Bubble & Squeak

Recently we had a roast chicken catastrophe in the kitchen. OK so catastrophe might be a strong term, but I was tired and when I roasted the chicken upside down, leaving the breast sort of raw in the middle it felt like a catastrophe. Especially since I didn't realise it was upside down until we went to carve it.

Honestly since I started cooking for myself (and others) I've made countless roasted chickens. Its easy, that's its whole draw.  Except after work when your stuffing herbs and lemons into a chicken's backside at 5pm, after cranking through another balls to the wall day during our busy season at my 9-5, with my mind on 700 other things. When my boyfriend came home at quarter to eight and pulled the bird out of the oven he asked if it was deformed...In these cases sometimes you want to cry, and it feels like a catastrophe. We all make mistakes, and sometimes we all eat chicken legs and mashed potatoes while the rest of our dinner roasts in the oven for lunch tomorrow.

Even better: sometimes delicious miracles come from kitchen catastrophe.

Bubble & Squeak is a traditional British dish typically made from the leftovers of a Sunday roast, mashed potatoes with a little egg and flour and whatever leafy green you roasted or boiled a side dish. In this case (and every case really?) I made some substitutions and additions so that it suited our palates, and what we have in the pantry.

I started with the leftover smashed potatoes (skins on is how we roll in this house, and we whip them with a good old fashioned hand masher, skim milk and local butter) I used kale chopped into ribbons and in place of the egg and flour I used a few tablespoons of nonfat cottage cheese and matzo meal (we're multicultural like that)

A quick spin in a warm pan sprayed with just a little olive oil, a flip and then i topped them with a spritz of thyme vinegar and a sprinkle of kosher salt. Its a warm, filling and surprisingly delicious lunch, or supper (I'd add a side salad).

Kitchen miracles can happen.

Bubble & Squeak

2 cups of leftover mashed or smashed potatoes
2 cups of kale, stems removed, sliced into thin ribbons
1/4 cup nonfat cottage cheese
1/2 cup of matzo meal
garlic powder, salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper flake to taste*

Mix everything above together, checking that the texture is not too wet or too dry to make patties if you need to add more matzo or cottage cheese to supplement, everyones leftover potatoes are different.

Form patties and chill while you bring a large skillet to medium heat, add a small amount of oil evenly to the pan and drop in your potatoe cakes. when you acheive a crusty brown bottom, flip them over and dio it again on the other side. Pull them from the pan and rest them for a minute before seving alongside your favorite condiments, we like thyme vinegar and salt, or spicy ketchup. Creamy horseradish sauce would be fabulous too. More...

Sweet Potato Gnocchi

Recently here in the kitchen we experienced what I'm (still) calling the Sweet Potato Glut. No we didn't grow our own, but yes, I may have gone a little wild at the market. I had every intention of making these oven fries, to accompany some slow cooker 'pulled pork' sandwiches but never found the gumption, once my guests had arrived. So there I stood facing five rather large sweet potatoes, totally unwilling to let them go to waste. I roasted two of them last weekend, and made muffins with one (I actually made another batch of these this past weekend) and I found a way to stretch the other into dinner. Gnocchi had been something I had been interested in for a long time, and with the help of the man (its alot of work for only one set of hands!) we made a really pleasant dinner, that was both filling and reasonably healthy, (whole wheat flour and sweet potatoes keep me thinking that a bowl of potatoes, dressed in butter and a little thyme make a fairly healthy dinner...as opposed to a bowl of traditional gnocchi anyway) Gnocchi itself isn't very hard, really and if you maintain an organized level of chaos, its not too bad on ones kitchen either.

Sweet Potato Gnocchi
Adapted from Double Delicious, by Jessica Seinfeld


1 3/4 cups ricotta cheese
1/2 cup sweet potato puree
1 large egg, and 1 egg white
1/4 cup grated Romano cheese
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup of all purpose flour

In a mixing bowl combine ricotta cheese, potato puree, eggs,cheese, baking powder, and salt. In a smaller mixing bowl, combine both flours, and mix into wet mix all at the same time. Mix until the flour is incorporated and the color of the dough is uniform (no streaky orange)
Separate the dough into eight sections. Flour your work surface (I used more whole wheat flour) and roll the dough into foot long, inch high logs. Cut the dough with a fork into 1 inch by 1 inch morsels, lightly rolling the fork over one side of the pieces, creating a grooved side. Continue until you have no more dough.

At this point I seperated half of the gnocchi, froze them on a parchment lined baking sheet and later, transfered them to a freezer bag.


Fill a large pot with water, salt it generously and bring it up to a boil. Add the gnocchi, stirring very gently and cook until it just floats sim them off the top with a small mesh strainer, continuing to stir gingerly until all the gnocchi have come up to the surface and been skimmed out. We served these dressed in a little butter and sprinkled with thyme. Perfect comfort food. More...

Sweet Potato Pecan Muffins

Muffins to make the (rainy, Fall) morning bright.

Last weekend I bought 5 sweet potatoes. I bought them with every intention of serving them as oven fries when I made pulled pork in my slow cooker for a group of friends that came over to visit. Since we ended up eating the sandwiches while we played cards, I never got the chance to make the fries. and so I am left in a sweet potato debacle. What do 2 people do with almost a half dozen sweet potatoes??

Well before I went out to visit a friend for a couple of hours on Sunday, I wrapped three in little foil jackets and popped them in the oven. The man turned off the oven when the timer dinged, and when I got home I had 2 cups worth of soft roasted sweet potato to work with. If we are home over the weekend, (an increasingly rare occurrence lately) I love to take the time to bake something that we can eat for breakfast through the week. It guarantees I will eat breakfast, and helps me turn a deaf ear to the siren song that is the coffee shop (and their gingerbread donuts) two doors down from my office. and so sweet potato muffins were born.

These muffins are great for Sunday baking and then munching all week long. While not a close cousin to the gingerbread donuts, they do pack a lovely amount of -natural- sweetness and spice. They are made hearty with oats and whole wheat flour while pecans give some nice crunch. The sweet potato puree helps to keep them moist through the week...I daresay that they would keep well longer, but I wouldn't be able to tell you. They don't last that long in my house.

Sweet Potato Pecan Muffins
 Adapted from The Louisiana Sweet Potato Comission
1 c. old fashioned rolled oats
1 c. whole wheat flour
1 t. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
1 t. ground cinnamon
1/2 t. ground nutmeg
1 c. roasted and mashed sweet potato
3/4 c. brown sugar
1/3 c. canola oil
1/4 c. skim milk (I used soy milk)
1 large egg
1 t. pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 400°. Line muffin tins with paper liners.
In a medium bowl, whisk oatmeal, flour, baking powder and soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg. In another small bowl, combine the sweet potato, brown sugar, oil, egg, milk and vanilla, whisking to blend well. Pour over dry ingredients and stir to combine. Mix until just moistened. Scoop into muffin tins and bake for 15-20 minutes. Check at the 15 minute mark- the batter is fairly dense and will bake quickly. More...