Cured pork chops with romesco and sweet potatoes

This recipe is from Sunday Suppers at Lucques. This dish is brined pork chops, simply grilled and topped with romesco sauce. I made a large batch of romesco sauce a few weeks back and froze it in smaller portions. This was my first time brining meat - it was really simple and added a lot of flavor and moisture.

In the book, Suzanne Goin suggests serving the pork chops with sweet potatoes tossed with spinach and bacon. The sweet potatoes are peeled, cubed and tossed with a combination of melted brown butter, sage, thyme and brown sugar. The potatoes roast at 400 degrees for about 45 minutes. After the potatoes come out of the oven, they're combined with fresh spinach, crispy bacon, salt and pepper. The combination of brown butter and brown sugar created a caramelized, almost crispy coating on the outside of the potatoes. They were some of the best sweet potatoes I've ever made.

This meal will definitely be repeated around here - I think it would be great for a dinner party.

Roasted potatoes with lemon and dill

For this dish, I quartered some small white potatoes, tossed them in olive oil, salt and pepper and roasted them at 400 degrees for about 45 minutes. I mixed equal parts of lemon juice and olive oil with fresh chopped dill, lemon zest, salt and pepper. I tossed the warm potatoes with the lemon vinaigrette. The result is a nice change from your ordinary roasted potatoes.

Calorie Countdown - Air Fries

I'm reviewing Calorie Countdown by Juan-Carlos Cruz for my local newspaper. Juan-Carlos Cruz is also known as the Calorie Commando on the Food Network. His air fries are probably the best baked french fries around. The potatoes are coated with cooking spray and roasted on a rack so that the air can circulate. I actually own a french fry cutter, so I used it to get uniform fries, but slicing the potatoes by hand will work just as well.

This recipe from the Food Network website is almost the same as what is printed in the cookbook. I didn't make the sauce, I just served them plain. Also, in the book, he recommends using a convection oven, which I did - they cooked at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes. Try them and let me know what you think!

Potato pancake with smoked paprika and parmesan

This is one large potato pancake that is cooked in a skillet - it's started on the stovetop and finished in the oven. Make sure your pan is oven safe. A nonstick pan works best. If you don't have a nonstick pan, make sure to grease your pan before you add the potato mixture. The parmesan and smoked paprika add a lot of flavor without adding much fat.

Potato pancake with smoked paprika and parmesan
Serves 4

4 large yukon gold potatoes (a little under 2 lbs)
3 tablespoons parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 teaspoons smoked paprika
1 egg, lightly beaten

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Heat an 8 inch nonstick skillet over high heat. Shred the potatoes (a food processor works really well for this). Squeeze all the water out of the shredded potatoes. Combine the potatoes with the parmesan, salt, pepper, paprika and egg in a bowl - mix thoroughly. Press the potato mixture into the skillet. Turn the heat down to medium and cook for about 3 minutes. Place the skillet into the oven and bake for 25 minutes, or until the top is browned and potatoes are tender. Invert onto a plate, cut into wedges to serve.

Mustards Grill - grilled tuna with moroccan pepper salad and grilled potatoes

This recipe is from the Mustards Napa Valley Grill cookbook. Given that it's been too cold out to grill, I used a grill pan for the tuna and roasted the potatoes in the oven.

The tuna is topped with a salad of roasted red bell peppers, poblano chiles, red onion, cumin, lemon juice and olive oil. The grilled potatoes recipe calls for making a foil packet of potatoes with olive oil, salt, pepper and herbs. I chose to use sage:

Instead of grilling the foil packet, I put it in the oven at 375 degrees for about 35 minutes. I had never cooked potatoes this way before - the sage really infused the potatoes with flavor.

Here's the plated dish: