by Ryan Hayter, The Marigold Café | photo by Janis Jean Photography –
After many months of eating winter vegetables, you may have grown tired of cooking the same dishes week after week. It’s always fun to try a new recipe when you are out of ideas, or wish to spice up your catalogue of meals. Potatoes are a staple in many diets, and they happen to be a favourite in our household. There are numerous varieties of potatoes, and each has its own distinct flavour. Although most varieties are interchangeable, they all have unique qualities that are well suited to different applications. Red and new potatoes are great for boiling and salads, russets are best for baking and frying, and yellow potatoes are wonderful for roasting, mashing and soups. Choosing the best potato variety for your dish is a simple way to enhance your dining experience. Find my potato, cheddar, and thyme soup served often at our café; it’s a staff favourite!
Parmesan Potato Pavé (6-8 servings)
¼ cup butter
1 shallot, sliced
6 black peppercorns
1¼ tsp salt
3 sprigs fresh thyme
2 cups table cream
¼ cup milk
1 tsp truffle oil
½ cup grated parmesan
5 large yellow potatoes
Method:
- Melt butter in medium-sized saucepan.
- Sauté sliced shallot until soft.
- Add peppercorns, salt and sprigs of thyme. Sauté for 2 minutes.
- Add remaining ingredients (except potatoes) and lightly simmer for 10 minutes.
- Let cool 20 minutes. Then strain into a large stainless steel bowl.
- Thinly slice potatoes and add to cream mixture.
- Line a loaf pan with parchment paper and layer potatoes evenly into loaf pan.
- Pour remaining cream mixture over potatoes.
- Cover loaf pan with tinfoil and bake at 350°F for approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes or until a paring knife can be inserted easily into potatoes.
- Remove tinfoil and let potatoes cool for 2 hours.
- Place parchment paper on top of potatoes and place weights on top of parchment paper overnight in the fridge (cans of tomatoes or beans work nicely as weights).
- Remove weights and transfer pavé loaf to cutting board.
- Trim edges and slice pavé into desired portions.
- Preheat oven to 400°
- Heat large ovenproof skillet over medium heat with ¼ cup of canola oil.
- Sear pavé portions on each side then move pan to oven, and bake until heated through (approximately 15-20 minutes).
Gnocchi (4 mains or 6 appies)
2 lbs russet potatoes (approximately 4 large potatoes)
1¼ to 1½ cups all purpose flour
3 egg yolks (dark yolk/free-range eggs are best)
2 tbsp Kosher salt
Method:
- Preheat oven to 350°
- Bake skin-on whole potatoes on a thinly salted baking sheet for 1.5 hours until very soft.
- Let potatoes cool slightly. While still hot, slice potatoes in half and scoop cooked potato into medium-sized bowl.
- Add salt and mash potatoes well so there are no lumps. Transfer potatoes to a lightly-floured work surface.
- Make a well in the potatoes and add half of the flour.
- Place three egg yolks on top of flour, and then cover eggs with remaining flour.
- Using a pastry scraper, cut flour and eggs through potatoes until partially mixed.
- Knead mixture by hand until just blended. Dark yolk eggs help you to see when the mixture has been just blended; be careful not to over knead, as your gnocchi will become gummy.
- Press dough mixture into a ¾” thick circle, and then cut the circle into ½” thick strips.
- Roll each strip on a floured surface to form a log shape, keeping the log about ½” thick.
- Cut logs into ½” pieces of gnocchi.
- Boil a large pot of water. At a roiling boil add gnocchi and stir occasionally. Cook approximately 6 minutes or until gnocchi floats.
- Remove gnocchi with a slotted spoon onto a lightly-oiled baking tray.
- Toss gnocchi with the oil until lightly coated to prevent them sticking together.
- Fry gnocchi in a pan with a small amount of oil until browned and crispy on the outsides.
- Serve with your favourite sauce and accompaniments. For this article, I served mine in a cream sauce with bacon, walnuts, blue cheese, cherry tomatoes and arugula.
Potato, Cheddar & Thyme Soup (2 Litres)
1 medium yellow onion
1 rib celery
¼ cup butter
½ tbsp fennel seed
½ tbsp dried thyme
½ tbsp salt
¼ tsp smoked paprika
pinch of cayenne pepper
½ tbsp white sugar
2 medium yellow potatoes
1 litre water
1 tbsp chicken soup base
½ cup grated cheddar
125g Philadelphia cream cheese
1 cup whipping cream
Method:
- Peel and slice onion. Chop celery.
- In a medium saucepan sauté onion and celery in butter approximately 2 minutes.
- Add fennel seed, thyme, salt, smoked paprika, cayenne and sugar.
- Cook another 2 minutes.
- Peel and dice potatoes, add to the saucepan.
- Add water, soup base, cheddar and cream cheese to the saucepan and cook on medium heat until potatoes are completely falling apart (45 – 60 minutes.
- Add heavy cream to saucepan and then puree mixture with blender or hand mixer until very smooth.
- Adjust seasoning (salt, sugar, and cayenne) to taste.
