Spanish Tortilla Using Leftovers

Wow, I turned leftovers into a Spanish omelet a/k/a a Spanish tortilla and it was scrumptious. If you have more people to feed you can double the eggs I used and toss in another potato as the dish will be much the same. I didn't want to eat leftovers of my leftovers so only used one potato and 4 eggs. The dish is fast and easy ... cooked and baked in a single 10 1/2" cast iron skillet. Here's what you do:

Spanish Tortilla

Ingredients

Drizzle of olive oil

small onion, sliced

1/2 cup celery, diced

1 large potato, sliced thin (I didn't peel mine.)

1 large fresh mushroom, sliced

1/4 cup red and green peppers

1/2 Jalapeno pepper, minced

1 cup beef, diced (I had leftover top-round beef, you can also use ham or sausage or chicken.)

1/2 cup of butternut squash, cooked and cubed

4 eggs

Cajun seasoning to taste

A sprinkle of Herbs de Provence

Directions

1) Drizzle olive oil in the bottom of a 10 1/2-inch cast iron skillet. Brown the potatoes, onion, celery, and mushroom.

2) While they are browning toss in the red and green peppers and minced jalapeno pepper, if using, to let them grill a tad.

3) Add the beef (or ham or chicken or sausage) distributing it evenly in the pan.

4) Lay in the cooked butternut squash (or another leftover vegetable).

5) After the meat and vegetables warm a bit and the potatoes and onions are brown, crack and scramble 4 eggs in a separate bowl then pour them over the other ingredients in the pan. Salt and pepper and spice the dish as you like it.

6) Bake in the oven at 350 degrees F for 20 to 25 minutes. The potatoes will need the baking to get tender. Remove from the oven and flip it over into a serving plate. Cut into wedges.

I'll be making more Spanish tortillas for dinner this year.
What a great one-pan meal when you don't have the time to let pizza dough rise. Likewise, a Spanish Tortilla is less work than making a quiche.

I love how versatile the dish is! After you grill the onions and potatoes in a little olive oil you can add nearly any vegetable (carrots, asparagus, etc.) or meat (ham, sausage, chicken, etc.) to it. Or not! You could eat it plain. Who knew grilled potatoes, onions, and eggs are sooo delicious! Spaniards and Mexicans, that's who! I could eat either cuisine every night of the week!

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American Potato Salad

Photo: iStock

In an earlier blog, I shared my recipe for German Potato Salad which my mother made often in our house. But she also learned how to make American Potato Salad. With the addition of eggs, it can serve as a quick yet satisfying one-dish meal for one person, or as a side dish for many people at a barbecue. In other words, you can make a little or a lot!

Over time I learned why I like homemade American potato salad better than almost any prepared by a deli. I like my American potato salad creamy yet dry and dense, as opposed to runny; and I don't like any trace of sweetness, usually the result of pickle radish as an ingredient in deli potato salad. Here's my simple and relatively healthy recipe for one serving, which I ate as dinner yesterday:

My American Potato Salad

Ingredients:

2 medium-sized potatoes, microwaved tender (use the starchy variety: Idaho, Russet, Golden, etc)

2 large eggs

1/2 medium onion, finely chopped

1-2  stalks of celery, finely chopped (eyeball the amount)

2 tablespoons low-fat mayonnaise 

1 tablespoon Dion mustard

A good sprinkle of Zatarain's Creole Seasoning

1 teaspoon of dried garlic powder

A few turns of the peppermill

Optional: Plain Greek yogurt

Directions:

1) Microwave the potatoes unpeeled until tender, about 8 minutes.

2) Boil your eggs on a stovetop until hard, about 5 minutes. When done, drop the potatoes and eggs into a bowl and chop. I don't peel the potatoes, but you can.

3) Add the finely chopped onion and celery to the bowl and mix.

4) Follow with the mayonnaise and Dion mustard. At this stage don't worry if it's too dry just work to incorporate all the ingredients.

5) Toss in the spices. I eyeball it, then adjust the spice to taste as the final step.

6) If my potato salad needs more creamy ingredients, I use a dub of Greek yogurt before adding additional mayonnaise. If it still tastes like mayonnaise, I leave it alone. If the Greek yogurt makes the potato salad too bland I add another spoonful of mayonnaise to the bowl.  Also now taste to adjust your spices.

That's it! I ate my one-dish dinner warm. When I make a bigger batch, into the refrigerator it goes until serving.

If you have bell peppers, green onions, scallions, or olives, feel free to toss them into your potato salad. I prefer keeping the ingredients simple but will toss in leftover vegetables to get rid of them. (Did you know olives although savory are technically a fruit?) Nonetheless, making potato salad more complicated isn't necessarily tastier. Fewer ingredients are just as delicious! An easy, peasy, breezy preparation. Enjoy!

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Hearty Potato Soup

I used skim milk for this. Tasty, but next time I'll have cream on hand. Even better!

So, you are looking at my 1st attempt at potato soup. My mother made beef vegetable, chicken noodle, pea, lentil, and bean soup. Never potato soup. We only used potatoes as a side dish, not as the main ingredient of a soup. But recently, I tossed diced potatoes and ingredients into a pot and voilà! It got so many likes on Facebook, I decided to post it here on the blog, so I remember how to make it again. The next time, I will make it even creamier:

Potato Soup

Ingredients

4 medium potatoes, diced
1 small onion, diced
About 6 strips of bacon, fried in a pan
2 stalks celery, diced
2 large carrots, diced
1 large chicken bouillon cube (or you can use chicken stock and salt to taste)
Dried spices to taste - black pepper, garlic, rosemary, cilantro, Herbs de Provence, nutmeg, whatever you like. (If you use a chicken bouillon cube, remember to omit the salt.)
2 cups milk (or 1 cup milk and 1 cup cream)

Optional: Shredded cheddar cheese

Directions

1) Toss several strips of bacon into a chef skillet (so you won't have to clean 2 pans). One-pan cooking rocks!🙂 Set the bacon aside.

2) Sautè the diced potatoes and onion in the bacon grease for 5 minutes or so, then drain the grease. (If too much grease to began with, pour some of it out first. You don't need much to grill the potatoes and onion.)

3) Next add the celery, carrots, milk (plus cream if you decide

to use it), chicken bouillon (or stock) and spices. 

You do need a fat (either bacon grease, or a couple of tablespoons of butter) to prevent the milk from cruddling while cooking. Therefore if you use skim milk and no bacon grease, 1st make a simple roux with butter and all-purpose flour in the pan, then add your soup ingredients.

4) Bring the soup to a simmer. Cook on medium-low until the potatoes, carrots and celery are tender. It's all you have to do.

But, if the soup is not thick enough for you, thicken it by taking 1 tablespoon of all-purpose flour dissolved into a little water and carefully add it to the soup. (To prevent lumps add a little hot soup to the mixture before dropping it into the pot.) Cook the soup for 5 minutes longer to thicken. (I didn't need to do this -- but it's an extra step I take if a soup, stew or gravy needs more thickening.)

5) After you put the potato soup into bowls, top with crumbled crispy bacon (and shredded cheddar cheese) if you wish. I tend not to put the cheese and bacon into the soup during the cooking stage because they dissolve and you can't taste them as well. (Plus you then need more of these calorie-rich treats for your dish. A garnish gives you the taste without the higher calories.) Better to enjoy cheese and bacon (so easy to do!😍) in moderation. 

The soup is on. Bon Appètit!


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My Loaded Potatoes Quick Meal

Salad as a meal, never!

Sometimes I don't want to cook because of the clean-up ... due to laziness; a long hot summer, or the lack of time. It's when I turn to quick meals. My latest quick meal is Loaded Potatoes. 

The recipe changes slightly depending upon what I have in my refrigerator at the time. I'll list the ingredients I often use as a guide. But feel free to toss in leftover meats, or vegetables you have, or love. You can oven bake the potatoes 1st, scrape out the insides, then smash and mix the filling with melted butter and cream and stuff it back on top of its skin. But, I'm not going to lie, I don't take the time, as the Loaded Potatoes are no longer a low-fat, quick meal. And isn't the point of coming up with a quick meal, not to go through the extra steps? So I've learned to like: 

Microwaved Loaded Potatoes

Ingredients: 

1 baking potato (or 2-3 small potatoes from a 5 lb bag)
1/2 cup broccoli, fresh, or frozen
ham, diced (or crumbled crispy bacon)
1 carrot microwaved tender, then sliced (Often I skip this step of microwaving the carrot 1st and simply slice it as thin as possible -- it gets tender enough for me to eat.)
1 stalk celery, sliced
1/4 of an onion, diced
Mexican salsa (or Italian tomato sauce)
Salt, pepper and spice to taste
Extra sharp cheddar cheese

Optional: Whatever else you have in the refrigerator: mushrooms, red peppers, garlic cloves, etc.

Directions:

1) Microwave the potato(es) until done. It takes 5 - 8 minutes, depending on the size and how many potatoes you use. Poke with a fork to test for softness. Lay in a bowl and slice and dice them. I leave the skin on to eat as it has lots of nutrients too. I don't do so, but if you wish to mash the potatoes and add butter and cream, this is the time to do it.

2) Toss the other vegetables and meats on top and distribute evenly. Microwave for 1-2 more minutes. Add minutes of time at this stage to tenderize the vegetables.

3) Salt, pepper and spice to taste with dried garlic, onion powder, red pepper flakes and other dried green leaf spices.

4) Pour on the sauce of your choice: Mexican salsa, or Italian tomato sauce.

5) Top with a generous portion of cheddar cheese. (If I use Italian tomato sauce, I might switch to Mozzarella and  sprinkle on 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese instead of using cheddar. But sharp cheddar is good with tomato sauce too.)

6) Microwave for another 1-2 minutes to get the cheese hot and bubbly.

As you see, homemade meals can be fresh, quick, easy, balanced and as healthy as you wish! After dinner all you need to wash is a bowl, cutting board and a few utensils, and you're done.😊

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Real German Potato Salad

Photo: Betty Crocker

I don't know which I prefer: American (made with eggs and mayonnaise), or German potato salad. My mother made mostly German and now that I'm an adult, I make mostly German potato salad too. (Shhh, don't tell her. I am not turning into my mother.)

German potato salad seems more ambitious because of the clean up. It requires frying bacon and so you have a greasy skillet to wash and grease to dispose of. I cheat dealing with the mess by microwaving slices of bacon in between paper towels on a large plate. Then I trash the greasy paper towels and simply wash a not-too-greasy plate. The paper towels absorb 99% of the grease. I also microwave whole unpeeled potatoes instead of boiling and peeling them. Let the microwaved potatoes cool off a bit before you handle them. Here is my recipe:

Ingredients:

4 medium washed, unpeeled potatoes
6 slices (or more!) crispy bacon
1/2 onion, diced
1/4 cup cider vinegar
About 3 tablespoons hot water
3/4 teaspoon salt, or to taste
12 turns of the black pepper mill = 1/2 teaspoon
1 teaspoon dried garlic 
1/2 teaspoon celery seeds
A generous sprinkle of dried parsley

Optional: 1/2 teaspoon of sugar -- We don't add sugar, but if the vinegar is too sour for your tastes, the sugar will balance it.

Directions:

1) Cook your potatoes and bacon -- in a pot and pan, or my way in the microwave. (If you fry the bacon in a skillet, save a couple of tablespoons of the bacon fat to pour over the salad. It's bad, but sooo delicious!)

2) Slice the warm potatoes and toss into a bowl. Add the diced onion.

3) Pour in the vinegar, water, salt, pepper, garlic and celery seeds. Gently toss.

4) Crumble in the crispy bacon and sprinkle the parsley on top. Make sure the ingredients are evenly distributed.

5) If needed, return to the microwave for a minute or so to eat it warm. 

If I don't feel like taking out lots of pots and pans, I will eat German Potato salad with a glass of wine as my dinner. Simply toss in a shredded carrot as an extra vegetable. Gute appetit!


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Pimenton Roasted Chicken And Potatoes, A One Pan Meal

Photo by Tim Mazurek/Lottie and Doof 

On New Year's Day I made a dinner created by David Tanis in Bon Appetit.  The original recipe is here, and of course, I tweaked it a little bit.  Why not start a New Year by roasting chicken a new way?  It is a healthy meal using a few fresh ingredients without a lot of fuss ... or pans.  I love one pan, crispy, spicy food. The chicken is moist on the inside, crispy on the outside, and the roasted potatoes collect all the deliciousness that drips off the chicken.  It's perfect for a holiday, or any day.

Chicken

Ingredients:

4 garlic cloves, finely grated

1 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons kosher salt

1 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoons smoked paprika

½ tablespoon hot smoked Spanish paprika

One 4 pound whole chicken

1 large bunch fresh thyme or marjoram

Potatoes

Ingredients:

2 pounds potatoes, unpeeled (Eyeball it: a potato per person)

salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

1 ½ tablespoons olive oil

¼ cup chopped parsley

¼ cup thinly sliced scallions

Smoked paprika (for dusting)

Optional: Roast carrots, onions, broccoli, or brussel sprouts at the same time as the potatoes.

Directions:

1. Make a paste by mixing the garlic, salt, olive oil and both paprikas in a bowl.

2. Using your hands, coat the entire outside of the chicken skin with the mixture.

3. Place the thyme bunch inside the bird.

4. Chill for at least 6 hours, or overnight.

5. Remove from the refrigerator and let the chicken stand at room temperature for 1 hour.

Meanwhile:

6. Cut the potatoes (and other vegetables) lengthwise into thick wedges.

7. Drop into a mixing bowl.  Drizzle the potato wedges (and vegetables) with olive oil and salt and pepper, then spread them out on a baking tray, or on the bottom of a roasting pan.

8. Place the chicken on top of the potatoes.

9. Roast in a 500 degree F oven for 30 minutes.

10. Reduce the oven heat to 425 degrees F and roast for 20 minutes more.  Let rest for 15 minutes.

11. Transfer to a serving platter if you wish (or don't and use the baking tray, rustic-style).  Sprinkle the potatoes with scallions and parsley, and sprinkle the roasted chicken (lightly) with smoked paprika.

I add a green salad with a vinaigrette dressing.  Thank you, David Tanis and Bon Appettit!  This new dish is a keeper.

On New Year's Day some cultures eat black-eye peas and sauerkraut for good luck.  Click on the words of each to find a tasty receipe.
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Happy New Year! 

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