Make-Ahead Mascarpone Mashed Potatoes – Holiday Trick and Treat

I thought I was posting a video to show off the advantages of doing mashed potatoes ahead of time, but then I realized all that was nothing more than a diversion to distract you from the fact that I’m really trying to trick you into using an alternative to the standard holiday potato side dish.

These mascarpone mashed potatoes are certainly close enough to the classic recipe to keep any purists in the family happy, but the addition of the mild, creamy Italian cheese, a touch of egg yolk, and copious amounts of butter, elevate this to “special occasion” status.

Besides being a delicious change of pace, the advantages of the casserole delivery system are obvious. You don’t have to time your potato mashing so precisely, and this keeps warm in the casserole dish a long time, so it’s really nice for larger groups.

As always, feel free to alter this to your tastes. I do add a substantial amount of butter, but a few times a year I feel like I’ve earned that right, and do so unapologetically. I hope you do the same. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

4 1/4 pounds russet potatoes

salt and pepper to taste

cayenne to taste

1 cup butter (2 sticks)

1/2 cup mascarpone cheese

3/4 cup milk

1 egg yolk

I'm Hot to Tot

Photo (c) Average Betty

How good is my potato tot recipe? It was just chosen by Sara, from Average Betty, as her favorite in a "Tot-O-Rama" taste test, alongside versions from Chefs Michael Symon and Mark Zeitouni. But that's not the impressive part…this all happened despite the fact I don't actually have a 'tater tot recipe. Take that, chefs that cook things first!

Apparently AB was so taken by my crispy onion ring recipe (posted below in case you missed what may be my best recipe of all time), that she virtually included me in her Tot-O-Rama using a coating inspired by our ultra-crispy rings. She was right about one thing; I will be giving this tasty-looking tot a try in a future post!

Thanks to Sara for sharing her great "Tot-O-Rama" video, and be sure to follow this link to read the entire post. Enjoy!

Our Crispy Onion Rings Recipe (click here for recipe)

Cream of Green Garlic and Potato Soup – The Young and the Cloveless

I use so much regular garlic that to see the plant in its premature form always fills me with wonder and excitement. To think that these tender, scallion-like bulbs will eventually divide themselves into all those neat, paper-wrapped cloves fascinates me every time. Yes, I’m easily fascinated.

Green garlic, as I’ve come to learn relatively late in life, makes one hell of a good soup. Its flavor, once simmered slowly with potatoes and a bit of pork, is somewhere right in the middle between raw garlic and sweet caramelized onions. 


The role of pork in this soup is being played by chopped-up prosciutto scraps, who you may remember from such productions as Roasted Asparagus with Prosciutto and Poached Egg. It did a fabulous job, but even the most novice soup maker could figure out how to substitute ham or bacon. 

There are no secret tips or tricks here; this is about as simple a soup as you could ask for. As you’ll see in the video, we only pureed the large chucks, so this rustic soup had a little bit of texture to it. For me, this isn’t a soup that should be completely smooth. Like thornless roses, or radio-edit rap, it’s just not as interesting like that.

We still have more than a few chilly spring days ahead, so head out to the farmers market, or better produce markets, and grab some green garlic, so you can enjoy this fine soup. If you can’t find it, use leeks or green onions with some regular garlic instead. I hope you give this a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

1 tbsp olive oil

2 oz minced prosciutto

3 cups sliced green garlic

4 med russet potatoes

1 quart chicken broth

1/2 cup cream

salt and pepper to taste

cayenne to taste

chives to garnish

Duck Fat Green Garlic Home-fried Potatoes - Skin for the Win

I'm just guessing, but I bet there's some old French kitchen expression that roughly translates to, "Hey, it has crispy, fried duck skin crumbled over the top, how bad can it be?" This video recipe for duck fat homefries is perfect when you find yourself in possession of this highly coveted ingredient.

The recipe is the easy part, finding duck skin is a little more challenging. The easiest method of attainment is to know a duck hunter. They can hook you up faster than you can say, "Nice Elmer Fudd hat." If that's not an option, try and make friends with line cooks who work at restaurants that serve duck. They can make it happen, and it will probably only cost you a couple draft beers.

Finally, you can go to a butcher that sells whole ducks, and have him break one down for you. Tell them you'd like two nicely trimmed breasts, two leg quarters, and all the excess skin from the rest of the carcass. They will smile knowingly, and say no problem (for extra credit, ask for the bones, which you can roast and make a killer stock).

Once you have your precious skin, the recipe is a breeze. If you can find green garlic, it's very nice in this, but regular onions, leeks, shallots, scallions, etc. are a fine substitute. These potatoes would sure make a memorable side dish to a seared, sous vide duck breast, or how about as a plate-mate to a creamy goat cheese omelet? By the way, I'm much hungrier now than I was when I started this post. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
1 cup duck skin and fat trimmings

4 small russet potatoes

salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

1 cup chopped green garlic (light parts)

Arusuvai Friendship Chain: Season 2 and a mystery ingredient

Arusuvai Friendship Chain is about sending along a surprise ingredient as a gift to your friends for them to prepare something tasty with it, share the recipe, and pass on other surprise ingredients to more people. Arusuvai means six tastes (aru=six, suvai=taste) in Tamizh and is used to refer for Tasty preparation with six tastes – inippu/ thithippu (sweet), orappu/ karam (hot), kassappu (bitter) , pulippu (sour), uppu(salt), tuvarpu (tastes that one gets in raw leaves).

When you receive a package with a “surprise ingredient” as a part of Arusuvai here are the basic rules you need to follow:

1. Prepare something tasty with it and post recipe with a picture if you are a blogger with the logo, a link to person who passed it to you and to this post if you like for reference.
2. If you don’t blog, do share the recipe with the friend who gave it to you or post it as a guest post on someone you know who blogs.
3. Pass on a “surprise ingredient” to two or more friends, one of whom must preferably blog. We all want to have some fun together right?

All people in India who blog or have blogged or those who’d like to be a part of this chain to show themselves up – we’ll ensure you get to be part of the fun.

The Arusuvai network has already forged many friendships. This network was initiated by Srivalli, Bharathy and Lathamma. This network is on its second season and hosted by a very friendly and warm person SAYANTANI. Its a pleasure interacting with her. Thank you for linking us up.

Shalini send me very nice ingredient to me in little nice pink color jar. She wrote very heart touching latter to me also with great gift. She gifted me the recipe book of rice …She send these entire on Valentine’s Day this is my Valentine’s Gift from you dear. Thank you very much.

Actually I like to make different type of rice and she gifted such a great recipe book….

Thank you dear sending all these things.. When I see your recipe book and your pink color jar I have little smile on my face which I never explain what I feel it….

This is my entry to the Arusuvai friendship chain…

I made two items from Poppy seeds one is Spicy Potato curry and one is sweet Poppy seeds Seero.

Spicy and yummy Potato carrot curry with Poppy Seeds....

Poppy seeds Halwa...sweet dish...

Potato Curry – Potato with Poppy seeds (Khas-Khas)

Ingredients:

2 medium size Poatoes

1 big size carrot

3 tbsp Khas-Khas (Poppy seeds)

3 fresh green chillies

3 tbsp oil

Salt and lemon to taste

Method:

Step 1: Sock the Poppy seeds (Khas-Khas) in a little water for an hour.

Step 2: Cut the green chillies in small pices.

Step 3: Remove the extra water from Poppy seeds.Grind the green chillies with sock poppy seeds in mixer. I have used the traditional way of making the paste because my grinder jar is not working condition. Use this type of steel vessel and then crush with heavy handle. Keep aside.

Step 4: Peel and cut the potatoes and carrot into medium size.

Step 5: Heat the 3 tbsp oil in pan.

Step 6: Add half of the potatoes and fry in low flame.

Step 7: Fry until it becomes slightly change in color.

Step 8: Remove from the pan and add remaining potatoes and carrot together.

Step 9: When they cook and become soft and color is change then also remove from the oil.

Step 10: Put all dry ingredient in another plat.

Step 11: Remove the one tbsp oil from pan then add crush poppy seeds and green chillies paste in it on low flame. Beware of spluttering (you can immediately close the pan with a lid).

Step 12: Stirring in low flame until all water part is burn and it become very light chnge in color of poppy seeds.

Step 13: Then add fry potatoes and carrot in it.

Step 14: Add salt as par taste.

Step 15: Turn off the flame after stirring for 5 minutes when nice aroma of poppy seeds with fry potatoes fills your kitchen.

Step 16: Turn off the flame and last add the lemon juice for great taste of curry.

Step 17: Serve Hot with Roti or Paratha with Riyata.

Benefits -
1. Poppy seeds are rich in linoleic acid (an important omega-6 fatty acid), which protects the heart against heart attacks.
2. Poppy seed oil is also rich in oleic acid, which is believed to help prevent breast cancer.
3. It contains 45 to 50% of unsaturated essential fatty acids, which make it a good source of nutrition and health food.
4. Consuming half teaspoon of poppy seeds everyday is a home-remedy for the symptoms of asthma and whooping cough.
5. A paste made from the seeds can be used to get relief from swellings and joint pains.
6. Finely ground powder made from poppy seeds can also be consumed to treat insomnia and diarrhea.
7. It gives essential enzymes and fatty acids to body as a form of nutrition.
8. The oil derived from poppy seeds is used in various cosmetic like for the head and skin as balms and conditioners. Many pharmaceutical companies use poppy seed oil in the manufacture of various drugs and medications.
So now I will teach you how to make a quick recipe with poppy seeds using potatoes.

Next post for Poppy seeds Halwa…that is Khas-Khas sero...

You Asked for It!

Remember when I posted the "Potato Ball in Potato Box" video, and you guys started joking around about deep frying it? Well, here you go! This was a YouTube video response from kashioable.

Instant Mashed Potato Pancakes – Made from the Other Kind of Leftovers

I loved seeing mashed potatoes at the dinner table growing up, not only because I loved mashed potatoes, but also because it meant my mother would be using the leftovers to make fried mashed potato pancakes.

These were nothing more than cold mashed potatoes, shaped into patties, and browned in butter. I loved them, and use that same trick to this day. The potato pancakes you see here were born from another kind of leftover potatoes…the end of a box of instant potato buds.

I'd used them while testing the crispy onion rings recipe, but didn't want to keep such an unsightly container in my pantry (you never know when some other celebrity food blogger is going to drop in to borrow a cup of foie gras), I decided to see what would happen if I used it, uncooked, in a potato pancake mixture. What happened were four crispy, buttery, perfectly decent potato pancakes!

One advantage this version has over the freshly mashed one is those contain milk and butter, which makes it much harder to hold together when fried. I'm not saying you should just switch to instant, but I felt like I had to find some shred of a culinary advantage.

Logistically, this would be perfect for backcountry camping, or your friendly neighborhood college dormitory for obvious reasons, not the least of which is its cheapness and shelf stability (and by "shelf," I mean an old milk crate, turned on its side).

So, if you have some instant potatoes in the pantry, maybe consider giving this a try. Otherwise, remember this the next time you do find yourself in a similar situation. I mean, who would go out and buy a box just to specifically make a batch of these crispy, crusty, delicious patties? Enjoy!




Ingredients:
1 cup cold water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg, beaten
3/4 cup Betty Crocker Potato Buds (probably will work with any similar brand)
fresh chives
freshly ground black pepper
cayenne to taste
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 tablespoon butter

Crispy Crusty Potato Pancakes Always a Reason to Celebrate

There's nothing like the soul-warming goodness of a freshly fried potato pancake, and thanks to Hanukkah, you can't visit a food website right now without seeing a gorgeous-looking potato latke recipe.

I'm very proud of my own cherished version, so I decided to rerun this video from last February. We garnished this with smoked salmon, but truth be told, my favorite way to enjoy them is topped with applesauce and sour cream.

I hope you enjoy seeing this potato pancake recipe again, and if you’re seeing it for the first time, I really hope you give it a try. A happy Hanukkah to all those celebrating, and as always, enjoy!

Potato Pancakes – Squeeze and Be Squeezed



Click here for the original post and ingredient amounts.

Macaroni and Cheese as Crunchy Potato Chip Topping Delivery System

Since everyone agrees that the best part of a macaroni and cheese is the crisp, crunchy topping, why not feature that as the star of the dish? That was the basic idea behind today's video recipe for crispy potato chip mac and cheese.

There are all sorts of "favorite" casserole toppings, but the one that seems to excite people the most is the potato chip crust. Maybe it's the extra crunch, or the cheesy flair, or that very few unpleasant memories include potato chips.

So, the concept here is simple. Make a batch of béchamel (basic white sauce) using the recipe below. If you need to watch the technique, here is a video recipe for it, but use this post's measurements. To that add 12 ounces of really good cheese, and when it's melted, mix into cooked macaroni.

That would make a great meal as is, but when you add a big spoon of this impossibly crispy, cheesy, crunchy, buttery love…well, damn. Not only is this delicious, but it's a triumph of textural perfection. It's also a versatile recipe, as you can make the topping mixture and the white sauce ahead of time. I hope you give it a try, enjoy!




For the white sauce: (watch technique video here)
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
3 cups cold milk
small pinch of nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
1/4 teaspoon cayenne, or to taste
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme, or few springs of fresh
1 1/2 teaspoons table salt, or to taste

Cheeses I used:
1/2 pound shredded extra-sharp cheddar cheese
1/4 pound shredded Gruyere cheese

For the potato chip topping:
1 tablespoon butter
1 bag (minus 6-7 chips) white cheddar kettle-style potato chips, crushed into medium-fine crumbs
1/3 cup finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano (real Parmesan cheese)
2 tablespoons plain breadcrumbs

Crusty Roasted Yellow Potatoes - Now with Extra Steps!

So, you know how I'm always saving you time and money by designing these video recipes with a minimum number of steps?

This time we're going the other way. I'm taking a perfectly good roasted potato recipe and adding another procedure.

The secret to these deliciously crusty potatoes is the pre-oven boiling in a salted and seasoned liquid. The potatoes not only absorb flavor and salt, but more importantly the surface of the potato cooks, which is what forms the great crunchy texture in the oven.

This is sort of the same idea behind the twice-fried French fries we featured in a video last year. By the way, it's very important to let the potatoes really dry well before coating with the oil. This will ensure a great crusty skin.

You can use this same technique, and flavor the cooking liquid any number of ways. If you like this recipe, you'll have lots of experimenting to do.

I hope you all have a fun Fourth of July planned! I'm almost done with the cured lemon quail recipe, so stay tuned for that soon. Have a safe and fabulous rest of the weekend, and as always, enjoy!





Ingredients:
2 pounds new yellow potatoes
3 sprigs rosemary
3 cloves garlic, whole, peeled, bruised
2 bay leaves
2 tablespoon salt
2 tablespoon olive oil
pinch of cayenne

Mix vegetable Curry

Ingredients:
1 large chopped onion
1 big size tomato cut in cub
2 medium size potato peel and cut in to cube
3 small size brinjal (baingan/ Ringna) cut into cub

1 cup chopped green fresh papdi (broad beans/valor)
1 small peel and cut carrot (gajar)
4 tbsp oil
1 tbsp mustard seeds
1 tbsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp garlic paste with red chilli powder
½ tbsp turmeric powder
A pinch of asafetida (hing)
Salt to taste
Water- as required

Method:
Step 1: Heat the oil into cooker and add mustards seeds.
Step 2: When the seeds crackle, add the cumin seeds, asafetida and garlic red chilli powder paste.
Step 3: Add the onion pieces and sauté on a medium flame for few seconds.

Step 4: Then add pieces of potatoes, carrot, and tomato and mix well.

Step 5: Last add the brinjal pieces and chopped broad beans (papdi).

Step 6: Turn the flame law and add the turmeric powder and salt to taste and mix well.

Step 7: Cook for while and then add ¼ cup (approximate) of water.

Step 8: Pressure cook for three whistles. Two whistles on full flame and one in law flame so curry cooks well.
Step 9: Wait for 4-5 minutes and then open the cooker.

Step 10: Place into serving bowl
Step 11: Serve hot with curd, aachaar and roti.:)

What's Love?
When you are together with that special someone, you pretend to ignore that person. But when that special someone is not around, you might look around to find them.

At that moment, you are in Love.

Although there is someone else who always makes you laugh, your eyes and attention might go only to that special someone.Then, you are in love.

Although that special someone was supposed to have called you long back, to let you know of their safe arrival,your phone is quiet.

You are desperately waiting for the call!At that moment, you are in love.

If you are much more excited for one e-mail from that special someone than other many e-mails,you are in love.

When you find yourself as one who cannot erase all the emails or SMS messages in your phone because of one message from that special someone,you are in love.

When you get a couple of free movie tickets, you would not hesitate to think of that special someone.Then, you are in love.

You keep telling yourself, "that special someone is just a friend", but you realize that you can not avoid that person's special attraction. At that moment,you are in love.No mater how softly you whisper a prayer, God surely listens, understands and knows the hopes and fears you keep in your heart. For when you trust in His love, miracles happen!