Greek Inspired Roasted Potatoes

It's cold outside! Getting through the long Canadian winter months is a drag, and I don't know about anyone else, but I crave carbs! I truly love potatoes, and I don't think you could find me a potato dish or a way of preparing them that I wouldn't love - just don't call them taters, because that would turn me right off. This potato recipe is something I read many years ago, I don't even remember if it was online or in the newspaper. I have kind of always remembered it my own way since then, and it has probably evolved a million times from the original intent. It basically stemmed from my near obsession with the potatoes they serve in Greek restaurants. While this isn't exactly the same, it comes close! Plus I use way less oil then they do. Here is my recipe for Greek Inspired Roasted Potatoes.

Ingredients

As many washed potatoes as you have people, plus 2. Works well with New Potatoes, but will work pretty well with any kind, as long as they are cut into equal sizes. I used 5 New Potatoes.

As much garlic as you like. As usual, I am a garlic fanatic and will use as many as I feel like peeling, since the garlic cooks down, it tastes amazing. I used 6 cloves of garlic.

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Juice of half a lemon

1 tablespoon of dried oregano or Italian herbs

1/2 teaspoon of paprika

Water to cover the dish.

Salt and black pepper to taste

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 450F.

Cut the potatoes into even shapes and sizes. I made mine into wedges, but it depends on how you like them/ how fussy you want to be. I am a big fan of not peeling if it is not needed, so unless there are some obvious bad parts, leave the peel on. Just make sure to scrub them well. Slice garlic into medium slices, you don't want them too thin, as they could burn.

In a glass baking dish pour out the olive oil. Add the herbs and spices, including salt and pepper. Add the garlic and the potatoes to the dish and smear them around the dish with your hands to ensure each and everyone is coated with the spices. For extra flavour, you can rub the potato pieces with the garlic pieces. 

Once everything is combined, add the lemon juice, and then the water until just the tips of the potatoes are showing. The water will boil the potatoes, but evaporate slowly, so the parts that are exposed in the oven will become crispy.

Put the baking dish in the oven. I initially set it for an hour and every 20 minutes, stir the potatoes around in the water so nothing sticks. After the hour is done, a lot of the water should be gone, and then you just have to wait until the majority is evaporated. It should be another 15-30 minutes depending on your oven. At this point, you don't want to mix the potatoes so the tops will get crispy, and the bottoms will form your sauce.

Serve these potatoes with just about anything, steak, chicken, tofu, or if you are like me, eat them as a main dish with a salad on the side!

בתאבון

Hungarian Palacintas

One of the biggest influences on my palate is my grandmother, and I am pretty sure my sister won't argue that she is the same. Having a mixed and mashed background which includes the cuisine of Eastern Europe, as well as the Middle East, means that our comfort food varies from hummus to these palacintas, most similar to crepes. Growing up, my grandmother would make these as a sweet treat for desert. The dough itself is not very sweet, however you can fill it with a variety of sweet fillings. We always used jam, and my personal favourite is the berry blends with tons of real fruit chunks inside. As we chowed down on the palacintas this time around, we decided that they would be excellent with savoury fillings as well. Something like herb and garlic ricotta, turkey and swiss cheese, or ham for any ham lovers out there. Here is our grandmother's palacinta (pronounced pal-a-chin-ta) recipe(well as much as she could give, as she barely uses recipes herself).

Ingredients

1 egg

1 1/2 cups water

1 1/2 cups flour

2 teaspoons canola oil

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

pinch of salt

Instructions

Crack the egg into a bowl and beat thoroughly. Combine the other wet ingredients (water and canola oil) with the egg.

Mix together flour, baking powder and salt. My grandmother says the fancier cooks sift these together, so it is your choice. I didn't and they turned out great.

Mix the wet and dry ingredients together until combined. The mixture should be rather liquid, much more then a pancake batter. I would say a loose pudding consistency.

Let the batter sit for at least 10 minutes, covered in the refrigerator.

After the batter has been left to sit, preheat a skillet/frying pan (or two to get through the batter faster). I used non-stick frying pans, but still used a little dab of butter for each pancake. I tried using cooking spray, but found that the outside of the palacinta did not brown up at all, and who doesn't love just a little taste of butter? I had the frying pans on high, but you'll have to adjust the temperature to your stove, my stove is not that hot.

Ladle out enough batter to lightly cover the bottom of your frying pan. You will inevitably ladle out too much batter, because it is hard to estimate how much is needed, but these really should be quite thin. I found that you could use about a third of a ladle to effectively coat an average sized pan. It's all a matter of the size of your equipment (that's what she said!). Once the batter is in the pan, quickly twist your wrist around ensuring coverage of the entire pan and a perfect circle. This takes practice, and even the greats, like my grandmother, don't always get it the first few times. Don't be discouraged though, it all looks the same on the way out!

One the batter is all spread in the pan, wait a few moments until the palacinta is loose, and has a golden colour to it. flip it gently and wait a few more seconds until you get a similar grown colour on the other side. All this should be fairly quick and I would guesstimate that it should take about 4-6 minutes from start to finish.

Once you are done each palacinta, let them cool for a few moments on a piece of paper towel, and then stack the cooled palacintas with paper towel between each on a plate, ready to serve.

Serve with any filling you like, and obviously adjust this recipe for the amount that you wish to make. I made about 20 palacintas with this recipe.

Buon appetito!