Potato cheddar pie and fish taco brunch *featuring pineapple salsa!*

Preheat the oven to 350F. Shred 3 potatoes, 1 sweet potato, and half a head of cauliflower. This will take approximately forever unless you have a food processor in which case, la di da! Then, in case you hadn't had enough yet, shred some cheese. I used about a cup of cheddar and a third of parmesan. Put all this in a pan or pot or something else ... a bucket maybe, if that's all you have.

Calorie counters, avert your eyes! Add 2 cups of cream, as much dill as you can handle and heat through while heating up an oven safe skillet.When the cream starts to bubble up like a Bieber fan who catches a glimpse of his toes under the side stage curtain, add oil to the hot skillet and put all the potato mixture in. Pat it down a bit with the back of your spoon and put it in the oven for an hour or until the edges are dark brown.

While that is cooking, you can do an amusing dance for anyone in the house with you, tidy the living room, giggle at pictures of cats on the internet, or anything else for half an hour or so. Then get started on your fish tacos. I made a mixture of olive oil, salt and pepper to coat my tiny ocean perch fillets. Cook them in a non-stick skillet or, as I did, in a george foreman grill until they are done. They should be opaque all the way through and flaky.

While that is cooking, lets make pineapple salsa. It's getting a bit Inception up in here. Cut up 2 tomatoes and an equivalent amount of pineapple into 1 cm cubes. I like it chunky. Chop up some cilantro, I used about 5 stems worth. Add it to the bowl with some salt, pepper, and a splash of olive oil. Salsa done. Delicious!

Assemble the taco! Get your tortillas, and load em up. I added fish, salsa, and a small handful of arugula. By this time the potatoes should be done. The music has ended so let's blow up the hospital and ride the kick back up the layers. Serve a piece of that golden potato pie with a taco and call it a meal. That's what I did and people bought it. *snicker snicker*

Chicken and Mashed Potaters

I have a great butcher in my neighbourhood. Apart from the complete lack of pork and inexpensive fish, they are pretty much the best. They get some amazing chicken from a local farmer just outside the city. It has way more flavour than anything I've had from the supermarket. They cut up whole chickens there, so the thighs (my favourite part of the chicken) end up with a bit of spine in them, and that means delicious marrow to eat later.

I tried a different marinade than the traditional buttermilk, thinking the beer and yogurt would act the same way to tenderize the chicken. I patted them dry, coated them in barbeque sauce and cornmeal, and baked the thighs for 50 minutes at 350 in the oven. I grilled the drumsticks in my George Foreman grill for 30 minutes. They both turned out really well.

Mashed potatoes needed a bit of a kick, so I caramelized some onions and bacon to add. Instead of butter, I added the chicken drippings from the baked thighs and a few dashes of hot sauce. I will have a hard time going back to regular potatoes. These have raised the bar quite significantly. Next time I'll make them with cauliflower instead of potatoes to help with the nutrition factor.

Here is a picture of Ian eating with super fast, ninja-like hands. His plate was full when I raised the camera; It must have been really tasty.

Buttermilk baked chicken with bashed potatoes and broccoli

Another batch of beer brewing, this one is cream ale, calls for a feast. I made some chicken, half friend and half baked, cheesy bashed potatoes, and steamed broccoli.

Marinate the chicken (8 leg pieces, cut and trimmed by butcher) in buttermilk for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight. I added a few tablespoons of salt to the buttermilk so it brined the chicken as well. This makes it extremely tender and juicy once cooked. Pat the chicken dry with a paper towel, coat in egg wash (4 beaten eggs, 1Tbsp pesto, 1tbsp mustard) and roll in bread crumbs (4 slices stale bread ground fine as you can get it), repeat. Bake half on a greased sheet for 30min at 450, then 30 min at 350. Pan sear and finish other half in the oven at 350 for 30 min. Once done, let meat rest for 10 minutes so it stays juicy and doesn't hurt to eat.

Boil potatoes until fork tender. Add 1/2C butter, 1/2C old cheddar, a few tablespoons of milk for consistency, and a few dashes of habanero hot sauce. Season to taste and bash until uniform. I like mine a bit lumpy to remind me it used to be potatoes.

Peel skin from stem of broccoli and cut head into quarters or other manageable size. Steam over hot water. I used a bamboo steamer I picked up in Chinatown for $4 with a pinch of salt. Put it all on a plate and it should look something like this:

I liked the baked chicken better than the pan seared. The chicken must have had daddy issues because it couldn't keep its bread clothes on. The breading was delicious, pesto really works here, but the bottom part stuck to the pan and the top part mostly came off in one piece unless special attention was given to make that not happen. Ladypants told me I had "outdone myself", so that sounds pretty good. Potatoes really can't be bad with that much butter and cheese, but the hot sauce lent a slight spiciness that put it over the top. Steamed broccoli is green. This is an extremely tasty dish, especially when washed down with a pint of homemade IPA.

Not quite Jewish latkes

Today's recipe will be mostly in picture form. Also, awkwardly formatted.

Grate potatoes, carrots and onions and drain for a while, pressing to remove as much juice as possible. This is a great way to make a mess of your kitchen. I used an ancient box grater. Two hours later and I'm still tearing up from the onions.

Run the piece of stale bread through the food processor. I tried the box grater but it didn't work at all. Mix everything up in a bowl, adding lots of salt and pepper. I ended up doubling up the thyme showing.

Pan fry large spoonfuls in a mixture of butter and olive oil. The oil prevents butter from burning while keeping the great taste of butter. One thing I learned about pan frying on an electric stove top is to give them a half turn, halfway through the fry time. This ensures even browning. Also, be sure to pat down the patties firmly to keep them together better.

Serve them up with loads of sour cream, fresh cracked black pepper immediately; eat; and enjoy. Grating the root veggies ensures maximal crispy bits on the outside. The thyme really came through and grating the onion helped boost the flavour level significantly without having any big pieces. This would also be great served on a bed of spinach, and or, with bacon. Garlic would have been a good addition too.

Fish Cakes

5 small to medium sized potatoes, 1" cubed
1lb boneless cod filet, 1" cubed
1/6 spanish onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic
1/2 red pepper
1 cayenne pepper
1 Tbsp whole grain dijon mustard
2 Tbsp cream
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1/2 C bread crumbs
2 Tbsp flour to coat
salt and pepper to taste
Butter for frying

Boil potatoes. When they are almost tender add fish. Lightly saute onion, garlic & peppers.

Drain when potatoes are tender and add to a bowl. Add sauted vegetables to the bowl and mash together. Add mustard, cream, mix lightly. Add lemon juice and bread crumbs. Mix until even distribution.

Form into patties (mine were about 4" in diameter), coat in seasoned flour. Fry in butter. Flip when patties are a bit browner than this picture. These turned out to be like pancakes where the first batch (pictured) didn't brown as nicely as the rest.

Serve with sliced avocado and yogurt. Eat & enjoy.

These fish cakes turned out really tasty, but not at all fishy. Neither I nor Ladypants could pick it out at all, so next time I'd use more fish. so they aren't really fish cakes, more fried mashed potato awesomeness. Crunchy on the outside, creamy in the middle with a nice texture from the red peppers. They tasted great with the perfectly ripe avocado and the tang of the yogurt. I was surprised to find myself full after only three. They also quelled the caffeine shakes leftover from this afternoon's tasting session. Win, win, win!