Smashed Potatoes

After a week of dank and drizzly weather, I was ready for some serious comfort food. Looking for a meal that would take me from work to school and back again, I made this delicious recipe for vegetarian Irish Stew. And what goes better with Irish Stew than potatoes?

In keeping with the Irish theme, the "smashed" in the title refers not only to the way these potatoes are combined, but also to the fact that they're cooked with a good Irish stout. Hey, everything's better with beer, right?

These potatoes are not the light and fluffy mashed potatoes many of us expect in this holiday season. As I'm learning in culinary school, there's really only one way to get cooked potatoes beautifully light and fluffy without becoming gluey, but that's a trade secret that I will never, never reveal. Instead, these potatoes are cooked to fork tenderness with a few secret ingredients and then roughly smashed for a more rustic dish. They're great underneath heavy stews or on their own for a belly-filling snack. Best of all, unlike most of the mashed potato recipes that use butter or heavy cream or cream cheese or a combination of the three, this recipe is vegan.


Bain taitneamh as do bheil!


PREP TIME: 20 minutes
COOKING TIME: 15-20 minutes
SERVES: 2


INGREDIENTS:
3 large Yukon Gold potatoes, skin on, washed and cut into 1" pieces
1 large tart apple (such as a MacIntosh), peeled and cut into 1" pieces
3 cloves garlic, smashed
1 large sprig fresh rosemary, leaves removed and chopped finely
1 cup Irish stout (check Barnivore to make sure your stout of choice is vegan)
3 cups veggie stock
sea salt, to taste
4-5 twists of the pepper mill
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil


DIRECTIONS:
In a large heavy bottomed stock pot, combine chopped potatoes, apple, garlic cloves, rosemary, beer, veggie stock, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer and cover. When potatoes and apples are easily pierced with a knife, remove from heat and drain, reserving some of the cooking liquid.

With the back of a fork, roughly smash vegetables together, drizzling with the extra virgin olive oil. If the mixture seems a little dry, add a little of the reserved cooking liquid.

Serve with a thick stew and get cozy!

Creamy Autumn Soup

Well hello there, herbivores! Miss me? I missed you! School and work have kept me so very busy that I'm just now slooooooowly beginning to get my feet back underneath me.

It's been such a whirlwind. I feel like I looked down a month ago, determined to work hard, do well in school, take care of my family/home responsibilities AND get enough sleep to do all of those reasonably well and have just now picked my head up and looked around.

It's fall, I've discovered. I am usually so enamoured of the spring-time that I feel a little disloyal admiring this autumn, but I must admit it's been lovely. The leaves around here are crisping and changing colors a bit, although not the usual dramatic showing we're used to owing to the extremely hot summer. But there is that unmistakable feeling of fall in the air, with the kiddies back in school, wood fires burning on cold nights and pumpkins on everyone's doorsteps.

I am learning ever so much in school, leaving each week feeling like my skull has been pried open with a French-style chef's knife and crammed full of knowledge, like a giant stuffed squash. The different knife cuts: julienne, batonnet, large dice, medium dice, oblique cut. Sanitation lecture: the differences between salmonella, botulism and e. coli plus their sources and effects. (That particular lecture found me throwing out all leftovers as soon as I got home). Cooking technique: braising, steaming, poaching, blanching. Identification of hundreds of herbs, spices, grains, beans, produce, fruits. (We are blessed with such an abundance of so many different types of flora & fauna on this world, truly!) Later this month we have an entire lecture on sea vegetables. SEA VEGETABLES!

I haven't yet found that cooking in school puts me off cooking at home-- quite the contrary, actually. I welcome the opportunity to practice my knife skills (I'm going to be tested on them, after all!) and because money is so damn tight these days, we really have no choice but to make meals for the week so as not to waste one penny on expensive prepared food.

The season is abundant, so there is no need for our cheap food to be boring food. The harvest is bursting with squash and cauliflower and apples, all of which are extremely affordable right now. And because the weather is often unpredictable this time of year with summer-hot days followed immediately with blustery, rainy days, I'm loving a creamy, comforting soup that is filling without being too heavy.

Adapted very loosely from this recipe at Vegetarian times, this soup is vegan and keeps well in the fridge for lots of cozy autumn meals.


Bain taitneamh as do bheil!


INGREDIENTS:
1 large onion, sliced into 1" chunks
3 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium-sized head cauliflower, chopped into 1" chunks
4 small apples, peeled and chopped into 1" chunks
1 large yellow summer squash, cut into 1" rounds
8 cups veggie stock
1/2 teaspoon ground tumeric
large pinch of salt, to taste
3 large sprigs rosemary, stems removed & discarded, leaves chopped finely
1/4 teaspoon sherry vinegar


DIRECTIONS:
Heat olive oil in a large, heavy bottomed stockpot. Add chopped onions & garlic and saute until just translucent. Add chopped cauliflower, apples, summer squash, veggie stock, turmeric and salt, stirring to thoroughly combine. Bring mixture to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cover. Simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent any vegetables from sticking to the bottom.

After 30 minutes, add chopped rosemary and stir to combine thoroughly. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes more, or until all vegetables are very tender. Add sherry vinegar and remove from heat.

Working in very small batches, blend the soup until it achieves a completely smooth texture. Be sure to firmly hold down the lid of blender with a towel and pulse it a few times before bringing it up to full speed-- this will help to prevent the hot steam trapped in the blender from forcing the top off, resulting in a big mess or a nasty burn.

Serve with an amber ale and a slice of crusty bread for dipping!