Two, Two, Two Meals in One!

 

August 9, 2015

 

 

I've forgotten the subject of that advertising jingle (I think it was "mints", not meals), so it wasn't an effective jingle for sales. But it was catchy. And it is applicable here.

 

All I have in the house are four big sweet potatoes that have seen better days, half a bag of organic white potatoes, and some baby greens from Saturday's market. DinoVino the WineScribe, who shares my table, is going to need a big lunch today before he goes off to a wine tasting. So here's the plan.

 

I peel all the sweet potatoes and an equal amount of the white potatoes (though one could opt not to peel them). I cut them in one-centimeter dice (about a third of an inch) and cook them together in boiling water (all in the same pan to save on clean-up). Because they are in such small pieces, cooking takes only about five minutes. I drain them.

 

Meal number one. Part of these cooked potatoes and sweet potatoes will become a salad. I add diced anything for crunch (radishes because I have them; cucumbers or celery if they were on hand). Dressing is yogurt mixed with Dijon mustard and a little mango chutney for complexity, and I crumble a chunk of feta cheese over the top. I serve this on the baby greens that have been lightly tossed with an olive oil and lemon juice vinaigrette. DinoVino's stomach  will be well lined to buffer the dozens of wines he will taste in the afternoon.

 

Meal number two. The remaining diced and cooked potatoes (both kinds) will be stored, covered, in the fridge until tomorrow's breakfast, at which point I'll mash them roughly with a pastry blender (though a fork or a potato masher would also work) and then stir in an egg. For seasoning I'll toast mustard seeds and cumin seeds*, plus a spoonful of a masala blend I have on the shelf. All of a sudden we are in samosa territory, so I might as well stir in some frozen peas. It'll be like samosas without the pastry.

 

I'll heat either ghee or coconut oil in a cast-iron skillet, form the potato mixture into small cakes, and fry them on medium heat until they are golden and crisp on both sides (at which point the peas will be cooked). For an even crisper patty, I'll drop a spoonful of the mixture onto a plate of seasoned flour (salt & pepper), then pat it into a cake and turn it over to flour the other side. Then I'll carefully slide it from a spatula into the pan. The flour can be brown rice flour, a GF all-purpose flour, or regular wheat flour.

 

These breakfast patties are good topped with a poached or steam-basted egg. They are also excellent for lunch or as a side dish for dinner.

 

There you are. Depending on the quantity of potatoes you cook up in the first place, you have two meals with two totally different tastes.

 

*I am not a fan of cumin, though I eat it when presented with it. But whole cumin seeds, toasted, I find just delicious! Go figure.