Root Vegetable

“Good for you” doesn’t have to mean “bland.” Crystal is a sucker for lots of flavor, and this dish is an extravaganza for her palate! It’s light, fresh, and oh-so-flavorful. While the fish and roasted vegetables have a wonderful taste all on their own, Crystal adores the tangy caper sauce that makes this dish sing! Capers—small green pockets of salty goodness—are actually the unopened flower buds of a Mediterranean bush, Capparis spinosa. Once harvested, they are dried in the sun and then pickled in either a vinegar brine or packed in salt. There is a rather large variety of capers, varying in size and origin. Feel free to experiment to find the ones you like best, but we typically prefer the smaller nonpareille size that hails from southern France. If you are trying to watch the amount of salt in your diet, rinse the capers and pat dry with a towel before adding them to the sauce.

This Hungarian-style dish reminds us of learning to cook on our own while in college. The term “goulash” is very loose in its definition as it was a dish invented for using leftovers—or in our case, whatever we could find in the kitchen! Sandy, in particular, has fond memories of goulash. She was the last of the four Pollock sisters to leave home. Lucky for Sandy, her sister Yvette lived nearby. While Sandy was living with her parents and attending college, Yvette was a young schoolteacher, just getting started in her career. Yvette didn’t have a lot of money, but she was always generous and creative. From time to time, she would invite Sandy and her parents over for goulash, asking, “Oh, would you mind bringing over a can of corn from the house? And could you grab some cheese? And some beef? Oh, and an onion?” It turned out that her goulash was composed of whatever the Pollocks had in their fridge or pantry at the time. But Yvette would always set the table for the family and turn the borrowed ingredients into the most delicious meal.

We actually got this brilliant idea from our World’s Greatest Chicken Pot Pie recipe (page 48), borrowing some of its staple flavors to create an entirely new dish. The mild flavors of the tarragon and white wine sauce complement the leek mixture in this new creation. Baking the salmon en croute keeps the fish moist and seals in its natural flavors. When you find a flavor combination you love, experiment and find new ways to make it work for you!

When sick, people typically head straight for chicken noodle soup or some other mild-flavored, broth-based soup to nurse them back to health. Not Crystal. Oddly enough, when Crystal is feeling a little under the weather, she craves spice to comfort her. We’re talking hot-and-sour soup, pho with lots of Sriracha sauce, and her ultimate cure-all favorite, curry! Extremely satisfying, this dish’s fragrant spices alone will perk you right up. Serve over steamed jasmine rice or with traditional Indian bread called naan.

Crystal’s Aunt Mary Ann prefers to accompany her stuffed peppers with a rich tomato sauce.

Spam is alive and well here in Austin, Texas. (And oddly enough we do mean Austin, Texas, and not Austin, Minnesota, which happens to be the home of the Hormel product!) Since 1976, local Austinites have been celebrating this forgotten potted pork at the annual Spamarama Festival. The festival offers attendees a variety of options, such as the Spamalypics, the Spam Jam for local musicians, and our favorite competition, the Spam Cook-off ! Here is a casserole dedicated to the beauty of Spam. We love you!

It’s called a defining moment. For Madonna, it was “Everybody.” For Brad Pitt, it was Thelma and Louise. For us, well, it was our chicken pot pie that started it all. Now, we aren’t saying that we’re the next Madonna or Brad Pitt. But, in all honesty, you wouldn’t be reading this book if it weren’t for this recipe. As seen on Food Network’s Throwdown! with Bobby Flay, this signature dish is our claim to fame. It’s not just any old pot pie—oh, no. We took great care to bring this everyday comfort food to new gourmet heights. White wine, tarragon, and shallots are just some of the surprise ingredients tucked under a perfectly golden brown puff pastry. It’s the dish that made people sit up and take notice of us, and now it’s your turn to take the spotlight.

Ah, the Corn Dog Casserole! Just the smell alone will get the kids to the table in time for dinner. Maybe even your neighbor’s kids. Okay, forget the kids. Who are we kidding? If you’ve ever dropped by your local carnival or street fair just to get yourself a corn dog, this is the dish for you! It’s fun to act like a kid sometimes, anyway.

Crystal’s mother’s maiden name is German. Well, actually it was Germaine, but the name was changed when her ancestors settled in South Carolina. The locals refused to call them “Germaine,” and instead just said “that German family.” To celebrate the German/Germaine family, we like to grab our favorite lager and whip out this traditional dish. The recipe calls for prepared sauerkraut, but if you like the idea of making your own, check out Crystal’s family recipe (see below).

Ah, the never-ending debate of shepherd’s pie versus cottage pie. So, what’s the difference? It’s all about the meat. A shepherd’s pie traditionally calls for lamb, and a cottage pie calls for beef (or sometimes only vegetables). We wouldn’t think of calling our meat pie a shepherd’s pie, as we’d rather keep ourselves out of the line of fire. The beauty of this meal is that it’s a great way to use leftovers. Include what you have on hand, whether beef or lamb, or even just a great mix of vegetables. Our favorite interpretation is below, so once you master the steps, try your hand at a variation.

I love me a mashed potato. Add a few cloves of garlic into the mix and you have lovely garlic mashers! Or for something really special, I substitute celery root for some of the potatoes. Celery root is my mother’s favorite vegetable, but in our little town in upstate New York it’s not always easy to find. One year for Christmas I got a huge bag of celery root and put it under the tree for her. She says it was the best Christmas present she ever got! If you haven’t tried celery root before, you’re missing out—it’s a big, craggy, knobby thing, it smells like celery, is slightly sweet, and has a wonderfully starchy texture kind of like a potato.

This is where you want to break out that lovely duck fat—the liquid gold saved from making Duck Breast with Dried Fruit and Vin Santo (page 152) or Cheater’s Duck Confit and Bitter Greens (page 154). If you didn’t remember to save the duck fat or don’t have any, you can certainly buy it. And in a pinch you can use olive oil. Duck fat is fabulous for frying because it has a relatively high smoking point (it can get really hot before it begins to break down), so it will make your potatoes golden brown and crispy on the outside, light and fluffy on the inside, and REALLY tasty. Save your duck fat; it’s worth it.

Roasted potatoes can be snore city. But when you do them well, they’re simple, totally rustic, and super-delicious. Fingerlings are perfect for roasting because they’re small and creamy, but a mix of red bliss and white new potatoes cut into bite-size pieces works well too. Don’t be afraid to use lots of olive oil, salt, and herbs here—and roast these lovelies until they’re brown, brown, brown. Remember, brown food tastes GOOD!

I’m a fan of anything called hash. When I was a kid my parents would make fried eggs for breakfast and bust out a can of corned beef hash—it was a huge treat. Now I jump at anything that reminds me of hash. In this recipe I mix together sweet potatoes, apple, onion, and, of course, a bit of bacon for my own take on hash—a bit sweeter and certainly healthier than anything from a can!

This is my interpretation of the French classic, pommes Anna. It’s just as elegant as the traditional version, but I’ve added Parm for a cheesy little twist. What’s beautiful about this dish is how the outside gets a delicious crispy crust while the inside has a wonderfully delicate texture, thanks to the layers of thinly sliced potatoes. I also love that you can make one cake and then just cut it into individual portions—super-cinchy!

I’m a huge fan of potatoes! Which is why I love this dish. It’s the perfect base for poached eggs at brunch, to sop up the juices of a big rib eye steak (page 156), to complement my fabulous brined pork chops (page 170), or just for lunch. When this was on the menu at my restaurant and I was craving something porky, cheesy, and delicious, I’d have one of the line cooks fry up one of these lovelies for me to eat while I worked. Yum!

Any recipe that includes cauliflower makes me a happy girl. In this dish I roast cauliflower (which is one of the easiest ways to cook it) together with Jerusalem arties (a.k.a. sunchokes), and the payoff is huge: You get great flavor and a really sexy texture. Then I add some spices. The end result is a super-special, slightly exotic side dish—with a minimum amount of effort. This is the way I like to roll!

Baby arties are much easier to prepare than big ones and you don’t end up with nearly as much waste. They’re a perfect side when they’re in season—they go beautifully with meat or fish and just scream springtime. Whenever I tell people I’m making artichokes they go, “Ohhh! Artichokes!!!” They just sound exciting.

Fava beans require some preparation, but to me it’s a labor of love. Shelling and peeling them may seem like a drag, but it’s SOOOOO worth the effort. Mix them with some luxurious mushrooms and sexy spring onions, and you end up with springtime on a plate. I love this combo so much I wish these veggies were in season all year long!

As a kid I remember my grandmother talking about how much she loved Swiss chard, but the weird thing is, I never saw her eat it—ever. But she always had it in the garden and she attributed her good health, even in her old age, to eating Swiss chard. Coincidentally, her name was Gramma Green! I find Swiss chard to be one of the most interesting and delicious greens around. Here I use both the stems and the leaves and mix them with turnips. People give turnips a bad rap, but I think it’s just because they haven’t experienced them. I realize I’m combining two ingredients in this dish that people might not think of eating on their own, let alone together, but I’m on a mission to make Swiss chard and turnips popular. And if any dish with chard and turnips can turn you on, I’m betting this one can!