Potato

One of the very few items Crystal has of her Mamaw Maggie’s is her cast-iron skillet. Until recently she used the skillet only for making cornbread, but she has now discovered the pan’s varied talents. If you are not familiar with cast-iron pans, they can seem intimidating. All that talk of properly seasoning them, how to wash them (or not wash), seems like too much work. But trust us, the benefits of the cast-iron pan far outweigh any care concerns. They heat evenly and beautifully, and when properly cared for, they will last a lifetime. Crystal’s pan has lasted several lifetimes! This breakfast recipe will work with any oven-safe skillet, but when using a cast-iron skillet, your bottom layer of potatoes will get a nice crispness to it.

Your morning eggs will find their perfect partner in this cheesy and delicious casserole. It’s baked with a crunchy, buttery topping that will bring you back for seconds—and thirds! This casserole is a good alternative to mashed or baked potatoes at dinnertime, too. Try serving it with fried chicken for a true comfort feast.

There were certain food pairings in the Pollock house that never varied. When meatloaf was on the table, it was a given that these scalloped potatoes and green beans were faithfully by its side. No, maybe not a given—a guarantee, something you could bet the farm on. Today we serve these potatoes with more than just meatloaf. In fact, they’re a great sidekick for Beef Burgundy (page 68) and our Coq au Vin (page 78).

Wham bam, thank you, yam ! Even if you’ve never been a sweet potato fan, you will love this seriously delicious casserole. No marsh mallows needed here—brown sugar, pecans, and maple syrup make this dish so irresistibly tempting that seconds are rarely turned down.

“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.

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.

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.

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!

Making a whole fish is so cinchy that it’s almost not fair. It looks like you’ve put so much time and effort into it, and it’s so elegant and beautiful on a serving platter, but really, all you have to do is jam a fish full of herbs and lemon and toss it in the oven until its eyeball pops out! I think this is the coolest part—Mother Nature’s own pop-up timer—I bet that’s how they invented the pop-up turkey timer!

In Tuscany, every town has a market day. This is when trucks carrying all kinds of delightful edibles pull into the center of town, open up their sides, and become little grocery stores on wheels. Of course my favorite truck was always the porchetta truck—who doesn’t love a truck that sells a delicious crispy pork product? Traditionally, porchetta is a whole pig that’s been boned and cooked for hours, until the skin gets totally brown and crunchy and the meat becomes wonderfully tender. It’s most often seasoned with garlic, sage, and black pepper—and while pepper is not usually how I roll, it’s appropriate in this dish to keep the classic flavors intact. What is totally unique in my version is to cook the pork on a bed of autumn vegetables—they soak up the lovely porky juices and help create the ultimate one-pot dinner for a crowd. Be sure to save some leftovers for a sandwich the next day!

I’ve had a lot of bad gnocchi in my life. You know the kind I’m talking about: You eat three and suddenly your belly expands and you feel like balls of bread dough are rising in there. Gnocchi should be light and airy, like clouds! Over time I’ve perfected the secrets to great gnocchi and if you follow this recipe, even as a beginner, you will be successful EVERY time.