Madison&Mayberry

The Little Potato That Wreaked Havoc

The twice-baked potato prior to the accident.

We all gathered over at Ryan's friend Brad's Monday night to watch the National Championship game. Since Auburn is in the SEC, I had to root for LSU and continue the SEC pride (sorry, Jenny!). It didn't matter that the game was pretty lopsided, we had our own little excitement with some hot potatoes.

Brad was making the chicken, veggies and salad. My contribution -- which will go down in history -- were twice-baked potatoes filled with scallions, bacon and blue cheese. They were in the oven getting crispy on the top when Brad took the potatoes out of the oven to use the cookie sheet they rested on.

Lesson no. 1: Don't use a wet towel to take anything out of the oven. Water conducts heat and it's like touching the cookie sheet with your hand. So the potatoes dropped everywhere. Bye, bye potatoes. Brad kept apologizing and apologizing when he should have been focusing more on the hot mess of potatoes that had landed on his sandaled foot. Bringing us to..

Lesson no. 2: Make sure your feet are covered when you're working in the kitchen. You know.. they drill his lesson into you in culinary school but I had never seen it in action (probably because all our feet were covered). Hot potatoes are hard to fling off a foot, for the record. Those babies -- in all their 350 degree glory -- were on his foot a good ten seconds. This didn't do so well for Brad's foot. When I cook at home, in flip flops no less, I always worry that a knife will fall on my foot, never thinking about the hot food that could.

And Lesson No. 3: Don't bring hot food to someone's house. You'll feel really guilty when it lands them in the emergency room with second degree burns. I saved one potato because it couldn't fit in the container to Brad's, which Ryan and I ate yesterday, along with a little guilt.

Blue Cheese & Bacon Twice Baked Potatoes

6  large russet potatoes, each about 3/4 pound each, scrubbed and dried
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup sour cream
1 to 2 scallions, finely chopped
1 (4 ounce) container crumbled blue cheese (reserve some to sprinkle on top)
6 pieces bacon, cooked and crumbled
Salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Prick potatoes with a fork and place the potatoes directly on the
rack in the center of the oven and bake for an hour. Check doneness by inserting knife in potato.
Cook longer if not done. Remove from oven and let sit 5 to 10 minutes to cool. Cut potatoes in half lengthwise and (using a towel or potholder), scoop the insides into a bowl. Be gentle so the skin is still intact.
Add butter and mash potatoes with fork or potato masher. Add milk, sour cream, salt and pepper. (If you like a thinner consistency, add more sour cream or milk.) Add scallions, bacon, blue cheese. Taste and adjust seasonings.
Refill potato shells with mashed potato mixture. (NOTE: I like to overfill my potato shells. So even though six potatoes yields 12 potato shells, I only use about 8 of them. Use the extra for potato skins.) Bake in 350 degree oven 25 minutes. Sprinkle with reserved blue cheese and cook 5 more minutes.

Other Twice-Baked Potato Ideas:
TB Potatoes with Goat Cheese and Chives
TB Potatoes with Broccoli & Cheese
TB Potatoes with Cream Cheese
TB Potatoes with Lump Crab Meat
TB Potatoes with Corned Beef & Cabbage

Technorati Tags:Twice Baked Potato Recipe, Potato Skins, Kitchen Safety

Anyone for Turnips?

Yes, yes. Turnips. Even the name doesn't sound so appealing. But I like all root vegetables, so why not turnips? Usually I just toss them into the mix when I'm roasting vegetables. And having a bite of turnip amid carrots, potatoes and parsnips is fine by me. But this time, I decided to try them on their own. Besides, Ryan wasn't even sure he had eaten a turnip before so we had to change that.

Of the 138 recipe results that turned up for turnips on epicurious.com, a majority were 1) mashed or 2) au gratin. That's all fine and well but -- gasp -- I wasn't in the mood for a creamy turnip production. I wanted to taste the turnips in their own glory. And Gourmet's Turnips with Breadcrumbs from '94 fit the bill.

Par-cook the turnips and then cut into wedges. (I cut into wedges first and then par-cooked. So there, Gourmet). Toss them into a skillet with butter and brown a bit. As you can see from the picture, I didn't do that step so well. Sometimes I'm impatient and hungry, and I don't want to wait for a little browning. Then I tossed in parsley, lemon zest, salt, pepper and panko instead of breadcrumbs.

Well, I can't say I was so thrilled with the dish upon the first bite. But not so much that I didn't continue eating. But an odd thing happened -- the more I ate the turnips and got accustomed to the flavor, the more I really liked it. By the next day, I was fighting Ryan for the last of the turnips. Well, not really. He was glad to let me have them. I'll put turnips in the "acquired taste" category. But if you do like them, this is a nice refreshing recipe.

Turnips with Breadcrumbs -- Gourmet Magazine, Jan. '94

4 small turnips (about 3/4 pound), peeled
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 tablespoons fresh bread crumbs
2 teaspoons minced fresh parsley leaves
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest

In a large saucepan of salted boiling water, cook turnips 15 minutes and drain. When turnips are cool enough to handle, cut into 8 wedges.

In a large skillet cook turnips in butter over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until almost tender and golden on the edges, about 10 minutes. Stir in bread crumbs, parsley, zest, and salt and pepper to taste and cook, stirring occasionally, until turnips are tender, about 5 minutes.

Beets!!

Ahhh.. Beets. Who doesn't love them? Ok.. A lot of people. I used to be one of them. But that's because I thought the canned beets were indicative of all beets. But fresh, cooked beets -- there's nothing like them. You can pickle them or eat 'em straight up. Or, as I recently tried, stir them  into a yogurt sauce courtesy of Madhur Jafferys' World Vegetarian cookbook. I enjoyed the mint and splash of cayenne included in the recipe. I ate this as a salad but it would also be good spread onto a pita.

Here is Martha Stewart's instructions on beet roasting: Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Line a large piece of aluminum foil with parchment paper. Place beets in center of parchment. Drizzle with one tablespoon oil, and season with salt and pepper. Fold aluminum foil up to enclose beets. Place on a small baking sheet and roast until tender when pierced with the tip of a knife, about 1 hour.

Beetroot with Mint & Yogurt by Madhur Jaffery

(NOTE: I used 16 ounces of beets and 8 ounces of yogurt. I wanted it more beety than yogurt. But here's the original recipe.)

8oz cooked beetroot, coarsely grated(either by hand or with food processor)
16 oz natural yogurt
1 tsp salt,
Fresh ground black pepper
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
2-3 tbsp finely chopped fresh mint
1 tbsp vegetable oil
3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

Mix yogurt in bowl with fork until smooth. Add salt, pepper, cayenne, stir then gently mix in beet and mint. Put oil in garlic in small pan over med-high heat. When it sizzles, press garlic down with spatula, turning, allow to sizzle some more. When garlic is medium brown add flavored oil and garlic to beet mix.