Indian Roasted Potatoes

I was flipping through Nigella’s Kitchen, and I saw that  it’s been a good long while since I’ve made my favorites from her collection. I’m usually inspired by her recipes and while I’ve made her Indian Roasted Potatoes in their original state before, I’ve decided to take my own spin on her classic.

• 2 lbs yellow potatoes (washed and cut into cubes)
• 2 tbsp olive oils
• 2 tsp nigella seeds
• 2 tsp mustard seeds
• 1 tsp coriander seeds
• 2 tsp fennel seeds
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp curry powder
• salt
• half a garlic head
• 1 lime
• 1 medium leek

Line a 13 x 9 inch pan with foil, and preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Take a simple ziplock bag and add the oil and spices.

Add the potatoes to the bag. Close the bag and shake and roll it around to coat all of the potatoes in the aromatic mixture.  Dump the whole thing onto the roasting dish you’ve prepared along with the garlic (you can bruise the garlic, or leave it whole with skins intact, regardless,  it’ll be delicious), season with salt to taste, and place into the oven for about 50 minutes.

If you’ve never worked with leeks before, they’re the easiest way to get an onion flavor into the dish, with great green color, and no stinging juices in the air. First, you take off about 1/2 the white roots, leaving the rest of the white part in-tact.  Then you cut off the bulk of the green, tough, and dry bits. You should be left with about 4-5 inches of greenery. You take the first layer and chuck in the garbage.

Leeks are dirty because they grown in the ground, don’t worry, just have the faucet ready as you strip each layer down and rinse it at you go. Then you line them up and cut into 1/4 inch rings.

Place the leeks in a bowl with the juice of one lime and let marinade till the potatoes are ready.

When it’s time to take the potatoes out stir in the leeks and leave in oven with the temperature off for 10 minutes. Stir once more before serving!

 

 

For Dessert I made my lovely Blondies (also from Nigella’s Kitchen, and which I’ve already blogged about in previous months).

 

Egg Noodles with Leeks, Peas, and Lemon

It’s still April and I’m looking through my wonderful issue of Martha Stewart Living.  I’m starting to realize that I’m a closet housewife, only not married, not in a house with a beautiful kitchen and not a backyard for all my gardening and bbq needs.

In any  case I invited my friend over for dinner and Gilmore Girls; a well deserved girls night in. The only person that I could turn to was the one I was holding in my hand: Martha Stewart. She had the best recipe on hand for pappardelle noodles, and while I’ve never seen, nor ever will purchase these noodles (by simple lack of proximity to any stores by me) I decided a good egg noodle will work just as fine.

Egg Noodle with leeks, peas, and lemon

• coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
• 2 tbsp unsalted butter
• 2 medium leeks (I used three) cut into half moons
• 2 lemons
• 1 cup peas
• 9 oz of egg noodles, you can boil the whole package and just use 3/4 of it (a package is usually 12 oz)
• 1/2 cup ricotta cheese
• 2 oz pecorino romano cheese (I used Parmesan, grated)

While bringing a large pot of salted water to a boil, melt butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add leeks and a pinch of salt; cook until leeks begin to soften and are bright in color, about 4 minutes. Reduce heat to medium, and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until very tender, about 5 minutes or so (mine got brown, and almost caramelized, although the pictures in the magazine suggest that wasn’t supposed to happen).

Turn off heat. Finally grate zest of lemon directly into skillet, and season generously with pepper. Cut a lemon in half and add 1 lemon’s worth of juice. Stir.

When water boils, add egg noodles and cook until just tender, about 5 minutes. Do not dump out water! Use a strainer to transfer the pasta to the skillet. Add peas and stir. Gradually stir in 1 cup pasta water, about 1/2 cup at a time, alternating between the water and ricotta and parmesan.

Toss until completely combined, add more salt to taste, and sprinkle with more cheese. Serve**.

At least I have leftovers for lunch tomorrow

 

**Serves 4 generously (and once again I did the math and it’s about 190 calories per serving, maybe we can say 200 calories depending on the amount of cheese you use. But that’s still pretty good!)