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!

Mustardy Potato Salad

Perfect potatoes

While I have tried several potato salads I have not liked, generally I am a huge fan of potato salad. I prefer vinegar and mustard-based potato salads not the creamy ones. I make two different potato salads- one I use for the base of a nicose salad and a mustard and vinegar based potato salad. Does that mean that my potato salad always tastes the same? Oh my goodness no! I vary the mustards and vinegars I use. I have a great love of vinegars and mustards and it is almost like I collect them. I love Cajun mustard, coarse German mustard, and coarse mustard with horseradish in this potato salad. Often I use rice wine vinegar (I love rice wine vinegar).  I have also been know to use a white wine vinegar or an infused vinegar. The possibilities are endless.
The potatoes are key. There are so many choices of potatoes. I like to use Yukon or new potatoes. Thankfully I get new potatoes from our CSA. I used a mix of Yukon and new potatoes and it was awesome. I peeled the Yukon potatoes and left the skins on the red potatoes.
For the bacon I use slab bacon. I am very picky about my bacon and I try to get local bacon. If I have to get bacon at the grocery store or a butcher, I get a good quality slab bacon. You can also substitute ham for the bacon.
As a final touch,  you can also throw some diced herbs on top when serving or mix in some boiled egg.

Mustard Potato Salad

About 2.5 lbs (1.13 kg) of Potatoes, Diced
4 oz (115 g) of Bacon, Thinly Sliced
1/2 Cup (120 g) of Onion, Diced
1/4 Cup (60 ml) of Mustard
1/4 Cup (60 ml) of Vinegar
2 Boiled Eggs, Diced (Optional)
Handful of Chopped Herbs (Optional)

Boil the potatoes in water until fork tender (about 15 minutes). Drain the potatoes. While the potatoes  are boiling, fry the bacon until slightly crispy (about 5 minutes) and add the onions.

Frying bacon

Sauté until the onions are starting to brown. Take the skillet off of the heat and add the mustard and vinegar.

Mustard bacon mixture

Toss the bacon mixture with the potatoes. Add boiled egg or diced herbs. Serve warm or cold.

The finished potato salad

The bottom line: Will I make this again? Of course I will. It is amazing that only a few ingredients can create something so good. I hope to make this salad with my own home grown potatoes (maybe even the potatoes growing in the compost pile).

Boxty Irish Potato Pancakes

Boxties

 A boxty is version of a potato pancake. It is a traditional Northern Ireland dish. Boxty is from the Gaelic word bac-stai,  bac means shelf and stai means fire. They were originally grilled over and open fire.  It is also known as Arán bocht tí’  which means "poor house bread." They were the food of the Irish peasants.
What is interesting about a boxty is it is made from both mashed and grated raw potatoes.  This gives the potato pancake a thicker cake-like texture.
These are rich and I hate to say it but a bit bland for our family's taste. The solution? We served them with a spicy breakfast sausage. The boxty was a perfect compliment to the sausage.

There is a famous Irish rhyme:
Boxty on the griddle, boxty in the pan, If you can't make boxty, you'll never get your man

The boxty on the griddle is a dough version of the boxty (the first recipe) and boxty in the pan is the batter version (the second recipe). The only difference between the two recipes is the amount of milk. The first recipe you have a bread like dough that is shaped. The second you have batter that is dropped into the pan. I preferred the second recipe. I thought it made a lighter boxty.

Boxty
8 oz. (225 g) Mashed Potatoes
8 oz. (225 g) Grated Potatoes
2 Cups (250 g) of Flour
1 Tsp of Baking Powder
1 Tsp of Salt
1/4 Tsp of Freshly Ground Black Pepper
1 Tbsp of Unsalted Butter, Melted
1/2 Cup (120 ml) of Milk

Wring out the liquid from the grated potatoes and combine with the mashed potatoes. Shift the dry ingredients together and add to the potatoes.

Mashed and grated potatoes

Add the melted butter and stir. Slowly add the milk until you have a pliable dough.

It works just like bread

Knead lightly on a floured surface and divide into a flat cake.

Flatten pancake- I forgot to make the cross mark

Make a cross on the cake (like you do for soda bread) and fry the cake in a bit of bacon grease, sausage grease, butter, or oil. Turn the cakes when the edges start to turn golden brown. Repeat with remaining dough.

Fried boxty

Boxty II

8 oz. (225 g) Mashed Potatoes
8 oz. (225 g) Grated Potatoes
2 Cups (250 g) of Flour
1 Tsp of Baking Powder
1 Tsp of Salt
1/4 Tsp of Freshly Ground Black Pepper
1 Tbsp of Unsalted Butter, Melted
1 Cup (240 ml) of Milk

Wring out the liquid from the grated potatoes and combine with the mashed potatoes. Shift the dry ingredients together and add to the potatoes. Add the melted butter and stir. Add the milk until you have a pancake batter like consistency.

Just like pancake batter

Drop the batter into a frying pan and fry the cakes in a bit of bacon grease, sausage grease, butter, or oil. Turn the cakes when they start to turn golden brown on the edges.

Boxties

 The bottom line: will I make this again? Yes, on a cold winter's day when we have a full day of skiing or sledding ahead of us, I will make this.

Beer Potato Pancakes

St. Patrick's Day is my favorite holiday. Ok- it helps that it's my birthday and that I'm part Irish. Every year I have corned beef and cabbage. This year I decided to blog my dinner, so I thoroughly confused my family by having our St. Patrick's Day dinner several days early. Maybe this year we will go to an Irish pub for my birthday and someone else can cook. I can almost taste the Black Velvet (half Guinness and half hard cider) that I am going to order.
This is the first year that I added potato pancakes to our meal, and I am glad I did. I love potato pancakes and I used the leftovers for corned beef hash the next morning.
The beer you use in this recipe is important because you will taste the beer in the potato pancakes (at least I did). When we cook with beer, we usually have a debate over which beer to use. Strange, we don't have a debate over any of the other ingredients - but the beer you chose makes that much difference and there are so many to chose from. It is a wonderful problem to have.
For this recipe, I recommend a light lager or ale. Specific beers I would use: Harp's Lager (in keeping with the St. Patrick's Day theme),  O'Malley's Cream Ale, Shiner's Dortmunder Style Spring Ale, Leffe's Belgium Blonde (Pale Ale), Boulevard Pale Ale, and  Blue Moon Belgium White Ale. I happen to love all of these beers so it is likely that we will have one or more of them in our house.  I don't cook with a beer that I wouldn't drink - Please note- If I left a beer off that you would recommend, I am in the middle of the country and I am limited to the beers in my region. Please add your recommended beer to the comments section.

Beer Potato Pancakes

1 Onion (170 g)
3 Potatoes (785 g)
1 Large Egg, Beaten
3 Tbsp of Unbleached All Purpose Flour

1 Cup (250 ml) of Ale or Lager
2 Tbsp of Vegetable or Canola Oil

Grate onions and potatoes (either by hand or in a food processor). Beat an egg in a medium size bowl and add the potatoes and rest of the ingredients to the egg (except the oil).


Add the oil to a skillet on medium-high heat. Add potato mixture to the hot skillet and cook on one side until the edges are turning brown. Flip the pancake and cook until crispy. We serve with sour cream. This recipe makes a lot of potato pancakes, which is good because I have uses for the leftovers.

Mashed Potato Pancakes

Leftover mashed potatoes? I have the solution: mashed potato pancakes. My mother used to make these when I was a kid, and I did not like them at all. However, my mom and brother loved them. Sometimes I thought we had mashed potatoes for dinner so we could have potato pancakes for breakfast.
Now that my taste buds have grown up, I like them. I still prefer the traditional potato pancakes made out of grated raw potatoes.  Maintaining the pattern, my daughter loves traditional potato pancakes but does not like the ones made out of mashed potatoes. She will probably like them someday and try to feed them to her daughter.

Mashed Potato Pancakes
1 Tbsp Butter
Mashed Potatoes

1 Tbsp of butter in skillet

Form the mashed potatoes into patties.

Melt butter in non-stick skillet over medium heat.

Potato patties ready to be fried

Place mashed potato patties in skillet. Cook for approximately 5 minutes on each side until golden brown.

Golden brown potato pancakes

The potato pancakes are even better if your leftover mashed potatoes include cheese. The potatoes I used were leftover from a pirogi filling so they were mixed with cheese and caramelized onions. Yum!!

The bottom line: will we make these again? Yes, whenever we have leftover mashed potatoes we will make these.  However, I will not make mashed potatoes for dinner so I can have these for breakfast. If I have plain mashed potatoes, I will add cheese and either garlic or caramelized onions to the potatoes before making the potato patties.