Sweet Potato Gratin

I love this dish because it allows sweet potatoes to be used in a savory way rather than sweet. Most people think only of sweet potatoes during the holidays, when they are served covered in sugar, butter and marshmallows. Don't get me wrong, I love the holiday version of sweet potatoes, but they offer more than a sweet side dish.

This use of sweet potatoes makes a hearty side dish to any dinner. Mine came out a bit stickier than usual, so be cautious of the flour mix. I have made this many times, and it was only the last time that it was a bit sticky.

I also used locally grown Garnet colored sweet potatoes in addition to a tradition orange one. I found these gems at Whole Foods and needed to try them. Check out the color!

We had temphe and Lima beans with the sweet potatoes for our complete meal. Yummy!

Sweet Potato Gratin

3 - 5 TBS butter
1 large onion chopped
1 TBS fresh Rosemary, chopped
1 tsp salt
pepper to taste
3 large sweet potatoes, peeled, finely chopped
2 cups milk
1/2 cup flour
2 cups cheddar cheese
1 slice whole wheat bread, crumbled

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly coat a 9 in. square baking dish with oil.

2. In a large skillet, heat butter over med heat and saute onion for a few minutes. Add sweet potatoes and cook about 5 more minutes.

3. While potatoes cook, combine milk and flour, stirring with a whisk. Pour into a small sauce pan, heat over medium heat and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Add salt, pepper and rosemary. Remove from heat after it bubbles and thickens slightly.

4. Add to potato mix, stirring in a bit of the cheese. Transfer to the baking dish, sprinkle with remaining cheese and bread crumbs.

5. Bake 30 minutes until golden brown and bubbly.

Sauteed Chicken with Sherry Cream Mushroom Sauce

This is a yummy creamy sauce that goes well over egg noodles or rice. I prefer egg noodles myself. I used veggie chicken patties - either quorn or veggie delight work well.

Sauteed Chicken with Sherry Cream Mushroom Sauce

1 pkg veggie delight chicken patties

1 pkg. mushrooms, sliced

2 shallots, minced (onion would work fine in it's place)

olive oil

1/3 cup cooking sherry

1/2 cup veggie broth

8 oz cream

1 TBS flour

2 TBS minced fresh parsley

salt/pepper

1. Saute chicken until golden brown, set aside ( you can do this while the sauce is cooking)

2. Saute mushrooms until softened, then add shallots. Cook until mushrooms begin to brown.

3. Add sherry, simmer until liquid is evaporated.

(**add the flour to a little bit of the cold cream or veggie stock, and stir well with a whisk. This will help thicken the sauce. Add the rue after adding the rest of the stock and cream)

4. Add stock and cream, bring back to a simmer and cook about 10 minutes until slightly thickened and reduced a bit. Add salt/ pepper to taste.

5. Add chicken and serve over noodles or rice.

Yummy! We had lima beans and dinner rolls too. 

Braised Kale, potatoes and mushrooms

The theme of last nights dinner was "purple!". This was not an intentional choice, but as the ingredients came together, I noticed the color selection was very coordinated. You don't have to use as much purple as I did to make this dish delicious. 

As I was shopping for the ingredients I saw deep blue potatoes and chose those over the Yukon gold usually used for this recipe. As I shopped for the kale, again, the purple veined kale was available and pretty, so I chose that. That would have been the end of my purple craze, but I ended up using the left over Forbidden rice from Sunday's dinner as a side dish, giving yet another splash of wild purple color. Oh, shallots have a lavender coloring to them too!

For our protein source we had breaded Quorn patties. They were alright, but the kale dish was really the star!

Braised Kale, Potatoes, and Mushrooms

1 TBS olive oil

2 cups chopped potatoes

2 -3 small portobello mushrooms, chopped

2 shallots, minced

2 cloves garlic, mashed

1 lb kale, coarsely chopped

1/4 cup veggie broth

salt/pepper

1. Cook potatoes until tender, drain (do not over cook, they will turn to mush when added to the kale!)

2. Saute mushrooms and shallots in a large skillet until tender and browning. Add garlic, salt and pepper and cook about 1 minute longer.

3. Add kale, potatoes and veggie broth. Stir gently, cover and cook over low heat 5 more minutes. 

Grilled trout dinner

We decided to christen the new kitchen counters and welcome this warm spring weather with a delicious dinner of grilled trout. The dinner consisted of grilled trout, green beans tarragon and forbidden rice. 

Jason is in charge of grilling the fish, but I did help prepare some of the ingredients which are very simple - lemon, parsley, garlic, salt, pepper and butter. Other than the ingredient list, I can't offer alot on the how-to for fish cooking. I think it was grilled for 8 - 10 minutes on foil.

What I can help with are the rest of the dinner ingredients. First, green beans tarragon. I love this dish which allows the beans to stay crisp and full of flavor. 

Green beans Tarragon

2 TBS olive 

1 lb green beans 

2 cloves garlic, mashed

 2 tsp fresh tarragon chopped (or 1 tsp dried tarragon)

3 TBS dry white wine

1. Heat oil over med-high heat in a large skillet.

2. Add beans, saute 5 minutes until crisp tender.

3. Add salt, pepper, garlic, wine and tarragon, cook about 2 more minutes. 

Rice comes in many textures and colors beyond white. Forget minute rice all together. If you have to use white rice, try Jasmine or Basmati. They both cook in 15 minutes and have a wonderful aroma and flavor. 

One of our favorite and most colorful kinds of rice is called Forbidden rice. This rice is not cheap, but it is amazingly tasty. It is black before cooked, but turns into a fabulous deep purple after cooking. It has a hearty texture similar to wild rice, but a unique flavor. I highly recommend it. I find it at Whole Foods in the pre-packaged rice section. It is not sold in bulk. Cook with just water or add veggie broth for more flavor. The cooking instructions are on the package. 

Update

Sorry for the delay in posting, but the kitchen project is in full swing. No good food going on to post about. 

The countertops are in, new lights have been installed and Jason should have the sink connected to running water tonight. We are well on our way to cooking again. In fact, I can not wait to cook up some tasty food in our new kitchen! 

I went to the store this evening and have wonderful produce to use - locally grown purple sweet potatoes, Florida grown green beans, and NC raised trout. Just a sneak peak at what is on the menu this week. I am looking forward to some home cooked food after a few nights of eating out. 

Seitan Stroganoff

Seitan can be found in the refrigerated section with tofu, temphe and veggie cheese at Whole Foods kind of markets. It is a fake meat style product that serves well as an imitation steak. We have used it for grilling on kabobs too. If you don't like seitan, or can not find it, you can make this dish using temphe, which is what we did this time around. Jason was the chef on Thursday, and did a fabulous job of making this dinner. We had frozen green peas as a veggie. 

If you decided to use temphe, cube it, then drizzle with soy sauce before cooking. This adds flavor to the otherwise bland temphe.

Seitan Stroganoff

1 lb seitan, sliced OR 1 pkg temphe cubed

3 cups white mushrooms, sliced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/8 - 1/4 cup white wine

1 onion, chopped

3 TBS butter, divided

2 TBS flour

1 cup veggie broth

1/4 cup sherry

small container sour cream (8oz I think)

4 cups cooked egg noodles (about 8 - 10 oz uncooked)

1 TBS minced parsley

1. Heat small amount of olive oil in skillet. Saute seitan (or temphe) and garlic. Add white wine, salt and pepper, allowing brown bits to loosen. Cook a couple minutes. Remove from heat.

2. Add about 2 TBS butter to skillet, add mushrooms and onions. Cook until onions soften and mushrooms are tender. Add to seitan mixture.

3. Add 1 TBS butter to pan over medium heat. Add flour, stirring with a whisk for one minute. Slowly add broth, stirring constantly until bubbly. 

4. Add seitan mixture and sherry. Reduce heat and simmer about 3 - 4 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in sour cream and parsley.

Artichoke and Cheese Tart

Hmmm, time to play catch up, again. Does this seem to be a recurrent theme here? I'll try to be better about posting once the kitchen is completed. With the kitchen fresh in your minds, I should also note that we will be tearing out the old counter tops on Thursday, getting the new ones installed Friday, and hopefully having a functional kitchen by Sunday. No cooking in our kitchen after Wednesday evening - Yikes!!!!

I believe we had burgers on Tuesday night, then this delicious tart Wednesday. This was a new recipe for us, and it was very good. I thought it came out a bit soft, but Jason liked the texture. The flavor was wonderful!

I used the pre-made, refrigerated pie crust for this dish. If you are feeling spunky and domestic, make your own, but I found the convenience of the refrigerated, pre-rolled crust to be exactly what I needed to try this recipe.

Artichoke and Cheese Tart

2 TBS olive oil

1 red onion, chopped

1 1/2 cans artichoke hearts, drained, rinsed, halved (about 10 - 12 hearts)

1 - 2 cups grated cheddar cheese

1/2 cup crumbled Gorgonzola cheese

2 eggs, beaten

1 TBS fresh chopped rosemary OR 1 tsp dried

2/3 cups milk

1. Heat skillet over med-high heat and saute onions about 3 minutes. Add artichoke hearts and cook another couple minutes. (if using DRIED rosemary, add at the same time as artichoke hearts)

2. Mix the cheeses with the beaten egg and milk. (if using FRESH rosemary, add now)

3. Stir in the artichoke mixture and season with salt/pepper to taste. Be sure to omit any cooking liquid to prevent soggy tart. I think this is were I messed up.

4. Spoon the artichoke and cheese mix into the pie dish with awaiting crust. Sprinkle with more cheese (about 1/2 cup). Bake at 400 degrees for 30 - 35 minutes. 

If you don't care for blue cheese, I am sure this would be tasty with swiss or feta in it's place. The Gorgonzola added a zing.

I served this with a side of quorn patties cooked with salt/pepper/rosemary/olive oil. Simple but good.