Tag Archives: Potato

Salmon Cakes II

Posted on March 2, 2011 | 2 comments

This week I revisited my tasty salmon cakes. I made a small change to them but it was such a difference I just felt I had to share it. I just plain didn’t think it was possible for these to get even tastier. My husband made the suggestion of coating the cakes in potato instead of panko. They are much easier to coat now and the nutritional value of them is much better! This is definitely how I will be making them from now on. Look how pretty they turn out!

  • 1/2 tsp pepper
  • 1 tsp old bay seasoning
  • 2 tins salmon, boneless and skinless
  • 1/4 cup light mayo
  • 1 shalot, diced fine
  • 1 egg white
  • 1/4 cup parsley
  • 3 tsp lemon juice
  • 3 tbl panko breadcrumbs
  • 1/4 cup instant potato flakes (in a separate bowl)
  1. Combine all except the potato flakes in a bowl.
  2. Form into 6 patties (use an ice cream scoop as a measure)
  3. Dip the patties in the potato flakes.
  4. Spray a baking sheet and preheat your broiler a bit.
  5. Cook the cakes under the broiler for 4 minutes per side.

My original attempt is here: Salmon cakes

As you can see I changed the seasonings just a little and the coating. Here are the new servings! Makes 6 slider sized patties. Each patty contains 96 calories, 4 grams of fat and .7 grams of fibre. It’s just a small adjustment in the values but I think they make a nicer salmon cake. I find that the potato flakes are an easier coating to work with too. Win/win really! In the picture I served them with a sweet heat mustard. Num!

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Posted in Dinner, Lunch, Snack

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Potato Pancake

Posted on February 16, 2011 | 5 comments

Yes, this is also called a Latkes but really I first heard them called potato pancake so I’ll go with that. A tasty brunch item or even a dinner side dish. These are great on their own with a bit of fat free sour cream and sautéed onions, or topped with  light cream cheese and salmon. Num! No limits with these really. I’ve even seen them eaten with honey. Sweet and savoury. My grandmother would often make something similar to these for breakfast. Want to add a bit more flavour to your potato pancake? Try subbing in a bit of shredded carrot or celery root instead of half of the potato. It’s great and more veggy nutritious goodness! These particular pancakes were made by my husband for a special weekend breakfast under some advisement from me. Goodtimes.

  • 200 grams potato
  • 1 small onion
  • 1 tbl whole wheat flour
  • 2 egg whites
  • salt and pepper to taste
  1. Grate potatoes and onion using the coarse side of the grater. Stir to combine. Using a colander, squeeze the mixture to get the excess liquid out.
  2. Move the mixture to a bowl. Add the flour, egg whites and seasoning.
  3. Spray a pan with non-stick. Heat to medium, when hot enough drop 1/4 cup of batter into piles on the pan. Leave plenty of room between the piles. Press the piles to form a flat pancake.
  4. Allow to brown on the bottom, about 3 minutes, flip carefully and allow other side to brown. Serve.

Makes plenty to serve 2 people. Each serving (half of the resulting pancakes) is 123 calories, .4 grams of fat and 3.1 grams of fibre.

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Posted in Breakfast, Dinner, Sidedish

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Hardcore Hobbit: Pork Sausage

Posted on February 14, 2011 | Leave a comment

I hummed and ha’d over this dish for a long time. Originally, I had wanted to make my own pork sausage…but then I realized that wouldn’t really be true to the game. We buy the pork sausage from the vendor. So, in real life I also bought the pork sausage. I found a really nice low fat one made by president’s choice. In the game pork sausage is made with spiced potatoes and (the real shocker) pork sausage. So, I concentrated on making some fun spiced potatoes on the side and served this with a tasty curry mayo (combine a bit of curry dip mix with a tbl of light mayo, very nummy with pork sausage). I know, it’s a bit racy to post a pork sausage on valentines day but…well…it makes me giggle and we all need a good giggle sometimes.

  • Low fat pork sausage of choice
  • 2 large red potatoes, cubed (I like to leave the skins on)
  • 1 tbl dried parsley
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 1/2 tsp olive oil
  • 1 tsp balsamic vinegar
  • 1/2 onion, sliced
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • Curry mayo *optional, refer to the recipe intro
  1. Combine the parsley, garlic, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, onion, salt and pepper in a container. Add the cubed potatoes and shake to coat.
  2. Remove the potatoes and onions from the container and place on a foil lined baking sheet. Bake at 450F for 30 minutes.
  3. Score the top of the pork sausage. Prepare the sausage according to directions. I pan fried mine since it seemed to capture the “fried to perfection” essence of the recipe.

Serves 2. Since the pork sausage would vary according to the brand you bought I’ll just give the nutritional info for the potatoes. Each serving contains 318 calories, 2.2 grams of fat, and 8.9 grams of fibre. This is a really generous portion, you could probably feed four folks with it but I was really in a potato mood that night.

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Boeuf Bourguignon

Posted on January 19, 2011 | Leave a comment

Putting the peasant back into this peasant food inspired haute cuisine dish. This is only vaguely close to the cooking processes used for this dish today. It’s easy and tasty this way though…and I don’t argue with tasty. She fights dirty. Ofcourse, the other thing that makes this dish a good idea for hungry hobbits all over the world….MUSHROOMS!! See? Tasty fights dirty bigtime. The key to make this healthier is really in the cut of your stewing beef. Try to get one that only has a bit of marbling. If you can get sirloin stewing beef then you are golden. Some butchers offer “steak ends” which are the bits they cut off those sirloin steaks to make them beautiful. These are awesome lean cuts that are perfect for this dish. The other reason I absolutely had to post a beef dish today? I was watching ‘Come Dine with me Canada’. On it was this woman who kept complaining that when she was dieting all she could eat was chicken, that is why she dislikes chicken. Sheesh. No idea what diet she was trying but I seem to be doing just fine and NOT living on just chicken. So there. It’s not a beautiful picture, as I embraced it’s peasant roots, but it sure was tasty.

  • 1 slice bacon, chopped
  • 1 pkg crimini mushrooms, sliced or puree (according to preference)
  • 8 pearl onions (I used red pearl onions for colour)
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 3 tbl cornstarch (I like my boeuf with a thick sauce, if you don’t skip this)
  • 1 tsp poultry spice
  • 1/2 chicken broth
  • 1 cup red wine
  • 2 large potatoes, cubed
  • 4 carrots, sliced
  • 2 celery stalks, sliced
  • 8 oz stewing beef
  • salt and pepper to taste
  1. Heat a pan to medium, add bacon, garlic and mushrooms. Cook until the bacon is crispy. Drain the fat and pour into a crockpot.
  2. Toss the beef in cornstarch to coat then add to the pan and brown. You just want to sear the meat here, not cook it. Pour into the crockpot.
  3. Deglaze the pan with the red wine, scraping off the browned bits from the pan. Pour into the crockpot.
  4. Add the remaining ingredients to the crockpot and allow to cook on low for 8 hours or high for 5 hours.

Makes 4 servings. Each serving contains 278 calories, 5.7 grams of fat and 3.8 grams of fibre. Very diet friendly to me. Living on chicken, heh, the very idea!

 

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Hardcore Hobbit: Golden Roast Potatoes

Posted on December 13, 2010 | 2 comments

Sometimes, a side dish requires that extra bit of something special. Instead of approaching these with my usual slice potatoes, season and oven method, I thought I would give another tried and true method a go. In the game Golden Roast Potatoes are made from golden shire taters, fine seasonings, and savoury seasonings. I made mine from the golden fleshed shire taters grown right here in the shire…*cough* I mean on the island.

  • 500 grams golden fleshed potatoes
  • 1 sprig of rosemary, chopped
  • 3 1/2 tbl lemon juice
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 4 basil leaves, chopped
  • 1/4 tsp dried red pepper flakes
  • sea salt
  • ground pepper
  • cooking spray
  1. Scrub your potatoes and cube them.
  2. Boil for 10 minutes and drain.
  3. While the potatoes are boiling combine the remaining ingredients in another bowl. Allow to sit until the potatoes are done cooking.
  4. Pour the mixture over the drained, hot potatoes and stir.
  5. Pour into a baking dish and spray with cooking spray. Bake at 400F for 25-30 minutes. Turn once during baking.

Serves 2 or 4, depending on how much you love potatoes. Each serving for 2 contains 190 calories, .4 grams of fat, and 4.4 grams of fibre. Just cut that in half for servings for four. These are delicious cold too!

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Hardcore Hobbit: Delicious Steak

Posted on December 6, 2010 | Leave a comment

Meaty!! Hurray for agility stats! Hehe, so, in the game delicious steak is made from a flank of beef, golden shire taters and fine seasonings. My husband and I talked about how you can get agility from steak, we decided that giving it a bit of kick was the solution. I firmly believe that in order to be delicious this steak also had to be smoky, so this was also added to the mix of our “fine seasonings”. The only thing missing was a way to make it healthy. Well, steak is not necessarily a bad guy, you just need to pick the right lean cut. It’s all about your eye round, top round, top sirloin, top loin and tenderloin style cuts. Also, use common sense…the more fat marbling you see the more fat that steak is likely going to contain. Want to go even healthier? If you can get your hands on bison or buffalo even better! Not only are they tasty and brag worthy they are much lower in fat and calories…some cuts can even be lower than chicken. Crazy! Have I talked enough about beef? Alright, then on we go!

  • 1 tsp smoked paprika
  • 1/2 tsp crushed dried peppers
  • 1/2 tsp smoked salt (if none is available add a dash of liquid smoke to sea salt)
  • 8 oz steak (I used top sirloin)
  • 2 tbl Mrs. Dash
  • 1 lb yellow fleshed potato
  1. Combine the paprika, salt, and dried peppers. Rub the seasoning into the steak on both sides and allow to sit for 20 minutes.
  2. Wash and cut the potatoes into wedges about 1/2″ thick. Toss the potatoes in a plastic bag or bowl with the Mrs. Dash spices until well coated. Pour the potatoes out onto a baking dish. Bake at 375F for 45 minutes.
  3. Cook the steak to desired doneness. I like to grill mine, I highly recommend. Slice the steak thinly and serve with potato wedges.

This serves two. Each serving of steak and potatoes contains 340 calories, 7.3 grams of fat and 4.4 grams of fibre. As you can see this is absolutely awesome with salad. After I ate this I didn’t feel like I had that much agility but “meaty!” was definitely achieved.

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Posted in Comfort Foods, Dinner, The Hardcore Hobbit

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Red Wine Chicken

Posted on November 24, 2010 | Leave a comment

Now a part of me would call this a coq au vin rouge but…since I’m not using a rooster it just doesn’t seem all that traditional. Now if you are looking for a cheaters version of coq au vin, then I think I can help you out. Not only is this a lovely fancy sounding dish it really is quite economical. It would amaze the people in finances when I would tell them how much I spent on groceries and that the week of groceries included dinners such as coq au vin. I’m not sure why though considering the dish has humble rustic beginnings. Since we are all trying to save a bit before those holidays hit us, I figured this recipe might come in handy for some folks.

  • 4 skinless chicken thighs (bone in gives more flavour)
  • 2 slices bacon, chopped
  • 1/2 pound crimini mushrooms
  • 1 medium onion, sliced
  • 3 tbl flour
  • 4 red potatoes, washed and quartered
  • 2 carrots, cut into 1 inch pieces
  • 2 celery stalks, cut into 1 inch pieces
  • 3 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 cup red wine
  • 1/2 fat free chicken broth
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1 tsp herbs de provence
  • salt and pepper to taste
  1. Combine the flour, salt and pepper in a bag. Add the chicken and toss to coat.
  2. Heat a sprayed pan to medium high heat. Add the chicken and cook until browned, 2 minutes per side. Transfer the chicken to a crockpot.
  3. Add the bacon to the pan and cook stirring occasionally for one minute. Add the onions, mushrooms, remaining flour and garlic. Stir in the wine to deglaze. Transfer to the crockpot.
  4. Add the remaining ingredients to the crockpot. Cook on low for 6 hours. Remove the bay leaf before serving.

This makes 4 servings. Each serving contains 275 calories, 5 grams of fat and 4.5 grams of fibre. Great served on rice if you really need a super filling meal or with a side of lovely crusty bread. Delicious!

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Hardcore Hobbit: Feast of Rohan

Posted on November 22, 2010 | Leave a comment

What better way to send off your riders of rohan before battle. Really it’s just a meat and potatoes meal with a bit of flair…I have to say though my husband definitely felt fed enough to go battle some sort of orcs after this…and did….even if they were just pixels it was still a noble deed. In LOTRO the feast of rohan is made from: golden shire taters, flank of beef, and a bunch of blackberries. Like the shire rations recipe before this took some creative deconstructing. Fruit with meat is nothing new really, so why not a nice sauce with the beef….and so I did. A red wine blackberry reduction definitely does the trick.

  • 1/2 cup red wine
  • 1 cup strained blackberries (remove the seeds)
  • 2 tbl light butter
  • 4 cloves
  • 1 black cardamom
  • 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 4 potatoes, cubed and boiled
  • 1 bulb garlic
  • chicken stock
  • 8 oz steak
  1. (optional) marinade the steak the night before in a bit of wine, ground pepper, and blackberry juice.
  2. Cut the top off of the garlic bulb, spritz with cooking spray, wrap with foil. Bake at 400F for 30 minutes.
  3. Cook the steak to desired temp.
  4. Pour red wine into a small saucepan. Bring to a boil and reduce by half. Add the blackberries, cloves, cardamom, sugar and cinnamon. Reduce again until it begins to thicken. Remove the cloves and cardamom. Add the butter, stirring constantly to thicken the sauce.
  5. Mash the potatoes using the chicken stock to get the desired smoothness. Squeeze the garlic bulb into the potatoes and continue to mash. Salt and pepper as needed.
  6. Slice the steak thinly and cover with some of the sauce. Serve with garlic mashed potatoes on the side.

Serves two riders of rohan….or just one rider and his wife who won’t be told to stay home and will dress as a man and totally kick some butt. Each serving contains 403 calories, 14.9 grams of fat and 5.8 grams of fibre. Which really isn’t bad at all for a steak dinner. Excellent with cooked carrots as a side dish for those that need a little extra vitality before battle.

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Hardcore Hobbit: Catfish Cakes

Posted on November 15, 2010 | Leave a comment

These tasty little cakes gave me an excuse to drag out my cute little slider maker again. That thing is just so adorable! It makes the perfect little patties too. I love kitchen gadgets I really do. In the game catfish cakes are made with: catfish, barley flour, egg, and butter. This time I took a native inspired recipe for crab cakes and substituted catfish. Since catfish is kind of hard to get around here I think I will stick with the crab cake version in the future. Either way is nummy though! Shall we?

  • 2 tsp light cooking margarine
  • 120 grams catfish, cooked and flaked
  • 200 grams thin skinned potato (like red or new)
  • 1 shallot, finely chopped
  • 1 large egg
  • 1/3 cup celery, finely chopped
  • 1 garlic clove, minced
  • 1 tsp horseradish dijon mustard
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 2 tbl flour (optional for coating)
  1. Boil the potatoes until tender. Drain. Mash with margarine, salt and pepper.
  2. Add remaining ingredients except the flour to the potatoes and mix thoroughly.
  3. Form into 1″ thick mini patties.
  4. If you would like an extra coating you can sprinkle each patty with a bit of flour. Totally optional as it is tasty without it too.
  5. Bake at 450F for 7-10 minutes, flip once during baking or pan fry 3-4 minutes per side on medium high.

I enjoy these served with some sweet heat mustard. Yum! Makes 7 cakes. Each catfish cake contains 72 calories, 2.8 grams of fat and .6 grams of fibre. That includes the flour coating. If you chose to go the crab cake route it is 57 calories per cake, 1.6 grams of fat and .7 grams of fibre. That does not include the flour coating.

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Posted in Dinner, Lunch, Snack, The Hardcore Hobbit

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Hardcore Hobbit: Shepard’s Pie

Posted on September 27, 2010 | Leave a comment

That’s right, a real shepard’s pie. *food snob moment* Shepard’s pie contains lamb…if it does not it is a cottage pie *end food snob moment*. It’s true…no imitation here. Did you know that lean lamb is just as low in fat as extra lean ground beef? So, there is no reason to live by chicken, pork and extra lean beef alone! Lean lamb is here to save the day! This recipe is inspired by lotro, the recipe in game is made from: pie crust, sharp cheese, mashed royal taters and lamb. The mashed royal taters according to the game contain: salt, royal taters, and mixed herbs. This time I’m actually going to deviate from the inspired recipe, I’m skipping the pie crust. It’s added fat and calories we just don’t need and a traditional style shepard’s pie can live without it. So on we go!

  • 1 lb lean ground lamb
  • 1 shallot, thinly sliced
  • 1 large carrot, shredded
  • 1 tbl tomato paste
  • 3 cloves of garlic, pressed
  • 1 tbl poultry seasoning
  • 1 cup red wine
  • 1 cup chicken broth, reduced salt
  • 500g yukon gold potato
  • 30g raclette cheese, grated
  • 2 tbl fat free sour cream
  • 2 tbl basil, fresh chopped
  • 1/2 tsp rosemary, fresh chopped
  • 1 tsp chives, fresh snipped
  • sea salt and ground pepper
  1. Spray a pan and heat. Season the ground lamb with salt and pepper and brown. Drain any fat. Add the garlic, onions, carrots, tomato paste and poultry seasoning. Cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly.
  2. Add the red wine and reduce until almost gone.
  3. Add the chicken broth. Bring to a boil and then simmer until the sauce has thickened. Spoon into the bottom of a 9×9 baking dish.
  4. Cut the potatoes into chunks, cover with salted water and bring to a boil. Cook until fork tender. Drain and return to the pot. Add the sour cream and fresh herbs. Mash until desired consistency. Layer the mash on top of the meat to form an upper crust.
  5. Top with the grated raclette cheese. Bake at 350F for 30 minutes. The pie should be bubbling. Allow to rest and cut into quarters.

This dish makes four large servings. Each serving contains 356 calories, 10.4 grams of fat, and 3 grams of fibre. A real winner on these fall days and quite enough to fill up this hungry hobbit for a bit. I think the game says it best about this shepards pie:

Removes up to 1 Fear effect from the target

+3120 non-Combat Power Regen
Duration: 5m
+180 in-Combat Power Regen
Duration: 5m
+2924 non-Combat Morale Regen
Duration: 5m
+240.7 in-Combat Morale Regen
Duration: 5m
Minimum Level: 50

It’s hearty, filling, and hobbits love it.

~Hehehe…I definitely feel less fearful after consumption for sure. Enjoy!

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