Posts Tagged With: potato

Potato-Bean Tostada Recipe

Posted on January 23, 2013 by pauldelancey

Mexican Entree

POTATO-BEAN TOSTADAS

INGREDIENTSPotBeTo-

4 russet potatoes
1 14.5 ounce can refried beans
1/2 cup milk
1 medium onion
2 Roma tomatoes
2 teaspoons cumin
1 1/2 teaspoons Meat MagicTM spice
1 1/2 cup grated Four Mexican cheeses
8 tostada shells
1 1/2 cups lettuce
1 1/2 cups salsa
PREPARATION

Put water in large pot until water level exceeds the height of a potato on its side. Heat water on high setting. Peel potatoes. Cut them into eighths. Put potato pieces into large pot. Cook for about 10 minutes or until water is boiling.

While water is boiling, mince the onion and dice the tomatoes. Mix together refried beans and milk in sauce. Cook beans on medium heat for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally to avoid burning. After water comes to a boil, start mashing the potatoes with a potato masher. Mash until the potatoes have the consistency of mashed potatoes and excess water has boiled off. (This should take about 10 minutes.) Shred lettuce by hand or chop into medium-sized pieces with a knife.

Lazy Susans are fantastic. (See the Lazy Susan in the above picture.). Fill the sections with refried beans, mashed potatoes, onion, tomatoes, cheese, lettuce, and salsa. This makes it simple for your guests to make their own tostadas.

TIDBITS

1) The tostada shells are not in this recipe’s photo. They were camera shy.

2) Mr. Eastman is a big name in the development of the camera.

3) Kodiak bears are big as well.

4) But they never developed a camera, preferring to spend their time fishing instead.

5) Give a man fish for lunch and you’ve fed him once.

7) Teach a man to fish and you’ve fed him for a lifetime.

8) Unless he doesn’t have a fishing rod or doesn’t live near water.

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef

My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.

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Garlic Potato Rice Soup

Posted on October 2, 2012 by pauldelancey

French Soup

GARLIC POTATO RICE SOUP

INGREDIENTS

1/3 cup rice
2/3 cup water

2 russet potatoes
1 red potatoes
2 garlic cloves
1/3 large yellow onion
1 2/3 cups chicken broth
1/3 cup water
1/3 tablespoon Poultry MagicTM Spice
1/6 teaspoon lemon pepper spice

UTENSIL

potato masher

PREPARATION

Cook rice separately according to instructions on package. While rice is cooking, peel russet and red potatoes. Cut both types of potatoes into eighths. Peel and mince garlic cloves and onions.

Put potato eighths, garlic, onion, chicken broth, water, Poultry Spice, and lemon pepper into large soup pan. Cook at medium-high for about 50 minutes or until all the potato eighths are completely soft. Mash the potatoes constantly until you feel no resistance. (No, there is no masher for human relationships. No. No! I said no.) Stir frequently. Add cooked rice to potato soup.

Supermarket potatoes cost almost the same whether you buy five pounds, two pounds, or just one microwavable tater. So, we all purchase the economical five-pound bag, leaving us with a lot of potatoes. This tasty recipe reduces your spud surplus wonderfully.

TIDBITS

1) The nutritious potato almost single-handedly kept European peasantry alive during the Thirty Years War in the 17th century.

2) Deadly nightshade is related to the potato. Unlike, its cousin, the tater, this plant is a deadly poison.

3) Which is why my recipes never include deadly nightshade.

4) Nor any other poison for that matter.

5) I do, however, use tomatoes frequently. Tomatoes are related to both the potato and deadly nightshade and were considered poisonous by American settlers in the late 17th century.

6) This fear by early colonials of the mighty tomato completely explains the lack of pizza parlors in early America.

7) Salem, Massachusetts became notorious for its Witch Trials of 1692.

8) In 1905, Lombardi’s in New York became the first restaurant licensed to sell pizza.

9) So, the Witch Trials delayed the licensing of American pizza by 213 years.

10) This explains resistance to capital punishment among many chefs.

 

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef

My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.

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Powegian Potato Soup From Fortcoming Cookbook

Posted on September 29, 2012 by pauldelancey

American Soup

POWEGIAN POTATO SOUP

INGREDIENTS

2 russet potatoes
2 red potatoes
2 garlic cloves
2 celery stalks
1 tablespoons olive oil
1 10.5 ounce can condensed cream of chicken soup
1 10.5 can filled with water
1/2 teaspoon Vegetable MagicTM spice
1/2 teaspoon parsley flakes
1/2 teaspoon chives

PREPARATION

Wash and peel all potatoes. (This isn’t all that fun. Do you have a ready source of labor such as a nine-year old boy around?)
Cut potatoes into bits no larger than an inch on any side. Mince potato bits and garlic cloves. Devein celery stalks of those long threads by breaking stalk in half and pulling off exposed silky threads. Minced deveined celery.

Put olive oil in frying pan. Add minced garlic and celery. Saute potato bits, cloves and celery at medium high for about 5 minutes.

Empty condensed cream of chicken into large soup pot. Fill empty cans with water and add to pot. Add minced potato, vegetable spice, parsley, and chives. Cook on medium heat for 5 minutes, then add sauteed garlic and celery. Stir frequently. Cook on warm heat for 55 minutes. Stir every minute or so to prevent burning.

TIDBITS

1) The wild form of celery is smallage.

2) I have trouble visualizing vast open fields filled from horizon to horizon with wild celery.

3) I don’t think settlers who traveled the Oregon Trail during the 1840s came across great vistas of wild celery.

4) Certainly, the Donner Party didn’t.

5) Parties often have celery sticks as appetizers.

6) The modern, party, celery stick was first cultivated in Michigan in 1874.

7) Which means most Americans forgot to celebrate the modern celery stick’s centennial. I know I did.

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef

My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.

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Ham, Cheese, And Potato Casserole

Posted on September 26, 2012 by pauldelancey

American Entree

HAM, CHEESE, AND POTATO CASSEROLE

INGREDIENTS

3 brown or russet potatoes
1 cup cooked ham
1/4 cup grated Cheddar cheese
1/2 cup grated Swiss cheese
1/4 cup grated Four-Mexican cheese
1/2 medium onion
1 cup sour cream
5 ounces condensed cream of celery soup (about 1/2 can)
1/2 green bell pepper
1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon Meat MagicTM spice
1/8 teaspoon thyme
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 tablespoon Parmesan cheese

PREPARATION

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Boil 3 potatoes for about 30 minutes.

While potatoes are boiling, cut cooked ham into 1/4-inch cubes. Mince small onion. (If you wish to anthropomorphize the onion, call it, “Jim.”) Dice green bell pepper after scooping out its seeds.

In a large mixing bowl, combine ham, Cheddar cheese, Swiss cheese, Four-Mexican cheese, Jim (the minced onion), sour cream, condensed cream of celery soup, green bell pepper, flour, mayonnaise, butter, salt, meat spice, thyme, and black pepper. Mix by hand or masher.

Peel skin from potatoes. This should be easy after you let the taters sit for a few minutes. Cut potatoes into thin slices.
Add potatoes to ingredients already in mixing bowl. Mix again with fork. Transfer to 9″-round baking or casserole dish. Sprinkle top with Parmesan cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 60 minutes.

TIDBITS

1) It just doesn’t seem right that “mayonnaise” is spelled with two n’s.

2) French fries are called frites in Holland. When I lived there, you were given a choice of met or zonder, with or without mayonnaise. The mayonnaise was spicy and tasted quite good, the Dutch ketchup not so much.

3) You also couldn’t get root beer in Europe for love or money. Why? Why? Didn’t we save Europe in World War II?

4) And as far as I know, you can’t get European potato chips that aren’t dripping with oil.

5) And don’t even look for good chewing gum.

6) Of course, if you want steak au poivre vert or a good rijstaffel, I heartily recommend going there.

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef

My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.

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Peruvian Papa Rellena

Posted on September 25, 2012 by pauldelancey

Peruvian Entree

PAPA RELLENA
(Peruvian Stuffed Potato)

INGREDIENTS

DOUGH
4 medium-to-large potatoes
1 cup flour
1 egg (4 eggs total, 1 here and 3 in filling.)

FILLING
1 medium onion
4 garlic cloves
3/4 pound ground beef
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon Meat MagicTM spice
1/4 teaspoon parsley
3 eggs (4 eggs total, 3 here and 1 in dough.)

Vegetable oil

SPECIALITY COOKWARE

Deep fryer or deep pot
potato masher
a cheap Monet painting

INITIAL PREPARATION

Peel potatoes. Boil the spuds in large pot for about 40 minutes.

FILLING PREPARATION

While potatoes are boiling, boil 3 eggs for 12 minutes. (If you’re feeling particularly efficient, boil the eggs with the potatoes. Just be sure the eggs are only in the boiling water for the required 12 minutes.)

While eggs are boiling, mince onions and garlic. Add onion, garlic, ground beef, pepper, salt, meat spice, and parsley to frying pan. Cook on medium-high heat until beef is no longer red and onions are soft. Put beef mixture in first mixing bowl.

Remove hard-boiled eggs. Peel and dice them. Add diced hard-boiled eggs to beef mixture in bowl.

DOUGH PREPARATION

Remove potatoes. Pulverize them with a potato masher. (You say your son’s Little LeagueTM coach kept him on the bench? Then pulverize them taters! Put some muscle behind your blows. Smash ‘em, smash ‘em, make ‘em beg. Ahem.) Combine the surviving mashed potatoes with flour and egg in second mixing bowl.

Admire cheap Monet painting. Fill deep fryer with 4 inches of vegetable oil or a neutral cooking oil. Heat oil to 340-to-350 degrees. Anything higher gets kinda scary.

While oil heats, put a generous amount of flour on your hand. (This prevents the sticky flour from well, sticking to your hand.) Put a ball of the potato mixture–1 to 2 tablespoons–in your palm. Use four fingers of the other hand to make a hole in the mixture. Put about a teaspoon of the cooked ground-beef mix in the hole. Fold top of potato ball completely over the beef center. Roll the potato-meat ball in your hands to make it smooth. (Again, coat your hands with flour before making each potato-meat ball.)

Use a ladle or tongs to gently lower the potato-meat ball into the hot oil. (You don’t want to get too close to that stuff.) Fry the ball until it is golden brown. Remove and dab with paper napkin to remove excess oil.

This is a great and tasty way to use up those potatoes skulking in the corner of the pantry.

TIDBITS

1) Lima is the capital of Peru.

2) Boston is the capital of Massachusetts.

3) I like Boston baked beans much more than lima beans.

4) Peru has fourteen golf courses.

5) With 3,000 species of potatoes originating in Peru, the (potato species originating / golf course) ratio is 214:1.

6) Peru also has a lot of earthquakes.

7) Ireland is famous for having potatoes without earthquakes.

8) But Ireland also had the Great Potato Failure in the 1840s.

9) Growing potatoes is kinda scary, isn’t it?

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef

My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.

 

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Soupe Au Pistou

Posted on September 22, 2012 by pauldelancey

French Soup

SOUPE AU PISTOU

INGREDIENTS

PISTOU

6 ripe tomatoes
6 garlic cloves
4 ounces grated Parmesan cheese
3/4 cups olive oil
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

SOUP

2 ripe tomatoes
1 leek
1 medium onion
4 medium russet potatoes
4 tablespoons butter
32 ounces vegetable broth

PREPARATION OF SOUP

Wash, seed, and peel the 2 tomatoes. Chop them into little bits. Rinse and peel the potatoes. Chop the potatoes into bits, put the bits into a food processor, and mince them. Peel the onion and mince it. Remove leek’s bulb. Take leek apart and dice it. Dice onion.

Saute the onion and leek in frying pan with butter. Cook on medium-high heat for about 5 minutes or until the onions start to turn brown.

Put sauteed onion and like in large soup pan. Add vegetable broth, the pieces from the 2 tomatoes, potato, onion, and leek.

Cook soup over low heat for about 45 minutes or until potato bits are soft. Stir occasionally. Keep lid on pot, when not stirring, to prevent evaporation of liquid.
PREPARATION PISTOU

Do you know how to peel tomatoes? I hope so. Oh c’mon, you can learn. Or your kids can learn.

Wash, seed, and peel the 6 tomatoes. (Peeling the tomatoes is much is easier when sliced into at least four pieces. Quickly peeling takes practice or you might find it faster to peel if you boil the tomato for 30 seconds first.) Chop the peeled tomatoes into small pieces. Peel and mince the garlic cloves.

Put chopped tomato and minced garlic in mixing bowl. Add Parmesan, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Mix together with fork or whisk.
Pour soup into bowls. Ladle the pistou equally over the soup in each bowl.

Serve to adoring guests. You took a long time to make this meal. So, if they are not adoring, my I suggest you let them meet your pet boa constrictor, Bernie, who has just fallen off his diet.

TIDBITS

1) The leek is a national symbol of Wales.

2) Wales doesn’t sound so fierce, does it?

3) Leeks have a high amount of potassium in them just like the banana. Unlike the banana, leeks do not go well with nut bread.

4) Just prejudice and taste, I guess.

5) The leek stores its energy in its leaves. People, being leafless, store energy elsewhere.

6) Nero ate lots of leeks when he was Emperor.

7) Within a year of Nero’s death, Galba, Otho, Vitellius, and Vespasian sent their legions fighting toward Rome in a bloody effort to become Emperor and eat all the leeks they could ever want.

8) There are a lot of sites listing fun facts about leeks. It is a happening vegetable.

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef

My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.

Categories: cuisine, food, history, humor, international, recipes | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Chicken Recado Stew

Posted on August 15, 2012 by pauldelancey

,Belizean Entree

CHICKEN RECADO STEW

INGREDIENTS

2 small red potatoes
2 pounds boneless chicken breasts
5 tablespoons lime juice
1/4 cup barbeque sauce
1 teaspoon thyme
1 teaspoon basil
1 teaspoon white pepper
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 teaspoon coriander
1 teaspoon Jamaican Jerk spice

2 tablespoons red recado (This Belizean spice is found online.)
1 cup chicken broth

1 medium white onion
1 green bell pepper
1 stalk celery
2 stalk green onion.
6 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 1/2 cups brown rice
3 cups water

PREPARATION

Boil potato eighths for about 15 minutes. Cut chicken breasts into bit-sized pieces. Mince onion and green onion and cut each potato into eight bits.

Put chicken bits into mixing bowl. Add lime juice, barbeque sauce, thyme, basil, white pepper, paprika, crushed red pepper, coriander, and Jamaican Jerk spice. (My goodness, I’ve just used up the last of my coriander. Augh! And the Jerk Spice should really be from Belize. I’m no longer spice ready!) Mix the chicken and spices until nearly all of the spices stick to the chicken bits.

Put recado and chicken broth in small bowl. Stir a few times to help the recado dissolve into the broth.

Saute white onion, bell pepper, celery, green onion and garlic in vegetable oil on medium-high heat for about 5 minutes. Add chicken and saute again until the outside of the chicken starts to brown and the inside is completely white. Add recado/chicken broth. Add potatoes, cover, and simmer for another 30 minutes.

Serve with rice (cooked according to instructions on package) to your family, or guests, who will be looking at you with adoration in their eyes.

TIDBITS

1) A thumbless dwarf called El Duende inhabits the Belizean forest and eats children who destroy the wildlife.

2) I wonder, could El Duende develop a taste for lawyers?

3) Belize possesses 900 Mayan sites.

4) If you don’t like ancient stone sites, you’ll be bored at all 900.

5) Coca Cola in Belize is bottled using cane sugar rather than the evil, nasty high-fructose corn syrup. Yay, Belize.

6) A web page about Belize had an advertisement for Alaska Air. Why?

7) In Belize, it is considered rude when coming upon someone for the first time, to greet them using their first name.

8) How on Earth, would you know that person’s first name when first meeting them?

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef

My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.

Categories: cuisine, humor | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Potato-Leek Soup

Posted on July 17, 2012 by pauldelancey

American Soup

POTATO-LEEK SOUP

INGREDIENTS

1 pound leeks
3 tablespoons butter
1/2 cups celery stalks
4 medium potatoes
3 cups water
3 cups milk
3/4 teaspoon Vegetable MagicTM spice
1/4 teaspoon celery salt
1/4 teaspoon parsley
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
up to 1 cup grated cheese, optional

PREPARATION OF THE LEEKS

Cut off and remove the tough dark, green parts. Remove the bottom part with the little roots. Cut the leeks into pieces and swirl them in water to remove bits of dirt. Pat down the pieces with a towel to dry them. Put leeks into a food-processor and mince them.

PREPARATION OF THE SOUP.

Melt butter in pan. (Note it is much easier to measure 3 tablespoons from a stick of butter than from a tub.) Mince the celery. Add leeks and celery to melted butter.

Saute on low heat and stir frequently for about 6 minutes or until onions are soft. (Reading War and Peace is not advised at this point.)

Chop up potatoes until they are small enough to put into a blender. Blend the heck out of them. Put 3 cups water into pot. Heat water to boiling. Cook for about 15 minutes this way or until potato bits are tender. (Note you should gradually turn down the heat. The soup will still boil and you will avoid painful geysers of hot potato water. (A great reason not to cook in the nude.)

Dice cilantro until you have 1/2 cup. Add sauteed leeks, celery, milk, cilantro, vegetable spice, celery salt, parsley, and salt. Cover and cook at low heat for 20 minutes. Taste soup. Sprinkle in other spices if you wish. Some people love onion salt, garlic salt, or Tabasco sauce in everything. If you are that kind of cook, go for it!

Add grated cheese to taste.

EATING OF THE SOUP

Nom, nom, nom.

TIDBITS

1) The potato was cultivated by the Incas. The Spanish took it back to Europe and gave little in return.

2) The potato revolutionized warfare. Previous to widespread cultivation of this amazing tuber, armies on the move stripped the conquered territories of any food growing above ground. Farmers could now wait until the invading hordes left and dig up enough potatoes to survive. Armies could also feed themselves on the potatoes they brought along. There is a sketch of the great French general Napoleon asking a foot soldier for a potato.

3) The Irish depended quite heavily on the potato for their nutritional needs. When the potato crop failed in 1848, many Irish starved and large numbers of them migrated to America.

4) Indeed, loud guffaws never swirled around the humble potato.

5) Until HasbroTM created Mr. Potato HeadTM in 1962. Now we can all eat the potato or play with it.

6) Mr. Potato HeadTM seems so obvious now. That’s why genius is genius.

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef

My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.

Categories: cuisine, food, history, humor, recipes | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

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