The apple of the earth

Pommes de terre, or Potato.

The most heavenly combination, the most primal of flavors that are destined to be together, in my humble opinion, is rosemary and potato. (except maybe the Philly cheese I'm eating while I write this, but thats cheating since it has both Philly and Cheese in it, two transcendent elements).

http://www.gioiapizzeria.com/ makes and incredible rosemary and potato pizza

I didn't make a pizza, I just stuck to the basics.


First step: cut them into similar sized pieces, the don't have to be the same shape, just the same size. Then I gave them a little fry-up in vegetable oil (don't waste good olive oil in a pan, it should never be heated, just added at the end for flavor.) After I had some nice little brown bits of carmelized(technically it's a Maillard reaction, but thats another discussion) goodness I added in some finely chopped fresh rosemary from the CSA box and let it heat up in the oil. After a few tosses, I dropped it into a 375 degree oven for 10 minutes(time will very depending on the size of your potato) and Voila, almost finised. This is my favorite thing to do with oven roasted potato. I'll have to credit my sister for this trick. While the potatoes are in the oven, finely dice a couple of fresh garlic cloves. As soon as the potatoes come out of the oven toss the garlic in and toss to incorporate.
The important thing on this step is to cut you garlic VERY VERY fine! No one wants to bite into a half a clove of garlic. The fresh garlic isn't too much because the potatoes act as a very strong base flavor, but this way you get to taste the garlic in a form people very rarely do, completely fresh and barely heated. You have to tailor the amount of garlic to your taste and to the amount of potatoe you have.

Here is the final plated dish:


I hope you enjoyed that as much as I enjoyed eating it. Cause I did. hmm, I should have made a steak too.

Already late in the first post.

The first shipment of CSA goods from Two Small farms got in last Wednesday, but I've been more busy cooking then writing this blog. Shame shame shame (ok enough shame spirals). This is a wonderful picture of everything that came in a single weekly box. This will all be split in half and shared with a co-worker since I am a single(hey ladies) guy, and I like me the meats.

The contents are:

Red Chard
Fingerling potatoes
Rosemary
beats
cauliflower
Red torpedo onions
and a salad mix

Next post, The glorious spud!

WTF is a CSA?

CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture, basically you support a small, diverse, usually organic farm, and in return they give you a box of delicious produce every week during the growing season.

Small family farms can't compete with the huge industrial farms growing massive monoculture crops. This is a way to keep most of the food industry out of your wallet(cuts the supply chain into two parts, people growing food and then you eating food).

The foods are usually local, often organic(depending on the farmer) and usually more genetically diverse then the mass produced foods, relying on seed stock and heirloom varietals.

This is my quest, as a carnivorous male, having grown up on Taco Bell and Happy Wok; what can I do with a 10lb box of assorted organic fruits and vegetables a week? Each week I'll have a new list of ingredients depending on what was picked from the farm (ahem) the night before (thats... awesome) and I will cook the shit out of them. Thats right people, shitless vegetables.