Monday, July 16, 2012

Kitchen in the Yard ... now in Berlin

... Massachusetts, not Germany.

Yep, I'm still cooking in a kitchen with a yard nearby, but rather than The Yard, now it's a kitchen in the lovely home of my friends out in the country. And the yard is now a quiet, sprawling one with peas and green beans growing in rows, and fresh mint and basil growing beside the doorway. And as I sit here, I hear the rustle of leaves outside the window as a welcome breeze blows through them on this hot day. And there's not even a murmur of traffic, as far as I can hear.

How fabulous is that?

I want to write more about this new yard - literally, because it's gorgeous, and also figuratively in the sense of, this is where I am now! But for now I want to share one of the things I've made since I've been here, which I'm pumped about: curried sweet potatoes.

We ate these hot and crispy with some pan-cooked chicken last week, and I ate them cold the next day for lunch, sort of in the vein of a prepared salad, and they were delicious then, too. So I made some again today. Here they are!   Albeit a little bit blurry. 


Curried sweet potatoes 

2 sweet potatoes, diced
1 regular potato, diced (or, you can use 3 sweet potatoes alone)
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp whole mustard seeds
1 tsp whole cumin seeds
1 tsp curry powder
1 tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp turmeric
Pinch cayenne pepper

Toss all ingredients together until oil and spices are evenly distributed over the potatoes. Spread diced potatoes evenly in an oven pan. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Then, turn oven on broil, tossing mixture when potatoes start to become dark brown around the edges (you'll have to keep an eye on them for this). After 15 minutes, test a potato piece to see whether they're soft and fully cooked.  Enjoy, hot or cold!