Mashed Sweet Potato

Sweet potatoes are really good for you with all sorts of good vitamins and dietary fiber. They're also a little confusing, so first a little sweet potato edumacation: The vivid orange potato commonly marketed as "yams" are sweet potatoes. So are the firmer, pale yellow sweet potatoes. They're both sweet potatoes and neither is really a yam! The orange ("yam") sweet potato is a little sweeter and has a creamier texture as well as more beta carotene. So when you're wondering which sweet potato to get think about the context, and for the recipe below use whichever you prefer!

The scariest thing about this recipe for me was not the sweet potato conundrum, but that there's no butter. No butter!! Blew my mind.

Mashed Sweet Potato

(servings: 6)

4 medium sweet potatoes

1/2 c orange juice

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp ginger

1/4 tsp nutmeg

Extra virgin olive oil for drizzling

1) Leaving the skin on, cut the potatoes into medium cubes

2) Steam potatoes until soft (40 minutes)

3) Transfer to a medium pan and mash to desired consistency over low heat

4) Add orange juice, salt, ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon

5) Serve topped with olive oil

Chicken Paillard and Warm New Potato Salad

One of the most recent Food & Wine e-mails included a feature on "April Fools" dishes - recipes that are impossibly simple but really impress. With only five ingredients in each, they make for really easy meals to pull off at the last minute (say, when I'm dead tired from work and can barely fathom making it up the stairs let alone making a nice meal!).

Since the ingredients are so focused, the recipes are very easy to scale up or down, and what follows are my recipes inspired by that same focus and scalability. If you like, you can find Food & Wine's recipes here.

Chicken Paillard with Tomato and Goat Cheese Salad

(4 servings)

4 chicken breasts, brined and pounded to an even thickness (about 1/3" thick)

1 c cherry tomatoes, halved

1 c grape tomatoes, halved

2-3 oz chevre, crumbled

3 tbs extra virgin olive oil

sea salt (a few very heavy pinches)

freshly ground pepper

1) Put the tomatoes in a colander over a bowl and salt liberally. Then toss and let stand (at least 15 minutes). Whisk 2 ounces of the goat cheese into the tomato juices that drain into the bowl. Add a couple tablespoons of olive oil and season with pepper. Crumble the remaining goat cheese and fold in.

2) Light a grill or heat up your grill pan. Brush the chicken breasts with the remaining olive oil and season well with salt and pepper. Place on the grill, leave for about five minutes on the first side. Turn, and cook an additional two minutes (or until cooked through).

3) Transfer the chicken to plates and top with the tomato and goat cheese mix.

Warm New Potato Salad with Arugula

(Serves 4-6)

2 lbs new potatoes, cleaned

1/2 lb fromage d'affinois

4 handfuls arugula

2 tbs extra virgin olive oil

salt

freshly ground pepper

Preheat the broiler

1) Place new potatoes in a saucepan, cover with water, and bring to a boil. Salt, and simmer until the potatoes are tender, then drain.

2) Toss the arugula with olive oil, then transfer to an ovenproof dish. Halve the cooked potatoes and place in a layer on top of the arugula.

3) Break up the cheese overtop of the potatoes, season generously with salt and pepper. Pop it all under the broiler for a minute to let the cheese met. Serve!

Green Beans, Better

I'm sorry, I owe you a lot of recipes. I've been cooking up a storm, so it will be like a regular flood of posts, I promise! To start, something I made last night - which is really a melding of my earlier green beans and my mushroom bruschetta. This recipe cooks up in about 8 minutes, tops, so I find it best to give everything that needs chopping or slicing a chop and slice beforehand. With each stage set out in bowls before me I can make this while a million other things are going on. It would make a great Easter side, really - it has more kick than your average green beans dish and you can make it in no time at all.

Note: When I clean my mushrooms I just dampen a paper towel and give them a quick rub.

Green Beans, Mushrooms and Pancetta

(6 servings)

5 crimini mushrooms, wiped clean and sliced

6 handfuls green beans, trimmed

3 oz pancetta, sliced (I just run scissors right through the stack about a half inch apart)

2 large cloves garlic, chopped fine

1/4 c packed Parmesan, shredded

red pepper flakes, to taste (about 1/2 tsp+ for me)

2 tbs butter

1/2 lemon

olive oil

salt and pepper

1) Set a large pot of water to boil. Heat up a saute pan over medium, and add a glug of olive oil. Salt the boiling water and add the green beans - set a timer for 7 minutes.

2) Add the pancetta to the saute pan, once crisped (couple minutes) remove.

3) Put a pat of butter in the pan, add the mushrooms. Add olive oil if needed so that none of the mushrooms look dry. After about a minute add the garlic and red pepper flakes.

4) Once the garlic is cooked turn the heat to low, squeeze the lemon over and scrape up any brown bits from the pan. Add the remaining pat of butter, and return the pancetta to the pan.

5) The green beans will be done about now; drain them and add them to the saute pan. Give a toss, season as needed, and move to a serving dish where you can top with the Parmesan.