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Hot Potato! {CtBF} #everydaydorie
We have another winner in the ongoing tale of cooking from Dorie Greenspan’s new book Everyday Dorie. With this installment, a double-crust of puff pastry is stuffed with thinly sliced potatoes, garlic, herbs and cream. What could be wrong with that?
I will quibble with labeling this one as anything close to an “everyday” dish. It’s not hard to prepare, but it needs to cook for a looooong time. I didn’t read the recipe thoroughly and didn’t start early enough to accommodate the 2 hour cooking/resting time required AND eat it for that night’s dinner. I can say that it’s really good reheated the next day and the one after that, so it must be spectacular fresh from the oven. With all the cream, it’s also rather rich for every day.
Company-worthy, potato tourte is a drop-dead gorgeous. The burnished crust is the perfect advertisement for the tender melting potatoes inside.
Though the recipe doesn’t specify, I’m glad I opted for a deep tart pan instead of the usual shallow one I use. Two pounds of potatoes makes a thick pile of potatoes. If I’d used the shallower pan, only half the potatoes would have fit.
We ate this for lunch with a leafy salad and for dinner with duck confit and asparagus. There’s a little bit left that we’ll try with breakfast. Suiting any meal might be an alternate definition of everyday.
You should try this one! It’s on page 220 of Everyday Dorie. Check out other opinions at Cook the Book Fridays.
March came in like a lion this year! On Monday, Mother Nature dropped just over a foot of snow, just in time for the annual Town Election. School was cancelled and the library was closed, but the election went on. Kudos to Howard for waking up early enough to snow blow a clear path to the road so I could be on time for my all-day shift as an Election Inspector. Despite the weather, once the snow stopped, we had higher-than-projected turnout. Democracy in action!
Potato Chowder, My Way {CtBF} #Everyday Dorie
After the sugar overload of December, I promised healthier eating in the new year. For me, that usually starts with soup. I love soup, especially soups that fill you up for lunch. Sometimes I’m in the mood for a smooth one made with beans or vegetables and then pureed – no cream required. Other times, I crave a brothy bowl filled with vegetables or beans.
So far in 2019, brothy soups have been the star. I started the year with a wonderful onion soup made with sweet red onions offset by the tang of Dijon mustard, balsamic vinegar and soy sauce. It was easy and delicious. Cheesy toasts on top made this a perfect lunch.
Cook the Book Fridays’ first recipe from Everyday Dorie this year is another hearty brothy soup: Potato Chowder, Lots of Ways. Dorie Greenspan gives a basic formula along with suggestions on tweaking the ingredients depending on the season as well as other ideas for giving the soup your own flair. Though called potato chowder, the soup includes an almost equal (or maybe greater) amount of alliums. There are onions, leeks, shallots AND garlic. I even used leeks I grew in my garden last summer (they’re storing well in the fridge).
I didn’t have any bacon on hand, but I did have a jar of bacon fat, so that’s what I used to sauté the alliums. Once they’re soft, broth and the requisite potatoes are added to the pot. I had some containers of corn stock in the freezer, made this summer from corn cobs. I thought that would be nice with the bacon undertones. I also added a tablespoon of Old Bay seasoning to evoke memories of childhood summers in Maryland. Once the potatoes are tender (about 20 minutes), they are mashed in the pot to give the soup some body. You could optionally add some cream, but it didn’t seem necessary. And I’m focusing on less decadent eating for January.
It’s cold outside, but this soup warms you from the inside. The stock was sweet, and the flavor of corn was distinct, more than I expected. It complemented the bacon and Old Bay perfectly. The soup is rather beige, but sliced scallions and chopped parsley added the needed color to the bowl.
This is a perfect recipe to have in your back pocket. The basic ingredients are always on hand, at least at my house, and the ways to vary the pot to use other things in your pantry are limitless. I’m looking forward to having fun with other combinations as the seasons evolve.
To see how others in Cook the Book Fridays dressed up their chowder, check out there links here. And to try it yourself, you can find the recipe in page 63 of Dorie Greenspan’s newest book, Everyday Dorie.
Enjoy!
A Plateful of Happiness 