Taters taters
Browsing the grocery store this morning to get some essentials, I spotted some Dirty Potato Chips on sale. Always carb-craving and crazed by morning hunger, I had to get a bag. I couldn’t even wait until we arrived home. Like a true ex-fat kid, I passed all the grocery bags to M so that my hands could be freed to devour almost half of the bag while walking back.
Not surprisingly, I was too full to even think about cooking as I had planned by the time we returned. And guess what I’d been planning on making? Home fries.
Potatoes have a funny relationship with people in the modern world. When the times are hard, they are everyone’s best friend in almost every culture. Think about all the deliciousness they have inspired during those times— from the Slavic pierogies and the Irish potato soup to the Indian aloo gobi, and the plain old steamed or roasted potatoes with salt and pepper as we eat in Korea. When I was a teen, there was nothing better than getting fries and soda with my friends at the mall. Also, being a strict vegan at the age of 14, there was really nothing else available to satisfy my greasy fast food cravings. Now that we’re older, and the world is doing better, potatoes have become almost excommunicated among some people due to their high carb/glycemic index value. During the peak of the Atkins/South Beach anti-carb mania, I even tried to avoid it all together. Although that experiment had its pros like, discovering the use of amazing root vegetables other than just white potatoes, after realizing that I was comparitively healthy to begin with, I gave it up quickly.
I firmly believe that when it comes to diet, it’s all good in moderation (unless it poses a significant, avoidable harm to others, but more on that later). So.. inhaling the bag of Dirty Chips probably wasn’t the best idea. But after a short break from the kitchen to do some work, I was ready for a very late breakfast of banana nut pancakes with raspberry smoothie that M had blended. And as for my idea of home fries, I just couldn’t bring myself to fry up more potatos at this point. Panfried or deep fried. So to go with the pancakes, I decided to add a celery root to the mix of 3 red potatoes, aiming to get a side dish for 2, plus some left over.
Celery root has a refreshing licorice-like flavor which goes well with almost any root veggies, and it’s a little more dense than potatoes. So I chop and put in boiling water before chopping the potatoes and adding to the pot. On a pan, I caramelize some chopped onions in a generous amount of olive oil, and when the root veggies are just slightly boiled, discard the water and add to the pan. I chose to crumble some tempeh to add some protein to this meal. I prefer the texture of hand crumbled tempeh for something like this. Season with s&p, and add some fresh green things like green onions, chives, cilantro, or even crushed garlic. If I wanted to use rosemary or thyme, I’d chop and put them in the pan with the potatoes. Today I’m going with simply chopped parsley.
