One Potato, Two Potato Salad with Garlic-Dijon Aioli

I haven't posted in about six weeks, mostly because for the last six weeks the hubby and I have been trying low FODMAP for a happy tummy, which involves cooking gluten and dairy free, among other things. I've been floundering a bit mealwise; we still don't have an easy and convenient standby with the "safe" foods my husband can eat so every day is a bit of an experiment. I'm slowly discovering another world of marvelous gluten-free blogs that inspire me to get back in the kitchen and confidently know I can make old favorites and discover new dishes with a few tweaks and growing pains along the way. We're still not sure if this will be a permanent change for us, but right now are just grateful for another step towards wellness.

This particular potato salad's greatest recommendation has nothing to do with being low-FODMAP or gluten-free as it's all about what it's got going for it and not what it's missing. What it's got going for it is buttery Yukon Gold and sweet potatoes married beautiful in an unctuous aioli punctuated by the sharpness of good Dijon and pungent garlic. Yukon Golds are probably my favorite potato variety similar to red or new potatoes but with a wonderful buttery taste and a creamy texture. They are excellent mashing potatoes for that reason because you don't need to add nearly as much butter as usual and just a tiny bit of cream or half and half coaxes them into creamy whipped goodness. While sweet potatoes need no introduction this salad is just one more reason to love them any time of day.

Two things I always do when making potato salad: Boil the potatoes in their skins and dress them while they're warm. If you're the type that thinks ahead you will quickly realize this involves peeling and dicing boiling hot potatoes. I use a potholder and a combination of a peeler and butter knife because the skin tends to peel off fairly easily of the hot potatoes. If you're going to skip one of these steps, go ahead and peel (but don't dice) your potatoes while they're raw. There will be much more of a flavor difference if you dress cold potatoes than if you boil peeled potatoes. Make sense? ;)

The recipe below makes a good amount of dressing; that's so you can add it in dollops to the potato salad to get it as creamy as you would like and save the rest to slather on boiled asparagus, hard-boiled eggs, and artichokes. 

One Potato, Two Potato Salad

• 2 lbs. Yukon Gold potatoes (I used 5 medium sized Yukon Gold potatoes)
• 2 lbs. sweet potatoes (I used two large sweet potatoes)

 Garlic-Dijon Aioli (adapted from Creamy Garlic Vinaigrette, New Best Recipe)

• 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 heaping tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 2 small garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• pepper to taste

1. If the sweet potatoes are very large, cut them in halves or quarters so that they are roughly the same size as the Yukon Golds. Place the potatoes in a large pot with water to cover. Cover the pot and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to medium and boil the potatoes until they are just cooked through, 15 to 20 minutes.
2. While the potatoes are cooking, whisk together the ingredients for the aioli. I made the aioli in my nearly-empty Dijon mustard jar, which allowed me to just shake to my heart's content until combined. You're done when everything emulsifies and is one luscious mass with a much thinner consistency than mayonnaise, similar to natural yogurt. A food processor or hand blender is also great for this task.

3. Drain the potatoes and immediately peel and dice them, transferring them to a large bowl as you go and covering the potatoes with a dish towel as you go to keep them warm. I find it makes a huge difference to dress the potatoes while they're still warm, especially since we boiled them in their jackets and so they are completely unseasoned at this point.

Holding the potatoes in a potholder in order to peel while warm.

Ready to dice!

This is how I dice, cutting the potatoes first into lengthwise planks, lengthwise again 90 degrees into french fries, then finally crosswise into dice.

4. Toss the diced potatoes gently with the aioli to taste. Start with 1/4 cup and if you like your dressing a little creamier add a bit more dressing 1 tablespoon at a time.

This is just as easily at home besides a roast chicken for dinner as it is all by itself for a light lunch or even breakfast.

breakfast.

That would be black bean enchiladas, topped with chili con carne, topped with a fried egg over easy, topped with salsa. For breakfast. Man, typing that made me hungry and also made me think I should have put sour cream on top as well. All straight out of the fridge, just cleaning up the dinner leftovers from the week and it took about 5 minutes to put together. With a good strong cup of coffee of course. It doesn't make sense in my head but I know from experience that nothing tastes better to me with southwestern lumberjack-type breakfasts like huevos rancheros or whatever you want to call that up there than coffee.

Lord knows I don't eat breakfast like this every day, nor would I want to, but for some reason I am always starving when I wake up on Saturday mornings. I had a roommate in college that always ate her takeout leftovers for breakfast: Lamb Rogan Josh, General Tso's Chicken, cold mozzarella sticks, didn't matter. It seemed so odd to me at the time but I think she has the right idea: before cereal and muffins and the like took center stage, people probably ate leftovers for breakfast quite often.That's a good question, actually. We never see them eating breakfast on Downtown Abbey but I know the must have. Perhaps that's for another post.

What about you? Are you a breakfast eater? Savory or sweet? Lumberjack breakfast or muffin and a yogurt?

Sweet Potato, Black Bean and Kale Enchilada Pie

"Tell me what you eat and I'll tell you who you are."
~A. Brillat-Savarin

I find recipes terribly difficult to follow.  1/2 teaspoon of vanilla? That's silly, I need at least a tablespoon. It calls for applesauce? I'm sure bananas will work just fine (I am never out of bananas). While I call this habit quirky and charming and a mark of my superior chef-liness, this quality tends to drive my fiance and anyone else sharing a kitchen with me slightly bonkers. The truth is that my riff on recipes turn out quite tasty 98% of the time (the other 2% I'm usually talking to my sister on the phone).

Following a recipe is a bit like learning to drive: even the best teacher's instructions give only a conceptual grasp of the topic. At some point, learning to drive and making your mother's famous pecan pie both take a certain leap of faith.  Those two seconds of uncertainty that bridge the gap between knowledge and instinct creates true mastery; suddenly you are no longer making your mother's pecan pie, but your enchilada pie.  No, it won't taste exactly the same and that's the beauty of it.

The poetry of recipes lies in their reflection of their creator. Even the most dutifully tested recipes cannot convey exactly how many turns around the bowl the chef took to fold in the egg whites and very few bother to mention whether she cleaned every stitch of batter out of the bowl with her scraper or left a few scrapes in for snacking. Have you ever notice how many pictorial recipes exist for making biscuits?  That substantial-yet-melt-in-your-mouth quality of the quintessential Southern biscuit seems to be a dying skill right up their with caning chair backs (which has nothing to do with beating them) and writing thank-you notes. That particular feather in my culinary cap still manages to elude me and is one of the tasks I plan to conquer on this blog with the help of my readers and my beloved copy of The New Best Recipe, right along with angel food cake and the perfectly delicious Saturday morning whole grain muffin.

For now, though, this simple weeknight meal will suffice. I made it one evening when I was feeling particularly frugal (ok, my fiance was being the frugal one, I was craving my favorite repast at our neighborhood watering hole: chicken nachos and the beer of the moment). The recipe as follows is the way I actually made it that night; next time I think I'll add some enchilada sauce and a few more veggies and I'm sure this would be even tastier with fresh sweet potato roasted to optimal mushy yumminess. The kale plays surprisingly well against the sweet potato and adds an extra flavor element which rounds out the pie beautifully. Let me know how yours turns out in the comments section below.  It is, after all, your recipe.

Sweet Potato, Black bean, and Kale Enchilada Pie

• 1 can (29 oz) sweet potatoes, rinsed to remove extra syrup and mashed
• 6 whole grain flour tortillas
• 1 can (15 oz.) black beans, drained and rinsed
• 3 cups kale, rinsed and chopped
• 1 onion, sliced and sauteed until translucent
• 1 15-oz jar medium salsa
• 1 cup grated cheddar or colby jack (Cotija would also be lovely!)

1. Preheat the oven to 350. 
2. Place one tortilla in the bottom of a deep-dish 10 inch pie pan. Cover with a thin even layer of mashed sweet potato. Top with 1/3 of the cooked onion, 1/3 of the can of black beans, 1 cup of kale, and 1/3 of the salsa, in that order. (You can add some cheese if you like but I usually save mine for the top)
3. Cover the ingredients with another layer of tortillas, tearing them as necessary to fill the pan to the edges. Repeat the layering of ingredients twice more until all ingredients are used and the pie pan is filled to the top.  Cover generously with cheese.
4. Bake for 20-30 minutes or until the cheese on top is your desired level of browned, burnt, and bubbly (I like my steak medium rare but my cheese well done).

*Note: this recipe can easily be made vegan by using soy cheese and vegan tortillas.