Tag: Apple Cider Vinegar

A Rich Spud On the Side

Every year, I have a BBQ to help raise money for The Ottawa Mission. They are a organization that is very near and dear to my heart. Amongst other things, they dedicate themselves to making sure no one goes hungry. They have a kitchen that is open for three meals a day to anyone that who needs it, regardless of their situation. I plan on writing about some of the awesome stuff they did for me in particular, but in the mean time, I’ll leave a link to donate on the bottom.

This year I made four dishes: Roasted Potato Salad, Vegetable Sticks with Hummus, Ravioli Stuffed with Grilled Vegetables and smoked Tomato Sauce, and Smoked then Fried Chicken. The Chicken came out well, but utilized some equipment I built myself. The good news is, I’ve already shared my Hummus recipe here and I plan on sharing the potato salad recip today.

Potato salad is a staple at any BBQ. I can’t think of any other dish, let alone side dish, that can be creamy, light, while still being hardy. This is my 4th year holding this event, and the spud-tastic side has always been a go-to, however this year I took a whole new approach on it. Assuming you’re not a big fan of German cuisine, most of us think potato salad as boiled potatoes mixed with a mayo based dressing, then cooled. If you happen to know the aforementioned Germans Cuisine, then you know they skip the mayo all together.
Instead they take the potatoes right from the boiling water and mix it with oil and vinegar, then season accordingly. The result is the potatoes absorb most of the liquid, giving you more of seasoning opposed to a dressing. My understanding is it’s often served hot.

What I came up with was a mixture of the two, with a twist that I haven’t seen before. The potatoes were very flavourful because I did the german style of “hot mixing” with vinegar and oil, but then added a small amount of mayo and seasoning to give them the creamy texture we all associate with Potato salad. Here is the twist, I roasted the potatoes! They just came out beautifully.
A few side points,

I made a vegan mayo for this recipe. It’s one of the few vegan foods that imitate something else, that I actually find better then the original. Seriously, vegan mayo is better tasting then the store bought mayo you find in stores. So I give it a pass.
I didn’t add hard boiled eggs to this recipe, because of dietary restrictions of some guests who attended. If I were to made it again, this would definitely be added

Here is how I did it:

Vegan Mayo:

Ingredients:

  • 1/2C Soy Milk (If you don’t have Soymilk, or prefer traditional mayo, you can use the recipe found here)
  • 1/2C Canola Oil
  • 1/2C Olive Oil
  • 2t Apple Cider Vinegar
  1. Place all the ingredients in a high thinner cup. I used a measuring cup.
  2. Wait about 1 minute for the oil to float to the top.
  3. Insert the immersion blender into the mixture slowly.
  4. Pulse the blender until you start seeing mayo form.
  5. Once you see the majority of the mixture has emulsified, keep the blender on, and slowly lift the blender up and down until it’s a unified mixture.

Potato Salad:

  • 1lbs Russet Potatoes*
  • Pinch Salt
  • Double Pinch of Pepper
  • 1/4t of Garlic Powder
  • 6T Olive Oil
  • 1.5T Lemon Juice
  • 1.5T Apple Cider Vinegar
  • 1.5oz Onion
  • 3/4oz Celery
  • 2T Mayo
  1. Wash, dry and Cut Potatoes into 3/4″ squares. Leave the skin on, they add a wonderful
  2. Toss the cut potatoes in 1T of olive oil until they are throughly covered
  3. Place oiled potatoes directly on a baking sheet and roast at 350 degrees Fahrenheit in a convection oven (375 degrees in a non convection oven) for 30 minutes. Make sure to mix the potatoes up half way through.
  4. While the potatoes cook, mix all the other ingredients except the onion, celery and mayo into a bowl, mix as well as you can. The oil and vinegar will want to separate, which is fine. This will be your seasoning.
  5. Check to see if the potatoes are soft, golden-brown and delicious, if they need more time, crank the oven up 50 degrees, and check on them every 10 minutes until they are ready. Make sure to mix them every time you look at them.
  6. Once your potatoes are done, quickly put them directly from the oven, into a a clean mixing bowl. Then pour the seasoning, onto the hot potatoes and quickly mix until the potatoes have absorbed all the liquid.
  7. Mix in celery, onion and mayo.
  8. Place in fridge overnight and serve.
  9. Take a fancy photo, and post it to Instagram with the hashtag #foryourfoulmouth

*I used Potatoes my roommate picked up from a farmers market. They were very unusual. They had paper thin skins, and even after 45 minutes in the oven, they didn’t really brown. They were very delicious, but I switched the recipe to russet. Since I have no way of knowing what I actually used, and feel they weren’t the best choice.

Donate to the Ottawa Mission: Here

This is Baller

There was a time when I worked for a company that ran the cafeteria for the residents students at local university. Amongst poor hygiene, subpar food, and dangerously apathetic management; follow through was a big problem. I don’t want to get sued, so I won’t say anything specific, but if you take a look down at the sources in footer, I linked to reviews, and a news report about the company. It speaks for itself.

Anyway, I bring this up for a specific reason. One day our nutritionist came up to me, put her hands out and asked me to smell. Me being up for an adventure, complied. They smelled sweet, complex, and wonderful. ‘Basil’ she said. ‘I just pruned some Basil from our herb garden, so now we have a lot of it, and we need to find a recipe, do you have any ideas?’

I remember that being the first time I had been asked for my advice for something to put on the menu. I was so excited! I said the first thing that came to my head ‘fruit salad, with melons.’ She thought about it, and said ‘yes!’ she then continued to pull all the management and chefs aside to let them know about my idea, and how it had to get made, and to make sure I got to do it. It felt really awesome, but it never happened.

I have wondered about how I would have made that fruit salad a few times since then, so I figured instead of just thinking about it, I’d actually do it!

We are approaching July, and with BBQ season roaring, I figured this might the perfect side dish. The kind people don’t see often, but instantly love.

So here is what we are going to need:

Infused Vinegar

  • 2T of Dried sweet Basil
  • 7G of Fresh Basil
  • 3 points from a Star Anis
  • 1C white Vinegar
  • 1C Apple Cider Vinegar

Dressing for Salad:

  • 1/3C Infused Vinegar
  • 4T Maple Syrup
  • 2T Extra Virgin Olive Oil
  • 1t Sesame Seeds
  • 4 Basil Leafs

Melon Ball Salad:

  • 1/2 Watermelon
  • 1/2  Honeydew Melon, Seeded

For this recipe we are making an infused vinegar. You can use this recipe with any dried or fresh herb mixture. The recipe shows you how to make two cups, though you won’t need that much. This vinegar will keep indefinitely, and has a lot of great future applications. The other great think about this, is it’s a great way to use up herbs that are starting to wilt. You will need more of the wilted herbs to get the same effect, but at least you’re not throwing them away. The final product was a little too strong for me, so next time make this, I will cut the quantity of dried basil in half.

  1. Put your dried basil in a 325 degree convection oven (or 350 non convection)  on a parchment lined baking sheet for 30 minutes, or until Basil becomes fragrant.
  2. Once basil is out of the oven, place the dried basil, and Star Anis tips into a pot with both of your vinegars.
  3. Put your pot on medium low heat, and using a thermometer, bring the vinegar up to 130 degrees.
  4. Put the fresh basil in a bowl or Tupperware, then poor the vinegar mixture on top. Once the vinegar has cooled, put a lid on the bowl/Tupperware and place into the fridge for at least 18 hours, or up to 36 hours.
  5. Strain mixture into clean storage container, and discard all herbs.
  6. Store in the fridge until needed.

Next we have to make the dressing. The final product is a bit tart, which is perfect because its going on top of very sweet melons, so it balances out nicely.

  1. Put half of the Sesame seeds in a dry frying pan set to medium high heat.
  2. Occasionally move them around until they turn a nice dark brown, then remove from the heat and set aside.
  3. Whisk together the Vinegar and Maple Syrup, then slowly add the Olive Oil.
  4. Mix in the both the toasted and non toasted Sesame seeds.

Finally the final product:

  1. Roll the Basil into a roll, and thinly slice them into a chiffonade.
  2. Using a mellon baller, ball the the Watermelon and Honeydew and put the balled mellon chunks into a bowl.
  3. Drizzle the dressing on top of Melon Balls, and then portion into serving bowels, garnish with Basil and Kosher Salt.
  4. Take a fancy photo, and post it to Instagram with the hashtag #foryourfoulmouth
Sources:
Company That ran the Dinning servines https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eE85sJLSeSQ
Google Reviews: https://goo.gl/MLWLeU