A Big Slice : Life's a Blog

Roasted Potato Salad Recipe for Memorial Day

One of my favorite dishes for a picnic is potato salad. This is not your traditional side dish. This has roasted potatoes, fennel, olive oil and mustard. It is lighter that the mayonnaise salads, and goes great with grilled meats.

2 pounds Yukon gold potatoes
salt
8 ounces extra-virgin olive oil
black pepper
1 fennel bulb with fronds
1 bunch celery hearts with leafy tops
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
1 tablespoon fennel seeds, toasted

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

2. Cut potatoes into quarters, cover with water, salt the water, and bring to a simmer. Simmer until tender and drain, letting all the steam evaporate. When dry and cool, toss with 4 ounces extra-virgin olive oil and season with salt and pepper, to taste. Place in a single layer on a roasting pan and roast for 30 minutes until tender and golden brown. The potatoes will need to be stirred while roasting to insure all sides are nicely browned.

3. While potatoes are roasting, "shave" the fennel using a mandoline or the slicing side of a box grater. Thinly slice celery stalks and tops. Reserve.

4. Make the vinaigrette: In a large bowl, whisk together the Dijon mustard, vinegar, and salt, to taste. Gradually whisk in the remaining 4 ounces extra-virgin olive oil. Fold in fennel seeds and season with salt and pepper, to taste.

5. Remove roasted potatoes from oven and allow to slightly cool. Add potatoes and their oil to the vinaigrette bowl. Top with shaved celery and fennel and toss.

May 20 - Coffee Ice Cream Recipe

Coffee Ice Cream

1 1/2 cups whole milk
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups whole coffee beans (decaf unless you want the caffeine in your ice cream)
Pinch of salt
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
5 large egg yolks
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon finely ground coffee (press grinds through a fine mesh sieve)

Heat the milk, sugar, whole coffee beans, salt, and 1/2 cup of the cream in a medium saucepan until it is quite warm and steamy, but not boiling. Once the mixture is warm, cover, remove from the heat, and let steep at room temperature for 1 hour.


Pour the remaining 1 cup of cream into a medium size metal bowl, set on ice over a larger bowl. Set a mesh strainer on top of the bowls. Set aside.


Reheat the milk and coffee mixture, on medium heat, until again hot and steamy (not boiling!). In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks together. Slowly pour the heated milk and coffee mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly so that the egg yolks are tempered by the warm milk, but not cooked by it. Scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan.

Stir the mixture constantly over medium heat with a heatproof, flat-bottomed spatula, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula so that you can run your finger across the coating and have the coating not run. This can take about 10 minutes.
 
Pour the custard through the strainer and stir it into the cream. Press on the coffee beans in the strainer to extract as much of the coffee flavor as possible. Then discard the beans. Mix in the vanilla and finely ground coffee, and stir until cool.

Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.

Makes one quart.

Want to know the difference between ice cream, gelato, and sorbet? Click here to find out.