Side Dishes

Potato cakes with cheese

These potato cakes are lovely on their own or try them with a poached egg on top as a decadent entree for breakfast or lunch.

Ingredients

4 medium sized potatoes
1/4 cup white onion
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon of oregano
4 1/4" slices of meltable cheese (mozarella works well)
1/4 cup olive oil

Steps

1. Bake the potatoes in an oven at 375 degrees for about an hour, boil them, or cook in a microwave in accordance with your the recommendations for your microwave until baked. Any of these methods is fine as long as the potatoes can be easily pierced with a knife, but not too soft.
2. All the potatoes to cool, then peel and either shred with a grater or mash with a potato masher or fork.
3. Sprinkle in the pepper and oregano
4. Form the potatoes into 8 balls of about 2" each, depending on the size of your potato.
5. Place the cheese on 4 of the patties and place the remaining patties on top - like hamburger buns
6. Place the patties into the pan and lightly fry them until golden brown, flip and do the same on the other side.
7. Remove from the pan onto a serving platter.

Green beans with onion and tomato

In mid- summer you may be growing beans faster than you can harvest them. This is a really simple and quick side dish.

Ingredients

2 pounds of green beans, cut into 1 1/2" lengths
2 cloves garlic
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar (or to taste)
1 small sprig thyme (or 1 tsp dried)
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup olive oil
1 large tomat, chopped
1/4 cup chopped onion
A few leaves of oregano (or 1 tablespoon dried)

Steps

In a large saucepan, boil the beans in salted water for 8-10 minutes or until crisp-tender. Drain, then said in ice water for 10 minutes. Drain, pat dry and set aside.
Puree the garlic, vingar, thyme, salt and pepper in a blender. While the motor is running, add the oil.
20 minutes before serving, combine the beans, tomato and onion. Add the vinaigrette and sprinkle with the oregano.

Basic Spanish Rice (Arroz)

OK, I have to admit, whenever I go to a TexMex restaurant, I use their simplest dishes as a baseline for my grading to determine if I want to upgrade to more expensive selections. Besides, if you can't get street food and peasant food right, how are you going to translate the complexities and needs of more sophisticated dishes? One of these for me is Spanish rice. Although you can be as simple or creative as you want with Spanish rice, I like this basic recipe as a place to start. The key is good chicken stock. I use a simple stock cooked from chicken trimmings that have had nothing added and then modify accordingly to how I want to affect resulting taste. This recipe serves 6.

Ingredients

2 medium onions, finely chopped
At least 2 cloves of garlic, chopped
At least 2 serrano chillies, chopped (preferrably fresh, but canned will do)
1 pound peeled and de-seeded tomatoes (I pare boil mine for 20 seconds and then peel and de-seed)
1/4 cup olive or vegetable oil
2 cups (1 pound) rice (white, brown or a mix will do)
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon saffron (nice, but not essential)
4 cups chicken stock

Steps

1. Puree the onion, garlic, serranos and tomatoes in a blender.
2. Heat the oil in a large, heavy skillet and fry the rice, stirring frequently, until it is golden. Add the tomato mixture, spices and chicken stock and bring to a boil, stirring frequently. When the rice has absorbed all the liquid, then stir and then cover rightly and simmer over very low heat for 20 minutes of so. A great Mexian food cook friend of mine once said "slow is the key to superb rice."

Macaroni and Goat's Cheese

As the weather turns cooler, appetites for hearty, hot food return. Macaroni and cheese is always a huge hit with kids - and parents who can spare the carb intake. A homemade macaroni and cheese is rich, filling, delicious, easy and quick and makes for an excellent Saturday night supper - either as a side or main dish. We played around with the various combinations and developed a versatile baseline recipe that everyone loved and was still relatively healthy.

Of course we always have plenty of goat cheese varieties and enjoy experimenting with various combinations. This version uses goat milk and goat's cheese which lends a delicate sophisticated edge to the flavor, but not so sophisticated that kids won't eat it.

Makes 6-8 servings as a side dish

Ingredients

6 cups of water
pinch of salt
1 pound of pasta (elbow, shell, corkscrews, wagon wheels, tube, orechhiette and ziti all work fine)
2 1/2 cups milk of any type (we use whole goat's milk)
2 bay leaves
4 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups goat cheese (chevre, or goat's Gouda, grated)
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Freshly ground black pepper
Optional bread crumbs

Steps

Heat the oven to 400 degrees F. Place the 6 cups of water in a large saucepan, add the salt and bring to a boil. Cook the pasta in the boiling water to an al dente state (approximately to where you think it needs to cook for another 2 minutes). Immediately drain the pasta in a colander and rinse well. Pour into a casserole dish greased with 1 tablespoon of the butter.
In a separate large saucepan, pour in the milk and add the 2 bay leaves. Heat over medium-low heat until bubbles appear along the sides of the pan. Remove the pan from the heat.
In a small saucepan melt the 3 tablespoons of butter over medium-low heat. When the butter becomes foamy, add the flour and stir with a whisk until the mixture browns.
Remove the bay leaves from the milk and add 1/4 cup of the milk to the hot flour mixture, stirring constantly with a wire whisk. As soon as the mixture becomes smooth, add a little more of the milk and continue to do so until all the milk is combined and the mixture is thick and smooth. Add the cheese and stir.
Pour the sauce over the pasta and toss in the Parmesan and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Top with the optional bread crumbs if desired and bake 15-20 minutes, until bubbling.

Macaroni and Cheese Carbonara

Ingredients
6 slices of fried bacon, crumbled
4 chiles (serrano or jalepeno) diced
1/8 medium purple onion, diced
1/2 teaspoon red chile flakes
Several sprigs of fresh parsley to taste
6 sunny side up fried or poached eggs

Steps

Prepare the macaroni and cheese as described in the preceding recipe.
Mix in the crumbled bacon, chiles, onion, and red chile flakes.
Spoon each serving into individual bowls, top with the egg and chopped parsley