Cauliflower potato salad

 

This is one of those recipes that I decided to try anyway. While I have nothing against cauliflower being pressed into service as fauxtatoes or a pasta stand-in, at some point the business of twisting things into something they are not (zoodles, etc.) gets a little tiresome. After all, there was nothing wrong with cauliflower hanging out with its veggie friends at the dip bar.

But the recipe called for fresh dill and dill pickles, and I had a certain amount of both that need using.

Cauliflower potato salad

From “Keto BBQ” by Faith Gorsky and Lara Clevenger, as published in the Star Tribune’s Sunday Supper feature.

Ingredients
3 cups cauliflower florets (about 1 smallish head)
6 tablespoons mayonnaise
½ cup minced red onion
2 tablespoons finely chopped dill pickles
1 teaspoon yellow mustard
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
¼ teaspoon paprika
2 hard cooked eggs, peeled and chopped
2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill

Method
Put cauliflower florets in a medium sauce pan covered with a few inches of water. Bring to a boil and simmer about 5 minutes until fork tender. Drain and set aside to cool.

Combine mayo, onion, pickles, mustard, onion and garlic powders, salt, pepper and paprika in a medium bowl. Stir in cooled cauliflower, eggs and dill. Chill until ready to eat. Serves 6-ish.

Rating: It turns out that if you put a cooked white starchy vegetable into a potato salad dressing with the usual ingredients, it turns out tasting like potato salad, and in this case, not a bad one. It’s faster to cook the cauliflower than the potatoes, and there’s no peeling involved, so that’s a plus. It’s a slightly different texture, but that’s not a bad thing, since potato salad can get a tad leaden. I won’t turn my back on potato salad, but this little number has some merit.

Grilled scalloped potatoes

 

It was over 90 degrees when we pulled into campground registration at Gooseberry Falls State Park. The park employee was marveling over the then nearly unheard of temperature. That same temperature elsewhere feels icky at best, but there, the blazing sun was countered by a wondrously cooling lake breeze as we soaked up the sun sitting on rocks listening to the waves crash in after we’d pitched our tent. That was about 4 p.m.

By 5:30, the temperature started its dive. It was 55 and still dropping by the time we got our supper prepared on the camp stove. All I remember was it involved Betty Crocker scalloped potato mix in the interest of ease, and that we ate it in the car to avoid having the food – and us -- lose all heat before we could eat it.

After we shivered our way through dishes and wondered if it was too soon to go hide in our meager Target tent, one of us finally turned to the other and said, “You know, no one here knows us and they won’t know if we just bail and leave.” We quickly pulled up stakes and packed it in, driving to Two Harbors to stay in one of the tiny old-school motels that are still there along 61 as you get into town.

That was many, many moons ago. We have not camped in our tent since outside of a back yard, thus ending our vacation camping era. We had given it a good go over the years, but we realized that North Shore camping clearly called for something more than our $29.99 Target special and the sleeping bags that had gone with us to camp, and we weren’t willing to make the investment for something that we felt we should enjoy, but honestly didn’t. We were destined to be fair weather campers, and the weather and bugs were rarely fair. (Although I do vividly remember hearing our first loon call while we were ineptly attempting to set up our camp stove for the first time after pulling into Mille Lacs campground in a torrential downpour. We wondered who was around to laugh at us since we didn’t see any other foolhardy campers around at that point.)

I recently came across an HGTV video for camping hacks, one of which involved grilled scalloped potatoes aimed at campfire preparation. Flashbacks ensued.

Camp scalloped potatoes

Adapted from HGTV via YouTube video

Ingredients
Oil for greasing foil
2 pounds new potatoes, sliced ¼-inch thick
1 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons chopped shallots
2 tablespoons chopped garlic
2 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary (optional)
½ cup shredded Parmesan cheese
Salt, pepper and paprika

Method
Make two bowls with double sheets of foil, rolling up the edge to form a lip. Lightly oil bottom. Divide potatoes among bowls in overlapping layers. Drizzle cream over the top of each bowl. Sprinkle with shallots, garlic and rosemary. Sprinkle Parmesan over the top. Season with salt, pepper and paprika.

Cover each bowl with another piece of tin foil, crimping edges to seal. Grill for 25 to 30 minutes.

Rating: These things are bliss, even when you just eat them in the comfort of your dining room after grilling outside. At a campground, they would be ambrosia. Nice little crispy potato bits on the bottom with crunchy Parmesan on top with creamy, dreamy potatoes in the middle.

Still not enough to make me take up camping again, but way better than the Betty Crocker mix. 

The drought has done a number on Gooseberry Falls this year. Here's a photo of it in its usual state. Well worth a visit, and thankfully camping is optional.

 

Cumin chicken breasts with guacamole sauce, baked cilantro lime rice and frijoles charros

 

The dishes in this meal worked fabulously together, when they finally came together. The chicken and sauce are a pretty fast fix. The rice isn't too cumbersome. The beans, however, I should have started at least a couple of hours earlier, as they took far longer than the recipe indicated to sauce up, so we wound up eating on the installment plan.

But with that caveat in mind, I would definitely make this combo pack again. I'd just start the beans at 2 instead of 4 p.m.

And next time I hope to have on hand the Angry Calabrian mix from ie, which would pair perfectly.

 

 

Cumin-dusted chicken breasts with guacamole sauce

Adapted from Cooking Light, January 2007

Ingredients
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1¼ teaspoon ground cumin, divided
¾ teaspoon salt, divided
¼ teaspoon black pepper
½ tablespoon olive oil
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
¼ cup chopped green onion
¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro (or you could use parsley)
¼ cup sour cream
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 ripe peeled avocado, seeded and mashed

Method
Preheat oven to 400. Combine sugar, 1 teaspoon cumin, ½ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon black pepper in a small bowl. Sprinkle evenly over chicken.

Heat a large, oven-proof skillet over medium high heat. Drizzle in olive oil. Brown chicken on both sides. Place pan in oven and bake for 10 minutes until done.

While chicken bakes, combine green onion, cilantro, sour cream, lime juice, ¼ teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon cumin, cayenne pepper and mashed avocado in a bowl.

Serve chicken topped with sauce.

Rating: That sauce is super awesome, a crack-like substance that I'm sure could have other uses. The method of cooking the chicken is super easy, fast and yields nice results. If you have a Greenpan, cleanup is a breeze despite what that pan looks like.

 

Baked cilantro lime rice

Adapted from Love and Lemons

Ingredients
1 cup long grain rice
2 cups water
¼ cup butter
1 teaspoon table salt
2 green onions, chopped
Zest of 1 medium lime
½ teaspoon sea salt
1½ tablespoons fresh lime juice
2 teaspoons olive oil
½ cup finely chopped cilantro
⅛ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

Method
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place rice and salt in a 2 quart baking dish, preferably one with a tight-fitting lid, although you can wrap it in tin foil if need be. Bring 2 cups water and ¼ cup butter to a boil. Pour over rice, cover and bake for 30 to 35 minutes until rice is tender and water has been absorbed.

Uncover rice and fluff with a fork. Stir in garlic, green onions and lime zest. Add sea salt, lime juice, olive oil, cilantro and crushed red pepper and stir to combine. 

Rating: Nice. A good complement to the rest of the meal that holds its own. Baking it in the oven frees up some of the cook's attention for tending to the chicken and beans.

 

Frijoles charros

Adapted from Serious Eats

Ingredients
1 pounds dried pinto beans
12 ounces bacon, cut up into small pieces
1 large white onion, diced
1 jalapeño pepper or 2 serrano chilies
3 large garlic cloves, minced
2 (14-ounce) cans fire-roasted tomatoes
6 cups broth
2 bay leaves
2 teaspoons kosher salt
2 springs epazote (optional; I didn’t have it so I didn’t use it)
Cilantro for garnish

Method
Soak beans in a large bowl overnight covered by at least two inches of water. Drain and rinse.

Heat bacon in a really large Dutch oven over medium heat until fat is rendered and bacon is starting to brown. Add onion and pepper and cook, stirring often until onion is softened. Add garlic and cook briefly until fragrant.

Add tomatoes to pot, scraping up frond on the bottom of the pan. Add beans, broth, bay leaves, epazote if using, and salt. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to a level that lets you maintain a simmer. Cover and cook until beans are just tender, about 45 minutes to an hour. Uncover and continue cooking, stirring as needed, until beans are creamy and liquid has thickened. This will take approximately forever, at least 1 hour, but it could be 2 or more depending on how much heat you want to apply and how quickly. Discard bay leaves and stir in cilantro.

Rating: Other than the longer-than-expected cooking time, these really weren't much trouble, and they combination of heat and smoky bacon flavor is quite tasty. You can always make them ahead and reheat them, which I did on a weeknight with some fast chicken tinga tacos. 

(I noticed in the comments on Serious Eats that some people never got the pinto beans to tenderize. I let them soak a good 12 hours and they actually softened in that first hour of cooking, so I was pleasantly surprised by that part; achieving sauce consistency took much longer; otherwise I was faced with what would probably have been a pretty tasty soup, now that I think about it.)