Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Creative in the Kitchen

I don’t usually make up stuff in the kitchen. I almost always at least start with a recipe, although I may deviate from it considerably. So when I actually create a dish all on my own- and it’s actually yummy!- well, that’s a special thrill.

It all started because I knew I had spinach and potatoes I needed to use. I started by searching all the usual sites, thinking I would find something along these lines, but- nothing! So I was forced to innovate.

I started by boiling the potatoes. My secret method for roasting potatoes is to always boil them until they are either thoroughly or partially cooked. Then I toss them in oil and salt and finish them in a high temperature oven. The insides are melty soft and the outsides are crispty crunch. Like a slightly better for you French fry. Well worth dirtying the extra dish! After I took them out of the water I diced them and tried the old potato salad trick of tossing them with a little red vinegar. This is lifted directly from the Cook’s Illustrated potato salad recipe. Vinegar sprinkled on warm potatoes soaks into them and makes them extra flavorful. This was a chance I took because I wasn’t sure if the vinegar would have any effect on the texture of the potatoes once I exposed them to more heat.

Once the potatoes were vinegared, oiled, salted and in the oven, I sautéed the spinach in olive oil with some garlic. I also prepared a quick lemon vinaigrette. When the potatoes were crispy. I dumped them in a bowl with the spinach, some goat cheese and the vinaigrette and tossed it all with some tongs. Result?

Yummy! I wish I had been patient enough to let the potatoes get crispier as I think they would have held up a little better under the vinaigrette. But it was still delicious. Acidy, salty, starchy and greensy. Crunchy, soft and creamy. I will call it roasted potato salad with spinach and goat cheese.

We ate it all before I thought to take any pics.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mmmm, sounds terrific!

Lakeview Coffee Joe said...

Wait, no debrief from your trip??

alexis said...

wow - that does sound great! I am totally going to try that

Dad said...

Way to go creative chef girl! Sounds yummy.

stef said...

Joe- there is really nothing to say about the trip. It was remarkably uneventful.

Pulisha said...

Yum that sounds good! I'm going to have to start using that method of potato making. I'm much more of a rice in the rice cooker or potatoes over the fire kind of girl, i.e. I don't actually have to do anything! But fried potatoes trump laziness any day!

Unknown said...

I will take responsibility for franchsing this recipe on the east coast. Mmmm. I have become fond of a fingerling potatoes and roasted asparagus salad with capers of late, which has some of the same warm-potato tricks (but not the roasty part).