So there's some serious snow on the ground here.... fortunately my roommate and I are well stocked and are using our snow days to watch as many Oscar nominated films as possible, drink prosecco, play board games, and eat all the cheese. We figured we might be snowed in for a while, so stocked up before the storm and have since made hummus, veggie pizza, a kale, sweet potato, & goat cheese tart, mushroom soup, and three different kinds of pesto (because you can never have too much pesto).
While all our snow cooking adventures have been fun, it's also nice to have easy fallbacks to make when you feel the need to eat healthily and/or make something quick and simple. Enter the kale/quinoa salad. It's incredibly basic (in every sense of the word) but I love it.
The kale is raw but the lemon and warm quinoa help relax the leaves so they have a soft texture but keep their fresh flavor. I often make this on Sunday and then take it for lunch throughout the week (it keeps for about a week in the fridge and can be eaten warm or cold). I'll add a dollop of yogurt to this salad or eat it on top of a roasted sweet potato. If I wasn't allergic to eggs, I would probably add a fried egg and call it dinner.
Steps
Rinse and cook the quinoa in a small pan. While the quinoa cooks, tear and wash the kale. In a large bowl, massage the lemon juice into the kale. Finely dice the red onion.
Add quinoa and red onion to the bowl of kale. Crumble in the goat cheese, pour in the balsamic vinegar and olive oil, and season generously with salt and pepper. Mix vigorously.
It wouldn't be (British) Christmas without roasted potatoes. They're crispy golden nuggets of love and I could eat an entire plate of them (which I almost did the moment I'd finished making this recipe...) I head home to Edinburgh tonight, so yesterday I got in the Christmas spirit by drinking an entire bottle of wine and making roast potatoes. I really should've spent the time packing but OH WELL.
Since I wasn't making a full roast dinner yesterday, I didn't have any gravy to go with the potatoes, so I had to improvise. And, you know what they say, when you're out of gravy.... use yogurt? Okay, maybe no one says that, but they should because my yogurt, herb, créme fraîche concoction was delicious and the creamy dip went excellently with the crispy potatoes.
For the fluffiest potatoes, you boil 'em and then shake 'em in a pot with some fat. Since my roommate and I have a jar of bacon fat in our fridge (yup), I used a dollop of bacon fat in this recipe but olive oil works great too. Goose or duck fat also work nicely. These are pretty classic tatties, but feel free to spice them up with a little paprika? Or you could finish the whole dish off with some sumac or za'ater?
Steps
Preheat the oven to 450F. Peel and quarter the potatoes. Fill a pot with water, add the potatoes and a pinch of salt, bring to a boil. Boil the potatoes for 10 - 20 minutes or until they just begin to soften.
Drain the pot and add a dollop of bacon fat. Put a lid on the pot and shake vigorously so all the potatoes get coated in fat. Place the potatoes on a roasting tray and season with salt and pepper.
Roast in the oven until golden and crispy (approx. 45 mins), turning every 15 minutes or so.
For the dip, finely chop the herbs, then mix all the ingredients together. Adjust the flavors to your liking and drizzle with additional olive oil to serve.
Full disclosure, I'm not the biggest fan of Thanksgiving (I know, blasphemy for a foodie) but I didn't grow up with the holiday so I don't have any childhood memories of mountains of mashed potatoes or stuffing my face with three kinds of pie. It all seems kind of strange to me, like a plate of turkey with a lot of mushy baby food (sorry don't hate me).
The problem might be that the British have a tradition of eating a roast every Sunday. Yeah, you heard me, we make an epic roast every single week with roasted potatoes, Yorkshire pudding, and sausage stuffing. So Thanksgiving has a uncanny valley feel for me, it's really close to something I know and love but not quite the same... Fortunately, there's one thing that's the same on both side of the Atlantic - brussel sprouts!
I know brussel sprouts aren't the most traditional Thanksgiving side but they've definitely been around more in recent years and they're super delicious, especially if you fry them and dress them in a honey balsamic vinaigrette. And, no, I won't apologies for using goat cheese in everything. Goat cheese is the best and everyone should eat it with everything.
This dish is pretty bare bones, but feel free to add hazelnuts? pancetta? breadcrumbs? more cheese? all of the above?
Also **safety warning** the oil spits a little, fry 'em gently and stand back!
Steps
Wash, trim, and half the brussel sprouts. Heat a thin layer of oil in a frying pan. On a low-medium heat, fry the sprouts in batches (usually 10 - 15 halves at a time). Fry until golden brown and crispy, approx. 1 - 2 mins per side. Remove from heat and place on a paper towel.
Mix together balsamic and honey (add a pinch of salt and pepper). Toss the fried spouts in the dressing and add salt and pepper to taste.
Spread goat cheese on the serving dish and pile sprouts on top.
Despite dodging Hurricane Joaquin (or did Joaquin dodge us?) there was still a shit ton of rain this past week... so much so our little basement flooded on Tuesday night. Don't worry, we're fine! The apartment is fine and the cats are fine (in fact, they had a blast playing/nesting on the pile of sopping blankets in our hall). But after the place dried out and we picked up some sandbags to prevent future disasters, all we really wanted to do was spend the weekend indoors, sheltering from the rain, playing Settlers, drinking wine, and watching West Wing.
It also seemed like a good opportunity to eat as much fall food as we could fit in our fat little mouths. So my roommate pulled an apple pie out of the freezer, I made a mushroom soup, we drank some pumpkin beer, spiked some apple cider, and I got really excited about parsnips.
I adore roasted parsnips. They're a little peppery, a little nutty, and go perfectly with sweet apples and spicy chorizo. Bring this to a fall potluck or think of it as an alternative side for your Thanksgiving spread? Honestly though, I'll eat this by itself topped with some crumbled goat cheese. Vegetarians can skip the chorizo and add some paprika to the apple sauce.
Stuff
2 lbs parsnips
2 shallots
2 apples (gala or another sweet variety)
6 oz chorizo
pour of maple syrup
good pour of apple cider vinegar
pinch chili flakes
olive oil
salt & pepper
Steps
Preheat the oven to 400F. Wash and chop the parsnips into 2" sticks. Toss in a baking tray with the maple syrup, olive oil, chili flakes, salt and pepper. Roast in the oven until tender (approx. 50 minutes), stirring half way through.
Peel and dice the apples, shallots, and chorizo. In a saucepan on a medium heat, sauté the shallots in olive oil for 3 - 4 minutes, add the chorizo and the apple. Cook for another 4 - 6 minutes. Add the apple cider vinegar and turn up the heat. When the apples start turning soft and the liquid has reduced, remove from the heat.
Mix the shallot, apple, chorizo sauce with the parsnips. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
