Yucca Hash

As much as I love my sweet potato hash on weekend mornings, it never hurts to mix it up a bit.  One of the nice things about NYC is that some grocery stores are good about stocking somewhat ethnic ingredients like yucca.  So it was definitely worth trying out this recipe.

The Recipe

1 yucca, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 tsp each of paprika, pepper and salt
1/4 lb bacon, chopped (optional)
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
chopped green onion for garnish (optional)

Drop your chopped yucca in a pot, sprinkle with the spices and cover with water.  Bring to a low boil until yucca is soft, about 15-20 minutes.  Once that's well on the way to done, start crisping your bacon; if you're going vegetarian, wait a bit longer and heat some olive oil.  Then add your onion and garlic, and brown.  By then your yucca should be done.  Add it into your skillet, mix up, brown, and flip.  Once that's done, you're ready to eat, with or without your garnish.

Notes

The biggest question might be when your yucca is done.  Once it starts to look gooey around the edges, I'll poke a couple pieces with a fork to test softness.  I haven't quite figured it out, but also haven't turned out inedible hash.

Visually, the dish looks like it really needs some color - maybe the green onion garnish would help.  The taste is actually pretty solid though - pepper and paprika really come through.  Good stuff.

One yucca makes a heaping serving, more than enough for me:

Butternut Squash Bread Pudding

One of these days I'll get to enjoy a Philly cheesesteak when visiting the City of Brotherly Love.  For now, though, it's all about finding good vegetarian options.  Cooking in this time, we gave this recipe a try (definitely the one I found most promising here (but more dishes worth taking a look at!)).

The Recipe

2 lbs butternut squash cut into small pieces - about 1-2 medium to large squashes
1 baguette, torn into 1 inch pieces
7 eggs
2 1/4 cups half & half
6 tbsp white wine
1 1/2 tsp dijon mustard
1 cup shallots, chopped - about 4 large
2 bunches kale, stems removed and chopped/torn
8 oz extra sharp cheddar, grated
olive oil, salt

Peel, de-seed and chop your butternut squash, toss with some olive oil and bake at 400 degrees until soft, about 20-30 minutes (stir occasionally).  Meanwhile, whisk together your egg, half & half, wine, mustard, and a little salt, and fold in the bread chunks.  Let this sit about half an hour (yes, stir occasionally).

Catch your breath, then chop your shallots, and wash and prep your kale.  Saute the shallots for a few minutes with some oil in a very large saucepan.  Then add your kale and stir, saute, cover/uncover about 5 minutes until wilting but still bright green.  Oh yeah, and grate your cheese.

Once those four elements are all ready, turn the oven down to 350 and butter a large casserole dish.  Start with a bottom layer that goes (half of the) bread, kale, butternut squash, then cheese; repeat with the second half of each.  Cover with tin foil and bake for 20 minutes, then uncover and cook until the inside layers of bread are set - about another 20-30 minutes.  Then put it under the broiler a few minutes for a toasty finish.

The Outcome

You definitely want a team working on this one so you can get the squash and bread elements going at the same time.  We vaguely 1.5'ed everything.  No complaints about the balance; if anything, I'd do it again with a little less bread and more squash and kale.  But it's hard to go wrong when you have a nice chunk on your plate and you can carve out a bite wherever looks good!  And the recipe's cooking time may be on the low side - we waited until the inside was clearly set.  The top was crusty but still juicy; the bottom was a bit further along, but it just tasted like Yorkshire pudding...

That left us with a delicious meal, not to mention one of the most filling vegetarian dishes I've ever had.  The egg-soaked bread on its own gives you plenty of starch and protein, and butternut squash and kale are both hearty ingredients too.

Oh yeah, if vegetarianism isn't your thing (or your fellow diners'), maybe crisp up some bacon before the shallot saute?  Some chicken would go well in there too.

Westerosi Honey-Clove Lamb - Updated

The North remembers.  It was not so long ago that Ned Stark ruled in Winterfell, free of those meddlesome southern lords and their Iron Throne.  Such feasts we had!  Who knows when we'll next know the taste of mutton in this long winter?

The imagination of George RR Martin as interpreted by The Inn at the Crossroads blog is not always on point...  No complaints at all about this one, though.  It's such a simple recipe - almost no prep of the ingredients - but such rich flavor between the lamb and sauce.  That said, it does almost seem like something's missing.  After a couple tries, I think sauteed mushrooms and onions do the trick.

The Recipe

lamb chops or steaks
mushrooms, chopped
1 onion, copped
1 cup cider
2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp cinnamon
4 tbsp honey
butter/olive oil, salt, pepper

Preheat oven to 400.  Sprinkle your lamb with salt and pepper, and sear (over pretty high heat) in a dry skillet.  Then move to a buttered/oiled baking dish and cook for about 10-15 minutes.  Meanwhile, sautee the mushroom and onion in the skillet until softening, then put everything else in and simmer.  You want it to reduce down pretty well into a nice gravy.  Combine, give thanks to the Old Gods and eat.

Notes

And that's it!  A few points.  What are cloves?  I don't know but they are delicious.  The original recipe calls for mead.  I have no idea where to get that and was at a loss, until it came to me right there in Morton Williams - cider.  Even if it doesn't work out, you have five and a half ciders to comfort yourself with.  And if (when) it goes amazingly well, you still have those ciders!  The only suitable cuts of lamb they had were shoulder steaks, a bit tough but not expensive, and they still have that great lamb scent, and then taste.  Once the lamb's in the oven and the sauce on the stove, you have some good time to work on sides.

Here's the finished product as per Inn at the Crossroads with a tasty fancy-boy sauteed spinach.  As you can see, ideally the sauce would be thicker and sit on top of the lamb (instead of sloppily pool in the plate), but it tasted great.

And here's a subsequent iteration with the full gravy.  Much less wet, especially over mashed potatoes: