Sweet Potatoes on the Side of the Road {Bacon, Sweet Potato and Sage Baked Risotto}

I don't know what's in season where you live, but where I live it's sweet potatoes.

 

This week I Heart Cooking Clubs is cooking what's In Season.  I chose Donna Hay's Bacon, Sweet Potato, & Sage Baked Risotto.

Bacon's always in season at my house.  But it's the sweet potatoes I was really thinking about.

When I drive through town, local farmers with still-dirty hands sit on open tailgates along the roads.  Sacks of sweet potatoes laid like bricks in the backs of pickup trucks.  Freshly dug from the field.

 $5.00 a sack the handwritten sign says.
An old, rough, dusty hand waves.  An old, rough, dusty face smiles.
Good old-fashioned marketing.

Review: As usual Donna Hay has an easy recipe.  This is time consuming, but most of the time spent is hands off.  Instead of standing at the stove, stirring and stirring, and stirring some more, Donna Hay's risotto is baked in the oven.  I can appreciate the idea...use the oven, go do something else.  But much like making roux, I like making risotto because of the constant stirring.

I roasted the sweet potatoes the day before and reheated them before stirring into the risotto.  I also used bacon--the original recipe uses pancetta.  Instead of frying the sage in butter, I just tossed the leaves into the bacon drippings instead of dirtying another pan.

The mixture of sweet potatoes, sage, and smoky bacon came together in a dish perfect for Fall.

More "In Season" Donna Hay recipes can be found at IHCC.


Donna Hay's Original Recipe

Print It

Bacon, Sweet Potato and Sage Baked Risotto
1 lb sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped into 1" cubes
olive oil
5 slices bacon, divided
¼ cup small sage leaves
1 ½ cup arborio rice
4 ½ cups chicken stock
salt and black pepper to taste
1 ¼ cup finely grated parmesan, divided

Preheat oven to 350°F.
Add the sweet potatoes to a baking pan and toss with enough olive oil to coat.  Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until tender.  *The sweet potatoes can be roasted the day before.  Store in an airtight container in the fridge.  Heat before using in the recipe.*

Stir the rice and chicken stock together in a 13 x 9 baking dish.  Cover with foil and bake at 350°F for 40-45 minutes, or until the rice has absorbed the liquid and is al dente.

While the risotto bakes, heat a skillet over medium heat. Fry the bacon until crispy.  Remove from pan and drain on paper towels.  Crumble when cool enough to handle, reserving one slice for garnish.

Lower the heat to medium low.  Add the sage leaves to the bacon drippings and fry for a minute or so--until crispy.  Set on paper towels to drain.

When the risotto is done, season with salt and pepper.  Stir in 1 cup parmesan, sweet potatoes, and bacon.  Scatter the crispy sage, reserved bacon, and 1/4 cup Parmesan over the top.  Serves 4.

More Risotto:
   

  

Gretna Fest 2013 {and Greek Chicken Casserole}

It's finally Fall here (at least this week).  Cooler temperatures and low humidity in south Louisiana always make for happier people.  I'm ready for spending more time outside, to get ready to catch redfish and speckled trout, and for all those fall festivals.

Sunpie Barnes and the Louisiana Sunspots, Gretna Fest 2013

Fall is prime festival time here--with something (or 2 or 3 somethings) happening every weekend.  This year we spent a weekend at the Gretna Heritage Festival.  This festival is held in downtown Gretna, a suburb south of New Orleans and the birthplace of Zatarain's food company.  Gretna Fest spans almost 40 blocks--filled with carnival rides, a beer garden, two streets of food vendors, FIVE stages, and an Italian Village.

Some of the stages are right on the Mississippi River,

offering clear views of river traffic and a nice breeze coming off of the water.

There was more than a breeze--there was Tropical Storm Karen.  Who ended up not amounting to much and didn't stop people from packing their rain gear and heading out to the festival.

Sunpie Barnes & the Louisiana Sunspots brought some Zydeco in the rain.



More from SunPie Barnes.

There were many more performances by many types of artists...ZZ Top, Chicago, Earth, Wind, & Fire, as well as locals like the Treme Brass Band, Big Chief Monk Boudreaux & the Wild Magnolias, and my favorite blues musician Tab Benoit.

More from Gretna Fest including Mardi Gras Indians.

~~~**~~~**~~~**~~~

Cooler weather sure does spark a change in our activites around here.  It also marks a change in what we eat.  In the next few weeks, get ready for some more festival fun and some cool-weather food.

 

Like Greek Chicken Casserole, made for this month's Pantry Party Casserole theme @ The Law Student's Cookbook.



I based my recipe on a casserole template found in Cooking Up a Storm: Recipes Lost and Found from The Times-Picayune of New Orleans.  The template is titled "The Only Casserole Recipe You'll Ever Need" and offers proportions for starch, protein, vegetables, and sauce.  The specifics are up to you.

If that doesn't sound like the perfect pantry recipe, I don't know what does!

My pantry ingredients were:
Basmati rice, Kalamata olives, canned artichokes, cream of chicken soup, dried dill, dried oregano, and a few handfuls of pita chips.  I also used leftover rotisserie chicken and feta cheese.  The topping was fun.  Lemon zest and parsley gave some freshness and crushed pita chips lent crunch.

Print It

Greek Chicken Casserole
1/2 cup Basmati rice, cooked according to package directions--can be made a day ahead (about 2 cups cooked rice)
1 can (10 3/4 oz) cream of chicken soup
1 tsp dried dill
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2-3/4 cups crumbled feta cheese
heaping 1/4 cup halved Kalamata olives
2 cups diced, cooked chicken
1/2 can quartered artichokes (from a 14 oz can)

for top:
1 tsp lemon zest
1 Tbsp chopped parsley
1/2 cup crushed pita chips (I used roasted garlic flavor)

Preheat oven to 350 and lightly spray an 8" x 8" baking dish with cooking spray.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the rice, soup, dried herbs, feta, and olives.  Fold in the chicken and artichokes.  Bake for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, mix together the lemon zest, parsley, and pita chips.  Just before serving, remove the casserole from the oven and sprinkle the pita chip mixture over the top.

Linking with:

Crawfish, Maw Maws, and Being Naughty

In my book, Crawfish Fettuccine is kin to Pastalaya and Crawfish or Shrimp Alfredeaux (yes, it has to be spelled like that).  Not just because of the pasta.  These dishes are what you'd find on the menus of Cajun wannabe restaurants.  In the 1980s Chef Paul Prudhomme sparked a Cajun food craze that made its way across the country.  A lot of the food, though, was Cajun for the masses--dishes that Maw Maw never made.  For instance, if Maw Maw "blackened" something, she tossed it out!

But just because these dishes are mainstream and Maw Maw didn't make them (or thought they were mistakes and fed them to the dogs) doesn't mean I won't eat them. 

You know by now I'll eat just about anything, right? 

My Maw Maw never made dishes like Crawfish Fettuccine or Pastalaya and her Maw Maw never made dishes like that either.     

Certain Maw Maws would never pair crawfish with pasta.  For Heaven's sake!  That would be a plum crazy waste of perfectly good crawfish. If you were lucky enough to have crawfish, you boiled them and invited the masses. Or you made etouffee and piled it on rice.


It's hard to believe since S LA is so nutso over crawfish that for some generations, regardless of how you cooked ‘em, you sure didn’t admit to eating them! There was a stigma attached. Who would eat something that burrows in the mud?

But I misspoke because someone's Maw Maw sure makes these newfangled "Cajun" dishes. The Boy’s Maw Maw.

My mother-in-law makes Crawfish Fettuccine for special occasions. She treats it as something decadent--reserved for holidays and birthdays. It's full of rich succulent crawfish, half and half, and onions, bell pepper, and celery bathed in butter.  Oh.  And Velveeta cheese.

Yes.  Velveeta.  Wait don't leave just yet.

I don’t like eating Velveeta. I hesitate when it's in an ingredient list.  And when I do cook with it, it makes me feel so very bad.


Wait. I misspoke again.  (What's wrong with me today?)



I love eating Velveeta. (There.  Yeah, I said it!) It’s creamy and melty and salty. And it makes me feel so very good.

Oh, come on. Admit it. You know you have a naughty food too!  What is it? 
Secret's safe with me.

Mise en place for Crawfish Fettuccine: butter...and lots of it, onion, bell pepper, jalapeno pepper, celery, garlic, green onion, crawfish tails, flour, salt, pepper, half and half, velveeta (you know you want to), fettuccine, parmesan cheese

Start cooking the fettuccine so it's ready when everything else is.
Saute the vegetables in butter.  Smells so good.
  Then add the crawfish tails, flour, salt, & pepper and cook for about 15 min.  Smells even better.
Add the half and half and velveeta and cook for about 15 minutes to thicken and reduce. 
Go ahead and take a taste.
 
Ya know ya wanna be naughty like that.

Toss in the cooked pasta and place everything in a casserole dish.  Top with grated Parmesan cheese.  Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes.

Note: the recipe below is for a 13 x 9 pan, which will feed a crowd.  I halve the recipe and use an 8 x 8 dish.  I don't halve the 3 green onions or 3 cloves of garlic; I use 2 of each. 

Let's not split hairs...er...garlic cloves.

Serve up the naughtiness.

Linking with Dishing It Up (Casserole Month)

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Crawfish (or Shrimp) Fettuccine
from Ms. enPlace

2 onions, chopped
2 ribs celery, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
1 large jalapeno, chopped (or to taste)
3 cloves garlic, chopped
3 green onions, chopped
1 1/2 sticks butter
2 lbs crawfish or shrimp
salt & pepper to taste
1 heaping tsp flour
1/2 pt half & half
1/2 lb velveeta, cubed
10 oz fettuccine noodles, uncooked
Parmesan cheese

Cook the fettuccine according to package directions.

Saute the first 6 ingredients in melted butter.  When vegetables are tender, add the crawfish tails, along with any fat in the package, salt & pepper, and flour.  Stir to coat the mixture in flour.  Cook for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add the half & half and cubed velveeta.  Cook, stirring often, for about 15 minutes until the cheese has melted and the sauce is smooth and thickened.  Taste for seasonings and adjust.  Toss in the cooked fettuccine.

Place the mixture in a greased 13 x 9 dish.  Sprinkle grated Parmesan cheese over the top and bake at 350 for about 15 minutes.  Check while baking to make sure the pasta isn't drying out.

Little Miss Practical

School's about to start and we're planning one last chance at summer fun...a trip to Grand Isle. For the week before we leave, I need to plan meals that:

* are inexpensive...to help balance the cost of the trip
* will result in no leftovers or only freezable leftovers because I hate wasting food
* can accomodate those bits and pieces of miscellaneous things that seem to multiply in my fridge when the light goes out. I don't want to come home to that.

Yeah, I'm a practical girl. So what.


Since the dawn of the casserole, people have known that this is a sensible way to get an economical meal on the table. And, let's face it, they're really just a mish-mash of stuff. Any kind of stuff you have. I know that doesn't paint the most appetizing masterpiece. Casseroles are not works by da Vinci...carefully arranged and measured, anatomically precise, able to be judged on their form and beauty from any angle.

Casseroles aren't so exact. They're a little rough around the edges. Jagged colors and textures. They seem more Picasso to me. A nose here, an eye over there, a boob slightly out of place. They may not all be pretty, but so what. We get the overall picture.

Unless you're one of those people who can't stand their foods touching. Then to you casseroles may seem more like...
I've become a big fan of the stove top casserole. Think hamburger helper, but classier. Since it's a million bajillion degrees out, I ain't turnin' on the oven, ya know? Here's a little stove top casserole that I like. And I never seem to make it the same way since I use whatever I have that seems fitting.

And if it makes you scream, may it be in a good way.


This post was featured at Hun...What's for Dinner: Simple Supper Tuesday

Mexican-Style Chicken w/ Penne
adapted from Food and Wine magazine

¾ to 1 pound penne pasta
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken (light or dark meat or a combo), cut into bite size pieces
Salt and pepper
1 onion, chopped
1 large garlic clove, minced
One 28-ounce can diced tomatoes, drained
1-2 large chipotle in adobo sauce, seeded and minced
2 teaspoons adobo sauce
½-¾ cup frozen or canned corn
1 1/3 cups grated mozzarella, pepper jack, or Mexican bland cheese, divided

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the penne and cook until al dente. Drain.

While pasta cooks, heat olive oil in a large skillet or pot over med-high heat. Season the chicken with salt and pepper, add to the skillet and brown. Add the onion and garlic. Cook until the onion is softened and the chicken is cooked. Add the drained diced tomatoes, chipotle, adobo sauce, and corn and cook until heated.

Add the penne and stir to combine. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Add 1 cup of the cheese and toss. Add the remaining cheese to each serving.

Sharing with

Simple Supper Tuesday at 

Hun...What's for Dinner

Mise en place for Mexican Style Chicken with Penne
But this recipe is versitile. Leftover cooked chicken can be used, frozen or canned corn can be used (or fresh if you're up for scraping it off the cob). Different types of pasta and cheeses can be used. Other things to add: black olives, green onions, black beans, cooked carrots.

Have little dabs of ingredients and you don't know what to do with them? Dishes like this give them a purpose.

Heat oil and brown chicken with onions and garlic. Cook pasta according to package directions.



Add corn, tomatoes, chipotle peppers, and adobo sauce. I usually don't bother seeding the chipotles.

Stir in cooked pasta. Stir in part of the cheese, saving some for topping each portion.


Serve, adding more cheese on top.

Here's a variation with elbow mac, black olives, and green onion.