Convection Roasted Sweet Potato Fries

Finished fry

I have never been a huge fan of sweet potatoes until I had baked sweet potato fries. I loved them. Katie was not as crazy about them as I was. So I made her baked potato fries. Sweet potatoes are so good for you that I really did feel guilty that I did not like the sweet potato casserole that graces so many tables at Thanksgiving. Maybe I just didn't like the ubersweet marshmallow casserole. I do know that I love sweet potato fries. Who knew? The convection oven makes amazingly crispy fries. It is my choice for these fries. I actually like them better convection baked than fried. Katie does not like sweet potato fries so I made fries with a regular potato for her. Sprinkled with different spices and herbs to decide which I liked best. I liked the Jamaican Jerk spice mixture and Steven preferred the herbs. Katie prefers her potatoes (regular not sweet) with a sprinkling of salt.

Sweet Potato Fries

A Couple of Sweet Potatoes, Peeled and Sliced
Olive, Grape Seed, or Vegetable Oil
Kosher Salt, To Taste
Chopped Herbs
Spices (A spice mixture, freshly ground pepper, or your favorite spice)

Preheat convection oven to 425F/218C/ Gas Mark 7. Place sliced potatoes in a plastic bag with one to two tablespoons of oil and shake.  Note-- the thinner the potato slices, the quicker they will cook. You also want similar sized fries so they will bake evenly.

Sweet potato fries

After they are covered in oil, lay flat in one layer on a cookie sheet- leaving space between the potatoes. If you crowd the potatoes they won't be crispy. Sprinkle with spices or herbs. If you are using a one set of spices or herbs you may add them to the bag with the oil.

Getting ready for the oven

Place in the oven and bake for 15 minutes, flip, and bake for 15 minutes longer. Baked for additional five minutes increments until desired level of crispiness is obtained.

Out of the oven

The bottom line: will I make these again? Yes, they are on the menu for Wednesday night dinner- along with a pork tenderloin with an onion red current relish.

Yum!

Convection Oven Whole Roast Chicken

Roast chicken, green beans, and gnocchi.

The convection oven is perfect for roasting chicken. It creates a crispy skin and it is moist and juicy inside. It is also oh so easy to make. The fennel gives it a different twist, a slight licorice flavor.




Roast Chicken

Finished roast chicken

Ingredients

1/2 teaspoon of of the following herbs: basil, thyme, fennel, white peppercorns,  and rosemary 
2 Tablespoons of Olive Oil
Whole Chicken

Preheat oven to 350 F/177 C.

Place spices in a spice grinder and grind into powder. Put spice powder into a small dish and add olive oil. Rub mixture on chicken and place on a  roasting pan. Place it into a preheated oven. Roast for 60 minutes.

Chicken rubbed with herbs; ready for the oven

That's all there is to it!

Roast Chicken Part Deux

This time we brined the chicken overnight prior to roasting. Why? We wondered if it would have a noticeable difference in taste and moisture. Why did we do this? Because of a conversation I had with a member of the waitstaff at one of my favorite local restaurants. She mentioned marinating chicken. I pondered our conversation and decided to brine a chicken.


After we took the chicken out of the brine, we let it dry out for 1 hour. Then we rubbed olive oil and Kosher salt and ground pepper all over the skin. We roasted it in 350 F/ 177C for 60 minutes.

The result - incredible mouth watering moist chicken. The best chicken we have ever made. Who knew? The bottom line - we will brining our chickens in the future.

Making Naan

I decided to try to make a bread that I love but haven't made before. That was pretty easy to do, because I seldom make bread. In addition, I rarely, if ever, make bread by hand. If I make bread, I buy a bread machine mix at the grocery and use my bread machine. Unfortunately, that won't work for naan.
After much angst and research, I decided to use the Fine Cooking naan recipe (found here: http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/homestyle_indian_naan.aspx). I was going to  make one batch in the regular oven and one in the convection oven. But the regular oven only took 4 minutes to cook the bread so I decided to add topping the second day instead.

Without repeating the recipe which is available at the link above, here is what I did:

Yes, I used a mixer to mix the ingredients

Slowly adding the flour. I did the last mix of mixing by hand.

Finished mixing; time for kneading.

I put the dough in my favorite bowl to rise overnight.

It's finished rising. I should have used a bigger bowl!

The dough is ready to be worked with.

Half of the dough ready to be divided.

The other half in a plastic bag.

The dough is divided into 5 parts

and buttered.

After the dough was allowed to rise, I shaped the dough into 6 inch ovals.

All ready to go on the pizza stone

The biggest issue was getting the naan onto the pizza stone. The first time I foolishly tried to place it on the stone with my hands. It did not work well (the naan was still tasty).

Opps! They did not go onto the pizza stone as planned

Not quite perfect but still tasty

I regrouped and strategized and used a cookie sheet (without a rim) the second time. It worked like a charm! I think it would have worked better if I had a peel but I don't.

Taking the nann off of the pizza stone onto a cookie sheet

The second day was much easier because I knew what to expect. I heated the oven to 475 F/246 C/ Gas Mark 9, put the pizza stone in the oven, and got the dough out of the refrigerator. The dough was still soft and pillowy unlike the pelimini dough I am used to working with. I followed the same steps as yesterday, expect this time I used a convection oven and added toppings. The results? We liked the naan baked in the convection oven better. It was lighter and cooked more evenly. It also had to be watched more closely because it cooked faster.
We also loved naan with toppings. We did the traditional garlic naan (topped with olive oil, crushed garlic, and Kosher salt). I loved the garlic naan.

Garlic naan

Herbs de Provence naan

Naan brushed with butter and topped with cinnamon and sugar

Was it any good -- well it was gone as soon as I made it.  The bottom line -- will I make it again. It was a fair amount of work and I have flour all over my kitchen. I have flour allover my camera. It is difficult taking pictures with flour-covered hands and working with dough. But it was fun work and I often make a mess when I cook. I really enjoyed making the naan. Most importantly, I have to try more toppings on the naan. So yes, I will make it again and soon. Will I use this recipe again? I may at some point but I already have another naan recipe to try -- a chile-cilantro naan. If anyone out there has a naan recipe they like - please post it or send me a link. I would love to try it.

Roast Pork in a Convection Oven

Finished pork with apples

Pork is a traditional "lucky food" served on New Years Day and one I have had on New Years Day since a was a child. Since we were having a small dinner party on New Years, I decided that I wanted a roast pork loin. I wanted to find a large roast and was not able to, instead I brought two small roasts.

My problem turned into an opportunity. I decided to roast the pork two different ways and see which one we liked better.

I made a roast smothered in garlic, rosemary, olive oil, salt and pepper with a rosemary chimichurri adapted from a Fine Cooking grill roasted beef recipe (if you haven't tried it, it is amazing -- one of my many favorites available here: http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/pepper-crusted-beef-roast.aspx) and a pork loin wrapped in bacon served with apples and a red currant sauce.

I adapted the basic recipe for a regular oven for a convection oven. I like the convection oven for roasting meats because I think the circulating air makes a crisp crust with the juices held in. To get the crispy crust I used to cook roasts at 450 degrees for a short period of time and then reduce the temperature. With a convection oven I can cook the roast at a constant temperature and get the same result. The trick is getting the temperature and cooking times correct.

Recipes

Garlic Rosemary Pork

Mix together in a small bowl: 2 cloves of garlic (minced); 2 tablespoons of chopped rosemary; Kosher salt to taste; freshly ground pepper to taste; and one dried red pepper ground (add the red pepper only if you want some spice).

Rub for pork

Rub the mixture on the pork and roast in a convection oven at 325 F/163 C) for approximately 20 minutes per pound until the meat thermometer reaches 160 F/71 C. Remove from oven, cover loosely with aluminum foil and let sit for 15 minutes before cutting.

The pork is read for the oven

Rosemary Chimichurri

Sauté 2 tablespoons of chopped rosemary (fresh not dried) in 1/4 cup of olive oil for 2 minutes. Remove from stove and let cool. Once it is cool, add 3 tablespoons of vinegar (white or white wine), 2 cloves of minced garlic, and 1/2 cup of chopped parsley, and freshly ground pepper (to taste). Serve with the pork.

Bacon Wrapped Pork

I thought what could be better than pork wrapped in bacon. The trick was to have the bacon cooked when the pork was done. I thought of two different ways to do this -- one was to wrap the pork in bacon and sear the pork in a pan prior to putting it in the oven. The second was to slightly cook the bacon before wrapping the pork with it.

I imagined doing the first method and the grease splatters on the stove and me, and I chose the second method. I cooked the bacon slightly before putting on the pork (2 minutes on high in the microwave). To add extra flavor, I made a paste of minced garlic, Kosher salt, and freshly ground pepper to rub on the roast before I wrapped the roast in bacon. I pinned the bacon in place with toothpicks.

Roast covered in garlic, salt and pepper. It's ready for the bacon

Roast with bacon held in place with toothpicks

I cooked the pork at 325 F/163 C) in a convection oven for approximately 20 minutes per pound.

Red Currant Onion Relish

While the pork was roasting, I sauteed half of an onion chopped in 2 tablespoons of butter until the onions started to caramelize. I added 1/2 jar of red currant jelly to the onions and warmed.

Finished red currant onion relish

Apples

During the last 10 minutes of cooking,  put some chopped granny smith apples (I used 3) in the convection oven in the same pan the pork and roasted them slightly.

I served the bacon pork with the red currant onion relish and apples.The red currant onion relish is amazing. I had to taste it to make sure it was good and found myself tasting it multiple times.


Which Pork is Better?

The results-- everyone liked both of the pork roasts. Some people liked the bacon wrapped pork better others the herb smothered pork. Everyone liked the currant onion relish and the chimichurri. My favorite was the bacon pork, with apples, and currant onion relish.

Pork with bacon, apples, and red currant relish. I served it with a side of sour cream mashed potatoes.

Chocolate Chip Cookies Regular Oven vs Convection

Convection ovens are wonderful for roasting meat-- but how about baking cookies?

My family was happy to be the taste testers. I used the chocolate chip cookie recipe on the back of the Nestle chocolate chip bag (available here: http://www.verybestbaking.com/recipes/18476/Original-NESTL%C3%89-TOLL-HOUSE-Chocolate-Chip-Cookies/detail.aspx).  I used a cookie sheet (the kind without sides- a jelly roll pan has sides) and let the cookie sheet cool between batches.


I cooked the cookies in the regular oven at 375 F/ 190 C for 9 minutes. In the convection oven I cooked them at 350 F/175 C for 7 minutes.

The Results

The convection oven cookies were sightly "puffer" or lighter. The regular oven cookies were "denser" and "chewier". Katie and Steven thought that there wasn't enough of a difference to pick one over another-- they liked both.

I liked the convection oven better for two reasons. The first reason- I cooked them for 2 minutes less per batch. The second reason (and most important one)- multiple trays of cookies can be cooked at once because of the circulating air (which keeps the oven at a consistent temperature throughout the oven).