My mom and dad were in town visiting last weekend and for their first night here I cooked up another batch of the Stuffed Chicken with Herb Gravy that I posted last week, but this time made it with some creamy, goat cheese polenta as a side instead of the mashed spuds I used the first time around. It was an awesome combo, but as is always my custom, I made way more polenta than we needed as a side dish, so poured the rest of it (while it was still hot from the pan and pliable) into a nice even layer inside of an 8" x 8" baking dish for use later.
Side Dishes
Honeyed Sunchokes
Despite their name, sunchokes, often called Jerusalem Artichokes, are not from Jerusalem nor are they artichokes. Members of the daisy family, the plants that grow above these tubers resemble sunflowers and can grow to 10 feet tall. The Italian word for sunflower is "girasole", and it is thought that Italian immigrants that settled in the Northeast US, where sunchokes were abundant, attached this name to them and over time it morphed from girasol to Jerusalem. Who knows how they got their name really, but this explanation is as pausible as any other I've found, so I'm sticking with it.
Onion Carbonara
No, you aren't hallucinating, the title of this post is ONION Carbonara, and yes, I already know what you're thinking because I thought the same thing too when I first heard about this dish.
"He must be insane…there's no way anybody would eat a whole bowl of onions masquerading as pasta, I don't care how much bacon and cream you throw at it!"
That's right, I thought those exact same thoughts so I know where you're at, but stay with me because as odd sounding as this dish is, it totally rocks.
Middle Eastern Barley Salad
This little ditty is something I whipped up with some leftover cooked barley from a Cooking Matters class I taught last week. It was the first class of a six week session and was all about healthy cooking basics, with a focus on the My Plate diet recommendations. Given that My Plate recommends a diet that leans heavily towards whole grains, fruits and vegetables, and looks to dairy and lean protiens (meats) to play a lesser role, I wanted to cook a meal with our students that pretty well reflected this thinking.
Fall Root Vegetable Puree
Here's a quick side dish to help you take advantage of all the tasty Fall produce showing up in the markets these days. It's also a great one for getting your kids to try some new veggies like turnips, rutabagas, or parsnips. It would take a great deal of arm twisting to get my kids to try one of those "weird" white veggies, but blended with carrots and sweet potatoes as they are here, it was a piece of cake.
Pop-Squish Roasted Potatoes
A strange name for a dish, I know, but it was the only name I could come up with where I'd be sure these masterful spuds wouldn't be confused with any other taters. I first thought of calling them "twice cooked potatoes" because they are first boiled, then roasted, but I didn't want them to be confused with "twice baked potatoes". Next, I thought that "smashed baby potatoes" might work, but was concerned that they would be confused with a more traditional "smashed or mashed potatoes".
Brussels Sprouts with Bacon and Apples
It's been a while since we've had brussels sprouts around here so when I saw some small, lovely ones at the market the other day I just had to buy them. For those of you out there like me that HATED them as a kid, I urge you to give them another try. If your childhood experience with the little buggers was anything like mine, and you submitted to eating overcooked, sour, disintegrating slug-like morsels whenever your mom whipped them up (sorry mom, I know that's the way everyone cooked them back then), then it's time to give them another try.
Spiced Orange Chicken with Cinnamon Couscous
This dish was inspired by one I read about while on our ski vacation in February. As you know, we are BIG fans of braises here at Oui, Chef, and with the resurgence of cold weather here in the northeast (it was 17 ℉ with the wind chill this morning….no, I'm not kidding!), it seemed the perfect time to share this heart warming recipe with you all.
Creamed Kale
This recipe is dedicated to my friend Liz who writes the great blog Liz The Chef , and who upon learning of this dish in my Bittersweet Chocolate Tart post on Tuesday, said that as good as the tart looked, she was really looking forward to hearing more about my creamed kale.
How's that for a switch!
Twice Baked Curried Sweet Potatoes
My never ending quest to turn the kids onto sweet potatoes in a form other than french fries had me crafting these twice-baked darlings the other day. These are a breeze to put together, are infinitely customizable to your tastes, and offer a nice mix of flavors and textures that our kids really liked.