Goat Cheese Mashed Potatoes

Come on - how can this not sound delicious? You have potatoes, you have heavy cream, you have goat cheese. Plus, this recipe came out of an Emeril Lagasse cookbook so you know it's going to be good.

Goat Cheese Mashed Potatoes

Serves: 8

4 C peeled and diced white potatoes
1 ½ t salt
¾ C heavy cream
¼ C unsalted butter
½ pound goat cheese, crumbled
1/8 t freshly ground white pepper

Combine the potatoes and 1 teaspoon of the salt in a large saucepan. Cover the potatoes with water, bring to a boil and cook over medium heat until fork tender, about 20 minutes. Drain.

Return the potatoes to the saucepan and, over low heat, stir them with a fork or wire whisk for about 2 minutes to dry them. Add the cream, butter, cheese, the white pepper and the remaining ½ teaspoon salt. Mix well. Serve hot.

I cannot tell you how much this hit the spot. I had been craving potatoes for the longest time and I couldn't wait much longer before making this. As far as the ingredients, I went pretty far off the rails this time when I was throwing it together. I didn't measure a thing, just eyeballed it, and it turned out more than fine. It was fantastic. I only had two potatoes, which didn't equal four cups of diced potatoes, so I reduced the other ingredients accordingly. I also used fat-free half and half instead of heavy cream, which didn't pose any problems. Same with the butter, goat cheese and white pepper - I just threw in however much I thought looked like a good amount. Sometimes I don't even know why I bother with a recipe.

In the "mix well" portion of the recipe, it's referring to the actual mashing of the potatoes though it's not specifically stated as such. A wonderful little tool I've found works great to mash potatoes is a pastry cutter. A blender can be too rough and a fork just doesn't do it. The pastry cutter lets you work at your own speed and determine how chunky or smooth you want the potatoes to be.

This is the finished product. If you look closely you can see little white specs - that's the goat cheese. I'm only slightly ashamed to admit that I mostly ate this straight from the pot I cooked it in - it was that good. These were rich without being overpowering and creamy without being runny. A perfect combination.

Grilled Cheese with Spinach-and-Tomato Sauce

I was so excited about this recipe. I mean, who doesn't love grilled cheese sandwiches? Cheese is such a universally delicious food and when you pair it with bread and a hot skillet, you have your own little piece of heaven. They even have gourmet grilled cheese restaurants! But as wonderful as a gooey grilled cheese sandwich can be, I think this may have overdone it a little bit.

Grilled Cheese with Spinach-and-Tomato Sauce

SERVINGS: 4
Ingredients
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup canned crushed tomatoes in thick puree (from one 15-ounce can)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon fresh-ground black pepper
1 pound spinach, stems removed, leaves washed well and shredded
8 thick slices from a large round loaf of country bread
1/2 pound mozzarella, sliced
1/4 pound mild goat cheese, crumbled (about 3/4 cup)


Directions
In a large saucepan, heat 2 tablespoons of the oil over moderately low heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic, tomatoes, salt, and pepper. Simmer for 5 minutes. Add the spinach and simmer until the spinach wilts and the sauce thickens, about 5 minutes longer. Cover to keep warm.

Top 4 slices of the bread with mozzarella. Spoon some of the spinach mixture over each, spreading the spinach to the edges of the bread. Sprinkle the goat cheese over the spinach and top with the remaining bread slices.

In a large nonstick frying pan, heat 1 tablespoon of the oil over moderate heat. Cook two of the sandwiches, turning once, until the cheese melts and the bread is golden, about 4 minutes in all. Repeat with the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil and the other two sandwiches, keeping the first batch of sandwiches warm on a baking sheet in a 200° oven.

I did have to adapt this recipe. For starters, I didn't use spinach. I didn't want to buy a whole bag of it and not have any more uses for it, and then have it go bad. Also, I used regular 100% whole grain sandwich bread instead of a "large round loaf of country bread," which I guess could mean french bread. I couldn't find any in the store that I liked, so I just used what I already had on hand. And again with the "1 small onion, chopped." Even if I were to have a small onion, I still wouldn't use the whole thing! Who in their right mind would use that much onion for a recipe like this. Crazy. I used one slice and that was plenty.



The mozzarella was a brand we have used before, Mozzarella Fresca. But the packaging was different this time around. And when I sliced into it, it looked a little like swiss cheese. There must have been some air bubbles in the mozz ball when it was packaged or something. It tasted almost the same. It was strange, but I used it anyway. A good way to slice cheese like this is to put it in the freezer for a little while before you're ready to use it. The cheese will firm up and it will be easier to cut and won't squish. I cut three slices and put them on the bread. Then I spooned on some of the tomato mixture, sans spinach, and topped it with the crumbled goat cheese.



In an effort to save me from having to wash more pans, I pulled out the old standby: the George Foreman grill. This thing is at least eight years old and it's still ticking. Good old George. I brushed the surface of the grill with a little vegetable oil and put the sandwich in place, closing the lid as much as it would go with my over stacked sandwich.



A few minutes later, the sandwich was done and I was ready to eat. The first thing I noticed when I lifted the sandwich onto the plate was how heavy it was. I mean, dense. The cheese seemed to have doubled in volume in just a short amount of time. I had The Blob on my sandwich. When I cut into it, the cheese just oozed out every side of the sandwich. Usually a good sign, right?



Could it be... this was too much cheese? You can see the tomato mixture and goat cheese peeking out from the left there, but the rest of the sandwich was taken over by the mozzarella. There were some seriously chewy bites, but I persevered. Whoever came up with this recipe had their heart in the right place, but it was a bit too much. It's possible I used too much mozz cheese (three slices, none too thick) but that's a lot of melting action going on. This probably could be adapted into something wonderful. Overall, it's pretty hard to screw up a grilled cheese sandwich, and for what it's worth, I think this was good.

Pasta with Broccoli Raab, Goat Cheese, Sundried Tomatoes and Toasted Pine Nuts

Unlike most of the other recipes I've made so far, I actually stayed pretty close to the measurements on this particular recipe. With the exception of substituting a regular broccoli crown for broccoli raab, this was created to the letter. Yes, real butter and extra goat cheese. I don't think this was very healthy, but it really hit the spot.

Pasta with Broccoli Raab, Goat Cheese, Sundried Tomatoes and Toasted Pine Nuts

1 T extra virgin olive oil
3 C broccoli raab cut into small pieces
2-4 minced garlic cloves
¼ to ½ t crushed red pepper flakes
Salt/ground pepper
1 ½ C canned chicken broth
1 t chopped fresh thyme
4 T unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
4 oz creamy goat cheese, crumbled
¾ lb dried bowtie or orecchiette pasta
4 T thinly sliced sun dried tomatoes
2 T pine nuts, toasted in a small skillet over low heat until golden, 3-4 minutes


Bring a large stockpot of water to a boil. Meanwhile in a 12-inch sauté pan, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the broccoli raab, garlic and red pepper flakes and sauté, stirring frequently until bring green and tender crisp, 2-3 minutes. Season lightly with salt and pepper and then transfer to a bowl and set aside.

Still over medium-high heat, add the chicken broth to the pan and stir and scrape to deglaze the pan deposits. Add the thyme. Bring the liquid to a boil and continue boiling briskly until it reduces to half its original volume, 7-10 minutes. Add the goat cheese and butter and stir until the goat cheese melts. Cover and keep warm.

As soon as the stockpot of water comes to a full boil, add a little salt to the water. Add the pasta and cook until al dente. Drain the pasta and immediately add it to the pan of sauce along with the broccoli raab and the sun dried tomatoes. Heat mixture thoroughly, season to taste. Sprinkle with pine nuts.

This was a pretty indulgent dish. The sauce came together nicely, especially after deglazing and letting the stock boil down. I cooked the pasta right alongside everything else so it all came together at the same time - kind of rare for me. Usually everything gets done at different times and I have to cover everything or stick it in the oven to stay warm, but not this time. It also helps to have all of your ingredients out and pre-measured before you start. Chop the broccoli, measure out the chicken broth, measure out the butter and goat cheese - stuff like that. It just helps things move along better.

The sauce covered much better than how it looks in the picture. It was very creamy, especially with the butter and cheese, and the flavors were really top notch. It coated the pasta and wasn't too overwhelming. I did catch a few spicy bites due to the red pepper flakes, but I did add a few extras in there. I'm a sucker for red pepper flakes.

The husband is not a fan of broccoli - yet. He did eat a raw piece of it a few weekends ago and lived to tell the tale, but I don't foresee him eating a huge hunk of it in the near future. I'm still holding out hope, though. If you're not a broccoli fan, that could easily be substituted for red/yellow/orange sweet pepper strips, snow peas, zucchini chunks, eggplant or almost any other vegetable. This is a pretty adaptable meal, and one I would love to make again.