I love both styles, but was in the mood for something different, so I decided to use some ricotta and olive oil to make a spread, which I topped with smoked ham, asparagus, white cheddar, and Parmigiano-Reggiano. It tasted great, but I found its appearance to be somewhat unsightly.
I knew the ricotta and olive oil would separate somewhat in the extra hot oven, but I thought with the other cheeses on top, it wouldn’t be noticeable, but as you can see, it was. The good news is, no one seems to mind, and it did taste great. By the way, you can certainly do a less rich, lower cal version by just using seasoned ricotta without the oil.
Anyway, “new pizza ideas” is always a popular food wish, and I hope this ricotta spread inspires lots of pizza experimentation in your kitchen. If you need a pizza dough recipe, I used this great no-knead version, but if you prefer something faster, this Wolfgang Puck-inspired recipe is also a winner. Enjoy!
Michele and I are heading back to San Francisco after a fantastic 2012 Passport to Dry Creek Valley! I forgot to bring that wire that lets me download the photos I took, but hopefully tomorrow I can show you what we served.
Pictured here is a iPhone shot of our "Tonno del Dry Creek," which was some incredible pork confit from Dehesa (you'll be hearing a lot more about them soon), topped with picked onions, and "hearts on fire" greens.
By the way, I will be posting a brand new video later this evening featuring an odd, but very delicious ham, asparagus, and ricotta pizza, so stay tuned!
Michele and I are in Sonoma for the 2012 “Passport to Dry Creek Valley.” If you've been following this blog for awhile, I'm sure you've read about this event before, but if not, here's a little taste from last year.
We'll be doing the food at the gorgeous Frick Winery for the 16th consecutive year! Despite all the hard work, it's a lot of fun and we look forward to this every spring. I'll be back Monday with a new video, and hopefully some decent photos of this year's offerings. Stay tuned!
Wash and soak the rice in water for at least 1/2 an hr. Heat the oil, add sliced onion and fry till golden brown. Add the ginger garlic paste, turmeric, red chilly powder followed by chopped tomato, whole green chillies and yoghurt. Stir and mix till it turns into a nice masala paste. Add the green peas (fresh or frozen) and let it simmer for a while. Then add the soaked rice, and gently turn over from all sides till it mixes well with the masala. Now add 4 cups of water, 2 tspns salt, chopped cilantro and a few mint leaves. Close the pot with a lid and cook on high heat till the water starts boiling.Turn the heat to medium and cook till the water gets absorbed. Give it a stir and put it on simmer for 5 mins. The Peas Pulao is ready to be served. Enjoy the Peas Pulao with Mint chutney, Raita and roasted chicken.
French onion soup is a very easy recipe. So, it’s a little ironic that this American French onion soup is an attempt to make things even easier. Then again, taking ideas that don’t need improving, and changing them anyway, is a time-honored American tradition.
Instead of going “French” on the onions, and cutting thin slices, we’re doing more of an extra large dice. I like the flavor and texture this cut provides, and there’s no danger of being chin-slapped by a long, steaming strand of onion.
To make the caramelizing step a bit easier, we’re going to use the oven. You can just toss the onions in, stir it once in a while, and wait for them to brown. You don’t have to stand there and watch as closely as you would on the stovetop, and since the oven is blasting the pan with heat from all sides, you get a nice even color.
The last Americanization is a departure from the classic gruyere cheese. My love for gruyere is borderline inappropriate, but keeping with the theme, I decided to go with a 50/50 blend of extra-sharp New York cheddar and mild Monterey Jack. It was wonderful, and a nice change of pace.
Regarding the ominous vinegar warning in the video – I think a little touch of sherry vinegar really balances the flavors perfectly, but like salt, everyone’s palate is different. So, if you haven’t used it before, it may be a better to just add the vinegar, to taste, to the finished soup. Drip a little in, taste, and adjust.
Anyway, spring weather means plenty of cool, rainy days, and what better way to enjoy those than with a nice bowl of onion soup? Whether American, French, or some other yet-to-be-discovered cultural variation, I hope you give this a try soon. Enjoy!
Ingredients for about 2 1/2 quarts of soup: 6 large yellow onions, cut in large dice
1/2 stick unsalted butter salt and pepper to taste
3-4 sprigs fresh thyme
1 or 2 tsps sherry vinegar, or to taste
3 tbsps dry sherry wine (do NOT use “cooking wine”)
4 cups high-quality beef broth
4 cups high-quality chicken broth
buttered croutons
shredded extra-sharp cheddar and Monterey Jack cheese (you’ll need about 1/3 cup per bowl) View the complete recipe
This is another recipe circulating amongst our relatives in Canada. We make this quite often especially when we invite someone over. The cake has a soft and light texture and the fruit stuffing with cool whip is so refreshing that you cannot stop eating it. Though the recipe calls for using crushed canned pineapple and juice from it, I prefer using fresh fruits and fresh pineapple juice. I don't like the metallic taste of the canned fruits at all. Moreover it is so unhealthy.
I decided to post this recipe at the request of one of my friends who enjoys my cooking and is especially very fond of this cake because its taste some how reminds her of the indian bakery cakes which she adored as a child.
Ingredients:
Eggs - 2
Sugar - 1 Cup
Vanilla - 1 tspn
Flour - 1 Cup
Baking powder - 1 tspn
Salt - ½ tspn
Milk - ½ Cup
Butter- 1 tblspn
Crushed pineapple - 1 cup or subsitute for 1 crushed pineapple can
Pineapple juice - 1 cup fresh juice or from the can.
Fresh ripe strawberries - 1 cup
Kiwi, strawberries and pineapple, mango, peaches or any other fruit to decorate.
Method: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Beat the eggs, add sugar gradually, add vanilla essence. Mix the dry ingredients and stir it into the egg mixture. Heat the milk and butter and add to the batter and stir well. Grease a 9 X9 inch pan, dust with flour and pour the cake batter in it.
Bake in the preheated oven for 25 to 30 mins.
Let the cake cool for 1 hr then cut the cake into two equal halves. Do it carefully either with the help of a sowing thread or a knife. Pour the pineapple juice generously and evenly on the insides of the cake and let there not be any dry areas here and there. Leave for sometime - 10 mins.
Spread the cool whip icing or whipping cream on the cake.
Make a stuffing with chopped strawberries and crushed pineapple and close the cake after putting the stuffing. Make a stuffing with chopped strawberries and crushed pineapple and close the cake after putting the stuffing.
Spread the whipping cream or cool whip icing on all over the cake - on the top and sides. Decorate with Strawberries, pineapple, peach, mango or kiwi slices.
I'm not sure how many of you tried "turning mushrooms" after seeing our post Friday, but just in case, this cream of mushroom soup will help you put those carved beauties and any trimmings to delicious use. When you're done admiring your knife work, chop them up, and enjoy one of the best soups ever invented. I've also added links to some of my other favorite mushroom recipes. Have a happy Earth Day, and as always, enjoy!
I’ve really never gotten that excited about Earth Day, and this year is no different. Don’t get me wrong; I’m a huge fan of the planet (especially love the gravity), so on Sunday, April 22, I will be giving thanks to Mother Nature, as well as all the heroes who fight the good fight to keep her happy and healthy.
However, for an old food blogger like me, a “holiday” like Earth Day is more about key words and search engines than seabirds and algae. And of course, if you’re going to do a tie-in for Earth Day, you can’t get any “earthier” than mushrooms.
This video for how to turn a mushroom represents another classic technique I learned in culinary school, which was really never applied in a restaurant. Along with things like aspic and ice carving, turning mushrooms is one of the things that chef instructors LOVE to teach. Not to impart vital skills to their students, but to simply show-off…and that’s exactly why I’m showing you. Enjoy!
No matter how basic or boring an ingredient or dish is, I can usually come up with something to pontificate on, but for this lovely braised red cabbage recipe, I’ve got absolutely nothing.
I could go on about how I’m not sure what that color red is called, but I did that in the video. I could joke about taking one for the team, and keeping this side dish purely vegetarian for a change, but there’s nothing funny about not adding bacon.
I could suggest a few easy ways to turn this into an amazing one-dish meal, by adding some smoked sausage or leftover pork ribs, but that’s probably so obvious that I’d be insulting your intelligence.
Or, I could have gone into a great, old prep cook anecdote about how I won $10 from a pastry chef in 1987 by juggling red cabbages on the hotline during service, but that would have meant making up the story, since it was actually cantaloupes.
No, I’m not going to mention any of that. I'll simply suggest that if you want an easy, gorgeous looking, and very tasty vegetable side dish, then you should give this a try soon. Enjoy!
Ingredients for 4-6 portions:
2 tbsp butter
1 small Red cabbage, sliced thin, about a 1 1/4 pounds
1/3 cup water
1/4 cup red wine
2 tbsp red wine vinegar, or to taste
2 tbsp white sugar
pinch of caraway seeds
salt and pepper to taste
*Note: there are SO many ways to tweak this recipe! Raisins, currants, shallots, onions, leeks, apples, and pears are just a few things that rock in this recipe.
Great pastrami is not the easiest thing to find west of the Catskills, so a few years ago I embarked on a mission to find a way to turn the common corned beef into something similar. My goal was to come up with a reasonable substitute that could be done in less than a day at home, without a smoker, or any other special equipment. Impossible? No!
As you'll see in this video, I came up with a fairly easy method, which really worked well. While this homemade pastrami may not be exactly what you get at those famous New York delis, it's tender, very tasty, and piled between a couple slices of rye, makes a great sandwich.
The spice blend is fairly traditional, except for the smoked paprika addition. This gives the beef a nice, very subtle smokiness without having to worry about the considerable time/temperature management required by an actual smoker.
By the way, this is a pretty fiery rub. If you’re scared, you may want to reduce the amount of pepper(s), and/or leave out the cayenne. However, if you want the punch of a spicy, intensely aromatic pastrami, then this recipe will have you smiling, from the first mustard-shmeared bite to the last. I hope you give this a try soon. Enjoy!
Editorial Note: No, you are not going crazy. We did do this video post before, but it was filmed for About.com, and played only on their website. That old post is no longer up, and being replaced with this one. Thanks!
Ingredients:
(Note: the dry rub should make more than you need)
3 to 5 pound corned beef brisket (should be the ready-to-cook variety)
1/4 cup fresh, coarsely ground black pepper
2 tbsp ground coriander
2 tbsp smoked paprika
1 tsp dry mustard
1/2 tsp white pepper
1/4 tsp cayenne
2 tbsp garlic oil (mix 2 crushed garlic cloves with vegetable oil, and let sit for one hour)
My friends at All Clad recently sent me an invitation to take part in a contest to develop a recipe showing off their 10-inch Stainless Steel Fry Pan. After carefully considering the offer for several seconds, I let them know I’d be thrilled to participate, and even more thrilled to accept their free pan.
After a little brainstorming, I decided seared beef medallions with pan sauce would best highlight the benefits of using this type of pan. Once I decided on a general direction, it was time to pick ingredients. For medallion meat, I chose soft and buttery tenderloin. For the pan sauce, I went with mushrooms and tomato, as I knew they’d allow me to show how spectacular a sauce one can achieve with proper caramelization.
There are two huge advantages to high-quality cookware (three, if you count how cool they look hanging on your pot rack). Because the steel is thicker and denser, the pan not only retains heat much better, but it distributes that heat very evenly. In this recipe, the advantages of both are seen quite clearly.
First of all, we’re able to do a very high-heat sear, with the surface of the medallions getting a beautiful brown crust, while the inside stays nice and rare, thanks to the short cooking time the pan’s heat retention affords.
Secondly, as we’re caramelizing the mushrooms and tomato sauce, you can see the advantages of superior heat distribution. This sauce is very easy, but if you’re using a thin, cheap pan, you’re going to get “hot spots,” which makes browning the sauce base more difficult. Certain areas will scorch and burn quickly, and you don’t get nice even caramelization. Here, you can see that wasn't an issue.
Above and beyond the advantages of the cookware, the recipe tasted amazing. I mean, come on, I can’t give the pan all the credit. It’s one of those dishes that unless someone watched you make it, they’d never believe how fast and simple it is to prepare. By the way, this wonderful sauce would work just as well with pork, veal, or chicken.
Anyway, thanks to All Clad for the pan and invitation to participate in this contest. I can’t wait to see what other bloggers are participating, and what they’re making. Please stay tuned for more details and results in the near future. In the meantime, I hope you give this great recipe a try soon. Enjoy!
(Since this was for a contest, I was forced to type up the recipe!)
Seared Beef Tenderloin Medallions with Caramelized Tomato & Mushroom Pan Sauce
For 4 servings:
2 lbs beef tenderloin, trimmed, cut into 8 (4-oz) medallions, about 1-inch thick (this will also work with chicken breasts or pork chops)
salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon vegetable oil for searing
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
8-10 white button mushrooms, sliced thin
1/2 cup marinara sauce (mine had basil and garlic in it, but any prepared tomato sauce will work)
1/3 cup Marsala wine
1 cup veal stock or chicken broth
2 tsp freshly chopped oregano leaves
1 1/2 tablespoons cold butter, cut into cubes
Season beef medallions generously with salt and pepper to taste. Put vegetable oil in a stainless steel pan, and place over high heat. When the oil just begins to smoke, sear the beef for about 2 minutes per side. The meat should get a nice brown crust, but do not cook all the way through, as it will finish cooking in the sauce. Turn off heat, and remove beef to a plate, and reserve until needed.
Add the butter and olive oil to the pan, and place over medium-high heat. Add the mushrooms and a pinch of salt. Cook the mushrooms, stirring often, for about 10 minutes, or until very well browned. Add the tomato sauce, and cook, stirring, for about 5 minutes, or until the tomato sauce thickens and caramelizes on to the bottom of the pan.
Pour in the Marsala wine, and raise heat to high. As the wine comes up to a boil, use a wooden spoon to scrap any caramelized bits on the bottom of the pan. When almost all the wine has evaporated, add the stock or broth. Bring to a boil, and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes, or until the mixture has reduced by about half.
Reduce the heat to low, and add the beef medallions back in. Simmer gently for 2-3 minutes, or until the meat is heated through and cooked to your preference. You can add more stock if sauce seems too thick.
Remove the medallions, and divide on four hot plates. Turn the heat off under the sauce, and stir in the oregano and cold butter. Stir constantly until butter has disappeared into the sauce. Taste for seasoning, and adjust if needed. Spoon over meat and serve immediately. Enjoy! View the complete recipe
This is a traditional recipe that has been circulating in our family ever since we came to Canada. It is chicken roast indian style with no vegetables and is very flavourful and tasty. The chicken just comes off the bone and is very juicy and flavourful. It is enjoyed with naan, biryani rice or any kind of rice. It is the technique of baking the chicken that makes the chicken soft and juicy. It has to be first marinated for atleast 2 hrs then baked in a covered roasting pan at a low temperature then uncovered and roasted in the oven for another 20 - 30 mins (setting on convection roast) till it is nicely roasted on all sides.
Ingredients:
Whole Chicken - 1
Ginger garlic paste- 1 tblspn
Cloves -5-6
Saffron - 1/8th of a tspn
Almonds - 1/4 cup ground
Dhania powder - 1tspn
Red chilly powder - 1tspn
Turmeric powder - 1/2 a tspn
Vegetable Oil - 1 tblspn Lemon juice - 2 tblspns
Method: Grind the ginger & garlic to a fine paste and get all the dry ground and whole spices ready.
Clean and wash the chicken, drain and towel dry. Heat a small frying pan with oil. Add the cloves, immediately followed by ginger garlic paste, turmeric, dhania and red chilly powder, then ground almonds stirring well after each addition. Cook the masalas till you get an aroma. Remove and let it cool down for sometime.
Take a pinch of saffron crush it to a fine powder with a mortar & pestle, add a few drops of water to it and pour it in the marinade after it cools down. This is to retain the saffron flavour.
Meanwhile make slits all over in the chicken - in the thighs, drumsticks, breasts etc. Rub the chicken with salt and lemon juice leave for 15 mins then marinate the chicken with this masala. Leave for atleast 2 hrs. Preheat to oven to 325 degrees fahrenheit. Put the chicken in a roasting pan add 1/2 a cup of water, tightly close the lid and bake in the oven for 1 hr. After 1 hr change the setting to convection roast & raise the oven temperature to 375 degrees. Roast uncovered for another 20 - 30 mins. Keep basting the chicken every now and then with its own juices so that it remains moist throughout. Remove when nicely roasted. If there are any juices left pour them over the chicken before serving. Serve hot with rice, naan or rumali rotis and enjoy!
Method: Pound coarsely 1/4 cup each of the almonds, pistachios and the choc chips separately. Keep this coarsely ground mixture aside. Grind together coarsely the remaining almonds, pistachios and chocolate chips. Add the orange blossom water and fresh whipping cream and mix well with a rubber spatula until moist. Shape into small round balls, roll them in the coarely ground nut mixture and then leave them in the refrigerator to chill and set - at least a couple of hours. Enjoy!
Tapioca Laddoos (Pindaloo ke Laddoo) were my grandma's favourite when I was a child. She loved eating these as a snack in the late afternoon. I still remember how she would pop a whole laddo in her mouth and chew it with her gums as she had not a single tooth left to help her in her endeavour. She would still enjoy all the juicy bites and every bit of it. It was more fun watching her eat than eating it myself.
Ingredients: Tapioca - 2 medium size - 5 cups Coconut (finely grated)- 2 cups Clic cream (175gm) - 1/2 can Sugar - 1 cup
Method: Wash and clean the tapioca in running water. Boil them in a big pot of water. When they are done their thick skin would start cracking. Remove, drain and let them cool down first, then grate them coarsely. Add 1 1/2 cups of the grated coconut, sugar and cream to the grated tapioca. Mix everthing well. Make them into laddoos then roll them in the grated coconut and set aside. Put them all one by one in colored baking cups and chill them in the fridge. Enjoy when chilled.
...or at least that's what I heard on Twitter today. Who decides these things, and how do they pick the day? Don't know, and don't care, because it give me an excuse to post our famous Inside-Out Grilled Cheese Sandwich! Follow this link to read the original post, and as always, enjoy!
...or at least that's what I heard on Twitter today. Who decides these things, and how do they pick the day? Don't know, and don't care, because it give me an excuse to post our famous Inside-Out Grilled Cheese Sandwich! Follow this link to read the original post, and as always, enjoy!
Every once in a while, I post a recipe that I’ve received exactly zero requests for, and this gorgeous Mongolian pork chop is the most recent example – sort of ironic, considering this is video 700, and I’m celebrating the milestone by going rogue!
While 95% of the videos you see are inspired by actual “food wishes,” sometimes I’ll remember something so delicious, I just have to add it to the library.
One of my favorite restaurants anywhere is Mustards Grill, located in California's beautiful Napa Valley. Mustards is owned and operated by chef Cindy Pawlcyn, and for decades has been serving the best kind of new American comfort fare. While I love all the food, the standout dish is their famous Mongolian pork chop.
This is my slightly simplified version, but still very close to what you’d experience at Mustards. She adds a little green onion to the marinade, and I would’ve also, had I not forgotten it at the market. She also puts a touch of cilantro in the mix, but I prefer to use it freshly chopped to garnish the cold mustard sauce (something I should have mentioned in the video, but did add to the ingredient list).
Once marinated, these pork chops can be cooked any way you like, but for the true experience, you’re going to want to cook these on a charcoal grill. For me, it’s the smokiness that brings all these flavors together, but pay special attention to my warnings about direct high-heat.
Once the chops are marked with magazine-quality lines directly over the white-hot coals, I open the grate and push the charcoal away from the center of the grill, so that the meat and flammable marinade isn’t directly over the intense heat. This ensures all that delicious smokiness, with none of that annoying, “Hey, Honey, I think the pork chops are on fire.”
Anyway, if you ever find yourself in Napa Valley, I highly recommend you stop in to Mustards and enjoy this great American treasure. But, if that’s not possible, or you simply can’t wait, then give this a try soon. Enjoy!
Ingredients for 2 Portions:
For the pork and marinade:
two 10-ounce bone-in, extra-thick, center-cut pork chops
1/2 cup hoisin sauce
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
4 cloves minced garlic
1 1/2 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
2 teaspoons sesame oil
2 teaspoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons hot sauce
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 green onion, light parts, minced
For the mustard sauce (this is enough for 4, but I didn't want to use 1/2 a yolk!):
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
2 or 3 tablespoons hot mustard powder, such as Colman's or Chinese style (add to taste!)
3 tbsp sugar (their sauce is on the sweet side, so feel free to add this to taste)
Every once in a while, I post a recipe that I’ve received exactly zero requests for, and this gorgeous Mongolian pork chop is the most recent example – sort of ironic, considering this is video 700, and I’m celebrating the milestone by going rogue!
While 95% of the videos you see are inspired by actual “food wishes,” sometimes I’ll remember something so delicious, I just have to add it to the library.
One of my favorite restaurants anywhere is Mustards Grill, located in California's beautiful Napa Valley. Mustards is owned and operated by chef Cindy Pawlcyn, and for decades has been serving the best kind of new American comfort fare. While I love all the food, the standout dish is their famous Mongolian pork chop.
This is my slightly simplified version, but still very close to what you’d experience at Mustards. She adds a little green onion to the marinade, and I would’ve also, had I not forgotten it at the market. She also puts a touch of cilantro in the mix, but I prefer to use it freshly chopped to garnish the cold mustard sauce (something I should have mentioned in the video, but did add to the ingredient list).
Once marinated, these pork chops can be cooked any way you like, but for the true experience, you’re going to want to cook these on a charcoal grill. For me, it’s the smokiness that brings all these flavors together, but pay special attention to my warnings about direct high-heat.
Once the chops are marked with magazine-quality lines directly over the white-hot coals, I open the grate and push the charcoal away from the center of the grill, so that the meat and flammable marinade isn’t directly over the intense heat. This ensures all that delicious smokiness, with none of that annoying, “Hey, Honey, I think the pork chops are on fire.”
Anyway, if you ever find yourself in Napa Valley, I highly recommend you stop in to Mustards and enjoy this great American treasure. But, if that’s not possible, or you simply can’t wait, then give this a try soon. Enjoy!
Ingredients for 2 Portions:
For the pork and marinade:
two 10-ounce bone-in, extra-thick, center-cut pork chops
1/2 cup hoisin sauce
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
4 cloves minced garlic
1 1/2 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
2 teaspoons sesame oil
2 teaspoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons hot sauce
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 green onion, light parts, minced
For the mustard sauce (this is enough for 4, but I didn't want to use 1/2 a yolk!):
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
2 or 3 tablespoons hot mustard powder, such as Colman's or Chinese style (add to taste!)
3 tbsp sugar (their sauce is on the sweet side, so feel free to add this to taste)
I had left over roasted sweet potato lying in the fridge and I wanted to make good use of it. The thought of making chaat or eating it with sprinkled cinnamon, brown sugar/honey was not appealing. The other day I made flat bread (rotis) out of it and enjoyed eating them all myself. But this time I thought that the kids who are always picky and have canadian taste buds wouldn't like it. So I finally embarked on the idea of trying foccaccia with roasted sweet potato and fresh rosemary. I imagined the taste in my mind - the sweet foccaccia bread with the rosemary flavour combined with fresh vegetable toppings - will definitely be a success! So I tweaked my recipe for regular foccaccia a bit by adding egg and increasing the flour quantity and lo and behold, it worked out very well.
Fresh rosemary herb - 1 small strand (can be substituted with basil/oregano)
Mozzarella/cheddar cheese - optional
Method
Roast the Sweet potatoes in a baking pan at 400 degrees fahrenheit in a preheated oven for 1/2 an hr to 45 mins till they are tender. Poke them with a knife before keeping them in the oven otherwise they burst when overdone and are left in the oven unattended. Peel them when they cool down, mash well and set them aside.
Take a cup of water and warm it in the microwave for 40 seconds. It should be lukewarm to touch. Add 1 tblspn yeast and 1/2 tspn sugar, mix well and leave it to rise - 5 mins. Meanwhile put 3 cups of flour in the food processor, add salt and pulse it till it mixes well. Now add the egg, mashed sweet potatoes and pulse again, followed by the yeast solution. Keep pulsing at short intervals till the dough is formed. Now add 1 tblspn olive oil to it and pulse more till the dough starts spinning. This means the dough consistency is reached. The dough starts spinning when it is elastic. we need an elastic kind of dough to get a spongy texture in the foccaccia. At this stage remove the dough from the processor, roll it in the shape of a ball and put it in a greased container, cover it with plastic wrap or a plate and let it rise for 45 mins to 1 hr. Preheat the oven at 400 degrees fahrenheit. When the dough doubles in size, take it and put it on a greased pizza pan without punching or flattening it. Now start working on it from the sides by pressing it with your fingers and spreading it like a pizza bread. The dough is so spongy that you can dig your fingers into it and make impressions like tiny craters. Sprinkle the remaining olive oil generously so that it fills the little craters.
Dust with dried oregano and basil, then spread all the cut vegetables on top. Press them a bit and bake in the second position in the oven for 15-20 mins till it crisp on the bottom and very lightly golden on top. You may add cheese towards the end. Just wait for the cheese to melt and remove. Cut them into wedges or squares and serve hot. It is very filling and nutritious. Enjoy!
While they don’t get the same love as French fries, home fries, or steak fries, cottage fries more than hold their own against their potato side dish fraternity bothers.
And, unlike their French cousins, these easy cottage fries actually crisp up quite nicely in the oven, and as I described in the video, resemble fat, succulent potato chips. I don’t know about you, but to me there’s nothing about “fat, succulent potato chip” that doesn’t sound good.
They’re called cottage fries because they supposedly look like the shingled roofs on those cute little houses you see in the movies and on travel brochures. Appearances aside, I find serving and eating something associated with “cottages” to be just a little more relaxing and civilized than other less vacation-y potatoes.
I used Yukon gold potatoes, which as you’ll see, worked fine, but I do prefer the slightly starchier russet. I would avoid any of the red varieties, as they have a much waxier texture, and don’t get as crusty as other types.
I also used a silicon mat to cook mine on, but you’ll get even crispier edges if you use foil, or put the sliced potato directly on a non-stick baking sheet. Of course, the seasoning options are only limited by your imagination and self-control.
I love Herbes de Provence in this, but literally any fresh or dried herb will work here. Keep in mind, these chips are great just seasoned with olive oil, salt, and pepper, so you’re cooking from a position of power – don’t try and do too much. I hope you give these great change-of-pace “fries” a try soon. Enjoy!
Ingredients: russet potatoes, sliced into 3/8-inch thick rounds (about 4-oz per portion)
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