Sweet Potato Chips

We sure do love our Sweet Potatoes!

We've grilled them, we've roasted them, we've mashed them, and we've baked them. But up until now, we haven't "fried" them!

Well, we hadn't in a long time, at least. We decided to revisit this old favorite when the oven was occupied (at too low a temp) and the grill was covered in the rain. How could we cook our sweet potatoes? Thinly sliced and fried in canola oil!

So we brought a thin layer - about 1/3 of an inch - of canola oil up to about 350 degrees in a big pan and we peeled a nice-sized sweet potato. Then we sliced it up as thinly as possible. The thinner the better - thin slices crisp up nice and evenly when frying, while thicker slices will still be a little mushy in the middle (which isn't bad, either!). Using a mandolin might help here...



Into the oil they go in batches - leave plenty of room! Depending on their thickness they'll go 5-7 minutes total, turning once or twice, or until they are just getting a nice tan color and begin to stiffen up. Don't go TOO long, they'll crisp up as they dry. Use your first batch as a test batch (trust us, they'll be eaten well before dinner, anyway).



When the batch is ready to come out, lay them down on some paper towels and dab dry the top with some more towels, then immediately season. We went with some kosher salt and cajun seasoning - but you could go any direction here: parsley and herbs, salt and pepper, garlic and onion, parmesan, or even go sweet with some cinnamon.

These came out great! At least 1/2 of them didn't even make it til dinner time - you have to test for doneness, yaknow!

Oregano Steak with Grilled Sweet Potatoes

Oregano has rocketed to the top of our favorite-herbs list... we love the tangy, slightly-spicy, and a-little-bit-bitter flavor it adds to savory dishes - both in fresh form (growing out on our deck) and in dried form. Obvious oregano uses are in sauces and on pizzas, but we decided to add a healthy amount of dried oregano to a dry rub on a big boneless top sirloin - to see how the flavor went with a grilled steak.

Along with a little olive oil and salt and pepper, we rubbed in a good deal of dried Mexican Oregano (less sweet, more spicy than Medditeranean Oregano) all over our steak, then wrapped it tightly in plastic wrap and let it hang out in the fridge for a couple of hours. The steak was then removed from the fridge to come close to room temperature, and we started the grill.

When the grill was good and REALLY hot, that steak went right in the middle and cooked for 4 minutes/side. We removed the steak to a cutting board to rest - and sprinkled some fresh oregano leaves over the top. The heat woke that fresh oregano up and - combined with the grilled oregano in the rub - it smelled fantastic.

Along with the steak we grilled some sweet potato wedges and mixed up an onion-and-chive dipping sauce to go with them: 1 cup low fat sour cream, 1/4 cup mayo, 1 tbs Penzey's Fox Point Seasoning, some white pepper, salt, and some garlic powder, and dried chives.

This sauce - and some sliced cukes - added to the Greek feel of the oregano steak, which was tangy and spicy and delicious! Now, where will we apply oregano next??

The Good Shepherd

Another casserole-type dish?!? Two in a row - you ask? You bet. And you’ll see why in a sec! It’s been cold here in Boston – demonically so, and therefore we wanted comfort food that'll keep your insides warm. We decided on a kicked up version of shepherd's pie that would be topped off by mashed sweet potatoes and sharp cheddar cheese.

We browned up some “meatloaf mix” in some olive oil. This is just ground veal, pork and beef to give a nice depth to our pie. Once browned, we removed from the pan and started sautéing diced carrots and onions. After 10 minutes we added a couple cloves of chopped garlic and some chopped mushrooms. The spicing for this dish consisted of salt, thyme and lots of freshly ground Tellicherry black pepper.



At this point we boiled up 2 diced sweet potatoes, and once tender, we mashed them with S&P, 1.5 TBS Promise, and ¼ cup milk. Returning to the veggies: we deglazed with ¼ cup red wine and 2 cups of beef stock. We returned the browned meat to the pan and added a cup each of frozen peas and chopped spinach.



After most of the liquid had cooked off, we turned off the heat and spread the mashed sweet potatoes over the top of the veggies and meat, topped that with a sharp cheddar and threw the cast iron pan under the broiler for about 5 minutes.

This pie was so delicious, it made great leftovers for days! As you can tell, we LOVE one pot dishes – so if anyone has some fantastic one pot suggestions, let us know!

Roasted Fennel & Sweet Potato

I’ve been hunting for months now for fennel bulbs, but the local supermarket hasn’t been carrying them. Well they used to, but under the name anise which got me all confused!!! But now that I’m in the know, they were without. Finally I decided to hit the supermarket early on a Sunday morning and lo and behold – fennel! I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with it, but I HAD to buy it. That night M wanted to grill a steak and make some herb butter (see below), so I thought some roasted veggies would work nicely.



I cut the bulb into eighths, but I would recommend doing them slightly thinner as they’ll take less time to cook and will be on the same schedule as the sweet potatoes which were cut into quarter inch half moons. Everything was tossed with some EVOO, balsamic vinegar and S&P. Into a 380 degree oven for 45 minutes. The fennel was a bit too crunchy for M, but I liked it anyway and threw some in my weekday lunch salads as well!



Along with those roasted veggies, we applied a dry rub - kosher salt and fresh cracked black pepper - to a big steak and then grilled it up... We thought we'd try something easy but nice to have on top, so earlier in the day we took out a 1/2 stick of unsalted butter (the real stuff, of course) and let it soften. When good and soft, we added LOTS of herbs - both fresh chopped (oregano, parsley) and dried (more oregano, basil) - and combined with a fork. Then we added the mushy herbed butter to plastic wrap and fold over lengthwise... and then roll along the counter holding the two open ends to form a tight butter roll!



Pop this back in the fridge and it rehardens - ready to be mined for little slices of herb butter for use on the steak and whatever else you can think of!

Chicken & Sweet Potato Layered Tortilla

I love getting inspiration from other food bloggers... I get an idea, then poof, I run with it! Today’s inspiration comes from Sher at What Did You Eat?, and her stacked enchilada. By the way, Sher, I thought your enchilada looked great!

We had roasted another chicken the other day, and with that we had some mashed sweet potatoes (mashed with Promise, some light cream cheese and a splash of milk). These lovely leftover containers were beckoning to me from inside the fridge and so I decided to get cooking!

I thinly sliced a small onion and started it sweating in a pan in some olive oil. While that was going, I shredded up some chicken, about 2 cups, and set aside. I then thawed 1.5 cups frozen spinach and ½ cup frozen bell peppers. Once thawed, I added that to the onions and also threw in some salt, chili powder, cumin and Mexican oregano. I just let that warm through and then took off the heat.

Time to assemble the layers! First down is a 10” whole wheat tortilla, then I slathered it with the leftover sweet potatoes which I topped with the spices from above. Then comes the shredded chicken!! Top that with another tortilla and spread the spinach mixture on it and top with 1 diced tomato, some cilantro and shredded cheese and place the last tortilla on top. I started this off in a dry pan on medium low heat with the cover on, but that wasn’t having the desired effect, so I transferred it to a 400 degree oven sans lid for 10 minutes. This fed the 2 of us with enough for lunch leftovers! We served this up with some sliced jalapenos and a dollop of sour cream…the sweet potato gave us the impression that there were refried beans inside... what a great way to use up your leftovers!!!

What We've Eaten II

We've been out of town, but we've still been cooking and eating! We had a great Christmas visit to the homeland - Northern Maine - where we cooked a 10-lb turkey on Christmas Day. Along with that, we had mashed potatoes, boiled turnips, stuffing, green beans, cranberry sauce... the works.



We brought home at least four pounds of that turkey so we are still reaping the benefits - we made a "Turkey Surprise Soup" last night which consisted of anything we had in the cupboard along with shredded turkey. Sauteed onion, carrot, and garlic; deglazed with a little red wine and vinegar; added chicken stock and some leftover herbs (oregano and thyme) and seasonings (see below!); added one can of kidney beans, one can of yellow wax beans, one can of tomato sauce, one can of button mushrooms, some frozen green-and-red pepper strips, and the shredded turkey. Cooked that for about 1/2 hour and ate it hungrily - it even seemed to help clear up some lingering colds that we're trying to shake!

Seasonings... One of the BEST Christmas presents we received was a collection of spices from Penzey's! French sea salt, tellicherry peppercorns, mexican oregano, cumin, smoked paprika. Also, some blends - Lemon Pepper Seasoning, Fox Point seasoning (very chive-and-shalloty - had some with scrambled eggs this morning, really good!) and Old World Seasoning which is a blend of just about everything... Plenty of the Old World Seasoning went in our "Turkey Surprise Soup" and really made it savory and delicious...

Before we left for Maine we cooked a quarter-ham, knowing that we were doing turkey instead of our traditional ham for Christmas in Maine this year. Glazed, smokey, and tender, it was delicious with some mashed sweet potatoes: Just peel and cut two sweet potatoes into 2-inch chunks and throw them into some salted boiling water for 10-14 minutes (Although Alton Brown says you should steam sweet potatoes instead of boiling prior to mashing). Drain them and return to the hot pan to burn off some of the residual water. Season with salt, pepper and whatever else tickles your fancy... sautéed garlic or a bit of Penzey’s Cajun Seasoning. Add a few pats of butter - or margarine/promise/whatever - and a couple tbsp of milk, half-n-half or cream depending on your dietary needs. We used promise and 2% milk and a splash of half-n-half.

We sliced the ham and enjoyed it with the mashed sweet po's with some green beans - along with a big dollop of dijon mustard.



We also had our famous Pasta Puttanesca earlier last week - but with twist.. we added fresh baby spinach to our normal recipe. Added some green and a little crunch, it was pretty good!



We'll be back with one more post to wrap up the year - our 5 favorite Boston Chef blog posts from the first year (over 50 to choose from!) - tell us your faves in comments if you like. Thanks for coming... and Merry Christmas!

Grilled Sweet Potatoes, More Chicken, Pizza, and Ribs?

We've been eating... food!

We sliced sweet potatoes in one-inch, three-sided spears and dressed them in olive oil, salt, and pepper and grilled them 10 minutes each on the two non-skinned sides. They came out good and mushy with lots of charring - will do less time and move away from the direct flames next time, but this seems like a good alternative to boiling or roasting.

Still trying to perfect the split breasts on the grill... tried searing the skin side down, then turning and grilling indirectly for about 45 minutes (the temp in the grill maintained about 375)... Too charry on the skin side, wondering if should even put the skin side down? My brother says my dad's secret is to always be turning the food - but that goes against every recommendation I've read that says "don't turn any more than you have to!" I'll have to consult with the big man to get the real scoop.

We tried adding smoke to the chicken by putting an aluminum tray full of soaked hickory chips under the grill racks - that didn't seem to do very much! Perhaps I added too many in a big pile, next time I will try one layer and see if that helps...

Made pizza with that leftover dough from a while back that had been in the freezer. We made a VERY thin crust and made sure that the oven was a very hot 500 degrees this time... came out great with turkey pepperoni and sliced red peppers and mushrooms - no sauteing!

We have lots of summer vacation planned this year, but this weekend - Memorial Day weekend - we have no plans! Except for one plan, of course - to run the grill all weekend long. The weather for Sunday and Monday looks great.

So we wanted to try our very first attempt at ribs. Have been doing lots of research but if anyone out there reading this has any specific RIBS recipes or pointers, please leave them in comments! We are, as always, open to experimentation!

Thanks!

~S & M

Brined and Broiled Chicken Legs with Sautéed Broccoli Rabe and Roasted Sweet Potatoes

It is freezing in Boston - it's been freezing for a few weeks now - and grilling outdoors is an option that we won't begin exercising until next month. (Looking forward to GRILL SHOPPING! leave your suggestions in comments!) So, we choose to do the next-best thing when craving the flavor of grilled chicken but stuck inside on a cold New England evening - use the broiler!

In order to infuse our chicken legs (1 pkg bone-in thighs [about 4 big ones] and 1 pkg wings [about 6]) with the most flavor, we like to brine them when we are going to broil them over (under!) the open flame of the broiler... Yes, we learned it by watching you, Alton.

Because we are using chicken pieces, brining is a much less time-consuming endeavor. Only 2 hours in the cool brine is enough - indeed, more than that is too much - to really infuse the flavors that are in the brine into our chicken. A whole, uncut chicken needs much longer to brine effectively. You see, the salt content of the water is higher than that of the salt content of the water in the chicken, so (the laws of chemistry state that) the higher salinity water wants to move into and take up residence in areas where the salinity is of lower concentration - like in the chicken. And, whatever other flavors that have been included in that high-salinity water will go along for the ride. Or something like that...

We bring 4 cups of water close to a boil and mix them with 3/4cup kosher salt and 1/2cup granulated sugar - stirring that mixture until the sugar and salt are dissolved. We add that water to a big glass bowl and add another 4 cups of cold water to fill out the full amount of H20 needed. The original 4 cups of hot water is to make sure the sugar and salt get completely dissolved - not easy in cold water.

This time we decided to add to this basic brine some dried crushed bay leaves, dried thyme, and a handful of fennel seeds. We also threw in a tbls or two of soy sauce and just a wee dash of liquid smoke - for that smokey grilly flavor! Have to let that luke-warm solution cool, so cover with plastic and let it sit in the freezer until about 2 hours before you are ready to being the "grilling" of your chicken. When you reach T-minus 2 hours, lay the chicken pieces in the brine and weigh down with a plate so all the chicken is submerged, re-cover with plastic and set in fridge.

When we're ready to go, put the oven broiler on high and let the oven heat. Take out the chicken, rinse each piece well and pat dry with a paper towel. Next, we seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic and onion powder and paprika on both sides, then placed the chicken on a broiler pan and brushed the top/skin with melted butter.

The pan with the chicken can go on the top rack right up under the broiler and the potatoes (we used our standard sweet potato recipe - peeled and cubed, drizzled with olive oil, and dusted with salt, pepper, and garlic powder) can go on the bottom rack to start cooking. Just monitor the chicken starts to brown and when you've reached a nice browned/charry skin surface, switch the oven to bake mode (we had it at 385 degrees) and let the chicken and potatoes finish by roasting.

We par-boiled the broccoli rabe to try to eliminate some of the inherent bitterness - about three minutes, and then drained very well. Then, with about 5 minutes to go on the chicken and potatoes, we sautéed the broccoli rabe in olive oil, garlic, and some sliced deli ham (because we didn't have bacon or sausage or pancetta - all better options!)...

Served all of this up with a little beer for one of us, glass of cabernet for the other. Let us give scores for this one, shall we?

* Chicken: 7 out of 10 - the brining worked great, there was flavor infused throughout the meat of the chicken that tasted of the fennel and thyme and smoke. However! All that brining was close to enough seasoning, we ended up putting too much on the outside, as well, and kind of over-seasoning. The butter ended up burning the skin. Buttering the skin of chicken works great when roasting (indirect heat) but not for broiling - you get charred skin! Very tender and flavorful meat underneath the over-seasoned/burned surface, however.

* Broccoli Rabe: 8 out of 10 - very tasty green veggie alternative. Bacon woulda really added the extra flavor that was needed. Very little bitterness...

* Potatoes: 8 out of 10 - very good, as usual, nice balance with the sweet of the potatoes and the broccoli rabe's more bitter, earthy texture. Cooked two minutes too long this time.

Roasted Chicken with Sautéed Swiss Chard and Roasted Sweet Potatoes

The waiting game...

Thousands of words have been written about how Roasted Chicken is the most wonderfully delicious and easy dinner to make in the history of mankind. Who are we to argue?

We go simple: 5lb "oven stuffer roaster" Chicken, rinsed inside and out and then paper towel dried (be sure to remove the innards and either keep for cooking later or throw away!), generous salt and pepper inside the chicken, then whole, peeled garlic cloves and quartered lemons are stuffed in and we tie up the legs to keep the garlic/lemon inside. Then, generous salt and pepper all over the outside, layer of melted butter brushed on all over the outside, another layer of salt and pepper, another layer of butter and then try and coerce any leftover butter into the small hole left in the cavity if you can. Why the layers on the outside? OCD might be one reason... but it is really just to ensure thorough seasoning.

375 oven for 1.75 hours until internal thigh temp of 180. Then out and cover with aluminum until ready to eat!

We threw some cubed, seasoned sweet potatoes into the oven as the chicken was coming out - they were in for about 20 minutes, basically as long as we needed to wait for the chicken to settle and be carved.


We also bought some big, beautiful, leafy red swiss chard and sautéed that for five minutes or so with garlic and chopped olives in olive oil on the stove top as our final side dish. Woulda thrown some raisins in, but we were out!


Peek-a-boo...


Served all together, made a terrific dinner and some great leftovers!


Score:
* Chicken - 9 out of 10. Great crispy skin, wonderful roasted flavor, subtle garlic and lemon throughout... wonderful!
* Sweet Potatoes - 8 out of 10... very tasty, as usual.
* Swiss Chard - 8 out of 10... a great alternative side dish.

Up next - the Eggplant Parm disaster... :(

Meat and Potatoes - Braised Chicken Pieces and Mashed Sweet Potatoes

What is THE BEST cooking method for chicken? For pork? For beef?

We favor two methods: #1: Roasting... the dry heat and even temperature can produce perfect results. Don't disturb the roast - but monitor that temperature!

#2: Braising. We love braising meat on the stovetop in the enameled cast iron pans we have. Loosley, braising usually consists of browning/searing the (rubbed) meat, then removing the meat and deglazing the pan (fancy term for adding some liquid - usually wine - and scraping the burnt bits from the bottom of the pan with a wood spoon, allowing the wine to cook and evaporate). Then adding water-based liquid, usually stock or broth (what's the difference?), getting that up to temperature and then adding the meat back in, covering, and letting it simmer til it's done.

This method produces results that are different than roasting, but equal in quality. The meat has a nice, seared crust - but the liquid has slowly cooked the flesh and kept it tender.

Last night we went for Braised Chicken with some Mashed Sweet Potatoes!

MEAT! We went with Braised Chicken Thighs and Drumsticks (bone-in, of course) - salt and pepper seasoned and we added a smokey rub - 4 parts paprika to 1 part cumin plus 1/2 parts onion and garlic powder. Seared, turned, removed; added garlic and onion; deglazed; added 2 cups chicken stock (actually 3/4 chicken, 1/4 beef - just an experiment!); lidded; cooked for about 30 minutes.

POTATOES! With this we went for mashed sweet potatoes. We normally do sweet potatos instead of regular because of the nutritional content as well as the taste - read up here for some great nutritional information. Basically, less carbs. We are no diet nuts, but we'll try to watch what we eat when we can by avoiding processed sugars, going with wheat breads and pastas, etc. We peeled and chopped up the potatoes then boiled them for 15 min or so, and we also threw some scallions in the water to give the orange sweet potato (our favorite color) some green (our other favorite) and some oniony flavor. The scallions and potatoes got mashed together with some Promise (fake butter) and milk til they were a nice, mashed consistency.



With all this we had some leftover Braised Cabbage.

Scores:
* Chicken - 7 out of 10. One thing that is tough with braising is getting that chicken skin crispy. The dark meat comes out great, but the skin doesn't crisp up. Next time we may experiment going skinless when braising. Meat was DELICIOUSLY dark and moist - fell off the bones.
* Mashed Sweet Potatoes - 9 out of 10. This is a great recipe and the scallion gave it that extra flavor point!

LEFTOVERS TONIGHT!!!!