Quickie potato recipe

A large, ditzy, difficult freelance project was still parked on my desk this morning, maybe a third finished, due March 2. Along about midmorning, I snapped out of my stupor and realized hey! March 2 is tomorrow!

So, the entire day was consumed with copyediting this thing—at 11:00 p.m., I just wrapped it up. I’d already put six pieces chicken to marinate, planning to grill them, have one piece for dinner, and freeze the rest. Wanted to cook up some of the lifetime supply of potatoes to go with it, but given the size and awesomely time-consuming nature of the paying work at hand, whatever was to be done with the potatoes had to be accomplished a) without a trip to the grocery store to buy milk or anything else, and b) as simply and as fast as possible.

Enter an ancient Sunset Magazine cookbook, dating back to 19 and aught-90. Inside said historic document, virtually an incunabulum, I found one of those late 20th-century recipes better called “throwing food together” than cooking. But it met the standards above, and it turned out to be pretty tasty.

Baked potatoes and yam

You need:

-about 2 pounds potatoes, cut into 1-inch chunks
-about 2 pounds sweet potatoes or yams, cut into 1-inch chunks
-1 yellow or white onion, cut into small strips or roughly diced
-6 or 8 garlic cloves, chopped
-1/4 cup melted butter
-1/4 cup olive oil
-1/2 cup hazelnuts (I substituted pecans)

Preheat the oven to 475 degrees. Toss the onions, garlic and cut-up tubers in a large baking dish (about 9 x 6 or larger, at least 2 inches deep) with the butter and olive oil.

Bake these in the oven for about 15 minutes. After this period, stir them gently, as they will start to brown around the edges of the pan. Continue baking another 15 minutes.

Then stir in the nuts and bake another 15 minutes. Total cooking time should be around 45 minutes; potatoes are done when they’re soft. Season to taste with salt & pepper.

Once I got this to the table, I found it lacked something. Adding a bit of honey seemed to give it just what was needed. Not a bad little side dish, and probably something that would be satisfying for breakfast or, with some leftover beef added, as the basis for a hash dinner. I think it will freeze nicely, too. 🙂

And so, to bed…