le blog de tranny

It often happens that I’m feeling too lazy to leave the house on a weeknight, ruling out the options of eating out or grocery shopping to supplement a meal. Our in-house starch options that we always keep on hand are rice, polenta and pasta, all of which I tire off (especially when pairing them with a simple saute of sausage, leafy greens, onion, garlic and whatever other CSA veg we have on hand that I can throw in the pan, usually with tomato sauce or chicken broth – my default weeknight meal). Even on a Tuesday night (the day before we pick up the box when all of our CSA resources have been exhausted), I can usually find a bag of potatoes in the crisper, left over from this week’s or last week’s or last month’s CSA box. It seems like it’s always potato season at Terra Firma, and a look at the “What’s Growing” calendar on their website confirms this suspicion. It makes sense that the potatoes are usually the last thing to go… they last a while before going off, prepping them is time-consuming, and the roasted potato/french fry side dish only works with so many entrees. But being so fed up (and embarrassed, really) with making the same tired old meal has changed my outlook slightly: now I’ll put in that extra effort to peel and chop potatoes because the slight variation they afford to my weeknight mainstay makes it all worth it. So here’s three ways to transform a potato into a starchy medium that soaks up the juices from your dinner entree. You could probably make any of these potato dishes into an entree actually, with a side salad and the right topping.

Okay, I lied. This first potato recipe is actually pretty labor-intensive for a weeknight. I didn’t make it for a run-of-the-mill weeknight dinner actually; I made it for friends on Valentine’s Day this past February. But I did serve it with the sauteed sausage and veg I usually make for less fancy occasions, so it kind of fits the theme of this post. The recipe is from Bon Appetit, so of course it requires kind of a ridiculous amount of effort. Basically, you chop up potatoes until they are the size of grains of arborio rice and then you cook them as you would risotto.

If you don’t feel like busting out some hardcore chopping skillz, then you could always just bust out the grater and make some impromptu potato pancakes! I think I hate grating even more than I hate chopping. It’s just so dangerous; I think it’s way easier to accidentally grate part of your finger/fingernail than to chop a finger off. Let’s hope I’m never proven wrong (I’ve had a couple close calls)! This is the best potato pancakes recipe I’ve found so far, though I don’t think I’ve ever followed it to a T (due to ingredients constraints). I usually peel and grate as many potatoes as I can find, grate an onion, pat the gratings dry with some paper towels, mix in ~3 eggs if I have them and ~2 spoonfuls of flour (we only have whole-wheat flour at the mo and that works just fine), season the mixture with s&p and paprika, and fry em up in some canola oil! The flour/egg amounts are negotiable.. it’s just good to have at least some egg and not too much flour. I mean you don’t want them to turn out like pancakes stuffed with potatoes.. you want them to be pancakes.. made out of potatoes. I always eyeball it. Drying the gratings is really important though.

Here’s how I ate em last time:

But the time before I made a simple tzaziki-like sauce to go with it (yogurt, minced garlic, herbs, no mint though).

Here’s another potato pancake type thing. I think it’s actually more of a thin Spanish omelet.. I ripped the idea off of Paul’s bff Brian, whose parents live in Spain. Basically you use a mandolin or a very sharp knife to cut the potatoes into thin discs, like you would for scalloped potatoes. Then you heat a pan with canola (or some other frying) oil in it until it’s very hot, almost smoking. Fry the potatoes until they are crisp on both sides, in batches if the pan isn’t big enough. Season with s&p, red pepper flakes, thyme, whatever.

When all the potatoes are sufficiently crispy, arrange them in the pan so that they are overlapping and form a solid layer. Beat a few eggs and pour them over the potatoes. Cook the omelet, covered, until the top is just a bit moist. Then flip the omelet (or break it in half like I did).

Cut the omelet into slices and serve, preferably with something spicy!