That said, I must say that the dish enticed me at first glance because of my love of sweet potatoes. I think that sweet potato fries are pretty much the most delicious thing on the planet (alongside chocolate, yogurt pretzels, Nutella, bagels, and a whole host of other delectable comestibles), and they are also very good for you--they contain vitamin A and beta-carotene, both important in maintaining good eyesight. Add some lovely caramelized onions for the sweet tooth and creamy Brie cheese to satisfy even the most die-hard of cheese lovers, and you've got a recipe for instant success, in my humble (if slightly biased) opinion.
The original recipe can be found on pages 144-145 of the cookbook 200 easy suppers by Jo McAuley (AKA Lessons in Cooking for College Students), part of the Hamlyn All Colour line of culinary tomes. As usual, I did have to make some substitutions because of the differing availabilities of ingredients in my area versus the UK, but I still really enjoyed the results, as you'll hear more about later. But first, the recipe!
Ingredients:
(The Potatoes)
4 sweet potatoes
12 oz melt-y cheese of your choice, sliced (The original recipe calls for taleggio cheese, which we couldn't find, so we just used Brie, and the result was really delicious.)
About 1/2 tsp dried thyme--just estimate it
Chopped parsley, to garnish
(The Onions)
3 fl oz of vegetable oil (That's a little less than half a cup, since there are 8 fluid ounces in one cup)
6 medium white or yellow onions, sliced (I halved the onions and then chopped 1/2 centimeter slices from the halves to achieve some nice stringy pieces to cook up.)
4 tbsp white cooking wine
3 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 tbsp light brown sugar
1 tsp dried thyme
Salt and pepper, to taste
1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Poke the potatoes a few times with a sharp knife or a fork. Bake about 45 minutes or until the flesh is nice and soft when prodded with a knife.
2. While the potatoes are cooking, slice the onions and place them in a frying pan with the oil, sugar, vinegar, thyme, salt and pepper, and white wine. Cook over medium-low heat for about 30 minutes, stirring every now and then, until the onions are soft and brown.
3. Slice the cheese and chop the parsley while you are waiting for all of this to finish cooking.
4. After the potatoes are done, take them out of the oven and place them on a baking sheet. Slice them in half, leaving them attached just slightly (it's easier to pile on the onions and cheese when the two halves are slightly folded in toward one another, creating a little V-shaped crevice or valley). Top the potatoes with the onions, cheese, and thyme, then put them back in the oven for another 5 minutes or so to melt the cheese.
5. After the potatoes come out of the oven, garnish them with the parsley. If you would like, top them with some sour cream (we skipped this part because the Brie cheese is pretty rich and creamy in itself). Serve with whatever accompaniments suit your fancy (like I mention below, I served my chicken with this plus some green beans that Mom prepared for me).
Note: I found that there is an awful lot of liquid for cooking the onions. If you want less liquid and more browning to the onions (which is what I was initially expecting), you might consider reducing the amounts listed above. Some water does cook out of the onions as they simmer, so that adds even more liquid. Next time, I might try just a tablespoon each of the white cooking wine and white wine vinegar so I get more sweet caramel-ness to the onions. However, I did like the contrast between the sweetness of the sugar and the acidity of the vinegar. It gave the onions a nice sweet-and-sour tang, which balanced nicely with the creamy cheese and sugary quality of the sweet potatoes. To bake the potatoes initially, I placed them in a deep glass baking dish because, as my mom warned me, they tend to leak when they are full of holes (but the holes are necessary to let the steam escape). However, once the potatoes were opened, they didn't all fit in the baking dish, so I had to transfer them to a baking sheet. In addition, the recipe calls for broiling the potatoes for the last 5 minutes, but I really didn't want to get involved with all that, so I just put them back in the oven again after they were topped with the goodies. It seemed to work just fine.
I cooked this dish with the chicken recipe I have used a couple of times before, only this time, I used rubbed sage to flavor the chicken instead of oregano and basil, as I have the past two times. One thing about the chicken was that I think I cooked it on a higher temperature than I normally do, because the pieces got really golden-brown when they were done. They were also slightly drier than they have been, but we found that topping the chicken with any extra onions (there were extra for me) makes them more delicious and helps remedy some of the dryness should you happen to overcook them a bit.
One thing I loved about this recipe was that the onions smell FANTASTIC when they are cooking--and they taste great, too, when they are done. I just love brown sugar, so I got a kick out of using that as an ingredient. Mom made an astute observation that it might be fun sometime to chunk all of the ingredients up--the onions, chicken, and potatoes--and saute or bake the whole lot as a kind of fry-up or casserole, adding the cheese on top or at the end, depending on your cooking method. I think this is an interesting idea, and I would like to know if anyone tries this and likes it. Furthermore, the onions themselves could be cooked with some chicken and broccoli or some other vegetable and added to pasta. I like having a recipe for caramelized onions in my repertoire now because I feel like I could do so much with them. It's like that really good orange sauce recipe I used to make my orange chicken: I just know it will be useful in more capacities than just a single recipe. Speaking of orange chicken, I think I could try making it again soon. I know, I know, I've been so emotionally scarred from the experience that it seems impossible and inconceivable ("You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means." Sorry. I had to do that. Back to your regularly-scheduled program. . .) that I would try it again. BUT! Now I have that chicken recipe I like so much, so maybe if I combine that with the orange sauce, I could do a Lee-Ann Chin type orange chicken and just cook tenderloins with the breading, slice them, and pour a little orange sauce on top of each fillet. It could work. . .
Anyway, this recipe got really good reviews from my family. I was really pleased with myself for making it because it was another one of those dishes where I was essentially making three things at once, yet I didn't feel overwhelmed. I think this is a nice benefit of trying all these new recipes and stretching my limits. The undertakings that once might have felt impossible are now of little note. I am pleased to see my own growth as an amateur chef. Multitasking in the kitchen has gotten a lot easier, and I can see how one could feed his or her family each night without feeling like it was a chore or a daunting, abhorrent task to be completely with much dragging of feet. Moreover, I just really enjoy having a part in making sure my family eats well (both nutritionally and from a flavor standpoint), and I find that cooking is a great way to express myself artistically. I think every person needs some kind of creative outlet, even self-labelled extreme left-brains like myself.
In other news, I picked up a nice Black&Decker food processor, and my next task is learning how to use it. I love foods like pesto, but I have always been intimidated by the equipment it takes to make my own. But no more! A lot of the recipes in my small fleet of cookbooks employ a food processor, so I figure I should get on teaching myself the basics of its operation so that more of the recipes are within my reach.
On the gardening front, my white cucumber seeds have sprouted, and they are now very close to being ready to go into our garden (as soon as it is tilled and as soon as we put up suitable netting for the cucumber vines to climb up). I just get the biggest thrill out of planting plain cream-colored seeds and having beautiful, strong green sprouts come up less than a week later. The whole thing just makes me itch to get my zucchini seeds going, too. But I usually don't worry too much because we get so many zucchini every year anyway that starting them late is not really going to hurt our yield (that's one benefit of their being ultra-proliferative).
So, that's about it for this post. I'll keep you updated on the garden front, but until next time, happy eating!
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| I may not be Picasso or Renoir, but that doesn't mean I'm not an artist! Photo enhanced with Instagram filtering. |
