Friday, January 27, 2012

FFWD Broth-Braised Potatoes

I spent 45 minutes this weekend making a list of everything in my freezer, and I didn't even have time to organize it!  It's a little bit scary, I have a couple of different kinds of home-baked bread, half of Marie Helene's apple cake, Christmas cookies, peach freezer jam,enchiladas, lasagna...We have a normal freezer/refrigerator upstairs and a stand-alone freezer in the basement.  It's overwhelming.  The good news is, when I don't have much time to cook I can usually find something pretty good to eat in the freezer.

To go with these broth-braised potatoes, I made broccoli and pulled out some leftovers from Christmas Eve.  This was my first year hosting Christmas Eve.  We had gougeres as an appetizer, pumpkin soup as a first course, and then I served lemon focaccia, slow roasted salmon, chicken with figs, artichoke torte, and braised cabbage with apples.  After the main course we had my favorite salad (a Canal House one with blood orange and hearts of palm) with cheese, and then fruit cake, pumpkin pie, and Buche de Noel (I didn't make the last two desserts!).  We've finally managed to eat most of the leftovers, but I still had some artichoke torte and chicken in the freezer, so they made a perfect easy dinner.  As for the potatoes, we definitely liked them, but I didn't think they were that much better than my typical boiled potatoes with salt, pepper, and butter.  I don't make potatoes as often as I'd like to, though, so it's always nice to have a reminder to make them.

Boiled potatoes and leftovers

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I also made a couple of other Dorie recipes this week.  On Sunday night, I made the Pumpkin-Gorgonzola Flans to go with my fresh baked bread (White Loaves for Tuesday's with Dorie) and salad. In November I bought two pumpkins, roasted them, and put the flesh through a food mill (which was quite a mess), but I ended up just freezing the pumpkin when I ran out of time to make pie.   This was a perfect reason to pull the pumpkin out of the freezer.  We both loved the flan.

Pumpkin-Gorgonzola Flan

Not quite as pretty as Dorie's
I also made the filling for Chicken B'Stilla on Sunday, to save myself time when I got home Monday night.  I found a half-used packaged of filo dough when I was cleaning out the freezer, and thought it would be perfect for the B'Stilla.  Unfortunately, when I unwrapped it on Monday I learned that it had crumbled to pieces.  (I'm thinking maybe it's bad to freeze and re-freeze filo?)  I did the best I could to use the bigger pieces to line the bottom of my pan, and then just mixed the remaining shreds with butter and scattered them on top.  Not nearly as pretty, but it still tasted great!


B'Stilla and my favorite salad
On Wednesday night, I made the Garlicky Crumb-Coated Broccoli to go with omelets.  My omelets always turned into scrambled eggs before I read Alice Waters' method in the Art of Simple Cooking, but now I love to make omelets (although I still love scrambled eggs too!).  I enjoyed the crumb-coated broccoli, but it probably won't replace my usual steamed broccoli on typical weeknights.  Broccoli doesn't feel quite as healthy when it's coated in four tablespoons of butter!

Broccoli and omelet

14 comments:

  1. What a great catch-up post! I still have to make many of those recipes like the pumpkin flans and chicken b'stilla. A well stocked freezer is definitely a blessing for those busy days when cooking is the furthest thing from one's mind.

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  2. You really do enjoy cooking, don't you? That is some line up of recipes, and I laugh when I look
    back at some of them. The pumpkin flan was really something else, between Tricia's house and
    mine, the only one that enjoyed it was Tricia's husband. Oh well, can't win them all. Great
    job on catching up. Tricia and I are joining the Tuesday group so it should be fun. I'm hoping
    to try the bread this weekend.

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    1. Yeah, I really do enjoy cooking :-) In hindsight, I'm worried this post made me sound a bit crazy! I think it's so fun that there are some recipes that some people just love and others don't like at all, it definitely keeps things interesting...

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  3. You are doing GREAT on catch up! Way ahead of me; I need to get busy! I want to make the pumpkin gorgonzola flan but somehow don't get it done. We really enjoyed the potatoes and liked that they're low in calories and fat. I love having stuff in the freezer to pull out for a quick dinner. I've made my Tuesday bread too. Wasn't it great?

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    1. Yes, I loved the Tuesday bread. It was great fresh, and the toast was great with peanut butter and jelly!

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  4. What a productive week you had Jora! Between the freezer and all those recipes you caught up, it must have been a great feeling. Your Christmas Eve menu sounds so delicious. Do you have a link to the spread? Even just looking at the leftovers you paired with the potatoes I can imagine what a wonderful meal you prepared.

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    1. I'm so mad at myself for forgetting to take pictures of my Christmas Eve dinner! I get so focused on the food, and then I was having fun with our guests, but I really want to remember next time...

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  5. Wow! I love all the Dorie dishes you did! Everything looks tasty!

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  6. Oh my goodness! What wonderful meals you've had over the past week!! I'm totally impressed (and a little jealous, though I DO try to keep frozen unbaked gougeres in the freezer for a last-minute snack). It all looks wonderful - and your potatoes look so tasty with your leftovers!!

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    1. Interesting, I didn't think to freeze the gougeres unbaked. I'll have to try that next time

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  7. Oh, I'd like to raid your freezer! What delicious finds! I think I would have liked buttered boiled potatoes just as well~

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  8. I'm embarrassed about how much stuff lives in my freezer, though it's mostly things that need cooking, not leftovers.
    Thanks for the reminder of some of the earlier FFwD recipes that were so delicious! Sounds like your freezer is a treasure trove.

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  9. I always bemoan my lack of freezer space - it is amazing what you can do with that extra storage!
    Sounds like you had some amazing food going on. Great catch up week.

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  10. Wish I had your freezer! It would be amazing to have that resource on work nights. I'm so impressed on how you have been making up recipes. I also wish I had the energy to do that.

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