.  Add the diced potatoes to the pan, and stir to coat with the ginger and garlic mixture.  Allow the potatoes to develop a nice brown crust on one side, then stir, turn the heat to low, cover the pan, and leave to cook for another 3 minutes or so.

Slice the jalapeno pepper into thin strips, discarding the seeds and white ribs.  Add the jalapeno strips to the potatoes, stir to combine, then remove from heat.  The jalepenos should still retain some crispness (you don’t want them to turn totally limp).  Add salt to taste.

Cucumber Mint Raita

1 cup peeled, seeded, shredded cucumber (about 1 large cucumber)

1/3 cup finely minced fresh mint leaves

1 cup plain yogurt

pinch of salt

pinch of cayenne pepper

Using your hands, squeeze the shredded cucumber until you have removed as much moisture as possible.  Place squeezed cucumber in a medium bowl.  Add minced mint, yogurt, and salt.  Stir to combine.  Sprinkle a pinch of cayenne pepper over the top of the raita.

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How to Make Homemade Croutons

26 Apr

Among the many food items that are not only easy to make at home, but also always, always better when made at home rather than purchased from a store, I’d have to place croutons in the top 5.  It’s not that I eat a lot of croutons, but when I see someone buying a huge bag of dried bread that has been dusted with strange laboratory-conceived flavorings, I just want to stop that person, place a hand on his or her shoulder, and say, “Drop the bag.  There’s a better way.”

I know, I know.  You don’t have a lot of time.  You work a lot, and when you get home, you don’t want to spend a lot of time crouton-ing it up when you would rather be…I don’t even know what to put here, because making croutons at home is just about as effortless as it gets.  Most of the time spent on these croutons is taken up by baking time, and during that baking time you can make a salad to accompany your croutons, slice up a bunch of stuff to pile into a fantastic panzanella with these croutons, or beat together a few eggs and other fillings to fold over these croutons and cook into a frittata.

You can take leftover croutons to work to make a bowl of microwaved soup into something truly special.  If you’re looking for a semi-fancy snack, nibble on some of these croutons, paired with apple slices, and ditch your regular mid-day work snack of over-salted packaged nuts with off-brand M&Ms.  Or just alternate bites of crouton with bites of grape tomato and pretend that you are eating  outside in a Mediterranean garden (instead of inside, under fluorescent lights, while the never ending pitter-pat of keyboard typing plays the soundtrack to your life).  25 minutes, start to finish, and these croutons, with any number of pairings, can be yours.

Last Year: Indian Chicken Kebabs (this is one of my favorite dishes, and it contains one of my favorite stories about being in India)

Big and Crunchy Herb and Chèvre Croutons Recipe

8 ounces rustic bread, cut into large 1-inch cubes

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 large clove of garlic, finely diced and mashed into a paste

4 ounces chèvre

1 heaping tablespoon chopped fresh herb of your choice (rosemary, thyme, or tarragon would work well here—I used tarragon and it was divine)

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

salt to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Spray or brush a large baking sheet with a bit of olive oil, then set aside.

Place bread cubes in a large bowl.  In a small saucepan, melt butter with olive oil over medium heat.  Add garlic, and allow to cook only slightly, until the garlic becomes fragrant (about 20 seconds).  Remove from heat, then stir in chèvre, herbs, black pepper, and salt.  Stir until the ingredients are combined and the cheese has melted.

Pour the cheese mixture over the bread cubes, and toss to combine evenly, until all the bread is coated.  Place bread cubes in a single layer on prepared baking sheet.  Bake in center of oven for 18-20 minutes, until the croutons are golden brown and crisp.

Eat on a salad, fold into a frittata, make into panzanella, or place on top of soup.  Never buy croutons again.

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Roasted Fingerling Sweet Potatoes with Lemon Tarragon Aioli

12 Apr

Not too long ago, after admitting that I had a wee bit of a problem keeping up with the New Yorker, I noticed that, next to my bedside, there sat a leaning tower of old New Yorker issues just waiting to topple over in the middle of the night and trigger a bad dream about thunderstorms or exploding bombs (apparently I am very susceptible to sounds invading my dreams, because just last night I was awoken from a dream about being trapped in a horrible hurricane, only to realize that, oh, no! There really was a hurricane happening right at that moment, only to then realize that, nope, there was no hurricane, there was only my husband, wheezing/snoring in his sleep just inches from my face and giving me nightmares, but I digress).  Knowing that my dusty magazine pile was bordering on unreasonable, I began to stack the old New Yorker issues in my arms and take them to the recycling bin.

As I walked down the stairs, I noticed that several of the magazines were marked in the beginning few pages with a dogeared fold.  One issue sporting this feature would not be notable, but half a dozen?  Against my better judgment—I was, remember, supposed to be getting rid of these magazines—I fished a couple of magazines out of the pile and opened them up to their folded pages.  All of the pages, it turned out, were marked at the same place: the Tables for Two column, the short restaurant review that appears in the first few pages of the magazine, and, some of you might remember, the inspiration for this recipe.  As I soon recalled, for months I had been noting tasty-sounding dishes that were mentioned in the column, with the intention that I would someday gather together the elements in each recipe and then create them in my own way.  Hazelnut orange pesto?  That sounds delicious!  And now this, fingerling sweet potatoes with tarragon?  Sign me up.

Though I can’t remember the name of the restaurant that offered the inspiration for this dish, the thought of combining fingerling sweet potatoes with tarragon stuck in my brain and refused to budge.  Not knowing anything more about the presentation, other than the main ingredient and its accompanying herb, I thought of the way I’d like to see these two things come together.  Petite sweet potatoes roasted in olive oil until soft and crisp and paired up with a wonderfully garlicky, herby aioli sounded just right.

And it was.  The sweet, caramelized potatoes are a natural match with the creamy, forward flavor of the tarragon aioli.  If I am recalling things correctly, the restaurant was favorably reviewed in the New Yorker, and this little sample of a flavor pairing from the restaurant makes it clear why.  So, in what might turn out to be an ingenious excuse for having all those old issues of the New Yorker sitting around, I have decided to create a new category here on Savory Salty Sweet.  The category will be called, fittingly, Tables for Two, and it will feature dishes that I read about in the New Yorker column of the same name and felt inspired to make.  I don’t know how many recipes I will actually be able to create from this endeavor, but I am excited to find out.

Last year: Carrot Muffins

Roasted Fingerling Sweet Potatoes with Lemon Tarragon Aioli Recipe

If you can’t find fingerling sweet potatoes, just use the tiniest sweet potatoes you can find.  I have found that the tinier the potato, the more delicate its flesh, and that’s a real virtue in this recipe.  When you roast the potatoes, you want them to become pillowy soft and creamy with just tiny hits of crispness here and there on each slice.

2 pounds of fingerling sweet potatoes, sliced in half or in quarters in order to make all the potato slices a standard size (having them a uniform size will allow them to all roast at the same rate)

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.  Place sliced sweet potatoes on a large baking sheet, then drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Toss everything together, then arrange potatoes in a single layer.  Roast potatoes for 30 minutes, until the potatoes are soft and their edges have started to turn crisp.

Lemon Tarragon Aioli

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

3 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 large egg yolk

2 tablespoons fresh tarragon, roughly chopped

7 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

To make aioli, combine lemon juice, mustard, garlic, egg yolk, and tarragon in a food processor or blender.  Process or blend until smooth, then, with the food processor still running, slowly add the olive oil until the mixture becomes smooth and thick.  Remove the lid, stir the mixture with a spatula or spoon to mix in any errant bits trapped on the sides or bottom of the bowl, then add salt and pepper to taste and process for a few more seconds to ensure that everything is smoothly combined.

Serve potatoes warm, with aioli drizzled on top, or in a small bowl on the side.

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