Lemon-Ginger Glazed Sweet Potatoes

 

Happy Fall! Here is a Thanksgiving family favorite, Lemon-Ginger glazed Sweet Potatoes, (or yams, as many people call it, but more on that in a minute...**) that I have made some small tweaks to, in the last few years. The original recipe called for boiling the sweet potatoes first, then peeling them, and it used ground ginger powder, versus fresh ginger, and it also had much more brown sugar in it than mine. But I find my technique of peeling and roasting it in the oven is just as good (if not slightly better,) and the fresh ginger, and reduced sugar makes for a lighter, fresh-tasting and tangy version of the recipe. I don't even know where our mom found the original recipe, and all I had was her hand-written notes to go by.   It became a  yearly staple for our Thanksgiving table, and I frankly can't recall a time when we didn't eat it, so it has probably been in rotation for a good 25 or 30 years.

Asparagus and Cheese Tart

Howdy, howdy everyone! It's been a few moons, but today I'm letting you enjoy this savory treat, courtesy of a friend of mine, Julia, who recently posted a photo of this delicious looking asparagus tart that she had found on FoodNetwork.com, and was kind enough to share it with me. So here below the jump-break is her blog post. Welcome to Off The Cuff Cooking, Julia!

Lemon Curd

If you're not familiar with lemon curd, this is a very classic British lemon-spread to put on scones, or other pastries. (Try it on pancakes, or in homemade Danish, for instance.) Lemon curd is bright, smooth, velvety and rich, and it pairs so well with a hot cup of Earl Grey. 

This is a breakfast staple at my parents' house, so I've grown up eating it, but this very batch that I'm sharing with you here is the FIRST time in 42 years of living that I finally got around to making myself. And it was super easy, and very fast. I think zesting the lemons took 1/3 of the total time.

Apple-Butternut Squash soup with lemon zest

TWO recipes in less than THREE days.  That's just craziness.  Can you guys take it? And this one is also gluten-free, since it's pretty much just made with vegetables and a little bit of dairy.

It's been kind of foggy and cold here the last few days so a soup sounded good.

I have made another acorn squash soup in the past, and also a roasted eggplant soup which borrows some of the same principles of oven-roasting the main vegetables first before making the soup.  If you read the acorn squash soup recipe, you'll see that I stole the whole-squash roasting technique from The Pioneer Woman, Rhee Drummond, who instructed her readers that a squash or gourd does not need to be cut up or peeled prior to roasting and that it in fact is much easier to do it after the fact.  Not only that, but the result is caramelized and savory and sweet, and far more pleasantly textured than a steamy, water-logged squash might be.  Now where *she* got that method from, I have no idea, but at least it saves me from any future trips to the emergency room because I can't think of very many kitchen-related tasks that are more dangerous than trying to cut open a squash or water melon.

Sockeye Salmon with basil-yogurt dressing

Sometimes I actually say something out loud before deciding if it sounds like a good meal idea.  Today I said "basil-yogurt dressing" and a light bulb came on! 

Holy Guacamole!!

I'm a major guacamole fiend.  I can easily justify eating half a bowl myself, because hey... it's a vegetable, and it's the "good fats" and has tons of fiber, too. Plus it's so excellent with tortilla chips, or over a quesadilla or slathered on enchiladas, on a toasted bagel,  or even just on a spoon.

Lemon-Dill Beurre Blanc over pan-fried mahi-mahi and brown rice

I have never made a Beurre Blanc before. I’ve eaten it, admired it, and always thought to myself that it can’t be as easy as a gravy (and I make many other kinds of gravy and sauce, among them my favorite chantarelle mushroom gravy which is WAY GOOD) but alas, I found that a beurre blanc is quite a cinch.


And since I still had mahi mahi in the freezer which I used in last week’s Thai-dish, I wanted to do something a little more traditional. Plus I had organic snap peas, and dill in the fridge, which just calls for traditional seasonings.

So online I went to find a recipe, and this Beurre Blanc video tutorial by Billy Parisi was most helpful. I would suggest you watch it, even if only for the cute Italian chef making it!  (Now, now, I’m happily married so it wasn’t like that.)

I’m no authority on sauce so he is definitely a guy to take a cue from. Now then, here is my variation on his sauce (since I didn’t have shallots, and added the dill.)

LEMON DILL BEURRE BLANC INGREDIENTS AND DIRECTIONS:

Approximately 2 tbsp finely chopped white onion
2 tbsp olive oil

Sauté the onion until caramelized, and then add in:

1/4 cup white dry wine
3 tbsp or so of lemon juice

Keep simmering that until it’s “a glace” or the liquid is almost gone. At that point, add a pinch of salt and WHITE pepper (so as not to discolor the sauce) and take it off the heat, and stir in 4 tbsp of COLD butter and 2 tbsp fresh dill. Serve immediately.

Since the timing is so critical on a beurre blanc (maybe I just like to TYPE beurre blanc, because I can pronounce it all French-y in my head at the same time, and feel cultured) I want to emphasize that I started my brown rice about forty minutes earlier so that it would finish cooking, and while I was caramelizing my onions and deglacing the pan of sauce, I was pan-frying my mahi-mahi. You could use just about any mild, non-oily fish. I suspect it would be great with Sole, or trout, too. The sauce is so buttery, you just would be better off with a non-rich fish.

FRYING THE FISH—I just heated my trusty cast-iron skillet to quite hot, and seared each side until browned, and then turned the heat down a little to finish cooking the fish throughout.  If you like your Mahi Mahi rare in the middle, don't exceed 2 minutes per side.

I also served it with steamed snap-peas, which was a good match, although now in hindsight, I think asparagus would have been a better pairing.