Mango Nicecream, Boiled Veggie Supper, Purple Latkes, BEST Focaccia EVER!

Mango Nicecream
Four cups of mango pureed with 1 large chopped banana.  A dash of cinnamon, nutmeg or cardamon if you like.  Freeze at least 4 hours.  Then puree a second time to make things even smoother.   Refreeze again or eat immediately as "soft-serve".   Simple.  Yum.

Boiled Veggie Supper
A classic Southern boiled vegetable side dish elevated to a vegetarian main dish.   Classically the boiled veggies -- cauliflower, green beans and new potatoes -- would be served as a side for a slice of ham or fried chicken.  As a pescatarian I could have served it alongside salmon or another seafood, but I chose to serve it simply on it's own.  

Spicing is the key to making this dish palatable rather than bland.  I used chopped garlic and diced onion in the 'pot likker' for the cauliflower/green bean mixture; and thyme and marjoram in the purple potato pot likker.  The other trick is to not overcook any of the veggies -- another reason (beside the color leeching issue) to cook the potatoes separate from the other veg.  Purple potatoes want a bit more cooking time than white potatoes, else they can be mealy and dry in the mouth, but don't over cook them.

Purple Latkes
Latkes, or potato pancakes, are an old German/Eastern European tradition.  I made these with purple potatoes for extra healthy eating!

4 Purple Potatoes (about 1lb) 
1/2 cup Red Onion, finely diced
1/4 cup AP Flour
2 Eggs, beaten
2 tsp  Garlic & Herb Spice Blend

Grate the potatoes on the large side of your box grater.  Wrap the mass in a non-pretty tea towel (one you don't care about staining) or several layers of strong paper towel, gather it up and squeeze like a mad-man to get as much liquid out as you can.

I got nearly half a cup!  This lets the latkes fry up crisper.  Then let them drain for an hour or so before making up the batter and frying.

Mix together the potato shreds, diced onion, flour, spice, and beaten eggs.  Drop golf-ball sized spoonfuls of batter in a lightly oiled hot skillet, and pat them flat with the back of a spoon.  Fry for a few minutes until the bottom is brown, then flip carefully and repeat. 

Remove finished latkes to a paper towel covered plate and keep warm until the batch is done. 

Best Focaccia EVER!
I picked up a $2.99  e-book of Suzanne Dunaway's No Need To Need:  Handmade Artisan Breads  the other day, and if you like to bake breads I suggest you do too! 

What a revelation!  Simple, basic ingredients:  flour, water, yeast, salt.  A little olive oil and fresh herbs for brushing and topping.  Simple tools.  No kneading, just stir things into a shaggy dough, proof, pan, proof again and bake a short time.

One of the things that she wrote which I appreciate is that (of course) bread tastes best the day it is baked  -- so bake bread often.  Most recipes however have you making enough bread for 4-6 people for one day.  By the time the two of us get to the end of a bake it's just not as good as the first day.  So I took her basic Focaccia recipe and halved it, figuring that would be plenty of bread for two for one day. 

Following the halved recipe below, I made two beautiful 6" diameter x 1" thick rounds of thin crispy crusted, airy mouth-watering perfection.  Absolutely the best bread I have ever made! 

1 cup warm Water
1 tsp Active Dry Yeast (better than rapid rise) -- half a packet.
2 cups Unbleached AP Flour
1 tsp Salt
2-3 tsp EVOO for brushing
3 Tbsp fine chopped Rosemary for topping
2, 6" round baking tins
Baking Spray or butter for prepping the tins

Put the water in a largish bowl, sprinkle the yeast on the surface and with a large spoon stir to dissolve.    Now stir in half the flour and the salt, and stir for about 2 minutes.  Lastly stir in the remaining  flour and stir for another couple minutes until the dough just pulls away from the side of the bowl.  Cover and let it rise in a warm place (it's Florida -- I put it outside in the shade on our lanai) for 30-45 minutes.

Prep two 6" diameter baking tins (or one 9-10" tin) with baking spray or butter, then "pour" the dough into each tin carefully (so as not to squeeze out any air).  Brush with the EVOO and let it rise, covered, another 15-20 minutes on the counter.  Bake at a pre-heated 400F for 30-40 minutes until nicely browned and it sounds hollow when thumped (190F internal temp if you're measuring).   Let it cool 10-15 minutes before removing from the tins.

Here's a full-sized loaf made with whole wheat bread.

One of the few marginally specialized tools the author recommends is a Risotto Spoon -- a mixing spoon with a large hole in the center.  When stirring risotto it lets you mixing things more gently, without breaking up  lot of the rice grains.  With the doughs, the spoon lets in a bit more air and likewise makes the mixing more thorough and gentle.   Risotto spoons are hard to find, as the author mentions.  I didn't want to buy one, but I have an electric drill, a 1" diameter Forstner bit to drill clean-edged holes, and a spare wooden spoon.  Five minutes of set-up and drilling and another few minutes fine sanding things, and voilà -- Bread Spoon (not to be confused with Spoon Bread (which is one of the more than 80 bread recipes for all occasions in the book).  I don't know if it helped, but it was fun to turn an ordinary spoon into a Risotto Spoon.

For my WW readers, half of one 6" loaf is 7 points, and is the perfect size for a chicken or turkey sandwich, or for mopping up the dregs of a home-made Zero Point Soup (lots of recipes for those here...).