Boil. Fry. Bake

Whatever market force brought the Yukon Gold potato to the grocery stores over the past decade or so, I am grateful. They take potato salad to a whole new level, well away from the realm of the mealy, runny and soggy taters I seem to recall from childhood picnics.

Here’s a simple recipe for a side dish for 5 to 6 people.   My rule of thumb is one medium-sized (about 2 inches across) potato per person, and then add on 2 extra potatoes.   Poke the raw potatoes with a fork so they don’t explode when you steam them.  Yes, steam them, no boiling.  It’s the only way to avoid that watery texture.   If you don’t have a steamer basket, just put 1/2 inch of water in a skillet or saute pan with a tight fitting lid.  Place the potatoes in, bring the water to a boil, then place the lid on and reduce the heat to simmer.    Check them in 15 minute by cutting one potato in half.  It should cut easily.  If it does not, put the lid on for a couple more minutes.

Take the potatoes out and chill them on a flat plate, no lid on it, in the fridge.When they are cool, cut them into quarters.  This allows for your dressing to cover a good amount of potato, without getting gloppy.

For the dressing you will need:

3 strips of bacon cooked crisp, drained and crumbled.  You are making your own bacon bits, basically.

white vinegar (champagne or rice)

1/2  a red bell pepper, chopped

1/2 a small red onion, chopped

red pepper flakes

salt

2 tablespoons of mayonnaise

To assemble, douse the cooled, quartered potatoes, in your proposed serving bowl, with the vinegar, about a tablespoon’s worth, or a few good drizzles.   Add in the mayonnaise and  coat the potatoes equally.  Then mix in the red onion, red pepper and bacon.  Finish by shaking red pepper flakes and salt over the salad, to taste.  Don’t overdo either one.

Variations on the above include:

–chopped jalapeno pepper instead of the red pepper flakes

–1 tablespoon of spicy grain mustard mixed with the mayo and skip the vinegar step

–omit the bacon for the vegetarians

–omit the pepper flakes for those who hate spice.

–add more mayo if you like a very dressed salad

All the chefs who judge cooking on t.v. talk about how a perfect dish will have it all: sweet, savory, creamy, crunchy and what they call “mouth feel.” Trust me, it’s in that bowl pictured above.

Sure, call it cole slaw.  If you are a patient cabbage slicer, or have a Cuisinart handy, make slaw.  I am often just cutting cabbage thin enough for a hurried weeknight dinner.   We have some kind of salad with every meal but breakfast, and cabbage keeps so well it’s our go-to when the forgotten lettuce has given up the ghost and turned sad and brown.   How often do we have salad?  One week, through separate, uncoordinated trips to Costco we bought 11 heads of lettuce.  Ate them all over a 10 day period.

For a side salad for 3 or 4 people, half a head of green cabbage is perfect. To make:

Cut out the white “heart” at the bottom – it’s really too tough to eat.    If you have a dog, he’ll happily gnaw on it as a veggie bone.

Then slice the cabbage into the smallest bite size pieces (or slivers) you have the patience for.   In a decent-sized bowl, mix 2 heaping tablespoons of mayonnaise,  1/8 cup of rice vinegar, a teaspoon of sugar, a few grinds of black or white pepper, and  1/2 teaspoon paprika or mild ground chili pepper for color and a bit of bite.    Add the cabbage and stir.  If the dressing seems a little thick, thin it with rice vinegar.  Once the cabbage is coated, chill it in the fridge until you are ready to eat.  The vinegar will soften the cabbage and it will “sweat down” a bit.

If you have one on hand, grate a peeled carrot into it for color and sweet flavor.  Everything-but-the-kitchen-sink-types add raisins to this but I find it is overkill.  I always taste it and salt at the end, but I am a salt head.   Lots of people don’t salt their slaw.

 

Yes, I posted a roast chicken recipe very recently. I do not need a Twelve Step program for chicken addicts, okay?  I can quit making roast chicken any time I want.  I just don’t want to.  And I have an excuse;  Whole Foods had Mary’s Air Chilled chickens on sale for half price last week.   Who could resist?   They are cleanly fed, humanely raised and not processed with a hefty chlorinated water soaking to increase their weight without giving the consumer any extra protein.  Plus I really don’t need a soupcon of swimming pool flavoring in my chicken.

This time I kept the bird whole and doused it with my new favorite rub, Santa Maria Seasoning from Scott’s Food Products.  It’s a coarse salt,  pepper and garlic powder (plus multiple secret spices, I am sure) rub I use on steak, pork and chicken and somehow it works on all of them.   They have not ever sent me products.  I buy it myself and if it was awful I would say so!

Anyway,  after spicing it all over, I drizzled olive oil on top.  I put the chicken in the pan breast side up for 45 minutes at 425 degrees.    Then I flipped it and turned it down to 325 degrees for another 20 minutes.  When doing this technique you  turn the oven off after the final 20 minutes and assemble the rest of your dinner, run a short errand, it doesn’t matter.  This seems to “set” the meat.   But don’t go to the movies, okay?   It will cool off too much.   And you may well eat a bunch of junk and ruin your dinner.

My late mom was a fretful cook who worried about food poisoning as a hobby and used to check chicken’s doneness by wiggling the drumstick (it should really give) and poking it often with a fork to see if the juices ran clear (no pink).   This is a torment-free,  leave-alone, way of cooking a chicken I much prefer.  By the way, I always roast the giblets right alongside.   It makes the “jus” really delicious.   Roasted chicken liver is amazing even for liver haters.  The heart , kidneys  and the meat on the neck (not the bones, duh) go straight to the dog.

 

We live a ten minute drive from acres and acres of farmland dedicated to fresh produce, so our local farmer’s markets are embarrassingly good. Asparagus is typically $2 to $3 a bunch, and has that wild, fresh-out-of-the-ground taste.   I know lots of people put cheese or hollandaise sauce all over their asparagus, and only eat the tips as the stalk is fibrous and ropy when badly cooked.   Well it need not be inedible and disguised with cheese sauce. Asparagus is easy to do perfectly.   And you don’t have to buy one of those stand up special steamers at Williams Sonoma, either (unless you are just trying to get one of those offbeat wedding gifts for a cousin).

You do have to trim the stalks, and you do this by holding a spear in two hands and bending to see where it will naturally break.   Snap it off and you have taken off the tough end.  If you want to even up your bundle of ends so they do not look ragged, trim them a touch with your kitchen knife.    I would clean ’em up for a guest but for just us – meh.   You’ll place the stalks in a flat saute pan with very little water, half an inch at most.

When it boils, cover with a tight lid.    Cook for about 3 minutes,  Seriously.   You have a little wiggle room on this but don’t forget about them, or you will be eating the tips only.

Take them right out of the water and serve.  If planned as a cold course, put them on a plate in the fridge.  Just before serving, drizzle olive oil, fresh lemon juice and a sprinkle of salt over them.     This same technique makes perfect green beans, as well, with a slightly longer and more forgiving cooking time.   I have gotten a lot of asparagus haters to enjoy them, without even mentioning the ancients’ belief that they had aphrodisiacal properties.