Recipe Outlines: Potato Salad and Curried Fava Bean Pasta

It's been a long time since I posted.  A very, very long time.  Lots of things have happened since then - among other things, I went to Asia and fell in love with Thai and Cambodian food, then came home and decided the ingredients were just too expensive to bother cooking it myself, and now obsess over trips to Thai House and Banana Leaf.  And I constantly think "oh, remember when I made the amazing ____ (lemon cupcakes, shepherd's pie, etc.)?  I wonder what I put in it" and then dutifully rush to this blog to look it up, because of course I remembered to write down this wonderful recipe for posterity - but then of course I didn't.  And so, because I have gotten so frustrated with myself, over and over, I am going to include some very basic recipes - no measurements, bullet point instructions, no photos - so that in eight months when I think "remember when I made that awesome potato salad?", I can actually figure out what I made!

Two recipes to start today: mayo-free summer picnic potato salad, and curried pasta with caramelized onions, roasted cauliflower, and fava beans.

Mayo-free summer picnic potato salad:

I adore potato salad.  I didn't used to, mostly because of an aversion to (and later, an allergy to) both mayonnaise and hard-boiled eggs. But I've had friends recently introduce me to the wonderful world of vinaigrette-dressed potato salads, and I've been on a quest to develop a recipe of my own.  I made an attempt at a gluten-free warm German Potato Salad a couple of months ago, and while totally serviceable, it wasn't especially va-va-voom as far as potato salads go.  So for my first beach picnic of the summer, I made a second attempt, and absolutely could not stop eating the result.

Recipe:

Potatoes - I like red-skinned potatoes, unpeeled (but cut out the eyes, and scrub well), cut into small-ish cubes and boiled til mostly soft but still hold together

Sweet pickles - I use bread-and-butter pickles, and the sweetness really does make a difference

Onions - I only had white onions on hand, so I soaked them in cold water to eliminate some of the sharpness. Red onion, however, is the gold standard for my potato salads.

Celery - I don't remember if I actually got around to putting celery in this potato salad (I was kind of short on time), but it adds a nice crunch and fiber boost, so I'll likely add it next time, regardless of what I actually did before.

Dressing:

-Grainy mustard (lots)

-Red wine vinegar

-sugar (although less than I thought, because the pickles were sweet)

-olive oil (but not too much - the potatoes suck up a lot of flavour, so I like to keep my vinaigrettes very, very sharp (and as a result, very thick))

-salt and pepper

Mix, and refrigerate until serving - potato salads are usually tastier if they've had time to incubate.

Coconut Curry Pasta with Cauliflower, Onions and Fava Beans

This recipe is as eclectic as it sounds - I wanted curry, and pasta, and we happened to have fava beans on hand that we'd purchased by accident, so I decided to try and figure out how to cook them.  I've always wanted to try roasting cauliflower, so I finally did.  And the onions only caramelized because it took me so long to shuck the fava beans (the second time.  Did you know they have to be peeled twice?  I do, now!) But the result?  Deliciousness.

Cauliflower: cut up into small-ish pieces. Put on a parchment-lined baking sheet in a 400°F (toaster) oven.  Roast 20-40 minutes depending on size of cauliflower pieces.

Caramelized onions: Add to a pan with some olive oil.  Cook over medium or medium-low heat for awhile.  Add water if they start to burn too much.  Mix in some chopped garlic near the end of cooking.

Fava beans: Break off the end of the bean pods and split the pods down the middle. Remove the waxy capsules.  Blanch. (I boiled them for 3-4 minutes and then put them into not a lot of ice water - this was not enough. Next time I'll boil longer and/or cool in icier water.)  Remove the beans from their waxy coatings whatever way seems to work (my case: long fingernails).  Does this take forever for the amount of beans it yields?  Absolutely.  Are they tasty? Yes.  Are they worth the work? I'm still not sure.

Curried pasta sauce: mix equal parts glutinous rice flour and olive oil over medium heat (I used ~2 Tbsp of each).  Cook for 30 s-1 min, then slowly whisk in a can of light coconut milk.  I supplemented with an additional 1/2-1 cup of almond milk, to stretch the sauce farther. Mix in curry powder (I used probably 4-5 Tbsp of a mix of two different curry powders I had on hand), and some ground coriander and cumin.  I added 6 generous swigs of fish sauce, a couple Tbsp of rice vinegar, and a solid 2-3 Tbsp sugar for extra flavour.  I also added a tsp of Sambal Oelek for heat, although I think my jar of sauce is getting old because that really didn't make it very spicy - next time I'd add more.

Mix onions, beans, and cauliflower into the sauce, and simmer until it thickens (the starch from the beans and cauliflower will help thicken it too).  Mix with your favourite brand of gluten-free pasta (today was Tinkyada brown rice rotini).  Enjoy!