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the Older Bolder Life Friday Feast: Smashed (Resistant) Potato Salad with Italian Sausage and Aioli

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Today’s Smashed (Resistant) Potato Salad with Italian Sausage and Aioli is posted in homage to the upcoming Memorial Day weekend; at least in years past this was most often a time we’d meet with friends in somebody’s big backyard to grill, play volleyball, and cultivate our early season sunburns and tall tale telling abilities.

I truly hope you’re scheduled to spend time with friends and family this weekend, and have some great food on the menu.

My other intent in posting this recipe was to remind folks of the health benefits of resistant starches, and share a recipe using potatoes – something that most of us eating lower carb tend to avoid in lieu of better choices. Don’t forget that cooked and cooled potatoes are a wonderful source of resistant starch, and here’s another great summer recipe to throw in the resistant starches are good pile…

This is a hearty potato salad, in fact my wife thinks it’s a meal in itself given the inclusion of a hearty Italian sausage (buy or make some quality fresh sausage); the aioli adds a load of healthy fats and a truckload of rich flavor as well.

I can’t imagine this without the dusting of ancho chile powder, but by all means consider that optional, and while the aioli recipe might sound complicated (if you’re not making mayo at home already), it’s a piece of cake.

Enjoy your long weekend.

Roughly 2 lb red-skinned potatoes, trimmed
Kosher salt

1/4 cup + up to 1/2 cup avocado oil, divided
1 medium sweet onion, chopped fine
1 small poblano pepper, stemmed, seeded, chopped small
3/4 pound fresh hot Italian sausage, casings removed
2 large egg yolks
1 large garlic clove, finely grated
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1/2 to 1 tbsp ancho chile powder
3-4 green onions, white and green parts, thinly sliced on the diagonal

Prep the spuds, place in a large pot and cover with cold water; season liberally with salt. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer under tender (20-25 minutes). Drain, let cool in a colander, then throw in the fridge for at least overnight and preferably 24 hours.

On the day you’re making the salad, preheat the oven to 450 and remove the spuds from the fridge.

Heat 1/4 cup of avocado oil in a skillet over medium high heat, then add the onions and poblanos and cook until they’re beginning to soften (about 5 minutes). Add the sausage, and breaking it up with a spoon cook until well-browned and cooked through (6-8 minutes). Now transfer the sausage to a fine meshed sieve placed over a measuring cup and let the oil drain; press on the solids occasionally – you’re looking for roughly 1/4 cup of sausage oil. Add up to 1/2 cup more avocado oil to get to 3/4 cup.

Now it’s time to make an aioli, and you have two options. Classically, you would combine the egg yolks, grated garlic, and a teaspoon of water in a bowl, then slowly whisk in the sausage oil until thickened and smooth (adding the lemon juice at the very end, along with salt to taste).

Alternatively, combine the egg yolks, grated garlic, a tsp of water, and the lemon juice in a small cylindrical container just bigger than the head of your immersion blender, add the oil all at once, and then use your immersion blender to quickly whip up your aioli (my preferred method, and the one we use for making mayo here). Set the aioli aside (I threw it in the fridge as my kitchen was warm that day…)

Now smash the spuds with either your palm or a coffee mug bottom; you don’t want to totally destroy the integrity of each potato, but create some cracks and tears and flatten them a bit. Drizzle with a couple of tbsp of avocado or olive oil, season generously with salt, and throw in the oven until crispy and golden brown in spots and especially along the edges (25-28 minutes, turn once).

Now to finish things up – combine the roasted spuds, the sausage mixture and half the aioli in a large bowl and stir to mix well. Spread the remaining aioli on a platter, top with the mixture in the bowl, sprinkle with the ancho chile powder and the chopped green onions.

Enjoy.

the Older Bolder Life Friday Feast: Sesame and Parmesan Crusted Tuna Steaks

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Today’s recipe is another one of those recipes that’s so ridiculously simple it really doesn’t even need a formal recipe, though there are few things worth noting as you pull together these Sesame and Parmesan Crusted Tuna Steaks.

We first stumbled across this recipe in one of our favorite cookbooks of all time, a collection of restaurant recipes collected from eateries around Santa Fe and Northern New Mexico; the cookbook is long out of print, probably considered to be too simple even back in the day for repeat printings. The cookbook was a thick paperback, simply printed without any pictures, but probably the most used cookbook in our kitchen among a bookcase full of them…

Back in the day, looking for a tasty alternative to grilling tuna steaks over live fire (always good but you have to be very careful not to overcook), my wife found this recipe and we adopted it as one of our favorites after the first run.

There are several tricks that make the entire process much easier; one of which is pulling the tuna from the fridge at least 30 minutes before cooking, patting it dry, and then placing on a rack on the counter to let the surfaces dry even further. Any persistent moisture on the surface of the tuna will weaken the bond of the parmesan-sesame seed crust we’re after.

As you’re getting ready, grate approximately 3/4 cup of good block parmesan cheese (use the smaller holes) and mix with at least half of cup of sesame seeds (we like to use both dark and light sesame seeds for interest); spread the cheese/sesame seed mixture out on a plate. Common sense applies here; cooking only a couple of tuna steaks? Then grate less cheese and use less sesame seed. Cooking four or more tuna steaks? Then you’ll need more cheese and sesame seeds…

When you’re ready to go, heat a skillet over medium-high heat for several minutes, then add a tbsp (+/- more or less pending how many pieces you’re cooking) of avocado, olive, or coconut oil.

Now for a pro-tip from our friend Chef Libby in Austin; one of the tricks professional chefs use to ensure that coatings stick very well to proteins is to dry the proteins carefully, then lightly flour the protein’s surface before using a light egg wash to adhere the final coating.

So we’ll dip each tuna steak into flour (on the largest opposing sides of the steaks), dusting off any excess; you make the call on which flour you’d prefer. Now dip each coated steak surface into an egg wash, then immediately into the parmesan-sesame seed mixture to form the coating.

Reduce the stove temperature to medium, and cook the coated tuna steaks to the desired degree; be very attentive and do NOT overcook your tuna.

We like to serve these hot with a spicy salsa or sauce – the images today include the Mango Salsa Number 1 that I shared last week.

Enjoy.

the Older Bolder Life Friday Feast: Mango Salsa Number 1

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I’ve shared in a number of posts over the past couple of years that we’re big fans of salsas of all sorts around our camp.

Salsas (for the most part) are quick and easy additions to any meal, most often combining likely (and perhaps a few unlikely) ingredients to create unique explosions of flavor to spice what might otherwise be tame proteins or vegetables.

Here’s a great example – a few weeks back at my lovely wife’s urging I drug a recipe out of mothballs that we’d not enjoyed in a while – a sesame seed and parmesan crusted tuna steak. We used to serve this delight with a sauce based on chipotle chiles in adobo and apricot jam, and it was stunningly good.

For better or for worse that sauce has fallen from our lexicon since going Primal, and I was digging around for a great fruit-based salsa to serve with the tuna.

There are hundreds (perhaps even millions) of nifty fruit salsa recipes floating around out there in the ether, and as there happened to be some nice-looking mangos at the grocery that day, I reached for this salsa recipe shared by Chef Libby in Austin a few years back.

Around our table we whole-heartedly agree that a dusting of ancho chile powder (the floral notes really fit well) and even a whisper of cumin really play well with mango salsa, though Libby’s perhaps not so secret weapon is the additional of a teaspoon or two of a good habanero-based hot sauce, preferably one of the Central American brands. The hot sauce adds just a touch of genuine heat to the game without overwhelming the fruit and other vegetal flavors.

This one is best eaten the day it’s made, but if we ever have any left over my lovely wife argues it’s better the second or third day.

2 ripe mangos, diced
1/2-1 medium red or orange bell pepper, chopped
½ cup chopped red onion
2-4 tbsp chopped cilantro leaves and tender stems 1 jalapeño, seeded and minced
1 large lime, juiced
1/2 tsp good salt (to taste)
1-2 tsp of a good tropical habanero based hot sauce
1/2 tsp ancho chili powder (optional)
1/4 tsp ground cumin (optional)

Combine the diced/chopped mangos, red bell pepper, onion, cilantro, and jalapeño in a medium bowl.

Sprinkle on the salt, chile powder, and cumin if using, then squeeze the lime juice over as well as the habanero sauce if using.

Stir gentle, taste, and adjust the seasoning to suit.

Enjoy.

the Older Bolder Life Friday Feast: General Tso’s Chicken

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We had an interesting food planning issue arise a few weeks back; friends popped in to spend an afternoon on very short notice. They were travelling through, wanted to stop and chat for a bit, with that “chat” burning through an entire afternoon and then creeping into early evening.

The husband of the couple visiting tried to make the case that we should order out Chinese, something made nigh on impossible given our location “out in the sticks” on the edge of the sprawling DFW metro.

After a bit of hemming and hawing, I convinced the crowd to let me stir up a batch of this General Tso’s Chicken at home, sacrificing a little on our strictest Primal framework by using potato starch as a crisping agent for the chicken, and a bit of sugar in the sauce. [Sometimes when entertaining such compromises end up being made to suit guest’s more conventional palates, though I’ve found over the years that with a bit of common sense and moderation applied, these comprises aren’t problematic at all in the bigger picture of things.]

Using potato starch as a crisping agent for the chicken works remarkably well, as well as the more classic cornstarch used in Chinese cooking for years, at least IMHO, and the flavors imparted by the garlic, ginger, Shaoxing wine, and Chinkiang vinegar are amazingly good, allowing you to cook toe-to-toe with very good take-out food you might have enjoyed in the past.

Besides the great taste and wonderful presentation this recipe affords, another real plus is the easy prep and quick final cook when you’ve got everything lined up and ready.

Tipping our hat to our non-Primal / non-Paleo guests I cooked up a batch of conventional rice to go along with the delicious sauce produced, and a big tub of steamed broccoli florets. Hot damn, this one’s really good.

1.5 pounds boneless skinless thighs, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 T + 1 t avocado or other mild tasting oil
1 large egg, beaten
1 scant t good salt
1/2 to 3/4 cup (scant) potato starch

2/3 cup chicken stock
1/4 cup Shaoxing wine or dry sherry
1/4 cup Chinkiang vinegar
1/4 cup tamari or soy sauce
6 T sugar
2 T cornstarch

4-5 T avocado or mild, healthy oil of choice
6 garlic cloves, minced
1 and 1/2 T minced fresh ginger
7-8 Chinese chili peppers

Prep the chicken, place in a small bowl with the oil and salt; set aside for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, whisk the sauce ingredients together in a small bowl, set aside. Meanwhile, mince the garlic and ginger.

When ready to cook, preheat a heavy, large skillet over medium-high heat. While the skillet is heating, stir the beaten egg into the chicken mixture, then stir in the cornstarch until it’s evenly coating the chicken.

Heat the oil in the preheated pan until just smoking, then add the chicken all at once in a single layer (separate if needed with tongs or a fork). Cook for 3 minutes or so until the bottom is golden, then turn and cook another 3 minutes or so. Remove the pan from the heat for 3 minutes.

Now place your skillet back over medium heat and add the chilies, ginger, and garlic to the oil remaining in the pan; cook for 1-2 minutes. Now add the stirred sauce to the skillet; stir now again as it cooks and thickens.

When the sauce has sufficiently thickened, add the chicken, stirring well to coat everything with the sauce. Remove from the heat and serve RIGHT NOW!

Enjoy.

the Older Bolder Life Friday Feast: Carrot and Peanut Salad

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I’ve shared in a number of posts over the years that my family has fairly deep roots in the South, mostly Texas, and my wife and I have been profoundly influenced by the fascinating amalgam that is the ever-evolving Texas food scene these days.

That said, we still both have family recipes we remember from our childhoods, recipes passed down through several generations, and that have stood the test of time and continue to grace the table now and again.

One of those very recipes is this venerable Carrot and Peanut Salad, an almost absurdly simple combination of textures and flavors that just work together, and it’s simple enough a child can put this one together in under ten minutes without a recipe.

As always, the quality of your ingredients make the dish; you’ll want fresh, crispy, organic carrots for this dish, along with roasted peanuts (watch those roasting oils), and a fresh batch of avocado oil mayo. Now and then I’ll use half avocado oil mayo and half sour cream or Greek yogurt just to mix things up a bit (they both add a bit of tartness to the salad as you’d expect).

After washing and prepping the carrots all you need to do is grab your trusty box grater and grate away (high brow folks from the Northeast may call that shredding) until you have enough for your meal – I usually prep 4-5 large carrots for a recipe.

Start with a generous half cup of peanuts (you can always add more) and mix in your avocado oil mayo (or sour cream or yogurt) to your desired level and you’re ready to head to the table.

As with all recipes consider this the most basic framework to start from; this recipe is delicious (and visually interesting) with multicolored carrots, finely chopped jalapeños or other peppers, and with a variety of other nuts – our favorite “other nut” for this one is toasted pepitas…

Enjoy, and never let anyone argue otherwise – complex recipes aren’t always better.

Cheers.

the Older Bolder Life Friday Feast: Grilled Rosemary Lamb Chops

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Like many of you, when thinking about the Easter table we often think of lamb or ham as the centerpiece protein; this year my lovely wife called for a Greek inspired meal featuring a perennial favorite – Grilled Rosemary Lamb Chops.

Last Easter’s Merguez Sausages were damned tasty, and I personally think this Ancho Leg of Lamb hung the moon, but lamb chops won the day this year.

Lamb chops are easy to source, quick to grill, and as always provide incredibly flavorful meat right off the bone. My only real complaint about them over the years has been that given that most lamb chops are cut fairly thick, sometimes there’s a bit more char outside after grilling given the time needed to make sure the deepest meat is a perfect medium rare.

This year I decided to sous vide the chops (130, 90 minutes) after rubbing with a bit of olive oil and a fresh cut garlic clove, with the chops then loaded into BPA-free bags with several sprigs of fresh rosemary.

A Quick Sidebar on Sous Vide and Texture…

As an aside, while we still use the sous vide method around our camp with some regularity, I am as I’m sure you are aware of a growing backlash against sous vide (nothing to do with the somewhat tired BPA discussion), but instead focusing on texture.

There are a number of talented chefs and home cooks who continue to report that they find proteins that spend time in a sous vide bath, while often cooked to perfection from a temperature / doneness perspective have a different texture than say thick-cut, bone-in ribeye cooked using a reverse sear technique. (Interesting my son Jake and I have had a very similar discussion a couple of different times this winter, and both find we’re leaning to the texture of the reverse sear method).

The other texture issue with sous vide has to do with pre-salting proteins before they’re placed in the water bath; some folks feel that doing so can make some proteins taste “rubbery and hammy”; there’s been a fair amount written on the subject, and we don’t salt red meats pre-sous vide, particularly if they’re going to be held for hours or a day or two before grilling, but still lightly salt chicken breasts for cold chicken salad (for example) before their time in the bath.

You make the call…

Back to Our Grilled Rosemary Lamb Chops

All the chops needed then was a quick turn on the grill to caramelize the surfaces and we were good to go, with this delightful Greek Salad, a recipe of homemade tzatziki, and crumbled feta on board.

These chops are delicious cold as well or heated gently prior to serving; cook a big batch when these come up in rotation.

Enjoy.

the Older Bolder Life Friday Feast: Quick Kung Pao Shrimp

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For the past several weeks we’ve been on somewhat of a stir fry kick; like many of you now and again we get stuck on a particular cuisine or preparation method and ride that horse for a few weeks just to change up the routine and menu.

My wife in particular has been craving some of the traditional Americanized Chinese food that we’ve eaten over the years; recently she’s been pestering me to craft a dish akin to a wonderful Kung Pao Shrimp we used to eat at a now defunct eatery in Salt Lake City back in the day.

It was spicy but not too hot, incredibly well balanced with the classic Chinkiang vinegar flavor followed by a just a hint of sweetness, and packed with tasty cashews and tender shrimp.

After a bit of trial and error, and digging around a bit, we’ve settled on this recipe using an incredibly easy homemade Kung Pao sauce (you can as always control the quality of your ingredients and cut back on the typical sugar/sweetener load), though a commercially prepared sauce could work in a pinch (read those ingredients!). By the way, I’ll post the recipe for the Kung Pao sauce down the road a few weeks from now…

With a minimum of prep, you can have this dish ready for the table in about twenty minutes, along with a big pile of steamed broccoli florets just like you’d receive in a classic restaurant setting.

As tempting as it is to throw in several handfuls of other vegetables, every time I’ve done that we (my wife especially) feel that the overall flavor impact of the dish is diminished by too many competing flavors. And it’s great over a spoonful of garlic cauliflower rice….

1 pound shrimp, prepped (peeled and deveined)
1 T Shaoxing wine
1 T cornstarch
1 tsp avocado oil
¼ t good salt

1 T avocado oil
6 green onions, white and green parts, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 bell pepper, ¾-inch dice
1/3 cup (perhaps a T or two more) homemade Kung Pao sauce
1/3 cup roasted cashews or peanuts

Combine the prepped shrimp, Shaoxing wine, cornstarch, and the salt; set aside for 10 minutes. Prep the vegetables and set aside.

Heat the oil in a large flat skillet until just smoking; add the shrimp in a single layer and cook for thirty seconds undisturbed, then stir occasionally for the next three minutes or so until the shrimp are just opaque.

Add the green onions and bell pepper, stirring to combine and heat the vegetables thoroughly. Now add the Kung Pao sauce, stirring to coat everything in the pan evenly.

Add the cashews (or peanuts), stir to distribute evenly, the remove from the heat and serve immediately.

Enjoy.

the Older Bolder Life Friday Feast: The Versatile Okra Crisp

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A little over a year and half ago I shared that I spent several months helping a group of compadres open a little Cajun restaurant nearby; it was an eye-opening experience for me to work in the kitchen “behind the restaurant curtain”.

Of course this was back in the pre-COVID days, which for restaurants seems an eternity ago (as it does for all of us), and clearly life in the restaurant biz was very very different then.

One of my responsibilities back in the day was preparation of huge batches of gumbo, up to forty (yep, I said 40!) gallons at a time in a huge floor-mounted steam kettle. The restaurant then was being directed by a very talented, Louisiana born and bred, young chef who had adapted recipes from his family back home to production in a commercial kitchen setting.

I have to admit his gumbo recipe is one of the very best I’ve ever tasted (sorry Mama – pronounced maw-maw, his really is better…), and it’s become one of our absolute favorite cold-weather soups (or stews if you want to argue that point) in our rotation.

One of the tricks that this particular chef taught me was that precooking okra before adding to the gumbo effectively de-slimed it and enhanced it’s earthy, vegetal flavors. We did it in the restaurant by flash frying for no more than 4 minutes in a commercial fryer; yes it was done in terrible oils (canola or soybean pending what was available, it’s just part of the restaurant game and begs another discussion on a different day). Nonetheless, it was so tasty I’d have to stand over the 20 pounds or so we’d do in a batch to keep my kitchen mates from grabbing handfuls to snack from.

The prep was easy – just head the okra, trimming off the stem end, and slice into 1/3 to 1/2-inch pieces and go to it.

Chatting up the recipe one day with my friend Chef Libby in Austin, she recommended a trial of baking the sliced okra at home in a medium oven after adding a splash of a healthy neutral oil (we think avocado works best here, olive oil can impart more flavor that you’d think) and a grind of good salt and pepper.

We’d actually already started doing that before Libby and I talked about it; it’s a piece of cake to spread the prepped okra pieces out on a piece of parchment, and then throw in the over for 45-50 minutes (with a turn somewhere in the middle).

The okra comes out perfect for topping gumbo, though my lovely wife likes this prep so much we do it as a side dish now and again, top salads with it, and even as a healthy snack out of hand.

Enjoy.