One Local Summer Week #1: Mary's Potatoes

My day started out with a potato. Well, okay, one potato in a two-pound bag of potatoes that I had toted home from the farmer's market the day before. It was gorgeous, in fact, I'd been admiring its beauty for the past 8 weeks, when I started buying its brothers from Mary at my local farmer's market. But yesterday morning, Mary told me it was probably the last week she would have potatoes, and, after scooping up three baskets of blue, gold, and red tubers, I knew I needed to pay homage to the harvest. My first One Local Summer meal, I decided, needed to prominently feature this potato.

A laudable decision, yes, but one that caused me to spend, I'm not kidding, at least 3 hours of the day contemplating how to properly do justice to this potato. My respect for this particular crop runs deep--it is the only local starch I've found in the Southern California spring, and has become a staple of my meals these past few months. Mary is also the first local farmer I'd forged a relationship with, so part of my determination to properly celebrate this potato was for her. It was a strange feeling--I've never wanted to pay homage to one food product before (save for my favorite comfort food, the jalepeno cheese bread at the Liars Club, which needs little more preparation than a light toast) which is I guess why I found myself unable to decide on how to cook the damn roots. I pondered and pondered, and finally decided I was stumped. I'd already shaped these babies into every form I could think of--home fries, hash browns, two types of potato salad, even semi-successful gnocci. I wanted to do something different, something more.
(a tray of not-so-successful gnocci--I later learned the secret: freezing)

But the more I pondered the more I realized that what makes Mary's potatoes special is that they're good--far better than any I'd sampled before, and since. I realized that what I really needed to do was prepare them simply, to let them showcase their own flavor. It must have been a comical moment, me jumping up from amid a pile of cookbooks on the floor, excited by a sudden realization that I was going to roast some potatoes whole. I suddenly got inspired--not only would I roast the potatoes but I'd roast them with local olive oil from Petrou foods, local garlic from the farmer's market, and a bit of fresh rosemary from my garden. My mouth was salivating already.

This, however, spurred on pondering session #2, as I was now stumped as to what I could possibly serve with these potatoes to do the decided-upon side dish justice. As I've mentioned earlier in the week, my options were limited, and because I was determined to make this meal 100% local, I was pretty much resigned to the fact that I would be preparing a vegan meal (if anyone knows of any dairy or meat farms in San Diego, I'm actively seeking options!).



Luckily, in addition to some gorgeous, inspiring potatoes, I had a few other treasures piled on my kitchen counter. I was particularly fond of the blue lake green beans I'd been getting all spring, and was eager to mingle them with the bewitching dragon beans that Carlsbad's Valdivia Farms had at their farm stand last Saturday. I decided to feature a bean salad as a side dish, especially after stumbling across this one on Simply Recipes. I had peppermint growing in my garden and had some clementines from Polito family farms I could use in the dressing, along with oil from Petrau farms. Side dish #2, down.

Now for the main course, something that I passed up a Morley Field frisbee golf session to work out the details of. I had gorgeous summer squash, even more beautiful red peppers and some enormous rainbow chard that I was determined to weave together. Wanting to capture the essence of summer and the spirit of celebrating the food I was eating, I decided something elaborate was needed, and so it became: a terraine of summertime grilled vegetables.

I found a basic recipe in the America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook (aka my kitchen bible), as well as a similar one on epicurious to base the dish on, and, pouring myself a glass of (local) San Pasqual Wine, I took it from there. There were some improvisations as I went along--I threw in some potatoes for good measure, I realized I didn't have any local white wine so substituted Stone Beer (and the 2007 Vertical Epic at that!). Oh, and I cheated twice: at the very beginning, deciding to use chicken stock I had made and frozen earlier in the year--the chicken wasn't local but it was free-range; at the very end, adding breadcrumbs from locally-made bread that was, alas, made with non-local flour.

The result? The potatoes were oh-so-perfect, the green beans light and refreshing (although the color faded from the dragon beans). And the terraine? From a foodie standpoint there were things I would have added if I could find them locally--a layer of goat cheese definitely, and if not some sort of protein at least some hearty mushrooms (which are available locally, I just hadn't planned ahead). From a locavore standpoint, however, I was pretty pleased. The leftovers held up well (I drizzled on some leftover homemade pesto the next day), and, if you've got some meat in your foodshed I think this would make a great side dish (although a time-consuming one!).

Here are the recipes:

Roasted smashed potatoes with garlic & parsley

1/2 lb new potatoes, preferably 1 1/2 inch diameter or less
olive oil
salt/pepper
2 cloves garlic, diced
1 sprig fresh rosemary, diced


scrub potatoes well, let dry
preheat oven to 400 F
rub roasting pan with 2 tsp olive oil, place potatoes in pan and toss to coat
sprinkle with salt and pepper
roast in oven for 30 minutes, rotating after 15
take potatoes out of oven, let rest for 10 minutes
while potatoes are resting, heat 1 tsp oil in pan over medium heat, add garlic and rosemary, salt, and pepper and sautee for 2 minutes, stirring often so as to not let the garlic burn.
plate potatoes, smash each with large mallet
spoon rosemary and garlic mixture over each

mixed string bean and mint salad

(sorry for the blurriness--I was eager to eat!)

1/2 lb mixed green, wax, dragon, or other string beans
olive oil
handful fresh mint leaves
1 clementine

dice the mint and mix with olive oil
zest one clementine, add zest to olive oil
squeeze juice from clementine and add to oil mixture. let stand at room temperature until needed.
cut ends off beans and steam for 2-5 minutes over boiling water
rinse under cold water and place in fridge to stop cooking process.
mix beans and mint mixture and let stand in fridge until ready to serve.

zucchini, chard, blue potato and roasted red pepper casserole

2 red peppers
5 blue potatoes
4 medium summer squash
1 bunch swiss or rainbow chard, stems and leaves separated, both diced
1-2 red onions, sliced thin
4 cloves garlic, diced
olive oil
garlic
2 tbsp. fresh italian parsley, diced
1 tsp. fresh oregano, diced
1 cup chicken or vegetable stock
1 cup good beer (the better the beer the better the flavor!)
2-3 thick slices fresh bread
olive oil
salt/pepper

note: this recipe took me 2 hours from prep to table, and involves grilling, stovetop & oven time. Broiling could be substituted for the grilling if needed; improvisation in any of the steps or layers would also work fine, as long as all components are cooked prior to the dish going into the oven.

light grill, let heat for 15 minutes
stem and seed red peppers, slice into 4-5 flat pieces
slice zucchini into 1/4 inch strips
grill pepper and zucchini slices over open grill for 4-5 minutes per side, until peppers are blackened and zucchini have grill marks. Remove from heat. set zucchini aside

Place peppers in paper bag for 10 minutes. using a vegetable peeler, gently remove blackened skins from peppers. dice peeled peppers and set aside.

saute onions and chard stems with 2 tsp. oil over medium high heat for 10 minutes, stirring frequently, until onions are browned and soft. be careful not to burn. set mixture aside.

while onions are cooking, blanch chard leaves in boiling water for 5 minutes, drain and set aside.

heat garlic in 1 tsp oil over medium heat for 1 minute. add chicken stock, beer, oregano, and parsley, bring to simmer, cook for 5 minutes and remove from heat.

slice potatoes into 1/4" slices. toss with 2 tsp oil and salt and pepper. line bottom of glass casserole dish and bake in 400 degree oven for 15-20 minutes.

while potatoes are baking, place bread in food processor and pulse until bread is chopped into course crumbs.
place crumbs on cookie sheet in one layer and cook in oven for 5 minutes. remove from oven and set aside.

remove potatoes from oven (keep oven on) and carefully layer onion mixture, zucchini slices, blanched chard, and roasted red peppers over potatoes, in that order. pour stock and beer mixture over casserole dish. top with breadcrumbs and bake for 20 minutes.

Enjoy!