Roasted Potato Salad with Horseradish Dressing

A few weeks ago, I was visiting my friend and Big Daughter’s godmummy, Kirsty, in Toronto. We put our four girls to bed, with fewer tears and trips downstairs from the big daughters than expected. We breathed a big sigh of relief, poured some bubbly wine, probably too much bubbly wine, and went outside for a grown-up girl supper.

Kirsty had found a recipe, in The Globe and Mail I think, for potato salad. A recipe for potato salad? Is that really necessary? But, roasted potatoes and a horseradish dressing? Could there be any more perfect combination? How could you not want the recipe for this?

But, I didn’t write it down and I’m not organized enough to email and get it, or to follow it for that matter. So, I made one up, after being in the kitchen while Kirsty made her's, and this may just revolutionize your basic summer salads.

After I made this, I had to go to Toronto again to get more horseradish. I used the last and so the annual trip to Kozlik’s was necessary. Alright, I was doing other stuff too. But shopping for horseradish and mustard was very near the top of the to do list on Saturday. The only things above it were strong black coffee and peameal on a bun, to quell the effects of too much bubbly wine.

This would be really perfect with new potatoes and, if you are barbecuing, I would roast the potatoes on a grill tray on the barbecue. It is divine when it is warm but is also really delicious cold, so you could easily make it in advance.

I didn’t put as much horseradish in the dressing as I might have for two reasons. The first, I wasn’t making this for myself and I realize that not everyone thinks horseradish is as perfect a condiment as I do. And, the second, I didn’t have enough left.

Which brings us to the question, why didn’t I just go and get some more? Well, I have high horseradish standards and few jars will do. My favourite is not available here in Nova Scotia - yet, I'm told. I can’t abide any jar that has an ingredient list longer than: horseradish, vinegar, water, salt.

Fresh horseradish would have been good but, without spending two hours in the car with a teething nine month old and a stroppy four year old at supper time, there was none of that to be had either. Plus, it isn’t something that many people keep in their vegetable drawer, but they should.

I served the salad with some of Sheila's smoked salmon from our local and micro greens from the Friday market in Mahone Bay. It was a perfect summer supper. The salad would suit any grilled meat or fish. It would be great with burgers. It would make a nice little potluck dish as well.

Roasted Potato Salad with Horseradish Dressing  as inspired by Kirsty’s reproduction of a recipe from The Globe and Mail

2 pounds potatoes

1 tablespoon olive oil

3 tablespoons yogurt

3 tablespoons mayonnaise

1 tablespoon white wine vinegar

1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon good, hot horseradish (you might want less or more depending on your taste and your horseradish)

Sea salt and fresh ground black pepper

1/4 red onion finely chopped

Handful of parsley and chives finely chopped

Preheat oven to 450º. Wash and cut the potatoes into bite size chunks. Toss then with the olive oil and some salt and pepper in a roasting pan. Put in the oven and roast for about twenty minutes for a convection oven, a little longer for traditional. They need to be completely cooked and getting golden and crisp. Remove from oven and cool just until they are warm. Transfer to a large mixing bowl.

Make the dressing by putting the yogurt, mayo, vinegar, horseradish and salt and pepper to season in a small bowl. whisk to combine. Pour over the roasted potatoes. Add the red onion, parsley and chives and toss to combine. 

All the Cool Kids are Doing It

So, it started with Smitten, while I was away. I thought about and thought the likelihood of getting really good reliable stuff in the Caribbean and thought, ‘No, not yet.‘ Then I was visiting my grandmother in Niagara Falls when I saw some top notch green. But, I was pretty sure she wouldn’t approve. Then, Feisty did it too. And, I started to think about it some more and then I saw some at the market on Friday which looked first class and I thought, ‘If everyone else is doing it, maybe I should too.’

I thought I was pretty cool, getting there early enough to score. Even if it was unintentional and I was really just hoping to bump into Wanda and a bag of her wonderful lettuce. But, there I was, Tilly in the sling, looking back, over my shoulder to make sure there was no one chasing me to my car. I had bought not just one but two. I was worried that if anyone unlucky enough to be too far back in the queue found out, they would be after me. After me and my asparagus.

We love asparagus, even Stephen, provided it has been drizzled with melted butter. Poppy has just developed a fondness for raw asparagus. And, all Tilly has eaten for a week and a half is asparagus and banana. Anything that lets us captures this has to be good.

SmittenKitchen’s was drop dead gorgeous, as pretty much anything she does is. Feisty Chef’s was local and she cooked it on the barbecue which has inspired me to experiment more with my barbecue, not today though. I was reluctant to put something out there that would draw such obvious comparison but it was just too damn delicious not too. 

I used my usual pizza dough recipe, but substituted spelt flour. This made the crust biscuity crisp. I don’t like doughy or bready pizza, so it was perfect. The best thing is, the dough rolls out so thinly and easily this way that we had enough to make some cheesy garlic pizza for a certain four year old.

I didn’t have any mozzarella and Poppy was shouting,‘Asiago, I only want asiago,’ but I wasn’t sold on the idea. I had some plain Foxhill quark which, I was pretty sure would just lend a creaminess without mucking about with the flavour of the asparagus.

I almost picked some sorrel because I thought it might add a little lemony zing, but, again, I just wanted to taste the asparagus so, much to Poppy’s delight, I decided on some roughly chopped fresh chives. 

The asparagus I had was really thin. It would be much easier to shave if it was a little bulkier and you probably won’t need as many spears. Smitten thinks you could do this with a mandolin. I can’t imagine that you would escape with all ten fingertips. The vegetable peeler is the way forward for me.

And then, we rushed to get it all done so we could watch our Stephen cross a continent while we ate.

Shaved Asparagus Pizza with Spelt Crust

7 grams (1 1/2 teaspoons) active dry yeast

1 tablespoon honey

125 ml (1/2 cup) warm water

240 grams (1 1/3 + 1/4 cup) spelt flour (or bread flour)*

1 teaspoon sea salt

3 tablespoons olive oil

22-24 spears skinny asparagus

225 grams ( a little under a cup) plain Foxhill quark (ricotta would be great)

Roughly chopped chives

Salt and Cracked Black Pepper

Shaved Parmesan

Drizzle of extra virgin olive oil

Put yeast, honey and water in a small bowl and let sit for 5-10 minutes, until yeast blooms.

Meanwhile, put flour and salt in the bowl of mixer with a dough hook attachment, or in a medium sized bowl with a wooden spoon

When yeast is ready, add it to the flour with the 3 tablespoons of olive oil.

Mix everything together. If you are using a stand mixer, knead for a few minutes, until it is smooth and elastic. If you are doing it by hand, you’ll have to knead a bit longer but your arm muscles will thank you.

Transfer to a lightly oiled bowl and cover. Let rise about an hour, until doubled in size.

While the dough rises, you can shave the asparagus in long strips, hold on to the tough end and run the peeler down the length.

After the dough has risen, preheat oven to 425º.

Punch down the dough.

Lightly oil a pizza pan or heat up a pizza stone.

Roll out the dough to a 12” circle, I didn’t need any flour, you may want to lightly dust your work surface with flour.  Put it on the pan or on a pizza peel if you are using a stone.

Spread the quark on top and season it with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with the chives. Top with the shaved asparagus.

Bake for about 20 minutes or until golden around the edges and you can see the very edges of the asparagus just starting to brown.

Remove from the oven, top with parmesan and extra virgin olive oil and serve.

*And, if anyone would like to take care of the math for me, it would be much appreciated.

Saturday's Bounty on Sunday

For most of the winter, our weekends are missing something. We are left wondering what to do with our Saturday mornings. Sure, we could make the hour long drive to town and enjoy what is over-wintering at the Halifax Farmer’s Market but, Poppy can’t fish for sharks in a small stream there. She can’t run around, hand in hand with her best bud, charming vendors and, we assume, safely disappearing down trails through the woods. She tells me that the cupcakes aren’t as good as at our market. And, there is no burly German baker man to give her cinnamon buns just because she happened to pass by and say hi.

So, now that our Saturday mornings are peaceful and we are no longer at a loss for things to do, we get to spend the rest of the day thinking of how we will use our market bounty. It is early days for most produce here in Nova Scotia but we managed a decent haul in spite of our not-quite-warm-enough-yet days.

I found cremini and portobello mushrooms, radishes and some crunchy sprouts, which I was compelled to buy even though I have about five kilos of unsprouted crunchy sprout mix here in my kitchen. I got spinach and mixed greens and beet greens with gorgeous almost baby beets on the bottom . I got whole wheat bread with poppy seeds, of course, from Chris, the above mentioned burly German baker man and, to Poppy’s great delight and despite arriving late-ish in the morning, a package of his always-sold-out-it-seems juniper ham.

The ham is always gone by the time we arrive, even if we get there shortly after eight, Chris is inevitably selling the last package to the person in front of us. To his credit, he has tried to steal the last package back out of the unsuspecting person’s basket just to try and please Poppy, but in the end he had to fall back on the cinnamon bun to cheer her up.

We like brunch at our house and Saturday’s haul, rounded out by a few local eggs, left us well set up to breakfastize something we saw Anna Olson cooking up on TV.  She made her mushrooms with brandy and cream and her bread was a sourdough rye from Ravine in St. David’s, around the corner from my grandmother’s which is where we were staying when we saw the TV show. And, Anna used a mixture of wild mushrooms but we had nothing in the house except for what we got at the market on Saturday and sometimes, simpler is just better.

Poppy Seed French Toast with Sautéed Cremini Mushrooms and Juniper Ham

400 grams (4 heaping cups) quartered or halved, depending on size, cremini mushrooms

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon butter

Salt and pepper to taste

4 slices of good bread (use what you like)

2 large eggs

2 tablespoons milk

Salt and pepper

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon butter

4 slices of really good ham (optional)

Fresh chives, chopped

Heat heavy bottomed pan and add 1 tablespoon of olive oil and 1 of butter. Add mushrooms. I like to add the salt at this point when I sauté mushrooms, it is one of the few things I season before I am finished cooking. Cook the mushrooms over medium high heat until they start to brown. They will go a bit grey and get a little watery first and then the water will evaporate and the flavour will concentrate and they will start to brown. Remove the mushrooms from the pan.

While the mushrooms are cooking, whisk eggs with milk and a little salt and pepper in a shallow dish. 

In the same pan, without washing, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil and 1 of butter. soak each side of each slice of bread in the egg mixture and transfer them to the hot pan. Cook until golden brown, about a minute on each side.

Transfer each slice to a plate, top with ham and share mushrooms between the four slices. Sprinkle with chives.

Poppy had her’s with ham, I had mine without and next time, I will be putting a little wilted spinach on mine.

Healthy??? Chocolate Chip Cookies

Okay, so a recipe for a healthy chocolate chip cookie isn’t something I would usually leap at with great enthusiasm. I imagine heavy, doorstopper like pucks with the texture of slightly moistened saw dust and tasting pretty much like not sweet enough cardboard.

I know that sugar alternatives have come a long way since back in the day when my mother read Sugar Blues and virtually banned the stuff from a good part of our childhood but those memories still sting. And, I was preparing for this trip to the Caribbean and the thought of exposing more flesh than what is on show wearing jeans and a rain coat was weighing heavily when I came across this one. 

Like the veggie burgers, it comes from The Golden Door Cooks at Home by Dean Rucker and Marah Stets.

I don’t usually find a lot of inspiration in vegan baking. I believe in butter. That isn’t to say that I think vegans are in any way misguided. On the contrary, I admire them and believe it is an amazing thing to commit to. But, there are times when animal products seem to belong in cooking and, more often than not, baking is one of them. On the other hand, I also think it is important to get outside of one’s sweet and buttery comfort zone every now and then.

By now, I probably don’t need to tell you that I was a little skeptical but it had been about ten days since my last sweet and I was pretty sure that these would be a justifiable caloric splurge. I had even stayed away from the dark chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, also known in our house as God’s gift to cake, that I had made for my sister’s birthday. More admirably, I had managed to stay away from the leftover frosting in the fridge.

While we were making these, I read the recipe to Poppy and was explaining what we had to do. I stopped in the midst of collecting ingredients to rescue Tilly, who was tangled up in some chair legs and, because I often have the attention span of a gnat these days, I was distracted. A few minuted later, I was reminded of the job underway by Poppy saying, 'Hurry up, we have to mill some oats now.' I decided we would be making these again just to mill oats in the food processor.

These cookies were good. There was no sawdustiness. The texture was a little crispy and a little chewy which isn’t a bad thing in a cookie. They were nicely sweet.  I will admit to adding 3 times the amount of chocolate chips called for because I don’t think you can call cookies chocolate chip cookies if you have to search for the chocolate chips. Does that make them less healthy? Yeah, it probably does. 

The cookies didn’t make it to Poppy’s preschool, the intended destination, because the recipe only made eighteen in the end. Maybe we made them too big but they weren’t huge. Maybe, because the recipe comes from a health spa, they are supposed to be really small. But, by the time we had tasted a couple to be sure they were good, there weren’t enough to go around so we had to eat them ourselves, except for the ones that went to some friends’ house for dinner.

I probably ate four of them and I enjoyed them completely but, with each one, I couldn’t help thinking that, with a little leftover cream cheese frosting, they would make pretty amazing whoopie pies. I thought about it and I thought about it some more and then I had another little think about it but I didn’t do it. I swear.

I am going to make these again sometime, when I don’t have leftover cream cheesy distractions around to cloud my judgement because they were good and if stepping outside the buttery baking box turned out this well all the time, it might be a lot easier to feel good in my bathing suit.

The only change I made, other than the quantity of chocolate chips, was to use grapeseed oil instead of vegetable oil spray. Just use a piece of paper towel to spread a thin film of oil over the parchment.

Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies from The Golden Door Cooks at Home by Dean Rucker and Marah Stets

Grapeseed oil

1/2 cup old fashioned rolled oats

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup chocolate chips

1 tablespoon ground flaxseed

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup maple syrup

1/2 cup applesauce

3 tablespoons grapeseed oil

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350º. Line two baking sheets with parchment and, using a piece of paper towel, cover the parchment with a very thin film of grapeseed oil.

In a food processor, pulse the oats to a fine meal. It should take about ten minutes. Transfer the oats to a large mixing bowl and add the rest of the dry ingredients.

Whisk together the wet ingredients and add to the dry. Use a spatula to fold them together until just incorporated.

The batter will be the consistency of muffin batter.

Spoon rounded tablespoonfuls onto the baking sheet, 11/2 “ apart. Use the back of a wet spoon to flatten each cookie out a bit.

Bake one sheet at a time for about 20 minutes, until light golden brown.

Transfer to cooling rack.

These won’t keep for too long but it didn’t seem to be a problem here.

It's coming.

I am hoping that it is true that absence makes the heart grow fonder.

I am struggling to post between unpredictable internet and visiting and being cooked for and entertained and the matter of a small person attached to my hip in an effort to prevent stair disaster. I am working on it though. Slowly, but surely...