Sweet Potato and Sausage Soup

* Adapted from Bon Appetit 2007: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Sweet-Potato-and-Sausage-Soup-240092

This soup is perfect for a winter meal, great as leftovers, and so easy to make! Can't say anything bad about this soup! And if you know a place to get good gluten-free rolls, this is a great way to use them! If you live in Philly, I love Amaranth Gluten Free Bakery, they sell some of their stuff at Whole Foods and are at the Rittenhouse Square farmer's market every Saturday.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
3/4 of a pound of hot Italian sausage
2 medium onions, chopped
3 large garlic cloves, minced

1 can crushed tomatoes (I think san marzano tomatoes are the best)

2 pounds red-skinned sweet potatoes (yams; about 2 large), peeled, quartered lengthwise, cut crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick slices
1 pound white-skinned potatoes, peeled, halved lengthwise, cut crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick slices
6 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1-2 9-ounce bags fresh spinach (depending on how much spinach you want in your soup)

Making the soup:

Heat 2 tablespoons oil in heavy large pot over medium-high heat. Add sausage; cook until brown, stirring often, about 8 minutes. Transfer sausage to paper towels to drain. Add onions and garlic to pot and cook until translucent, stirring often, about 5 minutes. Add all potatoes and cook until beginning to soften, stirring often, about 12 minutes. Add broth; bring to boil, scraping up browned bits. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until potatoes are soft, stirring occasionally, about 20 minutes. Using potato masher, mash some of potatoes in pot. Add browned sausage and tomatoes to soup. Stir in spinach and simmer just until wilted, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Serves 8

Braised Leeks and Potatoes

*Adapted from iflipforfood.com

Braising is the best technique EVER! So easy and so much flavor! This is a delicious and comforting side dish. Great for cold weather (although I think the first time I made this it was summer!)

Ingredients:
3 medium leeks (about 1 1/2 lbs with the dark green tops cut off)
1 1/2 lbs Yukon gold potatoes
1 1/2 tsp chopped fresh thyme
Pinch of ground nutmeg
Salt and pepper
1 1/4 cups chicken stock
2 tbsp butter, cut into small pieces
1/3 cup heavy cream

Preheat oven to 325 degrees and put chicken stock on the stove to simmer.

Preparing the leeks and potatoes:

Trim roots and green parts, quarter them lengthwise and slice into pieces about 3/4 inch thick. Rinse in a colander to get rid of the dirt and drain.

Peel the potatoes and cut into about 1-inch chunks.

Preparing the dish:

Butter the casserole dish, put the leeks and potatoes in, sprinkled them with the thyme and nutmeg, and generously season them with salt and pepper. Toss together, pour the hot broth over the leeks and potatoes and dot the top with pieces of butter.

Cover the casserole dish tightly with foil and put it in the oven. After about 45 minutes, remove the foil and stir the leeks and potatoes, if there is a lot of liquid left, continue cooking with foil off, about 40 minutes, until leeks and potatoes are very tender. Remove the dish, raise the oven temp to 425 and, after stirring the potatoes and leeks one more time, pour cream over them. Put the uncovered dish back in the oven and bake another 30 minutes or until top is browned and most of liquid is absorbed.

Tortilla de Patatas

Adapted from Smittenkitchen.com

This recipe is great for a weeknight meal served with a salad with a light vinaigrette. Also great for leftovers or for serving Spanish tapas at dinner parties (cut into small wedges and serve on toothpicks at room temperature). I first had this as a "tortilla de patatas bocadillo" in Madrid, Spain back in high school. Unfortunately, no more of those for me! But, this is delicious without the bread anyways...

3 Yukon Gold potatoes (about 1 1/2 pounds), peeled
salt and pepper
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, halved and thinly sliced
6 large, fresh eggs
2 tablespoons chicken stock or broth

Preparing the potatoes:

Slice the potatoes very thinly width-wise. If you have a mandoline, use this.

Cooking the potatoes:

Heat the olive oil in a large, heavy skillet (I used two medium-sized ones because it was what I had) over medium-high heat until very hot, about 3 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium-low and add the potatoes in even layers. Cook, stirring occasionally, to prevent the potatoes from sticking and browning, until they are almost cooked, but still al dente (about 10 minutes). Add more olive oil if needed. Stir in the onion, reduce the heat to low, and cook the potatoes until all of them are soft, about 15 minutes more. Add salt and pepper to taste. When everything is soft line a colander with towels and transfer the potatoes and onions into the colander, let drain and cool a bit (make sure they are seasoned to your taste).

Preparing the omelette:

Place the eggs, chicken stock, and a couple of pinches of salt in a large mixing bowl and beat until scrambled. Gently stir in the potato/onion mixture. Mash and stir the egg mixture gently with a fork to crush the potatoes just a little and mix them up well with the eggs. Let stand for about 10 minutes.

Cooking the tortilla de patatas:

Heat about 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a heavy large nonstick skillet. Pour the egg mixture into the skillet and flatten the potatoes with a spatula until the top is fairly even. Reduce the heat to medium-low. Cook, moving and shaking the skillet, running a thin spatula around the edge and sliding it into the middle so that some of the egg runs under for about one minute, then let it cook undisturbed until the top is a little wet but not liquid, 6 to 8 minutes. Run the thin spatula under the tortilla to make sure that no part of the bottom is stuck to the skillet.

Top the skillet with a rimless plate slightly larger than the skillet and, using oven mitts, quickly invert the tortilla onto the plate. If the skillet looks dry, add a little more olive oil. Carefully slide the tortilla back into the skillet, uncooked side down. Shake the skillet to straighten the tortilla and push the edges in with the spatula. Reduce the heat to very low and cook the tortilla until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out dry, 3 to 4 minutes.

Invert the tortilla onto a serving plate and pat the top with a paper towel to get rid of excess oil. Let it cool a little, then cut the tortilla into wedges and serve warm or at room temperature.

Working Class Momofuku's Bo Ssam

A delicious recipe to serve for just about any occasion (or to just gobble up yourself). This is a recipe adapted from the brother/sister NYC blogger duo: Working Class Foodies entitled, Working Class Momofuku (http://www.hungrynation.tv/wcfoodies/episode/WCF_20091102/working-class-momofuku)

I adapted it to fit my gluten free needs and I hope anyone reading this will quickly add it to their repertoire (make sure to make this when you have some time to hang around the house and wait for it to slowly roast and become the delicious, succulent, flavorful dish that it is!)

Affordable Bo Ssam adapted from David Chang's Momofuku restaurant in NYC
Ingredients:
8-10 lbs pork shoulder, bone in, skin removed
1 cup sugar
1 cup +1 Tablespoon coarse sea salt
7 Tablespoons brown sugar

1/2 cup finely chopped scallions
salt and pepper
gluten free soy sauce
gluten free rice wine vinegar
thumb-sized piece of ginger, peeled and finely minced
neutral oil (like grapeseed)
2 jalapenos, roughly chopped
2 garlic cloves, peeled and roughly chopped
2 Tablespoons sugar dissolved in 2 Tablespoons rice wine vinegar

Kimchi for serving
Bibb lettuce for serving


Preparing the meat:
Remove the skin if the butcher has not done so already, place in a large glass baking dish. Mix together 1 cup sugar and 1 cup salt and pour over and rub into the pork shoulder. Cover and place in refrigerator for 6-12 hours.

Cooking the meat:
Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Remove pork shoulder from refrigerator and rinse off the sugar/salt mixture. Pat the meat dry. Put in oven safe dish and place in oven. Roast, basting every hour for 5-6 hours or until meat is very tender and falling off the bone.

Remove meat and set oven to 500 degrees. Mix together 1 Tablespoon coarse sea salt and 7 Tablespoons brown sugar. Gently pour over the meat and press down to form a layer. Place meat back in oven until brown sugar/salt mixture has formed a crust on the meat (watch carefully, about 5-10 minutes)

Making the scallion-ginger sauce:
combine chopped scallions, salt and pepper, 1 teaspoon soy sauce, a few dashes of rice wine vinegar, 1/4 cup neutral oil and the finely minced ginger. Mix and set aside.

Making the jalapeno-garlic sauce:
In a blender add the jalapeno, garlic, a dash of soy sauce, a dash of vinegar, salt and pepper, blend to combine. Slowly drizzle in about 1/2 cup neutral oil (to desired consistency).

Making the rice:
Cook sushi rice according the directions. After the rice is cooked, pour the mixture of 2 Tablespoons sugar dissolved in 2 Tablespoons rice wine vinegar over rice and mix.

To serve:
Cut/shred meat and serve on a platter.
Serve with jalapeno-garlic sauce and ginger-scallion sauce, sushi rice, lettuce, and kimchi.