It was working through Thursday afternoon and then it became “OBE” – overcome by events. However, all was not lost. I did mange to recover the thread by Saturday afternoon and turned in a passable combination that I can enjoy when the mood strikes. Nobody is going to be saying “YUM – that’s the best darn salad I’ve eaten!” but its tasty combination for me.

The Better Stuff

Thursday was about dropping the raw onion and leaving the bell pepper in bigger chunks so I could find them. Also the marjoram had to go – just didn’t add anything to raw veggies. The larger slices of the bell pepper really helped – they didn’t become lost in the salad. Ditching the onion eliminated the bitterness and I never missed the marjoram.

By Friday, however, I couldn’t stare another salad in the face. As fate had it I worked from home that day and opted for a black bean and corn quesadilla – which also got the remainder of the mushrooms. Very tasty!

Saturday I returned to the salad and mixed up a concoction with no mushrooms or bell peppers but with scallions, tomatoes, avocado, carrots, croutons, some fresh squeezed lime juice, Romain and balsamic dressing. Oh and some Parmesan cheese on the top. Don’t think most of that will be in a pairing book any time soon.

In the Rearview

The mission behind the madness was to do some experimentation with building a recipe and salads provided a nice free association vehicle. What I really learned, partly by doing and partly by observation and reflection is that I already do a fair amount of recipe development every time I cook. I substitute ingredients when I don’t have exactly what’s called for, I remove things I don’t care for and add things that I do. And despite the tools at my disposal for finding pairings of things that go well together, I’ll trust my intuition more to some degree – after all it’s telling me what I like.

Under Construction

The mushroom salad concoction went like this:

• 5-6 button mushrooms, stems removed and sliced thin
• 1.5 cups chopped Romaine
• 5 cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1/4 onion, sliced
• 1/2 bell pepper, finely diced
• 1/8 tsp ground marjoram
• 5 seasoned croutons
• 1 can King Oscar 2-layer sardines, drained
• 2-3 tbsp balsamic vinaigrette dressing

Let’s start with what I liked; the mushrooms were really soft and earthy tasting while the croutons and crisp Romaine provided a nice crunchy contrast. The fish in there with the dressing was good as well.

On the “not so good” end were the onions. I used raw yellow onions and they really dominated the taste. Quite harsh and almost bitter at times compared to the green onions I have been having in my salad. I really didn’t taste the bell pepper that much. It was kinda lost in there and I really didn’t get a sense of what the ground marjoram brought to the equation – I used it since it was listed in the pairings for mushrooms and even when I tasted a raw mushroom with it, I didn’t taste much difference.

So, if I was to do this again, I’d eliminate the onion, perhaps not even include one and ditch the marjoram. I’d also add more bell pepper and perhaps just slice them instead of dicing – maybe I wouldn’t miss them that way.

I’ve got about 6 mushrooms left so there’s room for more experimentation.

It turned out well and, in keeping with this recipe development theme, we both felt that adding peas would be a nice touch – perhaps the frozen kind just before it goes into the oven. I also felt it could have had more “crunch” texture to complement the soft cheesy goodness – the light cracker topping wasn’t quite enough. Perhaps celery or maybe watercress?

Remains of the Day

Other than the 1/2 a pan that’s left over, I have some fresh veggies – 1/2 of a bell pepper, 1/2 yellow onion, and nearly a dozen mushrooms. I need a salad for tomorrow so rather than use the same weekly salad theme, I’m wondering about a using the onion, mushroom and bell pepper combo in the salad. Perhaps feature mushrooms as the main item instead of lettuce and compliment with bell pepper, onion and another mystery ingredient or two.

So tonight while I’m getting ready for bed I’ll pull out The Flavor Bible (there’s a link to it in the sidebar) and see what I can get to compliment mushrooms both in flavor and texture – mushrooms seem soft to me. I’m still thinking about the celery “crunch” factor.

So, here’s the final recipe for a single serving:

• 1 medium sized russet potato
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1/4 tsp garlic salt
• 1/8 tsp ground black pepper

Peel and wash the potato. Using a box grater, shred the potato using the largest holes. After shredding, rinse the potato shreds in a strainer under cold running water for a minute or so, turning the shreds over each other under the water. Let drain and then arrage in a single layer on a tea/paper towel. Press to remove excess water.

Heat oil in a non-stick pan over medium heat until shimmering. Add potatoes and compress down with a spatula form a single mound about 1/4-1/2″ high. Sprinkle garlic salt and pepper on top of potato mound. Cook for 5 minutes without touching. Turn entire potato mass over and cook for another 5 minutes without touching. Serve.

They have a great, fluffy white texture on the inside without a hint of sliminess. The outside is golden brown and delicious. Served with scrambles eggs it makes a fantastic breakfast. It was worth all the trouble and experimentation.

This weekend I decided to give it a try. I grated the potato on a box grater per normal, but before pressing the water out with a towel, I loaded the shredded potato pieces into a small strainer and rinsed them under cold water. After draining and pressing the excess water out using a towel, I ended up with the driest potato shreds I’ve ever had – amazing! Some oil, pepper and garlic salt coupled with 8-9 minures of heat and I had the texture I was after.

I had been working under the assumption that the gumminess was being caused by excess water instead of the surface starch. In hindsight I should have realized it was the starch since changing potatoes to Yukon’s and Red’s dropped the gumminess vs. russet. Russet’s have the least water while reds have the most and russets have the fluffy texture I was after  - think french fries – and reds don’t.

Now that I have the texture I’m going to try to get more middle fluffiness. I’ve observed that the mound of shreds shrinks as cooking progresses. Some of that undoubtedly is the downward pressure, but I’m sure that the water loss from the cell destruction also contributes. I’ll try some higher mounds.

On the education front I’d like to:

• Finish reading “On Food and Cooking“
• Read a James Peterson book on a cooking subject
• Pick up a copy of the “Flavor Bible“
• Take an on-line culinary class

As far as actual cooking I want to:

• perfect those hash browns!
• work on making pie dough
• become more proficient with making pastries

Most recipes call for shredding peeled potatoes on a box grater, wringing the water out and then pan frying. For what it’s worth, I’m not enthused about using a ricer to get the water out. If I can’t sop it up with a paper towel I’m not interested in trying. That’s pushed me in the direction of using Red potatos which seem to have less water in them than the Russet variety. I’ll circle back around to Russets once I’m successful with Reds.

At any rate, I’ve been trying a variety of techniques including using different frying mediums. I tried butter, but that didn’t seem to give me the browning layer I wanted. This morning after frying some bacon, I decided to try cooking the potato mass in the remaining bacon fat which was about 1-2 tbsp. I also precooked the potatoes in the microwave after I shredded them for about 45 seconds.

Into the hot pan, mashed down and then 5-6 minutes/side until golden brown. They were good but still a little slimy in the middle. Perhaps I’ll try for 55 secs to 1 min precooking next time.