Not just for eating with mini marshmallows

I am referring, of course, to sweet potatoes. This tasty vegetable is good so many other ways, and now that I have a lot of them floating around the flat (they are in LOTS of baby food recipes), I'm always trying to figure out ways to use up the leftover ones.

I kept thinking about something I am pretty sure I once saw on a restaurant menu - sweet potato and goat's cheese quesadillas. I tried to find a recipe online, but didn't come up with much. That idea and this recipe inspired this dish, which, although it is most certainly NOT conventional Mexican or Tex-Mex cooking, is spicy and tasty and a great easy weeknight meal.


Is there any science in this? Well, not really. But I will explain why I chose to use grated sweet potatoes instead of boiled and mashed, as in this recipe. Basically, it was down to a texture thing. When you boil potatoes they get very mushy and sticky, and although I LOVE mashed potatoes or sweet potatoes, having a paste spread over my quesadilla just didn't seem right. Grating the potato and letting it steam with the onion, jalapeno and spices not only gives a firmer texture but also allows the flavors to blend together in the pan.



Sweet potato quesadillas
1 T olive oil
1/2 a small yellow onion, chopped (about 1/2 c)
1-2 jalapenos, chopped
2 medium-sized sweet potatoes (about 1 lb total weight), peeled and grated
salt and pepper to taste
chili powder to taste (1/8-1/4 tsp)
2 green onions, chopped
About 3 oz soft mild goat's cheese (chevre), sliced or crumbled
2 large or 4 small flour tortillas
sour cream (or yogurt)
salsa (I used regular tomato salsa, but I think a salsa verde might have been really good)

Sautee the onion in the olive oil over medium heat for 3-4 minutes (use a non-stick pan that has a lid, and if you can one that can also accommodate your tortillas when folded in half). Add the jalapeno and sautee an additional minute. Then add the sweet potatos and sautee yet another minute. Cover the pan with a lid and let the potatoes steam for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally so they don't stick.

Cover half of each tortilla with the sweet potato mixture. Sprinkle with green onions and goat's cheese. Fold the tortillas in half and place in a frying pan over medium heat (for ease in cleaning up, I suggest just using the pan you cooked the sweet potatoes in). You really don't need to add any oil or cooking spray if you use a non-stick pan, but you can if you want. Cook until golden brown on each side (about 2 minutes per side), cut into wedges and serve with sour cream (yogurt) and salsa.

Avoid the Noid

I admit it. I am a terrible blogger. And going back to work hasn't helped, especially since my job involves lots of writing and staring at a computer screen, so that's kind of the last thing I want to do when I'm not at work. But I'll do my best.

Pizza is my favorite savory food. (I say savory because I think ice cream and cupcakes might have it beat in a favorite food contest.) I could seriously eat it every day. But it has to be GOOD pizza. The frozen, grocery store varieties can sometimes suffice, and I have definitely made pizzas using bagels or English muffins for crusts, but homemade pizza crust it my favorite. Unfortunately, I haven't had much luck with the ones I've tried to make.

A few weeks ago, I made yet another attempt. I have tried no fewer than 10 different recipes and variations on them to try and find pizza dough that was good. When I lived in the US, I used to just buy pizza dough from the grocery store, but they don't have that here in London. Apparently most pizza places will sell you raw dough if you ask, but I've never tried that. I had a couple of recipes I used in the US with my breadmaker, but those weren't that great - the crust always ended up too tough, didn't rise enough, didn't roll/stretch out well, was too yeasty, or just somehow wasn't right. And then I stumbled upon my new favorite cooking blog (seriously, it is my go-to cookbook now), and it had a recipe for pizza dough, as well as a pizza 101 posting that gave me the brilliant tip about warming up the oven and turning it off to reduce the time it takes for the dough to rise.

So I made Smitten's pizza dough (doubled the recipe and used half wholemeal flour) and had pizza dough for two thin crust pizzas. Each was enough to feed 2 hungry people. This is fast food and make-ahead because you can make the dough ahead of time and store it in the fridge. I thought maybe overnight would be all you'd want, since the yeast keeps on working and the dough rises more, but after a look around the internet, I see that apparently you can store it for longer - different sites say anywhere from 3-6 days. Just put the dough in a resealable plastic bag sprayed with cooking spray. You can also freeze it; from what I've read it seems like the best thing to do to preserve the texture is to roll out the dough and par-bake it before freezing.


We chose to top our pizza with an American classic, and my favorite pizza topping combination: pepperoni, mushrooms and mozzarella. Slice the mushrooms very thinly, and with pizza topping, less is more definitely, otherwise you end up with a watery, gooy mess.


I also made my own pizza sauce, but you certainly don't have to. To do this, I sauteed some onions and garlic in olive oil and added jarred pureed tomatoes - what they call passata in the UK (I guess in the US you could use tomato sauce or canned pureed tomatoes, depending on how chunky you want your sauce to be). I let it cook for a while, seasoned as needed, and added chopped fresh basil in at the end. I've also done this with peeled fresh tomatoes, which I think is better, but is more time consuming and requires good tomatoes.


Once your pizza crust is rolled out and topped, pop it in a pre-heated oven (my pizza stone lives with my brother in the US now, so I just put it on parchment paper, sprinkled with cornmeal, on a baking sheet) at HIGH heat and cook for about 10 minutes (but check it often starting at 5 minutes because ovens vary a lot and you don't want it to burn).


Mmmmmm....I want to make this again NOW...

Have some tacos and beer and let ourselves go

OK, this post is about neither tacos nor beer. But it is about my near obsession with good Tex-Mex food, and the title is from a song I like, so deal with it. "But wait," you say, "you live in London. How could you possibly get decent Tex-Mex there?" The truth is, you can get acceptable Tex-Mex here (and there are good burritos here and there) but until we found these places, I had to rely on my cooking skills to get us through.

The first thing I had to master was salsa. This is not my recipe - it's my friend H's (actually I believe it's her stepmom's). I've been making it so long from memory now, I think my proportions might be a bit different, but for all intents and purposes, it is hers. This is my first foray into blogging food photos, so bear with me if they suck...

Homemade Salsa
What you need:1/2 medium yellow onion (I used about 2/3 of the one pictured because it was a bit small.)
About 3 medium jalepenos (You can use fresh, but I like the canned ones that have the carrots and onions in them. I used La Preferida brand this time, but others are fine.)
2-3 cloves garlic
About 1/4 c cilantro leaves (called coriander in the UK)
4 400 g cans peeled whole plum tomatoes (In the US, I used 2 large cans - can't remember the weights of those!)
Salt to taste (about 1 1/2 tsp)
Splash cider or white vinegar (about 1/2 tsp)
Food processor

Cut the onion, garlic and jalepenos into chunks and whiz in a food processor into small pieces. Add the cilantro and process a bit more (you don't want to obliterate the cilantro, so wait until the other stuff is pretty much done before adding it).Transfer the onion, etc. to a bowl.






Begin processing the tomatoes; I do one can at a time (about 4 tomatoes). Just pulse them 3-4 times so that they stay a bit chunky. If you overprocess, you'll end up with "salsa water" (as H says). As each batch is finished, add it to the onion, etc. in the bowl.






Stir everything up, add the salt and vinegar, and taste. Remember you can always add more jalepeno (tip: use the liquid from the jalepeno can to add a bit more spice without having to process another chili), cliantro, salt, etc. Store in the fridge, and it should last for a couple of weeks. Also, the flavors will blend as the salsa sits, so let it stand for at least a couple of hours before making any final adjustments to the taste.

I've been making quesadillas in various forms for ages. But they are perfect with the salsa, and also helped us get our Tex-Mex fix when there were no restaurants for us to frequent. Plus, I promised them in my first post about fast food.

Easy Cheese Quesadillas
Flour tortillas
Shredded cheese (I use mature/sharp cheddar here, but Pepper Jack, Jack or a Mexican blend would all be fine.)
Non-stick spray (e.g., Pam) (You can use vegetable oil, but I prefer this lower-fat version)

Heat a skillet (big enough for the tortilla to lie flat) over medium-low heat (if it's too hot the tortilla will brown and burn before the cheese melts). Spray with non-stick spray and add the tortilla. Cook for about 10 seconds on one side to soften, then turn over. Add the cheese so it covers half the tortilla, then fold the tortilla over. Cook until brown on the bottom, then flip and continue cooking until the other side is brown.

Serve with salsa, guac (see below), sour cream (or plain yogurt for a low-fat sub if, like me, you live in a place where low-fat sour cream doesn't exist) and refried beans.

Variations: Make these slightly less easy, but certainly more nutritious, by adding some chicken breast chunks sauteed with onions (and peppers if you like them) and chili powder. Sauteed spinach and/or mushrooms are also a good filling.


Since I also promised quick-fix guac in that first post, here it is:

Guacamole
Mash up a ripe avocado (if it is not ripe when you buy it, stick it in a paper bag for a day or so to speed up the ripening). Add a squeeze of lime juice (lemon will do, or really you can leave it out altogether), some salt and pepper, and a couple of spoonfuls of salsa (homemade if you've got it; if not jarred is certainly fine). That's it!

Please pass the sodium metabisulphite

The subject of my first real post might not actually qualify as being a tip, but it is something that's important to me. So much for keeping to a theme...

Possibly more than the US, the UK is full of what they call 'ready meals'; in the US these are known as 'TV dinners'. Now I've eaten my share of Stouffer's lasagna and M&S chicken tikka masala, and I'm a sucker for the grocery store brand 'fresh' tortellini and soups. I also eat out a lot (well, not so much now that I have a baby, but the guys at the pizza place up the street are now concerned if we haven't ordered take-out in a while). And sometimes you just need a Big Mac and fries washed down with a McFlurry...

I'm not knocking any of these things, but I am starting to appreciate the value of a home-cooked meal, in which the ingredients do not include sodium metabisulphite, autolyzed yeast extract and 2 tablespoons of salt per serving. Perhaps this has something to do with my mother, who pretty much made home-cooked dinner every night while I was growing up (more about that will come in a future post, I think). Maybe it's because I like cooking, or because the older I get the more I need to be careful about what I'm eating (interesting aside - in high school I typically ate seasoned curly fries, a Coke and Little Debbie snack cakes for lunch, either Swiss Cake Rolls or Nutty Bars).

The point of all this is that although you really cannot make a homemade dinner in the same time as it takes to order take-out or heat up jarred soup in the microwave like some of those TV chefs would like you to believe (don't you just hate Rachael Ray and her "In the time you've just wasted sitting on your butt on the couch eating Cheetos and watching TV, I'll have made a delicious and healthy meal"?), you really can cook food at home fairly easily. Now is where the 'tips' for today come in - some of my standby 'recipes' for easy/fast cooking at home.

First, two pasta dishes that aren't spaghetti with meat sauce or boxed mac-n-cheese.

Clear Out the Fridge/Pantry Pasta
Cook some pasta-spaghetti, ziti, whatever.

While that's cooking, sautee some cut up bacon or pancetta cubes with some chopped onion (yellow, green, shallots - whatever you have) and garlic. Alternatively, you can chop up some ham and add that after sauteeing the onion/garlic in some olive oil. If you don't want the meat, leave it out (duh). Toss in some red pepper flakes (careful with these; a little goes a long way) and some dried Italian herbs (oregano, basil, etc; in the UK I use Sainsbury's Mediterranean style mixed herbs, which contains oregano, basil, bay, sage and thyme).

Then throw in whatever veggies you want. I typically use frozen peas (no need to thaw, they'll heat up in the pan) and chopped fresh tomato (add this towards the end to prevent it from dissolving into nothing). Mushrooms also work great, as does asparagus or spinach. Tip: Frozen peas are almost always better than fresh because they are frozen so soon after being picked and 'fresh' peas usually aren't all that fresh.

Toss everything with the cooked pasta (you can add a little pasta-cooking water to help bring things together), add some fresh herbs if you want (parsley, basil), grind some black pepper and grate some fresh parmesan over. A tip about the cheese - freshly grated parmesan really tastes better than the alternatives. Please, NEVER buy parmesan cheese in a can. Also, it really is better (and I think cheaper) to buy a block and grate it yourself rather than buying it pre-grated from the store. Bon appetit!


The second pasta dish I just made up last weekend after we bought a ginormous bag of cherry tomatoes at Borough Market.

Margherita Pasta
First, roast the cherry tomatoes. Turn the oven to 200C/400F. Toss tomatoes in a baking dish with olive oil, dried Italian herbs (see above), 8 or so garlic cloves (don't peel-just throw in whole), salt, pepper and a few red pepper flakes. Basically you need enough tomatoes to create sauce for pasta for 2 people; I just put enough to make a single layer in my 9x13 Pyrex dish and that was enough. Bake for 10-15 minutes. They should be starting to burst open.

While the tomatoes are roasting, cook enough pasta (I used penne) for two hungry people. When the pasta's done (make the tomatoes wait for the pasta, not vice versa), toss with the tomatoes, garlic and all the pan juices.

Throw in some chopped fresh mozzarella (I used one large ball) and chopped fresh basil and parsley. Add some freshly ground pepper and freshly grated parmesan, and you're good to go. Oh, and be sure to take the garlic cloves out of the peel before eating them (I kind of like them smeared on bread more than in the pasta itself).


I was also going to write about my easy pizzas and quesadillas/guacamole, but that can wait for another time, as the baby's waking up from his nap now...