2009 August 06 | dinner with Julie

Archive for August 6th, 2009

Garlicky Roasted Potato Salad with Wilted Kale and Tahini Dressing, Bean Salad and Peach, Apricot and Plum Browned Butter Bliss

It was a three hour lunch today; the kind that ended as the five o’clock news started. It wasn’t a power lunch, or a liquid lunch on the patio, but a lingering lunch in our living room with friends we haven’t seen all summer. The upside of being self-employed is that you can often push stuff to the back of your plate when an opportunity arises to slack off all afternoon. The downside of being self-employed is that you can often push stuff to the back of your plate when an opportunity arises to slack off all afternoon.

I found us another keeper: roasted potato salad with kale and tahini dressing. It doesn’t sound overly exciting, but trust me, it is. I stumbled upon it while searching for a roasted kale recipe I heard of that supposedly makes kale taste just like chips – anyone want to become my new best friend by sending it to me? because if I can make my greens taste like chips, I’m golden. And I may just package them up and make a million bucks on the side.

For approximately half my life I’ve roasted potatoes for potato salad – the very best kind is made with bacon, and after you cook and crumble the bacon (in the oven, on a baking sheet, at around 400F), you roll chunks of potato around in the bacon drippings and roast them too. Guess what salty meat kale goes especially well with? Bacon.

The other brilliant part of this recipe is the Parmesan cheese – you sprinkle it over the roasting potatoes toward the end of their cooking time, so that it melts and turns golden and crunchy. This too I’ve done, with oven fries, but never with a potato salad. You then thinly slice kale (remove the ribs – they can be too tough) and toss it with the hot potatoes, and it’s enough to wilt the kale. Chard, I imagine, would work very well too. The dressing is just tahini, lemon juice, water and garlic, whirled to a paste. If you like tahini, you’re going to love this. For me, this would make a happy lunch or dinner, just all on its own.

Garlicky Roasted Potato Salad with Wilted Kale and Tahini Dressing

Adapted from Gourmet, December 2008. If you like, par-boil the potatoes until about halfway cooked to give them a head start.

4-6 slices bacon (optional)
2 lb. Yukon Gold potatoes, cut into big bite-sized pieces
canola or olive oil
4 garlic cloves (3 thinly sliced)
1/3 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
1/4 cup tahini
2 Tbsp. water
3 Tbsp. lemon juice
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2-3/4 lb. kale, stems and center ribs discarded and leaves very thinly sliced crosswise

Preheat oven to 400°F.

If you’re using bacon, lay the strips on a rimmed baking sheet and bake for 10-15 minutes, until crispy; remove the bacon and set aside, leaving all or some of the drippings on the pan.

Spread the potatoes out on a single layer on the pan, and shake it around to coat them, adding a drizzle of oil too if you think it needs it. (If you didn’t use bacon, just drizzle the potatoes liberally with oil and toss them about to coat.) Sprinkle with salt and pepper, bump up the oven temp to 450°F and roast for about 10 minutes, stirring once or twice. Stir in the sliced garlic and cook for 10 minutes more. Sprinkle with cheese and roast until cheese is melted and golden in spots, about 5 more minutes.

Meanwhile, purée tahini, water, lemon juice, remaining garlic clove and salt in a blender until smooth. Add a bit of water if the sauce is too thick.

Toss kale with hot potatoes and any garlic and oil remaining in pan, then toss with tahini sauce and salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately. Serves about 6.

We made lunch mostly of (fairly interesting) leftover salads – this, Ichiban salad (I made a fresh batch with leftover ingredients), and the bean salad still sitting in the fridge from W’s party – fortunately bean salad actually improves with time in the fridge. My favourite bean salad is made with a can of kidney beans, a can of chick peas, a can of mixed beans (you get a prettier variety this way), and some yellow and green wax beans, blanched for just a few minutes. Also some chopped red pepper and purple or green onion. (Hey, this is a salad – you don’t really need measurements, do you?) For the dressing, equal parts sugar and white vinegar, simmered on the stovetop until the sugar dissolves and it turns clear, at which point I stir in a squirt of mustard and shake of celery seed. Pour it over the bowl of beans while still warm, and shove it in the fridge overnight for it to do its thing. This is the way my grandma and great aunts made it, and I love it. Simple, sweet, vinegary marinated beans; very lowbrow compared to the million or so more sophisticated takes on a bean salad, but I’d always choose this one. It inspires me to stand at the fridge late at night and scoop ice-cold sweet beans into my mouth by the soupspoonful.

Now, this was a somewhat impromptu lunch. I figured we’d have those chocolate sandwich cookies from IKEA and fruit for dessert, until I remembered how dead easy it is to bake a browned butter bliss, and how wonderful it makes your house smell. When you go over to your friend’s house for lunch, it’s the best to be slammed in the face with the aroma of fresh baking the minute you walk in the door.

I used two peaches, two apricots, and a few small yellow plums. All unpeeled; just cut into thick wedges over the buttered pie plate and the thick batter spread overtop. Bliss. Simple bliss.

Browned Butter Bliss

(by way of Ligita’s Quick Apple Cake in Classic Home Desserts)

8 or so plums, thickly sliced, or 5 apricots, or 3 peaches, or any combination of these or other fruits
3/4 cup + 3 Tbsp. sugar (or to taste, according to the sweetness of the fruit)
pinch cinnamon (or to taste – optional)
1/2 cup butter
2 large eggs
1 cup all-purpose flour

Preheat the oven to 350°F and butter a pie plate.

Toss your fruit in the pie plate with about 2 Tbsp. sugar and sprinkle with cinnamon, if you like. Melt the butter in a small saucepan and keep cooking it, swirling the pan occasionally, for about 5 minutes or until it turns golden. Pour into a medium mixing bowl.

Stir the 3/4 cup of sugar into the butter, then the eggs, then the flour. Pour over the fruit and sprinkle with the last tablespoon of sugar.

Bake for 40-45 minutes, until golden and crusty, and the juices ooze from around the edges. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream, whipped cream or thick vanilla yogurt.

Serves 8.