Papas Criollas (Tiny Yellow Potatoes)

One of my fondest food memories is of the tiny round potatoes known as papas criollas from Colombia. The Colombian papas criollas grow wild in the Andes highlands and have a thin, tender skin and a buttery yellow interior that yields an amazing flavor. They are a favorite for soups such as Ajiaco or served as appetizers or sides either roasted, fried, mashed, boiled, or skewered and grilled. Here in the United States you can buy them frozen in some stores or in jars from various online grocers (see Where to Buy below). I have searched for years but still have not found frozen, canned, or fresh papas criollas in any of our local Hispanic or international grocery stores.

If you’ve ever had a memory of food so strong that you still dream of it 15 years later, you’ll understand my excitement when I spotted tiny yellow potatoes in Trader Joe’s last week. Read more

Roasted Garlic Hummus

This is our first year for growing garlic and now we are slapping ourselves for not trying it years ago because it was so easy. We planted the garlic cloves back in October and then just let them do their thing, no difficult maintenance required. They sprouted before winter set in, then the real growth came in spring when the temperatures warmed up.

We planted softneck silverskin garlic, the most common type of garlic you’ll find in markets or stores. It doesn’t have scapes like hardneck garlic, but it keeps longer after harvest than the hardneck type. Softneck garlic is good for braiding, something I really should practice but I’m all thumbs when it comes to fine motor skills.

As always, we learned a few things with our experiment. First, choose a type of garlic that will thrive in your area. In general, hardneck varieties do well in cold climates and softneck varieties do well in hot climates. Plant only the biggest cloves because they yield the biggest bulbs with the most cloves, and save the little cloves for the kitchen. Plant cloves in October to November in a sunny spot about two to three inches (five to eight centimeters) below the surface. Keep it watered in the spring and when the weather turns hot. Once the green tops start to brown and lay over, stop watering for at least one week before harvesting.

Harvesting is not difficult, just carefully dig around the bulb without touching it to loosen the roots then lift it out. Tap the garlic a little to get most of the dirt off, but don’t worry about removing all the dirt because you want to leave the papery skin on for storage. If you harvest on a dry day you’ll have an easier time tapping off the dirt.

You can use the newly harvested garlic right away, but for long-term storage it needs to cure (dry), so put it in a place out of direct sunlight (not the refrigerator) for about two weeks. We hung it from the rafters in our basement root cellar. After the garlic has cured, you can braid it. Softneck varieties will keep for up to eight months and hardneck varieties will keep for up to two months.

And of course, save some of the big cloves for planting again.

When ready to use, just cut away any dangling roots and use a clean dry toothbrush to gently rub away the outer skin and remaining dirt.

Roasted garlic is one of my favorite foods. It tastes delicious smeared on good artisan bread and adds another dimension of flavor to tomato sauce, mashed potatoes, caramelized onions, hummus, and many other dishes. Serve the hummus with raw vegetables, pita slices or pita chips, or baguette slices. It’s also delicious on bagel or pita sandwiches with avocado slices and alfalfa sprouts.

This is my contribution to Grow Your Own, a blogging event that celebrates the dishes we create from foods we’ve grown, raised, foraged, or hunted ourselves. Amy of Playing House is our host for this round, so be sure to visit her blog for more information about submitting your post. The deadline is July 30. If you are new to the event, you can read more about the rules for participating at the Grow Your Own page.

References

Leslie Land – How to Grow Garlic

ROASTED GARLIC HUMMUS

Makes about 2 cups.

Equipment

food processor

Ingredients

1 (15 ounce/425 g) can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed (or 1/2 cup dry beans, soaked overnight, then drained and rinsed)
3 tablespoons sesame tahini (I prefer Ziyad brand, but any will do.)
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 whole bulb roasted garlic (or 2 if you really want some garlic flavor)
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
4 to 5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Preparation

Squeeze the roasted garlic cloves out of the skin. In the bowl of the food processor, add the beans, tahini, lemon juice, sea salt, and garlic. Process for a few seconds to get the mixture started. While the processor runs, begin drizzling in the olive oil, starting with 2 tablespoons, adding more as necessary to create a smooth consistency.

Other Easy Appetizers

More Recipes With Roasted Garlic From Around the Blogs

Baking Bites – Roasted Garlic Grilled Flatbread

Wild Yeast – Roasted Garlic Bread

Kalyn’s Kitchen – Garlic-Roasted Green Beans with Shallots and Almonds

Ezra Pound Cake – Roasted Garlic, Poblano, and Red Pepper Guacamole

Herbed Goat Cheese

Delicious food does not have to be difficult to prepare or require hours slaving away in the kitchen. Some of my favorite foods are simple with just a few good ingredients that shine together. The classic goat cheese rolled in herbs is one of those simple appetizers that is hard to resist with slice baguette and seasonal roasted tomatoes. You can make the full recipe to serve four or more or halve the recipe to make a delicious appetizer for two.

I just walk out to the herb garden and snip off whatever is in season to make this, and this time I had fresh parsley, chives, and lemon thyme to chop and coat the soft tangy cheese. Fresh cilantro, basil, lemon basil, and marjoram are also good choices. Rolling the cheese in some good olive oil helps the herbs to stick. Read more

Jalapeno Jack Fondue and a Giveaway

We’re on Day 3 of our entertaining theme for this week and the next party recipe comes from Great Party Fondues, a new cookbook from Peggy Fallon. This very adult dip is made with jalapeno jack cheese, beer, and tequila, and is a mouthful of flavor. Serve it in a fondue pot or a miniature Crock Pot, and offer tortilla chips, pita chips, celery, and pepper strips as dunkers.

Making a good cheese fondue requires some attention to detail. The cheese should be at room temperature before adding to the hot liquid, and stirring should be kept to a minimum, otherwise the sauce will be stringy. In addition, cheese sauces have a tendency to separate, leaving you with lumpy cheese in a soupy liquid. In her book Cookwise, Shirley Corriher gives a few tips on working with a cheese sauce. Read more

Caramelized Onion Dip and a Giveaway

And continuing the entertaining theme, we move on to dips, a key ingredient for any good party. I confess that I grew up on grocery store French onion dip, and boy did I eat my share of it. In fact a really good French onion dip such as this one and a few wavy potato chips could set me back weeks on my diet.

Party recipe #2 this week comes from Great Party Dips, a new cookbook from Peggy Fallon. Dips are a must for any party, and this book has tasty recipes for all kinds of dips and dunkers, giving you plenty of variety to choose from. This caramelized onion dip is creamy, rich, and full of flavor and is a great make ahead for parties as it can sit in the refrigerator for up to two days. At the minimum, let it rest for four hours to give the onion flavors time to permeate the sour cream mixture. The dip is easy to make, but caramelizing the onions properly takes some time, so plan for that. Read more

Cajun Wings and a Giveaway

This week’s posts focus on entertaining, something we all do every now and then. Wings have long been a popular party food, though the origins remain in dispute. No matter who invented them, there is no denying the permanent place wings have taken on menus across the country. Restaurants offer many types of wings, included grilled, baked, fried, with sauce or dry rub, and with or without dip.

These Cajun flavored wings were easy to prepare, just marinade and bake in the oven. With 6 full ounces of hot sauce, the marinade sounds really spicy, but the wings had a nice kick that thankfully didn’t set my mouth on fire. We enjoyed them a lot and will make them again. Read more

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