Sweet potato sauté

Thanksgiving in a non-cooker’s kitchen

Once I found myself making Thanksgiving dinner in the kitchen of someone who didn’t cook. I’d ask for salt, or a pie pan, or oregano, and she’d look around and say dubiously, “I must have some somewhere around here….”

It gave me a new appreciation for people who are just beginning to cook. It’s expensive to get set up in a kitchen. In these recipes, though, I try not to assume that you have more than pretty basic kitchen stuff. I’ve also got the recipes arranged by what stuff they need.

How to make sweet potato saute:

Peel and chop a sweet potato into dice-size pieces. Also peel and chop an eggplant about the same size, peel and chop an onion, and chop an apple (no need to peel it). Put 1/4 cup of olive oil in a medium-sized frying pan and saute all of these together with two cloves of crushed garlic.

After about ten minutes over medium-high heat, it will begin to caramelize. The edges of the cubes should begin to turn brown. Add more olive oil as necessary – the eggplant will soak up a lot of it. Flavor with salt, pepper, and a teaspoon of chopped rosemary.

Vegetarian or vegan

Just naturally vegan! Enjoy! Serve over noodles or rice to make a full meal. For vegetarians, this is good with a squash souffle, or if you eat meat, it’s good with a pork tenderloin. We often have it at Thanksgiving, along with the spicy corn, but you probably have your own family favorites for that.

Can I keep this for later?

Yes, sweet potato saute is fine the next day heated up for lunch.

Sweet potato fries

You need a sharp knife

No, really, a sharp knife. Otherwise making sweet potato fries is no fun. But besides that, most cooking is more fun with a really sharp knife. You need sharp knives to slice apples for baked apples, or to slice onions or carrots. It’s one of the core problems of my life.

I can’t seem to find a decent professional knife sharpener in Portland, and I don’t know how to sharpen my own knives. Suggestions are welcome.

How to make sweet potato fries:

Preheat oven to 425 F. Peel and slice up four medium-size sweet potatoes into thickish french fries by cutting them in half lengthwise, then in half crossways, then in half lengthwise again. As you cut the sweet potato fries, dump them on a cookie sheet with about 1/8 cup of olive oil on it.

When all the sweet potatoes are cut into fries, use salad tongs to toss the fries in the olive oil. Bake the sweet potato fries in the oven ten minutes, then take them out and toss them in the oil again.

Return the fries to the oven and bake until they are soft and beginning to get a little bit black and crunchy around the edges. Serve hot, with falafel patties or broiled salmon.

We usually eat sweet potato fries with salt and tahini-garlic sauce. You can also season them with cayenne pepper, or with cinnamon, or with cumin and cardamom.

Vegetarian or vegan

Just naturally vegan! Enjoy!

Can I keep sweet potato fries for later?

Yes, sweet potato fries will be just as good after a couple of days in the refrigerator, if you keep them in a plastic bag or tupperware so they don’t get dried out. Microwave them to warm them up for lunch.

Spicy corn

A simplified recipe

This was originally an incredibly complex recipe from the New York Times that involved simmering the corncobs and then removing them, and both butter and bacon. This is a simpler, healthier version for everyday. It’s also a great splash of bright color for your Thanksgiving table.

How to make spicy corn:

Boil a large saucepan full of water over high heat. Meanwhile, shuck four ears of corn. When the water boils, drop the ears of corn into the water and cook for five minutes. While the corn is cooking, slice twelve cherry tomatoes into quarters and chop half an onion. (Or just use frozen corn if you want.) Also, roast a whole jalapeno pepper in a dry frying pan until it is slightly blackened on the outside.

Take the corn out, let it cool a minute, and slice it off the cobs. Put the cobs in the compost. In a medium-size saucepan over medium heat, put 1/8 cup of olive oil. Saute the onion, chop the blackened jalapeno pepper and add that, and add two cloves of crushed garlic. When the onion and pepper start to soften, add 1/2 cup of white wine. Add the corn and cook for five minutes, then add the cherry tomatoes and a tablespoon of minced cilantro, and the juice of one lime. Add salt and pepper to taste and serve warm.

Vegetarian or vegan?

Naturally vegan. You can make it not-vegetarian by adding chopped bacon to the onions and pepper if you like.

And will it keep?

Yes, this is fine the next day if you keep it tightly covered in the refrigerator, but not much longer than that really.

Sautéed spinach

Bagged spinach or bunch spinach?

Sometimes I do buy the bagged spinach, because it’s so much easier. But bunch spinach is better, really. It’s a little bit cheaper, but mainly it’s better because fewer people handle it, and so it is less likely to have nasty germs than the bagged spinach is. Also, if you get your spinach at the farmer’s market, it’s not going to come in a bag.

Or, you know, grow your own…

How to make sauteed spinach:

Take one bunch of spinach and pull off the leaves. Compost the stems or save them to chop into slaw, or put in soup.

In a medium-size frying pan, heat 1/8 cup of olive oil over medium-high heat. Dump in the spinach leaves. If there’s too much to fit all at once, put in half and wait for it to wilt a little, then add the other half when there’s room.

Use salad tongs to lift and toss the spinach in the frying pan so the top leaves cook and the bottom leaves don’t burn. When the leaves are pretty wilted, in about two minutes, take the pan off the heat. Add the juice of half a lemon, maybe a handful of chopped tarragon, and it’s done.

We eat sauteed spinach as a side very often in the winter; it’s especially good with black-eyed peas and rice, or lentil stew, or turnips gratin.

Vegetarian or vegan

Sauteed spinach is completely vegan, no worries! It’s also vegan if you eat it raw, just the leaves in a bowl as a salad with a little vinegar.

Can I keep sauteed spinach for later?

It’s really not good left over on its own. You can add it to something else like chicken soup or chickpeas in tomato sauce.

Sautéed chard

Delicious no-salt chard

I recently ate this chard at a friend’s house, and he was bragging about how it didn’t have any salt in it. It was delicious, and I asked for the recipe. “Oh, you just saute it in olive oil,” he said. “Liar,” I said. In the end, he admitted there was more to it than that.

How to make sauteed chard:

Chard is a little more complicated to cook than spinach, so if you want something easier, make spinach. But chard’s not so hard either.

Set a large saucepan on high heat with about an inch of water in the bottom of the pan. Take a bunch of Swiss chard, and chop off the very bottoms of the stems. Peel off some of the thick stem of each leaf, like peeling celery, to help the stems soften. When the water boils, put the chard in the water and cover the pot with a lid. Let the chard steam for about ten minutes.

Take the chard out of the water, shake it off, and spread it out to dry a little. You can pat it with a dish towel too, but it doesn’t have to be completely dry. Meanwhile, heat about 1/8 cup of olive oil in a medium-size frying pan over medium-high heat. Add three minced cloves of garlic and stir for a minute.

Put the chard in the frying pan and saute until the chard is wilted and soft, about two minutes.

Vegetarian or vegan

Sauteed chard is completely vegan, no worries! To make it more of a meal, mix it with boiled potatoes. If you don’t mind cheese, grate some good Parmesan over the top. If you want a meat-eater’s meal, add chunks of ham or sausage to the chard and boiled potatoes.

Can I keep sauteed chard for later?

It’s really not good left over on its own. You can add it to something else like chickpeas in tomato sauce.

Roasted vegetables

How to make roast vegetables:

Preheat oven to 350 F. Peel and cut up a potato, a sweet potato, two parsnips, and two carrots. Cut them into pieces about two bites big. Pour 1/8 cup of olive oil into a deep oven-proof casserole and add the cut up vegetables. Bake about 40 minutes or until the vegetables are soft. Add salt to taste.

We usually eat roasted vegetables with broiled cod or salmon.

Vegetarian or vegan

Just naturally vegan! Enjoy! If you want something vegan to go with your roasted vegetables, try falafel patties or polenta.

Can I keep roasted vegetables for later?

They’re really better fresh, but you can reheat them for lunch the next day.

Potato chips

Why buy potato chips when you can bake them?

Potato chips, as you can see from the ingredients list on the bag, are just potatoes sliced thin and fried with oil. You can do that at home, and have much better potato chips for a small fraction of the cost of store-bought ones.

How to make potato chips:

Preheat oven to 425 F. Pour about two tablespoons of olive oil on to a cookie sheet and spread it around. Take three regular baking potatoes (Idaho potatoes) and slice them into thin rounds with a sharp knife. You’re aiming for about 1/8 inch thick, but it’s okay if there’s some variation. (Or use the food processor, but what fun is that?)

As you slice them, lay the slices flat on the cookie sheet. Don’t overlap them, but it’s okay if they’re crowded. If you run out of room (you probably will), start a second cookie sheet. When you’re done, sprinkle or brush a little olive oil over the top of the slices too, and sprinkle them with salt if you want them salty. You could also sprinkle them with cayenne or thyme or any other flavoring.

Bake until they are golden-brown, about 20 minutes. Depending on your oven, you may need to turn the trays around in the oven halfway through to get the chips evenly baked. Remove and let cool for a few minutes before serving.

Your potato chips will get crisper as they cool, and they’ll be fine in a bowl on the counter for two or three days.

Vegetarian or vegan

Just naturally vegan! Enjoy!

Jamaican stuffing

So my partner’s Sephardic…

His family went from Spain, when the Jews were thrown out in 1492, to the Netherlands, and from there to England, and from there to Jamaica, and they brought this recipe with them from Jamaica to New Orleans to New York City when they got to New York about 1920.

If you’re paying attention you’ll see that this can’t really be an ancient recipe, because it involves tomato paste. More likely it was a new, totally hip recipe in 1900, which his great-grandmother brought with her from Jamaica to New York.

Anyway, in my family we call this Jamaican stuffing and we serve it at Thanksgiving and Christmas (and other times). You have to alert people to the fact that it’s not pureed sweet potatoes though.

How to make Jamaican stuffing:

Fill a large saucepan with cold water. Peel four large baking potatoes, cut them into chunks, and put them in the water. Heat the water over high heat until it boils, and then add one chopped onion and continue to boil until the potatoes are soft. (Really, you don’t have to peel the potatoes. It depends how you feel about eating the peels. We usually don’t peel the potatoes when it’s just for us, and we usually do peel the potatoes when it’s for company.)

When the potatoes are soft, take them off the heat and drain off the water in a colander. Return the potatoes to the pot and mash them with a potato masher. Add a stick of butter, two crushed cloves of garlic, a can of tomato paste, and a teaspoon of kosher salt, and mix. The potatoes should be bright orange. Reheat until the potatoes are hot, and serve.

Vegetarian or vegan

Vegetarian, but not vegan, because of the butter. You could substitute coconut fat if you wanted.

Can I keep Jamaican stuffing for later?

Yes, Jamaican stuffing is fine reheated for about a week. Keep it in the refrigerator, in a tupperware.

Haroset (and haroset pie!)

What is haroset?

Haroset is a mixture of chopped apples and nuts that plays a part in the traditional Jewish seder meal at Passover. By March, it’s hard to get the kids excited about more apples, but they love making and eating haroset.

Ashkenazi or Sephardic?

Ashkenazi Jews from Eastern Europe, like my Lithuanian ancestors, traditionally make haroset with brown sugar and cinnamon; Sephardic Jews from Spain, like my partner’s family, traditionally make haroset with dried fruits like raisins, which they had more available in the Mediterranean area. At our mixed house, we do a little of both.

How to make Haroset:

Chop five apples into small pieces and compost the cores and seeds. (You can peel the apples or not, as you like.) Put the apple pieces in a large mixing bowl and add the juice of half a lemon, a cup of chopped walnuts, 1/2 cup of raisins, 1/2 cup of chopped apricots or figs, a teaspoon of cinnamon, a tablespoon of brown sugar, and 1/4 cup of wine. (Passover wine if you are being careful.) Mix and serve.

haroset pie

Haroset pie

Will haroset keep?

You’ll be able to use haroset the next day for the second Seder. In fact, the flavors blend better if it sits overnight. But it tends to get soggy and too strong-tasting after that, and nobody wants it anymore. What I do with the leftovers, once Passover is over, is to pour them into a pie crust and bake them as a sort of spicy apple pie. Everyone loves it!

Grated carrots

I miss the charcuterie

In Paris, when you want a take-out dinner, the easiest choice is the neighborhood charcuterie, where you can get all kinds of ready-cooked meals, but also appetizers and side dishes. Grated carrots is one of the most common appetizers in all Paris charcuteries – healthy, simple, cheap!

How to make grated carrots:

Get out the food processor. Cut the tops off four carrots and cut them into quarters. Put them in the food processor and grate them. Use a rubber spatula to scrape the grated carrot out into a small bowl, and add two tablespoons of olive oil, the juice of half a lemon, and a pinch of salt. Serve cold (or room temperature).

We eat grated carrots all the time as a winter side dish with dinner, whenever I don’t have any other ideas for a side. They’re a little sweet so they’re especially good with sweetish main dishes like corn pancakes, noodle souffle, or mac and cheese.

Vegetarian or vegan

Grated carrots are completely vegan, no worries! If you want another vegan way to cook carrots, try candied carrots.

Can I keep grated carrots for later?

Well, you can eat this salad for the next few days, but it begins to look a little tired. It’s better fresh.