Celery Root & Apple Purée

Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Cooking! If you have room to squeeze one more dish on the table, make it this one. Celery Root (aka Celeriac) & Apple Purée tastes like a cross between creamy, buttery mashed potatoes and sweet baked apples with an underlying hint of celery. And if you don’t get around to making it today, the purée would pair wonderfully with Thanksgiving leftovers.

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Celery Root & Apple Purée

Bacon, Leek & Potato Gratin

This month’s issue of Fine Cooking has a fabulous article about Potato Gratin. It’s essentially a blueprint for building great gratins, one layer at a time. I chose to go with a Bacon, Leek & Potato version with Gruyere cheese and a bread crumb topping. The best thing about this recipe is it’s versatility – you can change it up to suit your tastes. Swap out broccoli for the flavor layer and use cheddar instead of Gruyere. Or layer in Bacon & Mushrooms and top with Fontina cheese. The possibilities are as deep as your imagination – or your well-stocked refrigerator. That said, I’m partial to this version. My husband and I ate nearly three-quarters of it the first time I made it! It’s that good...

Housekeeping note: this will be my last post until the week of October 13. Husband and I are going on our delayed honeymoon in heavenly Hawaii. Aloha!

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Bacon, Leek & Potato Gratin

German Potato Salad

Traditional potato salads usually make their appearance at summertime picnics and BBQs, but when the air is chilly and temperatures drop, I’m not in the mood for a cold, mayonnaise-based salad. Fall weather calls for a hearty and warm potato salad with a slightly sweet, slightly tangy dressing and plenty of crisp bacon. This is a great side dish to serve with Oven-Grilled Turkey Reuben Sandwiches.

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German Potato Salad

Potato & Leek Flatbread with Roasted Garlic

What goes into the oven pungent, bitter and sharp, then comes out mellow, nutty and buttery?

Roasted Garlic: one of those wonders of culinary alchemy. The taste transformation is amazing. I happen to like it fresh, too, but if you’re put off by the taste of raw garlic, you will be amazed at the flavor of roasted garlic. When you add that to the earthy flavor of the potatoes and leeks and the salty, savory Gruyére cheese, you have a winning combination.

It’s a versatile condiment. You can use it on pizza or flatbread, as I did in this recipe. Use it on sandwiches, puree it into dips and spreads, or serve it with crusty, warm bread, with or without butter.

QUICK ROASTED GARLIC
Heat oven to 375 degrees. Break the heads into individual cloves, but do not peel them. Spread them on a baking sheet, sprinkle with salt, and drizzle with oil. Bake, shaking pan occasionally, until tender, about 30 minutes. When cool enough to handle, squeeze roasted garlic from skins and mash to a paste.

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Potato & Leek Flatbread with Roasted Garlic

box no. 16 | contents

• Onions
• Broccoli
• Butternut Squash
• Delicata Squash
• Acorn Squash
• Sweet Peppers
• Hot Peppers
• Eggplant
• Toscano Kale
• Braising/Stir Fry Mix
• Lettuce
• Thyme
  
• Parsley
• Potatoes
• Celeriac
  

Potatoes, potatoes and more potatoes

I’m a little backed up on my potato usage; I’m about two brown bags behind and we got another bag of the dirty spuds again this week! I really shouldn’t be complaining – the possibilities for potatoes are endless: soups, gratins, hashbrowns, mashed, double-baked, fried... My goal this week is to catch up and use up all of my potatoes by the time the next bag arrives.

I already started last week with a classic Potato Gratin subtly flavored with white truffle oil. The truffle oil is optional – you could replace it with a pinch of cayenne pepper for a little kick – but I love the mellow, earthy flavor and it’s a classic pairing with potatoes.

The easiest and fastest way to slice potatoes into 1/8-inch slices is with an adjustable ceramic mandoline. I purchased mine from Whole Foods for about $24.95 – much cheaper than the stainless steel professional models and it works like a charm. They’re also available on amazon.com.

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Potato Gratin

Book ’n Cook | Fresh Food Fast

This is one of my favorite recipes that I come back to time and again. It’s a relatively easy recipe to make. It uses two of the season’s most bountiful ingredients – leeks and potatoes. And, it’s one of those versatile dishes that you could serve for breakfast, brunch, lunch or dinner.

This recipe is adapted from one of the Winter menus featured in Peter Berley’s Fresh Food Fast: Delicious, Seasonal Vegetarian Meals in Under an Hour. This is a well organized, beautifully designed, vegetarian cookbook that provides 48 meals – twelve for each season – including recipes, shopping lists and a game plan to walk you step-by-step through each menu. The meals boast a preparation time of under an hour and utilize techniques and tools that the average cook will have in her repertoire. I highly recommend it. It’s one of my top “go-to” cookbooks when cooking with fresh, seasonal ingredients.

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Leek and Potato Frittata
Adapted from
Fresh Food Fast by Peter Berley