Mashed potatoes are my favorite part of the Thanksgiving Feast.  Not only are they terribly decadent, they’re also the perfect vehicle for homemade turkey gravy.  My mashed potatoes get a little tang from sour cream and some extra flavor from two heads of roasted garlic - adding a wonderfully mild yet rich hint to these already special spuds. 

Perfect Mashed Potatoes

• 2 lbs Organic Yukon Golds 
• 8 ounces Sour Cream - warmed 
• 1 stick butter - melted
• 2 heads roasted garlic - cloves squeezed from the head
• salt and pepper to taste 

You can peel your potatoes if you like smooth mashed potatoes, but I prefer the more rustic appeal of mashed potatoes with the skin - and it’s less work! Just make sure to use a potato with a thin skin like Yukon Gold.

Chop the potatoes into 1 1/2 inch thick slices.  Place them in a large pot and cover them with cold, salted water.  Bring them to a simmer and allow them to cook for about 20 minutes, or until a fork can puncture the potatoes easily. 

Drain the potatoes and beat them with the rest of the ingredients - you can use an electric mixer or a potato masher.  Whatever you have on hand!  Make sure to season with plenty of salt and pepper, and voila!  You can make these while your turkey is roasting and keep them covered on the stovetop. Just make sure to reheat and give them a good stir before serving! 

Before Chef John Adler of Franny’s rocked our world with a delicious Pumpkin Crostini on HiB: Pumpkin, he invited us to join him on his tri-weekly trip to the Union Square Greenmarket, where he procures all the fresh and local produce for the restaurant.  Perhaps he was excited to teach an eager pupil about the ins and outs of the Greenmarket, or maybe he needed a couple extra hands to help him carry his loaded bags back to his stash pile (I’m a lousy choice for such manual labor).  Either way, I jumped at the chance, excited to see what it means to be a part of a restaurant and a movement that’s changing the way we eat, one customer at a time. 

I’m not necessarily a morning person, so when John asked me to be at the market by 8 am, I thought the place would be empty. Instead, there was a very real and different energy: it was full of chefs at every stand, picking up their pre-orders and filling their bags with produce they may have missed.  John had been there since 7:30, stocking up on the good stuff before us common folk arrive. Early bird gets the worm.

Above, John picks out some beautiful squash at Paffenroth Gardens.

Ever wondered how to tell if you’re getting a fresh butternut squash?  John says to feel where the stem is cut from the squash.  If it’s moist, you’ve got a just-picked squash on your hands. 

After picking up some romanesco cauliflower and broccoli, John enjoys a nutritious breakfast in the form of greens.

Next, we head over to Berried Treasure Farm where John and some chef friends bartered over beans.  They were all interested in these dried cranberry beans here - which John was able to secure for himself.  I was delighted to try the Tomato and Cranberry Bean soup at Franny’s not-to-soon after.

So what do you do when you have a heavy sack full of beans that need to be shelled by hand? Call in the prep cooks, of course. But no prep cook would be happy about the size of this bag.  To bribe the prep cooks, or at least just sweeten the deal,  John looked for Union Square’s best kept secret: the Wednesday morning tamal lady, who discreetly sells her homemade tamales out of a push cart.  These were the real deal. 

It was almost 9 am, the chef rush was dying down and John had all of his bags piled in his not-so-secret hiding place under a truck near 15th St.  I was very curious about how he was going to get all of this back to Franny’s, until he stepped into Union Square West and hailed himself a cab. 

We both loaded all his goodies into the trunk BEFORE he got in to proclaim a cab driver’s least favorite phrase:  ”I’m headed to Brooklyn.”  There’s no turning back once your trunk is filled with a few hundred pounds of fresh produce.  

Here Chef John makes room for his flat of chestnuts, which I enjoyed later that week on a trip to Franny’s in the form of a crostini.  

To see more photos of our Greenmarket shopping trip, check out the next post! 

Additional photos from my greenmarket excursion with Chef John Adler of Franny’s.

I recently got rid of my microwave to make room for an ice cream machine and food processor.  I figured I would get a lot more use out of the latter two items, and well— I just don’t have the counter space for anything else.  So when Jeff Slagg of Sel De Mer told me I should have a deep-fryer to make the perfect french fries- my heart sank. There just isn’t room in my tiny kitchen, no matter how much I love fries.  Finally, he let me in on a little secret about how to get the perfect restaurant-style french fries in my oven. And they’re AMAZING.

OVEN ROASTED FRENCH FRIES:

• 3-4 Russet potatoes, sliced into fry shapes
• 1/4 cup grapeseed oil
• salt and pepper 
• 1 tsp rosemary, chopped
• 1 tsp thyme, chopped
• 1 tsp chives, chopped 

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.  Heat the oil to about 300 degrees in a sautee pan. Add the sliced potatoes and cook until they begin to soften, about 10 minutes. Spread them onto a sheet pan and allow to cool completely.  Top with the herbs, salt and pepper to taste, and pop them in the oven for about 15-20 minutes, or until they’re golden brown and crispy.