College Vegetarian Cooking_ Feed Yourself and Your Friends - Megan Carle [16]
Potato and Sweet Potato Tart
Potato and Sweet Potato Tart
This is so easy to make, and it’s a tasty, cheap comfort food dish. It’s a little bit like an open-face pot pie, and the combo of roasted sweet potato and pastry, with a little hit of nutmeg, tips it just a tiny bit in the direction of dessert. This cannot be a bad thing. This will feed four for dinner, or eight if you are serving it as an appetizer. –J
Serves 4
1 prepared piecrust
2 potatoes
1 sweet potato
2 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons melted butter
½ cup milk
Salt and pepper
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Press the piecrust gently into an ungreased 9-inch tart pan or deep dish pie pan.
Peel the potatoes and sweet potato and cut them into thin, even slices (no more than ⅛ inch thick). Combine the flour and melted butter and slowly add the milk, stirring until smooth; there should be no lumps. Place a single layer of potato slices in the bottom of the tart pan, spread 2 tablespoons of the milk mixture over the potatoes, and season with salt and pepper. Place a layer of sweet potatoes over the potatoes, spread with 2 tablespoons of the milk mixture, and season with salt and pepper. Continue layering until you have 3 layers of white potatoes and 2 of sweet potatoes. Sprinkle with the nutmeg and bake for 45 to 50 minutes, or until the top layer and the crust are lightly browned. Serve immediately.
Food Trivia:
Nutmeg is a seed growing on an evergreen tree in the Spice Islands of Indonesia. It’s not as coveted as it used to be in, say, the fifteenth century, when Columbus sailed west looking for it, but it’s still an essential ingredient in eggnog and pumpkin pie. It’s poisonous in large quantities, but not to worry—you’d have to down A LOT of it to make yourself sick.
Orzo Salad
Orzo Salad
We use dried herbs as much as possible because it’s easier to have them on hand and they’re cheaper. But this is one of the cases where dried herbs just won’t work. Not that the other ingredients in this salad aren’t good, but the fresh tarragon, which has a light licorice flavor, makes this dish what it is. Don’t even bother making it with dried tarragon. –M
Serves 4
1½ cups uncooked orzo
½ red bell pepper
1 cup grape tomatoes
¼ cup finely chopped red onion
2 tablespoons chopped fresh tarragon
¼ cup lemon juice
3 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper
½ cup crumbled feta cheese
Bring a large saucepan of salted water to a boil. Add the orzo and cook for 8 minutes, or until al dente. Drain in a sieve and run under cold water to chill, then transfer to a large serving bowl.
Cut the bell pepper in half lengthwise and remove the stem, seeds, and pale membranes. Cut the pepper flesh into squarish ¼-inch pieces. Add the bell pepper to the orzo, along with the tomatoes, onion, and tarragon, and stir until combined.
Place the lemon juice and olive in a small bowl and whisk with a fork until combined. Pour the dressing over the pasta and vegetables and stir well. Season with salt and pepper and serve topped with the feta cheese.
Food Trivia:
Although orzo is small and rice shaped, it is actually a pasta made from semolina, which is the most common pasta grain. Like a lot of pasta names, orzo (which is Italian for “barley”) describes the shape of the pasta in a metaphorical way: for example, lumache (“snails”), spaghetti (“little strings”), or agnolotti (“priests’ caps”).
Crispy Polenta with Sautéed Vegetables
Crispy Polenta with Sautéed Vegetables
This recipe is a spin on something I tasted in France, and I don’t mind saying that we’ve done a way better job than they did.