Posted by The Serious Eats Team, May 14, 2008 at 2:45 PM
- makes 3 cups -
Adapted from Entertaining by Martha Stewart.
Ingredients
1 pound new red potatoes
2 tablespoons dry white wine
1 tablespoon wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
3 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper
1 tablespoon finely minced green onion
1 1/2 tablespoons chopped dill
Procedure
1. Boil the potatoes carefully so that they do not split and crumble. Cook slightly and cut into quarters. Do not peel. Pour the wine over the potatoes and toss gently.
2. Whisk the remaining ingredients into a vinaigrette, pour over the potatoes, and toss. Taste for salt and pepper. Serve while still warm, or chill.
Posted by Ed Levine, May 9, 2008 at 1:00 PM
The first serious chef I think of when I think about Mother's Day is Lidia Bastianich. Lidia is the proud mother of Joe Bastianich, restaurateur, vintner, and food businessman extraordinaire, and of Tanya Bastianich Manuali, her travelmate on the Lidia's Italy television series. She's also a grandmother of five and the devoted daughter of her mom, Erminia, who escaped from a refugee camp with Lidia 40 years ago. So I figured I'd ask Lidia how she's celebrating Mother's Day.
Usually she spends it at her restaurants, she told me, because it's such a restaurant-oriented holiday. But this year Joe's son is having his First Communion, so the whole Bastianich clan is congregating at Joe's house in Connecticut. Lidia is making a special octopus dish that she says all her grandchildren love; here's the recipe.
Continue reading »
Posted by Robin Bellinger, April 4, 2008 at 1:45 PM
Yesterday I was glad that Lucy alerted us to the existence of Totally Baked (something has been done to the Dining Section online, and now I am bad about seeing Food Stuff). Recently I was craving a baked potato on a night when I had no patience for cooking and no potatoes in the house, so I ran out to get one at a Hell’s Kitchen establishment that will remain nameless. It was gummy, hard in the middle, and totally disappointing. Now I have another spot to try.
A well-baked potato with the right toppings offers an amount of pleasure disproportionate to the raw ingredients cost, especially with a green salad on the side. It also involves very little active time and kitchen cleanup. For these reasons it was one of my favorite dinners senior year of college, when I was cooking for myself at a school not really equipped for independent eaters. I knew how to bake potatoes, roast vegetables, steam broccoli, whisk together a vinaigrette, and make beans and rice out of a box. Oh, and heat up a can of soup. It must have been a little monotonous, but in retrospect I think I ate very well.
Continue reading »
Posted by Adam Kuban, March 18, 2008 at 1:45 PM
Today's recipe from this week's featured cookbook, Arthur Schwartz's Jewish Home Cooking, is for Potato Latkes. You basically couldn't write a book by that title or blog about it without highlighting these little fried potato pancakes. Here, Schwartz recommends using matzo meal instead of flour for a crisper surface. Another trick he recommends is stirring the mixture with a tarnished silver spoon, leaving it in between stirrings—it helps prevent the potatoes from turning gray. Latkes are typically served at hanukkah, but we couldn't resist bringing you this recipe several months in advance—it's not like you can't make them any ol' time.
Continue reading »
Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, March 14, 2008 at 4:00 PM
The fiancée and I have something for sweet potatoes, especially in fry form. We like them fried or baked, crisp or soggy. They are such an odd twist on an old standby, and they work more often than not. So I was quickly sold on this recipe, which presented not only big fat sweet potato fries but an interesting-looking sauce with lots of lime.
I suppose it’s a side dish, but we just dumped the wedges into a large bowl and went at them without any thought of a main course. It might not seem healthy attacking a large greasy stack of French fries, but these are baked, and the yogurt sauce felt light and satisfying. It succeeds because of the play between the pungent, earthy seasonings and the quick, zippy sauce. Either way, it’s another adaptation from Martha. And for that we thank her.
Continue reading »
Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, March 7, 2008 at 4:00 PM
I had little chorizo leftover from Monday’s fantastic chorizo, egg and raisin meal, and instead of making that same meal for the third time, I figured I’d try to see what else I could find. Contrary to all rationale, I was still in a taco munching mood, and so I quickly went for the Mexican guide to all things quick and easy, Rick Bayless. This isn’t the first time.
I’ve made this before with just the chorizo and potato, but I decided to finally pony up and get the mushrooms too. For some reason they felt unnecessary before. The potato was already going to add body and the chorizo had all the goodness. The mushrooms certainly don’t lighten up the dish like the raisins did, but they do make things a little more savory and a tad less greasy. It’s odd that it works so well, but I guess that’s just Bayless you.
Continue reading »
Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, March 5, 2008 at 5:05 PM
I’ve had mixed results with blended soups lately. Sometimes it feels like I’m dealing with a wonderfully complex and succulent creation before it goes into the machine, and bland puréed slop afterwards. But I figured Martha Stewart could lead me in the right direction. She combats the blending problems I’ve had by amping up the spice and adding some much needed acidity.
The kick comes from a combination of grated ginger and curry powder, and some tart apples help keep it lively. This comes from The New Classics
, a massive volume with nearly half its paper weight coming from the dessert section. Of course, I gravitated towards the front and picked a soup that sounds rather similar to the curried butternut squash soup I made in the fall. But this is a far more balanced affair.
Continue reading »
Posted by Adam Kuban, February 29, 2008 at 1:30 PM
This week's Cook the Book is Roast Chicken and Other Stories by Simon Hopkinson. If you haven't heard of Hopkinson, chances are you aren't English; in Britain, this book was voted the most useful cookbook ever by a group of chefs, food writers, and readers.
This recipe for Potato Purée with Parsley would go well with yesterday's Poached Salmon with Beurre Blanc.
Win 'Roast Chicken and Other Stories'
To give you a taste of how useful this book is, we're excerpting a dish a day this week. Today's follows, after the jump. If that whets your appetite, you can find Roast Chicken on Amazon or enter to win a copy here on Serious Eats.
Continue reading »
Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, February 27, 2008 at 4:15 PM
I’ve had chipotle mashed potatoes with regular old russets a few times, but they didn’t do much for me. Though far from atrocious, nothing new was created. It just tasted like mashed potatoes with an awkward tinge of heat, not a unique dish. Perhaps it was the version I had. I’m certainly not a mashed potato purist, but I like my pairings to work together
But chipotle smashed sweet potatoes do work. I think it all comes down to balance. The chipotle kick still exists, but it is calmed by the sweet and creamy body of the sweet potatoes. And that really makes all the difference. So does steaming the potatoes, a technique I was incredibly leery about, thinking it would take too long. Then again, Alton Brown rarely fails, and this Good Eats-approved recipe is just another shining example.
Continue reading »
Posted by Adam Kuban, February 20, 2008 at 3:45 PM
Today's Cook the Book recipe jumped out at everyone here at the Serious Eats office because it was given to Jamie Oliver by the chef of one of our favorite restaurants here in New York. The "April" in the title refers not to the month, but to April Bloomfield, of the gastropub The Spotted Pig. Bloomfield calls them "shoestring potatoes" on the menu, and they come with the amazing blue-cheese burger there, but Oliver says they're known as "straw potatoes" in England (where Bloomfield also hails from). The rosemary and lemon salt play well with each other, making for an addictive little side item. We've adapted the recipe here for your cooking (and eating) pleasure.
Continue reading »
Posted by Robin Bellinger, February 6, 2008 at 2:30 PM
Besides big roasts, slow braises, and stuffed pastas that are probably best for lazy-Sunday cooking, Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking has much to offer in the way of weeknight dinner (if you’re accustomed to spending about an hour making dinner, that is). I love Marcella Hazan’s frittate but somehow always forget that eggs for dinner are allowed, so I usually end up browsing soups, salads, and vegetables for ideas. Recently I put Chick Pea Soup, Potatoes with Onions, Tomatoes, and Sweet Pepper, and Shredded Savoy Cabbage Salad to the test.
Continue reading »
Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, January 7, 2008 at 4:30 PM
I still can’t believe the fiancée cooked this for me. When I’m working late, it’s par for her to shun bacon, eschew oil, and cook as many vegetables as possible. So I was a little surprised when I came home to a bacon laden gratin with half a wheel of cheese melted on top. I kissed her immediately. I mean, really—what a wonderful thing to do. She found it in the North Market Cookbook. The cheesemonger said he got the recipe “from a French customer.” How intriguing.
Continue reading »
Posted by Jenn Sit, December 25, 2007 at 1:30 PM
Back in November, my friends and I entered a tailgating competition for our Williams-Amherst Homecoming festivities. It’s our senior year so we had to go all out, staying in and slaving the entire night before when most people were out for pre-game festivities, so we could serve up about 13 different dishes—from kabobs and mini buffalo chicken pockets to crab cakes and stuffed mushrooms. One of the fastest moving dishes was my housemate Anna’s potato skins—no one could resist the crispy skins filled with gooey cheese and salty bits of crispy bacon. In The Martha Stewart Living Cookbook: The New Classics, the fairy godmothers over at Martha Stewart have waved their magical wands and classed up this bar-food favorite, transforming it from a college kid snack into its glammed-up Cinderella version—potato skins with pancetta and mixed herbs. As the Susan Lucci of the tailgating competition, we were unfairly snubbed for first place—maybe because we didn’t have pancetta, but mostly because we forgot the Kobe sliders with foie gras and black truffles back at the house.
Continue reading »
Posted by The Gurgling Cod, December 22, 2007 at 7:30 PM
Sunday Night Soups, where each week The Gurgling Cod shows up to offer a soup appropriate to the week's Sunday Night Football game on NBC.
The antepenultimate regular season Sunday Night Soup has SNS regulars the Redskins venturing to Minnesota to face the Vikings. The Vikings play indoors, which seems a shame, given the hardiness of their namesakes, and the franchise has languished since moving to a dome in the 1980s.
These teams have radically different foodsheds—the riches of the Chesapeake and the sweeping expanses of the northern reaches of America’s breadbasket. Flour comes from Minnesota, and crabs from Maryland, so breaded soft-shelled crabs would be an idea, but they are unwieldy in soup, and out of season, anyway. They will be teeing this one up not long before Santa kicks the tires and lights the fires, and that calls for something festive but not overwhelming. In other words, a perfect spot for Fergus Henderson’s leek, potato, and oyster soup.
This recipe is from his first book, published Stateside as The Whole Beast
. He has a newer book out as well, Beyond Nose to Tail, which is more attractively produced than the first but not as compelling to cook from. Despite what the newspapers tell you, there is nothing wrong with giving cookbooks not published within the last year, so if you have a cook on your list who likes to use everything but the squeak, start with the first one.
Continue reading »
Posted by Robyn Lee, December 7, 2007 at 2:15 PM
Soup rarely appeals to me (too much liquid, not enough chewing), but when the weather is bitterly cold (like now), nothing fills up your inner crevices as well as a bowl of hot, chunky soup. Tom Colicchio's simple diced potato-leek soup combines diced potato, leek and bacon in chicken stock flavored with butter and chives. You've got your vegetable, starch and meat all in one spoonful. Although it make go without say (since Colicchio didn't mention it), make sure you wash your leeks thoroughly before using them—otherwise you may find yourself eating a potato-leek-bacon-dirt soup.
Continue reading »
Posted by Ed Levine, December 6, 2007 at 1:15 PM
I've never entered a latke-making contest, I've never even tried to come up with one on my own. That doesn't mean I'm not one of the great latke eaters of our time. When my grandmother was alive she would sometimes make a hundred latkes at chanukah. I'm sure she never used a recipe, and if she did, it was never passed on to us. So about ten years ago, when we started hosting my family's Chanukah party I searched high and low for a latke recipe that could withstand the intense scrutiny the Levine family would subject the recipe to. That's where Lydie Marshal's Passion for Potatoes
comes in. It's a terrific all-potato-all-the-time cookbook, and it has the most delicious, foolproof latke recipe I have ever come across. In fact Marshall adapted the recipe from Raymond Sokolov and Susan Friedland's book, The Jewish-American Kitchen
. How good is this recipe? The loud and loquacious Levine family is sometimes silent as they chow down on these latkes.
Continue reading »
Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, December 3, 2007 at 4:00 PM
I once had an actual Spanish man teach me how to make this dish. This version isn’t quite right, but it is a tad easier. The original recipe fries the potatoes in olive oil to soften them up and then fries them again in some more oil with the eggs. It’s a beautiful thing but slightly exhausting. You have use a lot of oil to fry that many potatoes, and then you have literally wring them out. It takes time. It was nice when the Spanish man did it for me.
This version comes from One Potato Two Potato, hopefully a book with a few things to know about the tuber. Instead of deep-frying the potatoes, it layers them in a baking dish with some onions. It’s not quite the same but still delicious. This recipe takes a good hour, and requires some serious plate flipping skills, but the ingredients are surprisingly few and the end result worth it. The fiancée and I had a dinner out of this—and a few more breakfasts. Not bad for a few eggs and potatoes.
Continue reading »
Posted by Robyn Lee, November 20, 2007 at 2:15 PM
A potato on its own is a rather boring lump, but chop it up, mix it with butter, eggs, garlic and sage crust, bake it in a bread crumb or Parmesan cheese-dusted skillet and you end up with Deborah Madison's drool-inducing potato skillet pie. Admittedly, anything combined with those ingredients would probably taste good, but the neutral quality of potatoes allows them to combine well with everything. Madison suggests add-ons such as sautéed artichokes, broccoli rabe, fried onions, or cheese. You can also top your potato pie with tomato sauce or applesauce and sour cream.
Continue reading »
Posted by The Serious Eats Team, November 14, 2007 at 8:00 AM
When we talked to Bon Appétit editor in chief Barbara Fairchild about the November 2007 issue of the magazine, we asked her what her favorite Thanksgiving recipes from the issue were. This potato gratin, published here courtesy of Fairchild and Bon Appétit, was one of them. Here's what she said about it: "It's way too rich for Thanksgiving, especially since I serve two kinds of stuffing and two kinds of potatoes already. But, man, is it good."
Continue reading »
Posted by Jenn Smith, November 2, 2007 at 10:00 AM
JerzeeTomato showed Thanksgiving spirit when she invited novice cooks to use Serious Eats as a resource (and when she observed that "Turkey Day is my Olympics!").
We want our Thanksgiving roundup to provide recipes for all skill levels, tastes and dietary needs. And so we bring you a basic: a calculated, written recipe for something many of us learn by doing and observing, without ever reading words on a page.
We bring you Perfect Mashed Potatoes, from Seriously Simple Holidays by Diane Rossen Worthington.
These may not be your perfect mashed potatoes, but they are perfectly tasty. You may be a purist who makes mashed potatoes without garlic, or who refines their mash by peeling the potatoes, or who believes in the importance of using a starchy potato for a fluffy end product. We welcome all mashed potato feedback and variations!
Continue reading »
Posted by Adam Kuban, October 25, 2007 at 1:00 PM
The baked potato. Throw some butter on there, some salt, a little pepper, and you're good to go, right? Or maybe you load it with sour cream, bacon bits, cheese, etc.
Why don't you forget those preparations for a minute and take a gander at Fergus Henderson and Justin Piers Gellatly's baked potato. With some duck fat and roasted garlic, they transform this humble side into a star in and of itself.
If you're in need of duck fat, ask your local butcher for it, or look for packaged duck fat (a bit pricey, but you shouldn't need that much for this dish). Or you could always render the fat yourself from a duck or two.
The following recipe is adapted from Henderson and Gellatly's Beyond Nose to Tail.
Continue reading »
Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, October 22, 2007 at 4:00 PM
Christopher Kimball (Cook's Illustrated-founder, bow tie–wearer, and Kitchen Detective) gets to the matter very quickly: "There is nothing worse than a bowl of mashed potatoes that have lost their culinary roots in pursuit of star power."
Amen. Making mashed potatoes isn't rocket science, and while there are wrong ways and right ways about going about the process, one shouldn't try to mess with what's not broken. But...
For the sake of mixing it up, and not having the same mashed potatoes week after week, he comes up with some interesting alternatives to this classic dish. What he proposes is simple and takes no more time to complete. Just add another root vegetable to the pot. It doesn't sound like a drastic change, but it completely changes the final flavor. I added some carrots and they lent the perfect sweet counterpoint to this starchy side.
Continue reading »
Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, October 5, 2007 at 4:15 PM
"They could take sesame seeds off the market and I wouldn't even care. I can't imagine five years from now saying, 'Remember sesame seeds? What happened? All the buns are blank!' " —The late, great Mitch Hedberg
I pretty much agreed with comedian extraordinaire Mitch Hedberg until last night. I had no use for sesame seeds. During the past three years, I’d probably only encountered the little guys sprinkled on hamburger buns. They didn’t seem to have much flavor.
Luckily, I was flipping through one of my favorite cookbooks, The Courier-Journal Kentucky Cookbook, and came across this simple recipe. Apparently sesame seeds like high heat, because it helps them lend deep flavor to this kitchen classic potato dish. Cissy Gregg, the author of this 1956 recipe for the newspaper, pretty much said it best, "It is remarkable what the few sesame seeds do to this simple dish." Sesame seeds need that kind of encouragement now and then.
Continue reading »
Posted by Adam Kuban, October 1, 2007 at 2:45 PM
As Serious Eats reader Jasmine D. pointed out, it's National Vegetarian Awareness month, and to give a nod to our veg-eating friends, we'll start out this week's Cook the Book with James Beard's Potatoes Byron recipe. In the section of Beard on Food titled "Potatoes Without Meat," Beard says, "It can be both a challenge and fun to seek out things that are substantial and good enough to replace meat. There's pasta, of course, beans, lentils, and split peas—and also potatoes. How often does one think of potatoes without meat? Yet they are a great food in their own right."
The recipe follows after the jump, but before I send you there, I'd like to point out our archive of meatless dishes here on the site. As Jasmine rightly points out, Serious Eats is chocked full of meat, but I'm also surprised at the number of vegetarian recipes on the site.
Continue reading »
Posted by Adam Kuban, September 27, 2007 at 8:00 PM
This week's Cook the Book entry, How to Pick a Peach by Russ Parsons, is all about where the foods in the produce aisle come from, when they're at their best, and how to pick a prime example of whatever it is you're in the market for. Today's recipe (or should I say, "this evening's recipe," as it's a little later than usual) again gives you something to look forward to, since, like yesterday's winter greens entry, it stars an ingredient that usually rolls around in winter—turnips. This Turnip and Potato Gratin makes good use of the root vegetables, so be sure to bookmark it for later. The recipe follows after the jump, but first a couple of tips from Parsons.
- How to choose: Choose roots that are free from nicks and scars. Check the top of each turnip, where the greens once were. As the roots sit, they will continue to sprout new greens, which the produce manager will trim. The more the tops have been trimmed, the older the root probably is. In Japanese markets you can find small white turnips that have the tops attached. These are milder and sweeter than other turnips.
- How to store: Store turnips in a plastic bag in the refrigerator.
Continue reading »
Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, September 21, 2007 at 4:00 PM
I picked this one from 1,000 Vegetarian Recipes—a book that I never thought I'd flip through—because I came home with a hole gob of apples from the farmers' market. Sure the pepper, potato, and fennel get much of the credit in the title, but let us not forget the tart apple that provides the nice kick to this quick fall soup. It feels well suited for the colder weather rolling in.
I’d probably skip the last step. After 25 minutes of slow-simmering, the apple, fennel, and leeks combine beautifully but still hold their own when spooned apart. Once blended with the potatoes, some of the flavor gets muted. I guess it matters if you like your soups smooth or chunky. That’s kind of a personal question. Either way, the whole process gets wrapped up in 30 minutes.
Continue reading »
Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, September 5, 2007 at 4:00 PM
My fiancée was plowing through my old copy of Ruch Reichl's Garlic and Sapphires last week when she started rattling off the recipe to the above-mentioned dish. As she went on about the few ingredients, the short cooking time, and how delicious it looked, my only thought was: What recipes?
See, I’d sped through it myself about a year or so ago, but I must have skipped over the mid-chapter recipes like a bad high school student trying to read as quickly as possible. It was my loss. These recipes, now that I have a chance to go back to them, look fantastic. I will personally vouch for this one. It’s a purée of watercress and potatoes that looks like creamed spinach but is lighter and more flavorful.
I’ll read more carefully next time.
Continue reading »
Posted by Adam Kuban, August 20, 2007 at 2:45 PM
The first recipe from Patricia Wells's Vegetable Harvest is for a crisp golden potato dish that Wells coaxed out of restaurateurs Johanne Killeen and George Germon (of Al Forno in Providence, Rhode Island). I think it's a good way to ease you into the week, as it calls only for potatoes, extra virgin olive oil, and coarse sea salt.
Continue reading »
Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, August 8, 2007 at 4:30 PM
At the farmers' market this weekend, I ran across some bright, fluorescent-hued spuds unlike any I’ve encountered before. Sure, I’d had red potatoes before, but for some reason I had missed red and purple potatoes that were red and purple throughout. I also picked up some boring little white ones to round out the rainbow. I wasn’t quite sure how they would cook up, but I didn’t much care. I had already decided I was going to make a potato salad, and nothing much was going to get in the way.
I tend to find potato salads needlessly complex, so I was happy to find this vinegar-based one in Jasper White's Summer Shack Cookbook. It’s nothing really more than potatoes tossed with a vinaigrette, topped with some parsley and salt and pepper. I suppose you could use any vinaigrette you’d like. But this simple one from the book worked well. Oh, and those boring little white ones looked awfully plain, but they sure did taste the best.
Continue reading »
Posted by Ed Levine, August 2, 2007 at 3:00 PM
What I love about this omelet from Nancy Harmon Jenkins's Cucina del Sole is its versatility. It's substantial enough to serve as a light supper with a tossed salad or a plate of fresh tomatoes, fresh basil, and mozzarella drizzled with a little extra-virgin olive oil. Of course it would make a stupendous breakfast, brunch, or lunch dish as well. Although the recipe calls for hot cured sausage, you can easily substitute fresh hot or sweet sausage instead.
Continue reading »
Posted by Ed Levine, July 2, 2007 at 4:30 PM
I've been making potato salad for a friend's July 4th picnic for a zillion years now, and until now I haven't come up with a definitive potato salad. But this year, I am going to make my slightly altered version of the Creamy Potato Salad recipe in Jasper White's The Summer Shack Cookbook. It's killer, and I promise if you make it you will be a food hero to whoever you bring it to.
I just replaced the chopped kosher dill pickle he calls for with sweet relish because I like my potato salad a little sweet. Also, because we do love bacon at Serious Eats, I add a little chopped bacon to the salad just before I serve it, to give it just a touch of smokiness. The bacon is most assuredly optional.
White's great recipe has a couple of exceedingly useful tips.
"The trick to making a great creamy potato salad is to cook the potatoes whole, so the outsides are very soft by the time the centers are cooked through but still firm."
He uses distilled vinegar in the potato salad because "the acute sharpness that makes the vinegar undesirable for most dishes, especially vinaigrettes, is what spikes the flavor perfectly in this dish."
He also notes that this potato salad is best made well in advance: "It is really at its best the second day."
White says to use medium-sized, all-purpose (medium-starch) potatoes for this potato salad. I've found that Yukon Golds work best.
Continue reading »
Posted by Ed Levine, May 7, 2007 at 2:15 PM
Here's the first of the week's recipes from Robb Walsh's Texas Cowboy Cookbook. These cheesy scalloped potatoes would make a fine meal by themselves but go especially well with, no surprise, grilled meats.
Continue reading »
Posted by Alaina Browne, April 24, 2007 at 1:00 PM
In early 2003, Heidi Swanson, an enthusiastic cookbook consumer, made a resolution: "When you own over 100 cookbooks, it is time to stop buying, and start cooking." From that resolution sprang a food blog—one of the earliest, in fact—called 101cookbooks. Things have come full circle, and Heidi finds herself writing cookbooks these days. The recipe that follows is adapted from her latest, Super Natural Foods.
Continue reading »
Spending a month with 
