Sage and Brown Butter Mashed Potatoes with Cheddar

 

Mashed potatoes make me happy. Really, really happy.  They are the ultimate comfort food. This variation has some extra sophistication and savoriness thanks to sage, brown butter, and sharp cheddar. So this is what love is? It's good to be in love. Even when your sweetheart is potatoes. I love you. The flavors of this dish are complex enough to be savored on their own, but also subtle enough to take a back seat if you wish to use them as a vehicle for braised meat and rich gravy like I did here. 

Psst! did you notice my favorite fiestaware pitcher on the sill?

This is yet another recipe I found in The 150 Best American Recipes Edited by Fran McCullough & Molly Stevens. The recipe was created by Jeanne Thiel Kelley and originally published in Bon Appetit.

 I substituted 2% for the whole milk because it was what I had on hand, but otherwise made no changes or adaptations. It was lovely.

Mashed potatoes with sage and white cheddar cheese

serves 10... or you know, you could make this much and only serve it to 5 people, with full intentions of giving yourself a week's worth of yummy left overs.

4 lbs russet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 1/2 inch cubes

Salt & Freshly ground black pepper

4 TBS (1/2 stick) unsalted butter

2 TBS plus 1 tsp minced fresh sage

3/4 cup whipping cream

3/4 cup whole milk

2 1/4 cups grated sharp white cheddar cheese (9oz)- I used TJ's New Zealand extra sharp cheddar. love that stuff.

1.Cook potatoes in a large pot of water -start potatoes in cold water, and bring to a boil. Cook for about 12 minutes after reaching a boil, or until potatoes are tender.

2. While the potatoes cook, brown your butter in a small sauce pan. I found this tutorial very helpful to know what to look for, since I had never made brown butter before.  Add 2 TBS of the sage to the butter toward the end of its browning time. 

3.Then add the cream and milk to the browned butter mixture and bring to a simmer.

4. Drain the potatoes, then return to the pot. Stir over medium heat to allow excess liquid to evaporate, then start mashing with a hand masher. I moved my potatoes to the bowl of my stand mixer at this point, but you don't have to. you can continue to use the hand masher for the remaining steps, or use an electric hand held mixer.

5. Add in the cream mixture, then slowly add in 1 3/4 cups of  the shredded cheese, as well as the salt and pepper to season. Mix together to your desired smoothness. 

6. To finish the potatoes (I made them ahead of time, and then refrigerated at this point until shortly before dinner) add the potatoes to a greased baking dish or individual servings in ramekins, sprinkle the top with the remaining cheese and sage, and bake in the oven for about 45 minutes until the top is golden.

It's good to be in love.

Rosemary Honey Carrots

This recipe is one my mother introduced me to over a year ago. It is from one of her favorite cookbooks, The 150 Best American Recipes edited by Fran McCullough and Molly Stevens. Every recipe she has tried from that book has been successful, so I felt it was about time I borrow the book. More recipes from it soon to come, including Sage, Brown Butter and Sharp Cheddar Mashed Potatoes!

This recipe was created by Tom Collicchio (love him!) and published in the New York Times. The best part is it could hardly be simpler: tender young carrots are pan roasted in a bit of olive oil, seasoned with salt, fresh ground pepper and fresh sprigs of rosemary, then drizzled with a mixture of melted butter and honey. Simple as that, and delicious!




Ingredients:
16 long thin carrots- tops trimmed, the recipe calls for peeling them, but the skin on the ones I bought was so thin and tender I simply gave them a through cleaning
Sea salt (original recipe called for fleur de sel but I guess I am just not fancy enough!) and fresh ground pepper
2 TBS olive oil
4 Rosemary sprigs
4 tsp honey
1 TBS butter

Simply heat the olive oil in a large pan, and pan roast the carrots in a single layer 15-20 minutes until tender and golden brown. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and rosemary sprigs, then, just before serving, add the honey and butter and stir well to coat.

Carrot

Balsamic Glazed Brussels Sprouts

I am about to talk about something pretty controversial. I know it usually is best if you don't want to alienate your readership not to tread too often onto subjects like this one, and I really do hope my 5 (yes, 5) followers will still feel the same way about me and my blog after I say this.

So, I might as well come out with it: I think Brussels Sprouts are downright yummy. Yes, I know this is a very polarizing topic for many individuals. Some people love them, some people hate them, and yet other people don't eat them regardless of love or hate simply because they give them terrible gas (pardon my bluntness, dear readers). But I have to come right out and say, unless you fall into that third camp, you really should try these sprouts and give 'em another chance. Reduced balsamic vinegar, butter, a hint of brown sugar and the right amount of time in the oven turns these into tender, bright and sweet morsels that I eat up like candy. I even caught myself about to lick the last bits of sauce off the plate.


Balsamic Glazed Brussels Sprouts

16 oz of Brussels Spouts (this is the standard size of one bag of fresh Brussels sprouts when I see them in the super market.), large ones cut in half top to bottom (so they stay together on the root and don't just fall apart as they would cut horizontally)
1 large onion, diced
1-2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 TBS unsalted butter
1 cup balsamic vinegar
1 TBS brown sugar

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350F
2. Bring a quart of water to boil on the stove. while you wait for it to boil, slice your sprouts in half, and pick off any sad looking leaves as needed. add the sprouts to the boiling water and cook 5-10 minutes before removing and placing in a bowl of cold water.
3. While the sprouts blanch, dice the onion, and cook it in 1 TBS of butter in a small pan. cook until translucent, then add the minced garlic.
4. placed drained brussels sprouts into a glass or metal roasting pan, with half of the cooked onions, and about a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar drizzled over. I also add a bit of the butter, cut into tiny pieces, for some liquid in the pan. Cook for 15 minutes.
5. add balsamic vinegar and remaining butter to remaining onions in pan, and heat over medium heat for the 15 minutes the brussels sprouts are cooking. This allows it to reduce and sweeten.
6. when the 15 minutes of time elapses, remove the brussells sprouts from the oven, pour over with your pan sauce, and sprinkle with brown sugar. Return to the oven and allow to roast for another 10 minutes.

This may not seem like the simplest way to cook brussels sprouts- is the blanching really necessary? Why not just let the balsamic reduce in the oven? All good questions, but what I have to say for myself is this: the timing actually works out quite well,  and each step in itself is pretty simple. Perhaps you could cut out the blanching and just increase the oven time and it would be fine. I am not really the premier expert on brussels sprouts, I admit. BUT, this way works, and comes out so yummy and sweet and not too raw/not too overcooked. So I say go with it. If you are like  me, it will make your heart sing. Sweet, sweet songs of Brussels Sprouts.

Also...one additional note I feel I must add: provided you are not going to serve this to vegetarians, if you have some bacon or panchetta in the house, good god throw it in there. You won't regret it.

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Balsamic Roasted Cauliflower

Food is so deeply linked to memory. I cannot think about anything as simple as asparagus without remembering all the times my parents have served a side of roasted or grilled asparagus throughout my childhood. I was exposed to so many vegetables by my parents, roasted root vegetables, sauteed leeks, grilled eggplant and zucchini...but never cauliflower. My mother can't eat it, so I suppose that is a good excuse. I first ate cauliflower at a restaurant in the Berkshires last year. My boyfriend ordered it off the menu, causing the waitress to raise her eyebrow. What came changed my perception of cauliflower. What once was a boring, colorless cousin to broccoli when roasted became a caramelized savory treat that neither of us could stop eating.
We returned to the same restaurant 2 weeks later, eager to order the roasted cauliflower. Once seated with our menus we noticed with panic that our beloved cauliflower was no longer on the menu! We asked our waitress if she knew why this dish was removed. She shrugged and said "Only one person ordered it. I guess no one really likes cauliflower" So you see, that one person...was us! that was our roasted cauliflower!

Anyway, once I could no longer get that lovely roasted cauliflower dish in the local restaurant, it became a mission to recreate it. A recipe I found from Eating Well magazine came surprisingly close. I cannot take much credit for this recipe, I have made very few changes from the original, but nonetheless, here's how it goes:

Balsamic Roasted Cauliflower
1 head of cauliflower
1/2 cup Olive oil
1/4 cup Balsamic Vinegar
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, or Parmesan/ramano blend
Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
herbs of your choice- I used Thyme and Oregano, the original recipe called for marjoram.


First cut the head of cauliflower into pieces, lay them out to evenly cover the bottom of a baking sheet, and coat them lightly with olive oil, salt, pepper and herbs. Let them cook in the oven at 350 for about 15ish minutes (I found the longer they cook, the closer they come to the caramelized goodness of the restaurant recipe i had hoped to match), then remove dish from the oven, stir the cauliflower, the parts touching the pan should already be starting to brown. drizzle with balsamic vinegar, stir to coat, and sprinkle with Parmesan and more olive oil if you wish. Put it back in the oven (i turned up the heat a bit at this point) until they start to brown on top and the cheese gets crispy.