Mashed potatoes may be the stand-by: buttery, garlicy, soft, comforting. And they used to be the stand-by on my Thanksgiving table. But at some point in my life, I’m not sure when, I made the switch. To roasted potatoes.

Crispy, crunchy, still with a little bit of that creamy softness buried within, roasted potatoes are my preferred holiday potato (although latkes trump all, because frying trumps all). Mashed potatoes still have their place, of course, but for me it’s roasted potatoes, all the way. And particularly since I finally solved the mystery of how to make the perfect, crispy, crunchy, delectable roasted potatoes that I knew existed, somewhere out there.

Whenever I roasted potatoes at home, I just cut them up, tossed them with olive oil, salt, and pepper, and stuck them in the oven for about 45 minutes. This produced a perfectly delicious roasted potato, but I knew there could be more. And so, when Clotilde posted about her perfect roasted potatoes, my ears perked up. And then, coincidentally, I checked Nigella Lawson’s gorgeous book Feast out from the library, which had her take on perfect roasted potatoes (which is mentioned numerous times in the comments on Clotilde’s post).

In the end, Nigella won out over Clotilde in my kitchen, because the idea of adding semolina was just so intriguing. These potatoes were, in fact, so popular in Britain (thanks to “the Nigella effect”) that supermarkets were actually running out of semolina in the days leading up to Christmas.

But besides the semolina, they’re basically the same recipe, so if you have trouble finding semolina (I got mine from the bulk foods aisle of the local co-op), then you’re probably still doing fine. The semolina probably gives an added edge of crispness, but the really important thing, I gather, is very, very hot oil, and some properly bashed potatoes — you’re going to want to beat those taters up between par-boiling and roasting, to get them all fuzzy and full of nooks and crannies that will get beautifully crisp.

The only thing I really changed from Nigella’s version (Nigella, whom I adore) was that I didn’t peel my potatoes. Who has time? Who cares? And, for that matter, I think mine may have even turned out better, if I do say so myself. Because the potato skins peeled back a bit in the bashing, and then they got separately crisp themselves, and then the whole thing became a delightful marvel, with shockingly little time spent on my end.

If you are making this for the holidays, the one thing you will want to watch out for is timing, as these should really be served hot (or at least warm) from the oven. The holidays are not a time for stress, though! So if they do get cold, just have another glass of wine, stick ‘em back in, and a few minutes later, you’ll be all set.

Perfect Roasted Potatoes

Adapted from Nigella Lawson

Serves 8-10

Ingredients

-       3 1/2 lb. small, yellow, waxy potatoes, rinsed (and optionally peeled)

-       1- 2 Tbsp. semolina flour

-       oil (vegetable oil or olive oil, or duck or goose fat)

-       salt, to taste

1. Heat the oil: Preheat the oven to 475ºF. Pour fat/oil of your choice into the bottom of a large roasting pan. Heat the pan (and fat) up in the oven while you’re prepping the potatoes, about 20-30 minutes.
2. Prep potatoes: Cut each potato into three parts on a slant, so you get a triangle in the middle. (If you’re working with bigger potatoes, just cut them up into good-sized chunks.)
3. Parboil potatoes: Place cut potatoes into salted, cold water in a big pot. Bring to a boil. Let boil for 4 minutes. Drain potatoes in colander, then return them to the pot.
4. Sprinkle a tablespoon or so of semolina flour over the whole business.
5. Now, this is the best part: give them a good bashing. Holding the lid on tight, shake that pot like a Polaroid picture. Shake it, shake it, shake it suga’! Really, shake until things are looking good and fuzzy in there.
6. At this point, you may need to take a break to wait for the oil to heat up all the way…maybe a good time to listen to some more Outkast.
7. After the oil has been heating for 20-30 minutes, carefully add the potatoes to the hot pan. The oil may spatter! Careful!
8. Roast for about an hour, turning occasionally (and checking on them to make sure they’re not burning), until they’re golden-brown. If they don’t absorb all the fat by the end, you can always discard it.
9. Perfection!

The other day was shockingly cool here in Minneapolis (70 degrees or so, rather than the last few days’ 90). I had a refrigerator bursting with produce, most overwhelmingly including eight ears of corn, but also potatoes and onions from the farmer’s market. And cream, and milk that I meant to turn into ricotta but never did, and celery that I had purchased for some now-forgotten reason. And bacon, lots of bacon, in little ziploc baggies in the freezer (my new way of storing bacon in my one-person household).

In other words, to my happy amazement, I had (almost) all the ingredients for corn chowder. Plus, I had a backlog of podcasts on my computer, including the NPR broadcasts from the Newport Folk Festival. I don’t think it gets more fitting that that.

I had never made corn chowder before, but somehow I intuitively knew what it needed. For the most part, that is. After much recipe scanning, I was unable to find what I deemed my perfect chowder: one that was low fuss and high bacon, basically. I did glean that celery, carrots, and red bell pepper are typical chowder ingredients (surprise), and that thyme is a typical herby flavoring (expected).

In the end, I made my own amalgamation of things — more bacon than anyone called for; simmering the corn cobs in milk because I liked the idea; adding cream because I had it; so on and so forth. And you know what, it came out amazingly. Unsurprising, I suppose, when you throw corn, potatoes, onions, milk, and cream in a pot. Still, with Edward Sharpe playing in the background, it felt like a little bit of late-summer magic.

Corn Chowder

Adapted from a mix of Gourmet and Simply Recipes

Serves 6 or so

Ingredients

-       ¼ lb. (or more) bacon, diced

-       6 ears of corn, husked, corn kernels cut off, cobs reserved

-       1 onion, chopped

-       1 large carrot, chopped

-       1 celery rib, chopped

-       4 medium yellow-fleshed potatoes (like Yukon Golds), cut into ¼ to ½ inch dice (no need to peel)

-       ½ bell pepper, diced

-       7-8 cups whole milk

-       1 cup heavy cream

-       6 sprigs fresh thyme (or more), leaves pulled off twiggy stems

-       2 bay leaves

-       salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1. In a large pot, cook the bacon until fat is rendered and bacon is beginning to brown. Using a slotted spoon, remove bacon, leaving fat.
2. Add onion to fat; cook 3-5 minutes, until soft. Add carrot and celery and cook for about 5 more minutes, until soft.
3. Break corn cobs in half and add to pot. Add bay leaves and milk. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. Cover pot (I leave a little gap of air to help the milk keep from boiling over). Let simmer for about 30 minutes. (You may want to check occasionally to make sure it’s on the barest simmer; this will help prevent the milk from scalding the bottom of the pan.)
4. Discard corn cobs and bay leaves. Add potatoes and red pepper. Add salt (I ended up using about 4 tsp., but you should add a tsp. at a time and taste) and pepper. Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer. Simmer for 15 minutes or until potatoes are tender.
5. Add corn kernels and thyme; also add bacon back in. Add cup of cream. Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer. Let simmer for 5-10 minutes. Add extra milk if necessary to get desired consistency. Adjust seasonings, and voila! Serve.

Most unfair of all, I think, are the indictments against her cooking. Yes, her show is all about  cooking dinner in 30 minutes, but I think the meals she makes are generally pretty appealing. Call her annoying, but I don’t think she’s a bad cook. She uses some prepared ingredients – canned stock, frozen vegetables, etc. – but you know what? So do I. And she’s certainly no Sandra Lee, who I recently saw make a “cake” by buying some cakes, stacking them up, and piling cupcakes on them. The fact that she and Andrew Cuomo are dating may honestly lose him my vote.

But I’ll save my Sandra Lee rant for another day. Today, I want to defend Rachel Ray and offer up this very delicious and simple to prepare all-in-one meal dish.

I don’t roast enough chicken. It’s an easy and affordable way to make a filling meal, and we (meat-eaters, anyway) should all do it more often.

Two of the biggest challenges in roasting chicken are getting the skin crispy and avoiding drying out the bird. This recipe dodges those hazards by pan-frying the breasts to start and then piling on veggies that have been par-boiled in stock to keep everything nice and moist.

The recipe is straight-forward enough, but I did make a few changes/encounter a few issues. First off, I didn’t have a cast-iron pan handy, so I just used a skillet and then transferred everything to a pyrex baking dish. The main problem was that my chicken breasts took 15-20 minutes longer to cook than she prescribed. I don’t know if that was because my meat was not cut up small enough or because I didn’t use a cast-iron pan. Either way, just make sure you cook your poultry fully.The vegetables might get a little soft, but they’ll still taste great. Also, you won’t die from salmonella.

I used stock instead of wine to deglaze the pan, and since I had so much more fresh rosemary that was called for, I added a bunch to the vegetables as well as the chicken. As for the “balsamic drizzle,” I’d recommend it. The recipe is here, but all you do is mix balsamic vinegar with a bit of brown sugar and reduce it over medium heat. A tip, though: If you’re like me and do not spring for the fancy balsamic, there’s probably enough sugar in what you’ve got. Just boil it down to thicken.

The end result here is pretty great, and so the next time somebody starts Ray-bashing, just nod your head quietly and feed them some of this. Then tell them who’s responsible. Rachael Ray may be a little too cute, but you can’t say she doesn’t deliver the goods.

Quick Rosemary Chicken and Potatoes
from Rachael Ray

1 pound baby Yukon Gold potatoes
1 small head cauliflower, cut into florets
8 cloves garlic, smashed and peeled
Salt and pepper
1 cup chicken stock
2 tablespoons EVOO – Extra Virgin Olive Oil
4 bone-in, skin-on chicken breast pieces, halved across the breasts with sharp knife
4 sprigs rosemary, finely chopped
1 cup dry white wine
Optional garnishes: giardiniera or balsamic drizzle

Preheat oven to 450˚F.

Place the potatoes, cauliflower and garlic in a pot with tight-fitting lid. Season with salt and pepper, add stock and bring to boil. Cover and reduce heat to a simmer. Cook 10-12 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat a large, cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat. Pat the chicken dry with a paper towel, and season with salt, pepper and rosemary. Add EVOO to skillet, 2 turns of the pan. When oil smokes, add chicken skin-side down and cook 10 minutes or so, turning once.

Remove chicken to a plate and add wine to the pan, scraping up the drippings. Add potatoes, cauliflower and garlic to pan, and top with the browned chicken. Transfer to oven and cook 10-12 minutes more, until vegetables are very tender and the chicken is cooked through.

Serve chicken, potatoes and cauliflower with giardiniera alongside or topped with a little balsamic drizzle, if desired.

Potato salad is one of those dishes that — like coleslaw — befuddled me for a long time. So mayonaissey! So gloppy! So textureless! But it doesn’t have to be that way. In the last year or so, I’ve come around to both coleslaw and potato salad, to the point where I now actually (shamefully?) even enjoy the gloppy versions on rare occasions (as an accompaniment to a 3 am sandwich and fries at the 24-hour diner across the street? sure.). Making either coleslaw or potato salad yourself, though, yields such exponentially greater results than buying it. Not only oodles more for your buck, but also something actually worth eating (and sharing).

For my first potato salad, I had various fancy ideas (bacon? toasted walnuts?), but when I found this recipe on Smitten Kitchen, I knew I had to make it. It comes from Rosanne Cash, Johnny Cash’s daughter, which somehow makes it irresistible. As do the chunks of pickles (much-commented upon and much-appreciated by the Southerners at the bbq), and the general low quantity of mayo. I like a little bite to my potato salad, so I upped the red onion and vinegar (doubling each); you can bring them back down if you want something a little more mellow.

Next up, Eudora Welty’s potato salad. (Kevin also wrote about a recipe for warm potato salad with goat cheese that sounds divine, if not as portable.)

Oh, and note: I found that the leftovers tasted absolutely fine (everything still perfectly crunchy) after being in my fridge for a day. If anything, the flavors may have melded together even better. So, possible to make ahead.

Rosanne Cash’s Americana Potato Salad

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen, originally from Bon Appetit

Serves at least 8

Ingredients

- 3 pounds medium red-skinned potatoes, unpeeled, scrubbed
- 8 dill pickle spears or a handful of cornichon, coarsely chopped (about 1 1/2 cups)
- 3 celery stalks, chopped (about 1 cup)
- 1 medium red onion, chopped (about 2 cups)
- 3 hard-boiled eggs, peeled, chopped
- 2/3 cup mayonnaise
- 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
- 4 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 2 tablespoons minced fresh dill

- Salt and pepper to taste

1. Cook potatoes in large pot of boiling salted water until fork-tender, about 30 minutes. (You can also cut up the potatoes before boiling – it will take much less time…I’m not sure if there’s any downside, in fact.)
2. Drain and cool, then cut potatoes into chunks and transfer to large bowl. Stir in pickles, celery, onion, eggs, mayonnaise, mustard, vinegar, and dill. Season potato salad to taste with salt and pepper.

I know that during FJ’s history I’ve referred to many foods as “one of the world’s most perfect foods.” Latkes, though, are the world’s most perfect food, singular. I started writing this kind of as a joke, but with a second of thought I realize that I’m not really joking at all. Potatoes and onions, fried in oil until brown and crisp, served with applesauce and sour cream? How can it get better than that?

Here is a proof (because I love proofs):

1. Latkes > French Fries (bc latkes have greater surface area, allowing more oil exposure; they’re like the best crunchy fry tidbits at the bottom of the bag, but only those)

2. Latkes > Hashbrowns (bc latkes have more onion)

3. Latkes > all other potato preparations (bc French fries and hashbrowns are really the only competition)

4. The potato is the world’s most perfect ingredient (maybe the egg, but nobody is ever going to pick a fried egg over a latke)

5. Latkes are the world’s most perfect food.

QED.

Last week, Kevin gave you Melissa Clark’s Hanukkah recipe for a fried savory French toast. Last year, I gave you my mom’s recipe for tempura fritto misto. Both perfectly fit under the strictly regimented rules of Hanukkah, namely that you fry your food in oil. But how had we neglected to give you a latke recipe?! Or, really I guess since I’m the Jewish one, I am the one who should be experiencing some good old Jewish guilt about this oversight.

And so, with three nights left of Hanukkah, I’m going to right things! But you know what, here’s the biggest secret. Latkes can be eaten all year round! And they’re amazing. So I don’t know, really, why we don’t eat them year-round. They’re minorly daunting to think about, but in reality are incredibly little work.

Here are my (ie my mom’s) secrets to latkes:

1. To get the latkes as crispy as possible, the potatoes have to be as dry as you can get them. Potatoes have a lot of water in them, it turns out (and you’ll realize when you grate them). The best way to deal with them is to line a strainer with a couple layers of cheesecloth (really draping over the edges, you’ll need the extra). As you grate the potatoes, put them in the cheesecloth in the strainer, over the sink. When you’re done grating, gather up the cheesecloth and squeeze. You can let them continue draining in the sink or over a bowl in the fridge until you need them.

2. The only ingredients in your latkes should be: potatoes, onions, eggs, salt, and pepper (and oil). That means no matzoh meal or flour! If you want leaden bricks instead of shatteringly crunchy potato goodness, then be my guest and add flour. But I warned you.

3. Your oil should be very hot before you start frying. Here are my frying tips: Heat an inch or so of vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium-sized heat. After a couple minutes, take a little bit of latke “batter” and drop that into the oil. If the oil sizzles up around the bit you drop in, then the oil is ready for frying. If it’s still, then it needs to be heated longer. If it REALLY sizzles, then it needs to be cooler. This is something you will just pick up from practice. Be careful when you’re dropping in the bit, and also the subsequent food. The closer you are to the oil when you drop the food in, the less it will splash.

And now, a semblance of a recipe!

The Best, Crispiest Latkes

Makes about 24 latkes

Ingredients

- 10 Yukon gold potatoes

- 2 yellow onions, chopped

- 3 eggs

- salt and pepper

- vegetable oil

- serve with sour cream and applesauce

1. Grate potatoes with the largest holes on a cheese grater. You don’t need to peel Yukon gold potatoes! You’re welcome. Follow tip #1 above to squeeze moisture out of potatoes.

2. Mix grated, “dried” potatoes with onions and 3 eggs in a large mixing bowl. Add a good couple pinches of salt and a number of grinds of black pepper.

3. Heat oil in one or two large skillets. Follow tip #3 above on that. Drop in about a 1/2 cup of “latke” batter into the oil and flatten with a spatula. You should be able to fit three latkes in a pan without crowding. Cook for one to two minutes before checking the underside. If the latke is starting to hold together and the bottom looks golden, flip. Cook for another few minutes until both sides are golden.

4. Remove from pan and place on a paper-towel lined platter. Enjoy!

This one’s going to be short. I am applying to law school and so am (1) stressed out and (2) pouring all of my creative writing energy into essays describing what a beautiful and unique legal sunflower I am. It really takes it out of you.

This stew is straight out of the Times Recipes for Health section, which I think I’ve said before is a great place to turn when you’re feeling uninspired. And so it was when my roommate and I were searching for something new to do with chard.

This stew fit the bill and was also perfect for the cold rainy days we’ve been having in New York.

To quote the Times, “This comforting stew makes a hearty meal when served with a salad and crusty bread.” That pretty much sums it up.

I skipped the bouquet garni and so can you. The chard need not be red either, but definitely follow their instructions about the stems, because I think sauteing them really boosted the flavor. Uncharacteristically, I also recommend fresh thyme, but I really think it adds something here.

I could tell you what, but I’m too tired.

Red Chard, Potato, and White Bean Ragout
From the New York Times

1 cup dried white beans, soaked for 6 hours or overnight in 1 quart water
A bouquet garni made with 1 bay leaf, a couple of sprigs of fresh thyme, and a Parmesan rind, tied together with kitchen stringSalt
1 generous bunch red chard (3/4 to 1 pound)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 to 4 garlic cloves (to taste), sliced
1 pound Yukon gold potatoes, scrubbed and cut into 1/2-inch dice
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
Freshly ground pepper
1 to 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley (optional
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese for serving

1. Drain the beans and combine with 1 quart of fresh water in a casserole or Dutch oven. Bring to a simmer. Skim off any foam, then add the bouquet garni. Reduce the heat, cover and simmer 1 hour. Add 1 teaspoon salt.

2. Meanwhile, stem and clean the red chard leaves in 2 changes of water. Rinse the stems and dice. Set aside. Cut the leaves in ribbons, or coarsely chop, and set aside.

3. Heat the olive oil in a heavy nonstick skillet over medium heat and add the onion and chard stems. Cook, stirring often, until tender, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and continue to cook, stirring, until the garlic is fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the potatoes and stir together, then transfer to the pot with the beans. Bring back to a simmer, cover and simmer 30 minutes, or until the potatoes and beans are tender. Salt to taste.

4. Add the chard and thyme leaves to the pot, cover and simmer for 15 minutes. The chard should be very tender. Stir in freshly ground pepper to taste and the parsley. Taste, adjust seasonings and serve, passing the Parmesan to sprinkle on the top.

Yield: Serves 4 to

Summer is a tough time for cookery, especially in a hot city of small kitchens. Although there’s great produce to be had, the idea of spending much time in front of the stove is unappealing to say the least.

Which is why summer cooking takes some adjustments: Nothing in the oven unless you’re able to leave the room while it’s in there, nothing that requires constant attention on the stove top, etc. This is why hearty salads – like Salade Nicoise -are such a good summer option.

Salade Nicoise is a classic French composed salad – “composed” is just a fancy work for a salad that has all the ingredients piled on top rather than tossed in – and although it does have cooked ingredients, they can be prepared in under 30 minutes. And it’s a Julia Child favorite, so – in honor of the upcoming movie that I can’t decide whether or not I want to see – here it is:

Although you’re probably better off not incorporating “composed salad” into your daily vocabulary, I definitely advise against tossing this salad. It’s nice to be able to get a forkful of whatever you want while you’re eating this, and when everything in this salad gets mixed together, it can actually be a little overwhelming.

My method for hard-boiling eggs: Place eggs in pot of cold water. Bring water to a rolling boil, then immediately turn off heat. Leave eggs alone for 8-10 minutes, then run under cold water to stop cooking. You can also boil eggs this way in an electric kettle, which is very handy as they shuit themselves off. Experiment with different times to get the level of hardness you want. Overcooking hard-boiled eggs is far from the end of the world, but the yolks do start to get chalky and dry and the whites a bit rubbery.

The exact ingredients in a Salade Nicoise are a popular topic of debate in France, where that sort of thing is socially acceptable. Common ingredients other than what I’ve used here include anchovies, sardines, capers, and tomatoes. The vinaigrette I used below included fresh basil because we had it, but whatever vinaigrette you like will work. I would recommend including mustard, though, as it goes extremely well with the potatoes and the eggs.

Salade Nicoise

Components: Lettuce, tuna, eggs, green beans, potatoes, olives (Nicoise if you’ve got ‘em).

Here’s how I would do prep to keep stress to a minimum

Depending on whether you are methodical or not, this salad can take you twenty minutes to put together or an hour and a half. Here is how I would order things:

1. Place two pots of water on the stove. Put eggs in one. Bring both to a boil.
2. Rinse green beans and remove ends. Chop in half if desired.
3. Scrub and cube potatoes.
4. Right about now, the pots should be boiling. Turn the heat off on the egg pot and toss the green beans in the other. Make note of the time or set a timer for the eggs.
5. Wash the salad greens.
6. The green beans should be ready about now.  I like them still relatively crisp if I’m using them in a salad. Keep in mind that they will continue to cook unless you dunk them in cold water. Remove them from water using a slotted spoon and leave the water boiling.
7. Add cubed potatoes into the boiling green bean water. Depending on the size of your cubes, they should cook in around 15 minutes.
8. Now the eggs should be ready. Take them out and run them under cold water or dunk them in ice water. Peel and slice.
9. Now you can start assembling while the potatoes cook. Jut pile all of the above onto the salad greens along with canned tuna – or fesh cooked tuna if you’ve got it – and the olives.
10. If the potatoes are done, remove them to drain before making the vinaigrette. If not, remove them after.
11. Vinaigrette: Shallot, olive oil, lemon juice or a light vinegar, chopped fresh basil, salt and pepper. Or whatever you like.
12. “It’s fun to get together and have something good to eat at least once a day. That’s what human life is all about – enjoying things.” – Julia Child

Tortilla española with a side of purple kale

Last night I had a few friends over to bid bon voyage to a friend who is leaving town for the summer. Fired up the grill, slapped on some steaks, potatoes au gratin, wine, dessert – the works. However, this morning one thing became clear – my graduate student “income” handles treating friends to a steak dinner just about as well as my head handles a bottle and a half of wine. In situations like this, I turn to my go-to, budget-easing, good-for-what-ails-ya, all-purpose meal solution – tortilla española.

Despite what my friends always think, tortilla española is not a type of burrito (so stop bringing salsa!). Rather, it is the hearty potato-and-egg concoction that Spaniards eat pretty much constantly. I learned how to make tortilla when I spent a semester abroad in Spain, where I ate tortilla at least four times a week (best on Sunday at about 2PM after a long sangria-filled night). I knew I needed the recipe.

In Spain I lived with a host family, and it was my host mother Josefa (jet black eyes, fiery dyed red hair, even more fiery temper) who taught me everything I know about tortilla. Josefa imparted the technique to me as if she were revealing a secret magic spell with apocalyptic power. Each step came with a grave warning (e.g. You can add zucchini, but NEVER EVER EVER anything else!). Yet despite Josefa’s stern admonitions I have found the recipe to be rather malleable, and I encourage you to experiment once you’ve got the basic technique.

Classic Tortilla Española

3-5 Medium size Russet potatoes
1-2 Medium onions
6-9 Eggs
Salt
Black Pepper
Olive Oil

Heat at least 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a nonstick pan over medium heat. Slice the potatoes crosswise into roughly ¼ inch thick slices and put them in the pan. (You can peel the potatoes if you like, but I prefer to leave the skins on, for kicks). Next slice the onion into rings and add it to the pan. Add a little salt and more olive oil as needed to keep the potato and the onion well coated.

You should start with 2 potatoes and 1 onion and then add more as necessary. The goal is to fill the pan. Once the pan is filled, cover and turn the heat down to medium-low. Let the potato and onion mixture cook for another 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally, and breaking up the potatoes with the side of a spoon towards the end. Quoth Josefa: “Cook them until the potatoes are ‘blandito blandito’ (very very very soft)” You want it to be kind of a mush. Remove the potatoes from the burner and let them cool a bit. At this point you should also add some more salt and pepper, to give it its final seasoning.

While the potatoes are cooling, beat the eggs well in a large bowl. Add the potatoes to the eggs and mix until even. Place the nonstick pan back on a medium-high burner with two tablespoons of olive oil, and add the potato and egg mixture. You might want to give it a couple of those slick omelet moves where you take some of the more cooked egg along the side and bring it to the center with a spatula and then tilt the pan to fill in the vacated space with more egg. (by the way, if anyone knows the technical term for this, let me know). Either way, let the tortilla cook for at least 6-8 minutes, until the edges are well cooked and the center has set a little bit.

Ok, so I forgot to tell you, there is a death defying tortilla flip involved in this recipe. Don’t worry, the worst that will happen is you will fling semi-cooked egg and potato all over your kitchen with your relatives watching because your mom’s pan is from the first Bush administration. Hypothetically.

Take a plate large enough to cover the top of the pan (but not too large) and place it over the pan like a lid. Holding the plate to the pan, flip 180 degrees to turn the tortilla out onto the plate, and then carefully slide it back into the pan. See? Not so hard.

Cook it for another five minutes or until the underside is done. Flip a few more times until it has formed an even, rich, brown outer coating. Cool for five minutes and serve.

Serving Suggestions:
-    Sliced on a sandwich for an easy lunch. In Spain they put mayonnaise on it, for health reasons
-    Serve over green salad with croutons, shaved onion, and a vinaigrette
-    Top with caramelized onions
-    With a side of spinach

Variations:  Josefa’s warning aside, you can do a lot with tortilla. Adding zucchini is, of course, great, but try bell pepper, or even chorizo. Shallots or leeks make interesting additions to the onions, and fresh herbs work very nicely. I haven’t experimented with cheese, but I have a hunch it would be fantastic

The sell: Low-budget, works as any meal, and lasts for many meals. Leave it out on the counter and snack on it anytime, though if you live with roommates, don’t expect it to last very long.

If you are like me, you have a barely-touched jar, or dozen, of spices that you rarely have occasion to use. Last week I realized that I had a humongous amount of paprika sitting around, so I googled paprika and its uses in cooking. I was happy to learn that this spice is a frequent feature of Spanish cuisine and is often used to give a nice “kick” to potatoes, a pound of which I’d just bought from the Greenmarket.

After looking over several recipes for Spanish style potatoes with paprika, I devised a cooking plan that seemed both easy and sure to guarantee delicious results (it did). Here are the ingredients and the basic strategy…

The Essentials:
1-1.5 lb potatoes- I think any kind of potato will do
Olive oil
1 large onion
2/3 cloves garlic
2 red bell peppers
1 tbsp paprika
Salt
1/2 lb chorizo (yummy Spanish sausage)
1/2 cup white wine

The Game Plan
1) Get the chopping out of the way
Peel the potatoes and cut them into cubes roughly inch-long sides
Mince or chop the garlic into small pieces
Chop the onion and bell pepper into fine slices
Chop the chorizo into thin, inch-long strips

2) The fun part- cooking above ingredients
Heat some oil on high in a large skillet, enough to brush (but not soak) all of your potatoes. Add potatoes and turn down to medium high. Cook about 10 minutes or until golden-brown, stirring occasionally. Add onion and garlic. Cook about 5 minutes or until onion is slightly brown, stirring frequently. Stir in bell peppers, paprika, and salt (I’d just give a good shake of salt, more or less, depending on your preferences). Cook for a couple minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in chorizo and white wine. Cook for a few minutes, or until wine is slightly reduced. Then, add enough water to cover all the vegetables and bring to a boil. Once the water is solidly boiling, reduce the heat to low and simmer until the potatoes are tender- should take about 10-15 minutes.

3) Eat. Preferably with a nice crusty bread for mopping up.