In the Hands of a Chef (16 page)
Read In the Hands of a Chef Online
Authors: Jody Adams
MAKES 4 SIDE-DISH SERVINGS
1 pound small carrots
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh ginger
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 tablespoon chopped shallots
2 tablespoons honey
½ cup freshly squeezed orange juice
1 tablespoon soy sauce
¼ cup water
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint
1 teaspoon black sesame seeds (available in Middle Eastern markets and health food stores)
1.
Peel the carrots and cut into 2-inch lengths on the diagonal. If the carrots are thicker than your finger, first slice them in half lengthwise, before sectioning them.
2.
Heat the oil in a medium sauté pan over high heat and sear the carrots until lightly browned. Season with salt and pepper. Turn the heat to low, add the ginger, garlic, and shallots, and cook until tender, 5 to 7 minutes.
3.
Add the honey, orange juice, soy sauce, and ¼ cup water. Cover the pan and continue cooking, tossing occasionally, until the carrots are tender and the liquids have reduced to a glaze, about 30 minutes.
4.
Remove from the heat and toss with the sesame oil, mint, and sesame seeds. Taste for seasoning and adjust the salt and pepper. Serve immediately.
I
n its homeland of Greece,
skordalia blurs the distinctions between sauce and condiment, between condiment and side dish, between hot and room-temperature food. Whatever it is, skordalia can become an addictive replacement for ordinary mashed potatoes. The dominant flavors are of potato, olive oil, raw garlic, and vinegar; the combination is at once sensual and primitive.
Don’t try to take shortcuts by using a food processor instead of ricing the potatoes and then whipping in the garlic and oil by hand. The potatoes will turn gummy instead of remaining starchy, and the garlic will taste too strong.
MAKES 4 SIDE-DISH SERVINGS
2 pounds baking potatoes, peeled and cut into large pieces
Kosher salt
4 garlic cloves, minced and then mashed with ¼ teaspoon salt to a paste
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
5 teaspoons champagne vinegar (or high-quality white wine vinegar)
Freshly ground black pepper
1.
Put the potatoes in a saucepan, add cold water to cover by 1 inch, season with salt, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until the potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes. Be careful not to overcook them, or they will become waterlogged.
2.
Drain, return the potatoes to the pan, and cook over medium heat tossing a few times until dry, about 5 minutes.
3.
While the potatoes are still warm, push them through a ricer into a large bowl. (Don’t let them cool, or they’ll be too gummy to push through the ricer.) Beat in the garlic and olive oil. Add the vinegar and season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve warm or at room temperature.
B
uttermilk contributes a lightly acid
contrast to the rich influence of butter and cream in these straightforward mashed potatoes, but use whole milk if that’s what you want. Mashed potatoes are among the most adaptable of all side dishes. Two short variations follow the master recipe. We like the lemony mashed potatoes with braised lamb or with grilled tuna; when we’re having steak, we usually opt for the roasted garlic version.
MAKES 4 SIDE-DISH SERVINGS
2 pounds baking potatoes, peeled and cut into large pieces
Kosher salt
⅓ cup heavy cream
⅓ cup buttermilk
4 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature, cut into 4 pieces
Freshly ground black pepper
1.
Put the potatoes in a medium saucepan, add cold water to cover by 1 inch, season with salt, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until the potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes. Be careful not to overcook them, or they will become waterlogged.
2.
Drain, return the potatoes to the pan, and cook over medium heat, tossing a few times until dry, about 5 minutes.
3.
While the potatoes are still warm, crush them with a potato masher. Alternatively, you can push them through a ricer into a bowl; just don’t let them cool, or they’ll be too gummy to push through the ricer.
4.
Combine the cream and buttermilk in a small saucepan over medium heat. Heat just to the point of scalding; do not boil. Whisk the butter and the scalded cream mixture into the potatoes. Season with salt and pepper. Serve immediately.
Lemon Mashed Potatoes
Add 1 tablespoon grated lemon zest to the saucepan when heating the cream and buttermilk. Whisk 2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice into the potatoes along with the butter and the cream mixture in Step 4. If you’re inclined to want more lemon flavor, increase the amounts of lemon zest and lemon juice cautiously. A subtle taste of lemon can become an overpowering one quite quickly. The only downside to adding lemon to mashed potatoes is that the taste soon fades. If you want to restore the lemon flavor in leftovers, whisk in freshly squeezed lemon juice just before serving.
Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes
For a strong flavor of raw garlic, go to Skordalia (page 106), but for a subtler, sweeter garlic flavor, mash ¼ cup Roasted Garlic (page 119) into a paste. Whisk the paste into the potatoes after adding the butter in Step 4.
S
weet potatoes are a deliciously
sugary tuber that puts in a brief appearance around Christmas. Maybe if they weren’t usually served drowned in syrup, they wouldn’t disappear for the rest of the year. Mashed sweet potatoes are just the right complement for pork and chicken, and leftovers can be used to thicken soup. A sweet potato mash also requires far less fat to bring up the flavor than conventional potatoes, an advantage if you’re watching your weight. I’ve included orange juice in my recipe to provide an acidic citrus accent rather than to sweeten an already sugary vegetable. If you’re unfamiliar with the selection and care of sweet potatoes, please read Sweet Potato Notes following this recipe.
MAKES 4 SIDE-DISH SERVINGS
3 orange sweet potatoes (about 2 pounds), scrubbed
4 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature, and cut into 4 pieces
¼ cup freshly squeezed orange juice
½ teaspoon minced fresh ginger
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1.
Preheat the oven to 400°F.
2.
Set the potatoes in a roasting pan. Roast until they’re very soft and the tips are beginning to darken, about 1 hour.
3.
Either wait until the potatoes are cool enough to handle with your bare hands, or use a dish towel to hold them. Cut them in half and scoop the flesh into a food processor. Add the butter, orange juice, and ginger; purée until smooth. Season with salt and pepper. Serve immediately.
I
n recent years, finding true sweet-fleshed sweet potatoes has become a little more complicated than it used to be. Chances are just about any fresh tuber labeled “sweet potato” will in fact be one, but there are a few facts to bear in mind when making your selection. Sweet potatoes are often available in several different varieties, in a range of colors from pale orange to a deep red-orange. As a rule of thumb, the deeper the color, the sweeter the potato.
In many parts of the country, especially the South, people use the terms “sweet potato” and “yam” interchangeably. The vegetable that appears in a can of “candied yams” is an orange sweet potato. Nevertheless, sweet potatoes and true yams are two entirely different vegetables. Real yams are bigger, harder, and have darker skins than sweet potatoes, and they are not at all sweet. They are a vital staple in many parts of Africa and Latin America, both as a thickener for soups and stews and as a dish in their own right. It used to be that yams were sold only in markets catering to Latin and African populations, but now both kinds of tubers are often found in well-stocked produce departments. True yams have a bland flavor, which makes them a great foil for hot, spicy sauces, but a poor substitute in sweet potato recipes, which depend on a sweet-fleshed tuber.
Supermarket labeling is often inaccurate. If you’re undecided as to whether to purchase a particular orange tuber for a recipe, ask if it’s sweet. There are no sweet yams.
Whatever their color, sweet potatoes bruise more easily than regular potatoes and care should be taken in their handling. Use the same criteria for purchasing sweet potatoes as you would regular potatoes. They should be firm, without bruises, soft spots, or “eyes. “ Store them as you would regular potatoes (i.e., no refrigeration) in a cool, dry place with plenty of air circulating around them, but bear in mind that they have a much shorter storage life than potatoes—use them within a few days of purchase.
Y
ou could probably walk from
Paris to Krakow and never stray beyond hailing distance of a home where potato pancakes are eaten. If the citizens of any region eat potatoes, there’s a good chance they have a recipe for potato pancakes. My two favorites are pommes Anna and rösti, from France and Switzerland respectively. For pommes Anna, several layers of thinly sliced potatoes overlap to build up the cake; rösti, on the other hand, are fashioned from one thin crisp layer of matchstick potatoes.
The potato cakes in this recipe are based on rösti. No flour or eggs are used to bind the potatoes; the starch in the potatoes themselves holds the pancakes together. The flavors of butter and potatoes come through slightly more strongly than they would otherwise. Besides serving these as a side dish, I sometimes use them as an exquisitely crisp base for a stew, or pair them with smoked salmon for brunch.
MAKES 4 SIDE-DISH SERVINGS
2 baking potatoes (approximately 1 pound)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, clarified (see page 111)
¼ cup minced white onion
¼ cup crème fraîche
2 tablespoons minced fresh chives
DO AHEAD:
The potatoes can be peeled a few hours ahead of time, but do not shred them. Shredding releases the starch necessary to bind the potato cake together as it cooks; if the potatoes are shredded in advance, the starch will drain away in the water. Keep the whole peeled potatoes covered with water in a large bowl; pat dry before shredding.
1.
Peel the potatoes. Shred them lengthwise on a grater or mandoline, using the “large” option, so that you produce the longest possible shreds. Season with salt and pepper.
2.
Heat 2 tablespoons of the clarified butter in a 9-inch nonstick sauté pan over medium-high heat. Spread a quarter of the potatoes evenly in the pan. (This should produce a thin layer only a few shreds thick.) Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of the minced onion over the potatoes. Cook, uncovered, on the first side until golden brown, 3 to 4 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium if it seems as if the potatoes are starting to burn. As the grated potatoes cook, they’ll stick together in a pancake. Don’t disturb the potato cake until you’re pretty sure it’s cooked. Flip the cake and cook on the second side until golden brown, another 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer to a platter and keep warm in a low oven. Repeat to make 3 more cakes.
3.
Top each potato cake with a tablespoon of crème fraîche, sprinkle with the chives, and serve immediately.
M
any of the recipes in this book ask you to sauté or fry ingredients in fat—olive oil, vegetable oil, or butter. Fat acts as a medium to transfer heat from the surface of the hot pan to the irregular surface of the food. By conducting heat into all the minuscule nooks and crannies in the surface of meat and vegetables, fat helps them to brown evenly (which is why it’s so hard to brown things well in a nonstick skillet with no fat). In high-temperature frying, however, not all fats are created equal; some work better than others. The milk solids in whole butter, for example, burn at high temperatures, turning black and contributing an acrid flavor to whatever is being cooked. If you want to use butter for high-temperature frying, you’ve got to get rid of butter’s milk solids first—you’ve got to clarify it. Clarified butter is pure butterfat, unlike regular whole butter, which also contains water and whey, as well as milk solids.
To make clarified butter, begin by bringing at least 1 stick of butter to a simmer in a small pan over low heat. Let it simmer slowly for 15 minutes. The butter should be barely moving. If it seems too active, lower the heat. A foamy layer of milk solids will gradually accumulate on the surface, and a layer of whey will sink to the bottom of the pan. Skim off the milk solids with a spoon. When all the milk solids have been removed, carefully decant the clear butterfat into a container, leaving behind the layer of whey. A stick of butter (¼ pound) will yield almost ½ cup clarified butter. It will easily keep for several weeks in the refrigerator, but it must be tightly covered, or it will absorb the odors of other stored food. Clarified butter can be frozen for 5 or 6 months.