Holy Hasselbacks!

For some time now, Amy has been fascinated by Hasselback potatoes. They just look so fancy, so elegant, as if they took several hours, a few expensive gadgets, and a sous chef or two to create, when really all you need is a sharp knife and a steady hand. Careful patience and precise seasoning generates this rather impressive side dish that elevates even the simplest meat with which these potatoes are served.

Hasselback, or "accordion" potatoes, are so named because they were invented, way back in 1700's, at the Hasselbacken restaurant in Sweden. Medium-sized potatoes are sliced only most-of-the-way before being roasted, thus creating the unique look and wonderful texture (crisp on the outside, soft on the inside). 

We've served them drizzled with olive oil or butter and seasoned with only salt and pepper, maybe some garlic. But, this recipe from Serious Eats editor and The Food Lab author J. Kenji Lopez-Alt was recently featured in the New York Times food section, and it really intrigued. He describes it as "sideways potato gratin," and seriously, if those pictures are not food porn, we don't know what is.

Ours was not quite as lovely, and we think it's because we ignored the warning that we might not need all the cheese and cream mixture and threw it all in anyway. 'Cuz that's how we roll. Next time, maybe we'll listen. Maybe not.

Get the recipe here.

Skillet Roasted Chicken and Potatoes

"Whole roaster chickens, buy one get one free? Seems like a decent deal. Let's do it." Later, at home: "Now...where are we going to put these?"

This was the conversation we had on Saturday, when we decided take advantage of our local grocery's chicken offer, then freeze one and make the other one for Sunday dinner the next day. It just so happened that Sunday morning, while sipping coffee and reading rag-mags in her pjs, Amy saw what looked to be a great recipe for "Skillet Chicken" by Jessica Seinfeld.

Chris butchered the chicken while Amy sliced the onions and potatoes and cut a couple of sprigs of rosemary out of the garden. In less than an hour, we had crispy-skinned chicken over a bed of melted onions and soft, herby potatoes. What a cozy, one-pot wonder, just begging to be made in that cast-iron skillet.

Skillet Roasted Chicken and Potatoes

slightly adapted from Jessica Seinfeld's recipe out of People Magazine

Ingredients:

1 onion, thinly sliced

1/2 cup water

8 new potatoes, sliced into 1/4-inch rounds

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 sprigs (about 2 tablespoons) fresh rosemary leaves

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 roaster chicken, butchered (we saved the breasts for another meal)

1 teaspoon garlic salt

1 teaspoon onion salt

2 teaspoons Italian seasoning

2 teaspoons ground coriander

Preheat oven to 425. Scatter onions over the bottom of a large cast-iron skillet. Add water. Lay the potatoes over the onions. Drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle rosemary leaves over the potatoes, then season with salt and pepper. Place the chicken pieces over the pototoes, skin side up. Sprinkle chicken with garlic salt, onion salt, Italian seasoning and ground coriander. Roast until chicken is cooked through and potatoes are tender, about 1 hour.

Cheesy Pancetta Hash Brown Bites

As part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker program, we were sent two coupons to try Simply Potatoes brand products for free. When we saw their Shredded Hash Browns in the refrigerator section, we knew we would look no further. Those shredded potatoes were headed straight to our muffin tin where they would soon become our "Cheesy Pancetta Hash Brown Bites."

What's yummier than potatoes mixed with pancetta and cheese? Not much other than not having to share! This recipe made two dozen individually-sized "bites" which were both easy to make and to serve. Having the potatoes already shredded was a huge time-saver. Browning nicely in the muffin tin, they have that crispy-on-the-outside, tender-on-the-inside texture that everyone adores. These are the perfect accompaniment to any meal, and are particularly delicious as a "bed" for a fried egg. Since the recipe makes so many, they'd be great for entertaining, or can be frozen and reheated for another time. 

Mix together shredded potatoes, shredded cheese and diced pancetta...

Place mixture in muffin tins...

Add half-n-half, and bake.

Go ahead and give them a try. And experiment a little! Try a different cheese, throw in some sauteed onions and peppers. Let us know how you like 'em!

Coming out of the oven, nicely browned and crispy!

Cheesy Pancetta Hash Brown Bites

Ingredients:

1 package Simply Potatoes Shredded Hash Browns

4 ounces diced pancetta

1/2 pound gouda cheese, shredded

2 1/2 cups half-n-half

kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a large bowl, mix together the potatoes, pancetta and cheese. Fill the cups of two muffin tins with this mixture. Place a pinch of both salt and pepper into each cup. Then pour 1 1/2 tablespoons of half-n-half into each cup. Cover loosely with aluminum foil and bake at 400 for 15 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for an additional 25 minutes, or until nicely browned. Allow to cool for five minutes before removing from pan. Serve hot. 

Tagine of Golden Chicken with Potatoes and White Beans

We purchased a tagine last winter and have done a few experiments with it, making flavorful meals in this earthenware coned dish. Why is it shaped this way? The conical cover rests on the flat base and allows for any condensation that occurs during cooking to return to the base and braise the meat and/or vegetables in it. In this way, any meals made in a tagine are truly one-pot wonders. You can even serve the tagine in the base!

This week's wonder is adapted from the cookbook 150 Best Tagine Recipes by Pat Crocker. The golden color on the chicken comes from the aromatic spices turmeric, saffron, and cinnamon, which also offer plenty of exotically warm flavor. The potatoes and white beans round out the meal to make it a hearty one; we're sure you could use other root vegetables instead of potatoes, or chickpeas instead of white beans (as Crocker does). A slight problem we encountered was that our tagine is on the smaller side and we had a bit of overflow (not to mention a very small, very brief fire...) during cooking. All that did was set us off in search of an even bigger tagine!

Cook onions and potatoes in tagine first

Remove vegetables and brown chicken in spice mixture, meat side down

Turn chicken, add cinnamon stick and broth and bring to a boil

Return vegetables to tagine

Cover and simmer

Add white beans, cover, and continue to cook until done

Tagine of Golden Chicken with Potatoes and White Beans

slightly adapted from 150 Best Tagine Recipes by Pat Crocker

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons melted butter

20 strands saffron

1 tablespoon ground turmeric

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 onions, peeled and quartered

2 medium potatoes, diced

salt to taste

4 chicken thighs

1 cup chicken broth

1 cinnamon stick

1/2 of a 14-ounce can of white beans, drained and rinsed

parsley for garnishing

In a bowl, combine melted butter, saffron and turmeric; set aside. In the bottom of flameproof tagine, heat oil over medium heat. Add onions and potatoes and cook for five minutes, stirring often; remove vegetables from tagine and set aside. Add chicken, meat side down, to tagine and cover with spice mixture. Cook for 5-6 minutes, until chicken is browned on meaty side. Turn chicken over. Add broth and cinnamon stick and bring to a boil. Return onions and potatoes to tagine, cover with tagine lid, reduce heat to low and simmer for 25 minutes, stirring once. Stir in white beans, replace lid and simmer for additional 15 minutes until beans are heated and chicken is cooked through. Discard cinnamon and serve garnished with parsley.

Secret Recipe Club: Potato Parmesan Frittata Irene

Amy writes:

Thursday: A hurricane is coming?!?

Chris is at his first day back to school, professional development for teachers. I sit, somewhat depressed about the end of such a fabulous summer, unmotivated to do those last few things I should be doing, and instead zone out in front of the t.v. The entire 11 a.m. news broadcast is dedicated to Hurricane Irene, predicted to reach us this weekend. Having lived in New Orleans, I, 1.) don't mess around with hurricanes, and 2.) have an idea of what I should to do prepare, regardless of what they are saying. I head out to the store. Already, there is little water on the shelves (I buy 4 large bottles, leaving some for the next person) and they are out of D batteries (bummer). Figuring my pantry has plenty of non-perishables, I get cash (just in case), eggs, milk, fruit, and a few other things. I head home and wonder if my basement will flood.

Friday: What should I do?

I'm still pretty unmotivated to do anything I should be doing, but now I have a mission: a hurricane is coming. Still, our basement hasn't flooded in the ten years we've lived here, and we are far too inland to get the kinds of winds that would destroy windows. Why am I so worried? I text Chris (in his second teacher-only day at school): "Should I tape the windows?" A reply: "Only if you want sticky windows." I text again: "Should I start moving stuff up from the basement?" He replies: "Are you that bored? I really doubt our basement will flood, but if it makes you feel better." Last text I send: "I should clear the garage though, right, so we can put our cars in." He's all about me doing that. I spend the rest of the afternoon doing just that. Hurricanes are a pain in the butt!

Saturday: Battening down the hatches.

We spend the day clearing our yard, porch and deck of anything that could become a projectile. Then we have to do the same for our neighbors, D and J, who are in Minnesota at a wedding. We spend the evening watching the news and calling friends and relatives to make sure everyone is ready, and fall asleep watching the 24-hour hurricane news.

Sunday: Irene arrives. She's a Tropical Storm.

We had a lot of wind and rain overnight, but according to the news, the worst is yet to come. Around 8:30, a neighbor's uprooted tree knocks their garage off the foundation and crushes another neighbor's above-ground pool. There are leaves and branches all over our yard, but that's about it. Chris thinks we'll be losing power any minute, so I start breakfast. I want to use up the stuff in the fridge before we lose power. It's Secret Recipe Club week, and I've been eying this beautiful frittata created by "Owen's Mom" at my assigned blog, "Adventures in All Things Food." She has a lot of great baking recipes, but our latest baking attempts haven't been very successful. She raises chickens, therefore has plenty of egg recipes, and this particular recipe will use up a lot of what I could lose in a power outage - eggs, milk, and cheese. Plus, she suggests making it in a "big cast iron skillet," which we love to cook in. I make a few adaptations, since I don't have a couple of the ingredients she calls for. I put it in the oven; it has to cook for an hour. Forty-five minutes later, we lose power. I figure if I leave the oven door shut, my gas oven will stay warm and continue to cook the frittata. It does and it's delicious!!!

We eat the fluffy frittata, drink mimosas, and use our cell phones to check in on our loved ones. School is called off for tomorrow (yay!). Our next-door neighbor has power, so Chris runs a string of extension cords and plugs in one light, our television (still no cable or network), and alternates power between our refrigerator and chest freezer. Our neighbor across the street jealously watches our t.v. from his window. I think I'm going to miss the reveal for Secret Recipe Club...

Potato Parmesan Frittata Irene

adapted from "Simple Supper Idea: Potato Basil Frittata" by Adventures in All Things Food

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil, divided

4 potatoes (Yukon Golds are great in this)

8 large eggs

15 ounces of ricotta cheese

1 1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese, divided

1/3 cup flour

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

2 tablespoons butter, melted

1 cup fresh basil, chopped

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350. Dice the potatoes and toss them in one tablespoon of olive oil. Heat the other tablespoon of olive oil in a large cast iron skillet. Cook the potatoes until they are nicely browned and tender, stirring often. In the meantime, whisk the eggs in a large bowl. Add the ricotta and 1 cup of the parmesan; stir to combine. Gently stir in the flour and baking powder to the egg mixture. Pour the melted butter over the potatoes in the skillet and allow to heat for a few seconds. Then pour the egg mixture over the potatoes and shut off the stovetop heat. Top the egg mixture with the basil and the remaining parmesan cheese and put in oven. Bake at 350 for one hour, until set. Enjoy!

Monday: The Calm After the Storm

It's a beautiful 70-degrees and sunny. Everyone we know is safe and sound and has little property damage. We spend the day cleaning up the debris in the yard and wishing for power. We drive to the nearby Dunkin Donuts, for we've heard tell that their free WiFi is up and running, and you can get it from the parking lot. I download another book on my Kindle, and we pick up some takeout. The fabulous guys at the electric company arrive around 6 p.m. and fix our power amidst a round of cheers from everyone on the street. No cable (thus no internet) yet. Chris has to go to school tomorrow, but since 80% of the town where I work still has no power, I do not. I secretly revel in having one more bonus day of summer and stay up late watching The Untouchables, which I TiVo-d during A and E's "Mob Week." Life is good and we know how lucky we are. Our thoughts and prayers are with those who weren't as lucky.

Tuesday: A New Day

Another gorgeous sunny day off. I have power AND cable, and need to get this post done asap because it's very late. My apologies to the Secret Recipe Club, and many thanks for your flexibility and understanding. Hope everyone out there is making a good recovery from Irene.