Oven Totcho Home Fries

So these loaded potatoes are maybe a few days late for Cinco de Mayo, or maybe they are right on time for Taco Tuesday? We have no tacos in sight, but we have a lot of toppings that can go in a taco, so I'll allow it!

Just take all the delicious things you would pile into a taco, or better, onto nachos, and then even more better, pile them onto crispy, hot roasted potatoes, aka home fries. It's jalapeños on salsa on cheese on carbs and I love it. The potatoes soak up any juices, don't get soggy, and they stay hot while you eat them. It's nachos, but better. It's totchos!

(I think totchos usually refer to nachos made with tater tots, but I'm using whole potatoes here and I'm going with it.)

These make a killer brunch dish (you could even bake some eggs right on top of the potatoes) or side dish, or just an "I want a snack dish" but I think the important thing to note is that these potatoes are truly perfect for any time of day you crave cheese and spicy things on top of carbs.

Get it.

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Oven Roasted Potato Nachos

Potato method adapted from America's Test Kitchen

• 3 1/2 lbs fingerling potatoes
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tbs butter
• 3/4 tsp kosher salt
• pepper
• cayenne pepper
• 2 tbs vegetable oil
• cheddar cheese, shredded
• 3 scallions, thinly sliced
• pico de gallo
• 1 jalapeno, thinly sliced
• zest and juice of 1 lime
• sour cream
• avocado, sliced

1. Heat oven to 500 degrees with a rack in a low position. Place a cast iron or other heavy skillet in the oven to preheat.
2. Bring a large pot or water to boil, add the potatoes and baking soda. Cook for 2 minutes, then drain.
3. Return the potatoes to the pot over low heat, the cook 2 minutes until the moisture has cooked off. Remove from heat and add the butter, salt and cayenne and stir until well coated.
4. Remove the skillet from the oven and drizzle with the vegetable oil. Add the potatoes in an even layer and roast for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven, scrape and flip potatoes, and roast another 15 minutes.
5. When ready to serve, sprinkle with cheese, and return to the oven for 2-3 minutes to melt the cheese. Remove from oven, mix together the sour cream, lime juice and zest in a small bowl and drizzle on top of the melted cheese. Top with remaining desired toppings and serve immediately.

Maple Blueberry Turkey Sausage

On any given weekend, there's a good chance I'll head to my local Whole Foods for groceries on a Saturday or Sunday morning. And if I do, there's also a good chance that on my walk there, the smell of pancakes and sausages cooking at the diner down the street will waft my way, triggering my breakfast cravings that I probably haven't addressed yet.

Which is why, when I get to the store, I am often powerless in the face of the sausage section of the meat case. Sausages probably aren't on my list, but it won't matter. I will be buying breakfast sausages to fry up as soon as I get home. 

Recently, I noticed that the store was selling an intriguing breakfast sausage, a pork version flavored with maple syrup and...blueberries? What? I had to try it! It sounded just weird enough to be unexpectedly great.

And it was! But my desire to eat like, four of those sausages in one sitting was maybe going to become a problem, so I thought about the giant bag of frozen wild blueberries in my freezer and decided I could remedy this potential problem, by making my own batch of sausages, with turkey instead of pork, so I could lull myself into a false sense of virtuosity. Also? I just happen to really, really like turkey sausage. And turkey burgers. And anything with ground turkey.

Thanks to the wonder that is The Food Lab, figuring out how to make my own sausage at home was stupidly easy. Turns out, the trick is salt and some time. Who knew? So I threw together a mix of turkey, maple syrup, and blueberries and let it all hang out overnight. The next morning, I shaped the mix into link shapes and fried them up. These sausages were flavorful, a little sweet, a little salty, and with the springy texture of the best breakfast sausages. I somehow managed not to eat the whole batch, and stashed some away in the freezer for future breakfasts. I'm sad to report that I finished these off on Sunday, but it's not a problem, I'm definitely making more!

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Maple Blueberry Turkey Sausage

Adapted from The Food Lab

• 1 lb ground turkey (not breast meat)
• 1 1/2 tbs maple syrup
• 1 tbs kosher salt (or 2% of the weight of the meat)
• 1 tsp dried sage
• 1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup wild blueberries (drained and thawed if frozen, see note)

1.  Combine all ingredients in a bowl until well mixed, cover with plastic wrap or transfer to a plastic, sealable bag and refrigerate 12-24 hours.
2. When ready to cook, massage for 5 minutes by hand (this is obviously easier and less messy using the bag).
3. Heat a pan with a little oil over medium-high heat. Shape meat into patties or links and cook until well browned and cooked through. Serve hot!

Notes:

• You can use fresh or frozen regular blueberries for this too; wild blueberries were what I had and their smaller size worked well with staying contained in the sausage, but use what you can find!

Crumpets

I may have mentioned that sometimes I go to Sydney for work. It's a lovely job perk, to go hang out in Summer weather in January, explore another city, and eat many things served on wooden boards. 

The unfortunate part is that the Sydney office is far superior to our SF office, in many ways, but especially in the breakfast department. In our office, we have bread and jam and a toaster, and cream cheese as long as the leftover supply from Bagel Monday holds out. Inexplicably, though, there is never any butter.  In Sydney, they have about 5 kinds of butter, jam, and a variety of bread options, from plain, to thick cut cinnamon raisin toast, and sometimes, crumpets. 

The crumpets are the ones that really get me. I LOVE them. Think of an inside out english muffin, but richer, and one that has all its nooks and crannies on the outside. Throw one of those in the toaster and spread on some butter and it melts all into the cracks and crevices. It's divine, even the obviously commercially produced ones in the office.

Since crumpets aren't exactly a thing here in the US, it's kind of hard to relive the experience at home. So I decided to make them! The result was not exactly what I was remembering, but close enough to satisfy any cravings until my next trip to Sydney. I guess I'll need to make another batch to get me to 2019!

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Crumpets

Adapted from David Lebovitz

• 1 1/2 cup milk, warmed slightly
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 packet active dry yeast (2 1/4 tsp)
• 2 3/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 3/4 cup + 1 tbs tepid water
• 1/2 tsp baking soda

1. In a bowl of a stand mixer, combine milk, sugar and yeast and let stand 10 minutes until slightly foaming. Mix in the flour and salt with the paddle attachment, and then beat for 3 minutes on high. Cover with a towel and let rise until doubled in size, 1 hour.
2. Mix the water and baking soda together and then beat into the dough with the paddle attachment. 
3. Heat a skillet or pan over medium heat, and brush with oil. Oil round biscuit cutters or tart rings or whatever round, heat-proof tool you are using (I found regular cooking spray to work best for creasing both the pan and the rings). Place rings on the skillet and fill with batter, just enough to cover the bottom if you are using biscuit cutters (a little less than 1/4 cup batter). Cook the crumpets until bubbles begin to appear, then gently lift off the cutters or rings with tongs and continue to cook about 4-5 minutes, making sure bottoms aren't browning too much. Flip, and continue cooking on other side until golden brown. Transfer to a rack to cool. Repeat with remaining dough.