Tag: side dishes

Roasted Smashed Potatoes with Leeks

Food blogging has taken me to some truly amazing places (front cover of The Wall Street journal, anyone?), but none as priceless as some of the friendships I’ve made through the process. Melinda of Kitchen-Tested has become my “lets-pig-out-at-this-restaurant” buddy, my recipe idea sounding board, my support coach (“You can do this Chanie!”) but most of all, my friend (awwwww….can I grab you a tissue Mel?). So, aside from being an amazing chef (her desserts are so impressive, she should open a bakery), Melinda is totally fearless in the kitchen. She comes up with the craziest stuff you’ve ever seen [like bagel, lox and cream cheese hamantaschen! pecan pie bacon (kosher bacon) and falafel mozzarella sticks!] but she also knows how to keep it simple with down-home-delicious-recipes [like puff pastry potato roses, classic red velvet cake and Texas-style dry rub brisket). I’m honored to have Melinda guest post for me today, and I hope you enjoy her Rosh-Hashanah inspired recipe! Welcome Mel!

Today is a great day because I get to write a recipe for Busy in Brooklyn! Hi, I’m Melinda Strauss and my blog is Kitchen-Tested.com. Ever heard of me??? Basically, you all want to be me today! Chanie is one of the coolest people I know and her masterful recipes blow me away EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. Chanie loves tahini, cookie butter, marzipan and long walks on the beach. But really, Chanie loves her family and that’s why I’m here on her blog. She recently gave birth to the most beautiful baby girl and all I can say is “Mazal Tov…now move to Long Island!!!” Oh, did I say that out loud? Seriously, my dream is for Chanie to become Busy in The Five Towns so she can live closer to me and I can babysit while she takes naps and maybe goes out for those long walks on the beach.

So about this recipe…sure, you can eat mashed potatoes or you can eat roasted potatoes but why not get a bit of both in every bite? I love this recipe because it’s a one-pan-wonder packed with crazy amounts of flavor. The potatoes are steamed in the oven then smashed, drizzled with tons of olive oil and garlic and roasted with leeks. I love how the leeks get super crunchy in the oven and act as added texture for the potatoes, which are soft in the center and crispy around the edges. The fun thing about this recipe is that you can add any of your favorite spices to the potatoes and you can even throw some fresh whole garlic in the pan. Go nuts and make these roasted smashed potatoes your own!

Roasted Smashed Potatoes with Leeks

1 pound baby red potatoes
1 cup water
1 large leek, only white part sliced thinly (green tops discarded)
1/4 cup olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
salt and pepper, to taste
fresh parsley, for garnish

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Place potatoes on a sheet pan, pour water in pan and cover with foil. Bake for 30 minutes, until the potatoes are fork tender. Drain any remaining water from the pan and set the potatoes aside for 10 minutes.
Stir together the olive oil and minced garlic. Add the leeks to the pan then drizzle the potatoes and leeks with 3 tablespoons of the garlic oil to coat all sides.
Space the potatoes out evenly in the pan and smash each one down with a potato smasher, the back of a heavy cup or the palm of your hand. Flatten the potatoes to around 1/2 inch thick. Don’t worry if some break apart. Each potato will smash in a unique way.
Drizzle the potatoes with the remaining oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast the potatoes and leeks for 30-40 minutes, until golden brown and crispy around the edges. Sprinkle with fresh parsley and serve.

Related Recipes:

honey mustard roasted potatoes
cream of leek soup with crispy leeks

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Starters & Sides Made Easy Review & Giveaway

Leah Schapira and Victoria Dwek know a thing or two about food. Leah is the author of Fresh & Easy Kosher Cooking and co-founder of CookKosher.com, and Victoria is the managing editor of Whisk Magazine. The pair are always surrounded by good food, so they decided to join forces and write a cookbook together. Passover Made Easy was their first collection of favorite triple-tested recipes, and now, the two have done it again. They have moved on to create a series of “Made Easy” cookbooks including Starters & Sides as well as Kids Cooking (review coming soon).

There’s something nice about a cookbook series. It’s familiar and you know what you’re gonna get. In the case of the “Made Easy” series, that’s great graphics, building block recipes, plating ideas and great kitchen tips. I especially love the friendly “conversations” that Leah & Victoria have throughout the book. They are set out in speech bubbles, making you feel as if you’re standing in the kitchen with two friends.

Starters & Sides Made Easy starts out with an elaborate spice guide to help guide you through the different herbs, spices and blends. It continues with building block recipes and chapters on vegetables, grains, meat & chicken, fish, dairy and sweet. The book finishes with ideas on how to convert some of the dishes from starters to mains. Each recipe is accompanied by a beautifully composed photo of the dish.

Some of the recipes I look forward to trying, include broccoli stuffed artichokes, sticky red potatoes, Yemenite yellow orzo rice, crispy beef, falafel cigars,  silan chicken salad, tangy tilapia nuggets, parmesan sticks, and whiskey sweet potatoes.

My only issue with this book is the size. I know it sounds weird but it sticks out of my cookbook shelf because it’s wider than most cookbooks.

GIVEAWAY DETAILS:

Busy In Brooklyn is giving a copy of Starters & Sides Made Easy! To enter the giveaway, you must:

1. Share you favorite Chanukah dish in the comments below.
2. Follow Busy In Brooklyn on Facebook, Twitter. Pinterest, and/or Instagram (one entry per media channel you follow – please specify which ones you follow in the comments).

Winner will be chosen at random on Wednesday, December 4th, 8:00 PM.

BONUS RECIPES FROM STARTERS & SIDES MADE EASY:

Coelslaw Balls with Jalapeno Dip
reprinted with permission from Starters & Sides Made Easy, Artscroll Shaar Press

Ingredients:
16 oz. coleslaw mix
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tsp course black pepper
1/4 cup flour
3 tablespoons cornstarch
oil for frying

Jalapeno Dip:
3/4 cup mayonnaise
2 scallions, chopped
1 jalapeño pepper, seeded, ribs removed, chopped
2 tbsp water
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
pinch coarse black pepper
pinch sugar

Instructions:
1. Place the cabbage in a large strainer and sprinkle with the salt. Let stand for 15 minutes. Using both hands, squeeze cabbage very well to remove the excess water (it wont look watery to the eye, but plenty of liquid will come out when you squeeze).
2. In a large bowl, combine cabbage, garlic, pepper, flour and cornstarch. Mix until mixture becomes dough-like. Using a tablespoon and damp hands, form into falafel-sized balls.
3. Heat 2-3 inches oil in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Fry balls in hot oil until golden on all sides, 4-5 minutes total.
4. Prepare the jalapeno dip: in a small bowl, combine mayonnaise, scallions, jalapeno pepper, water, lemon juice, salt, pepper and sugar. Using an immersion blender, blend until smooth. Serve alongside coleslaw balls.

YIELD: 20-30 balls
AHEAD: You can freeze these balls, even after they are already fried. To reheat, spread them on a baking sheet and heat, uncovered in a preheated oven for about 10 minutes.

Cheesy Onion Rolls
reprinted with permission from Starters & Sides Made Easy, Artscroll Shaar Press

Ingredients:

2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp active dry yeast
1 tbsp butter
1 cup water

Filling:

3 tbsp butter, melted
1 onion, diced
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese
1 egg. lightly beaten

Instructions:

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine flour, salt, sugar, yeast, butter, and water. Knead until dough is smooth. Remove to a greased bowl. Cover with a clean dish towel and let rise for 1 hour.
2. Prepare the filling: combine butter and onions.
3. Divide dough into 8 balls. Flatten each ball into a circle or square. Place a spoonful onion mixture and 2 spoons cheese in the center and fold two ends over the filing. Place an additional spoon onion mixture on top and fold over two remaining ends.
4. Brush with beaten egg and bake for 24 minutes.

AHEAD: These rolls with freeze nicely. Cover and rewarm when ready to serve.

RELATED POSTS: Passover Made Easy Cookbook Review

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Miso-Glazed Eggplant


If you’re anything like me, you might go home from a restaurant and dream about a dish you’ve had that was simply, stunning. (Forgive my adjective but having just watched a double episode of MasterChef, I must have heard Gordon Ramsay use it to describe food at least 5 times). Recently, I dined at the uber chic Prime Ko with my mom to celebrate Mother’s Day. This is not something we do yearly, but my mom broached the idea, and since I love eating out (especially at upscale Japanese restaurants), I was more than happy to oblige. The food was so good, I’m thinking we  should make it our thing.

My mom frequents restaurants pretty often, so she was quite familiar with Prime Ko’s menu. She highly recommended their eggplant dengaku, a roasted eggplant dish with a yuzu-sesame miso glaze. Her recommendation was spot on. The eggplant was so good, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. The next day, I promptly googled “Dengaku sauce” and began my research for a copycat recipe. 4 eggplants and 2 bags of miso later, I hit the jackpot.

This was my first time working with Japanese ingredients like miso and sake. Miso is a fermented soybean paste mixed with rice or barley. The longer the miso is aged, the deeper the flavor. Young miso is white, light and sweet, while older miso is thick, dark and rich. Kosher miso is available through Eden Organics, ranging from Shiro and  Genmai (light) to Mugi and hacho (dark). Miso lends an amazing depth of flavor to dishes, giving food an umami flavor that keeps you coming back for more.

Sake is an alcoholic beverage of Japanese origin that is made from fermented rice. It is also referred to as rice wine. While sake is used in Japanese cooking, it is also served as a chilled beverage from ceramic flasks called tokkuri. You may have seen it served in small cups (called choko) in some Asian restaurants.

Miso-Glazed Eggplant

1 eggplant
1 tbsp sesame oil
3 tbsp white miso
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tbsp sake
1 tbsp mirin
1 tsp sesame seeds
1/4 cup scallions, thinly sliced

Method:

Preheat oven to 400. Cut eggplant in half lengthwise. Using a small knife, score four or five diagonal cuts into the eggplant flesh, taking care not to cut through to the skin. Repeat at a 45-degree angle to get a diamond-shaped pattern. Brush the eggplant with sesame oil and sprinkle with salt. Bake, cut-size-up for 30 minutes. Remove the eggplant from the oven and turn it cut-side-down. Bake an additional 20 minutes.

While the eggplant is roasting, prepare the glaze. Put the miso, sugar, soy sauce, sake and mirin in a pan and bring to a simmer. Whisk the glaze and cook for several minutes, until thickened,

Remove eggplant from oven and turn cut-side-up. Brush the eggplant generously with miso glaze. Return to the oven and broil 3-5 minutes until caramelized.

Garnish the eggplant with sesame seeds and scallions. Serve immediately.


1 year ago: spaghetti squash with sauteed spinach & mushrooms
2 years ago: turkey & pastrami wrapped asparagus

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