Lip Smackin' Good Sweet Potato Bisque with Truffle Oil

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     Most members of my family do not get excited about sweet potatoes.  I happen to like them, and so does my mom.  So most years I make them mainly for the two of us and I'm always trying different recipes hoping that someone else will come around to them.  For a long time I was always making a sweet version with maple syrup, brown sugar or a struesel topping.  Both my mom and I always enjoyed them, but there were always so many left over.  Finally, last year, I decided to make a more savory version and just simply made mashed sweet potatoes.  This was much more popular, so I realized I needed to give up on the sweet, sweet potatoes.

     Even though more of the family ate the mashed sweet potatoes, there were still leftovers.  So to use them up, I created a sweet potato bisque, which was even more popular than the mashed sweet potatoes.  It was definitely a savory bisque with onion, garlic and even a little bit of hot sauce.  It really turned out to be a good combination of flavors.  There is just a little bit of sweetness from the sweet potatoes and then there are the flavors of the garlic and onion, with just a hint of heat in the background.

     This year I decided that I'm going to make the bisque for Thanksgiving and serve it as an appetizer.  I'm also going to bump it up a notch and drizzle it with a little white truffle oil (YUM).

Sweet Potato Bisque with Truffle Oil

• 4 lbs sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed (I used already cubed)
• 4 tbsp butter
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 4 cups chicken stock
• pinch of grated nutmeg
• hot sauce to taste
• salt and pepper
• truffle oil for serving

Put sweet potatoes in a large pot and cover with water.  Bring to a boil and cook until tender.  Drain.

Meanwhile, chop onion and garlic.  Melt butter in a dutch oven or other large pot over medium heat.  Add onions along with a little salt and peppr and saute for about 5 minutes, until translucent.  Add garlic and saute for another minute.

Add cooked sweet potatoes to the pot.  Mash with a potato masher and add milk and chicken stock.

Add nutmeg.

Puree bisque either with an immersion blender or in batches in a blender.  

Add hot sauce and salt and pepper to taste.  Heat through and let simmer for a few minutes to let flavors combine.

Dish into individual bowls and drizzle with truffle oil.  Serve immediately.

ENJOY!


Shared at Mandy's Recipe Box on 11/22/11
Shared at Newlyweds Blog on 11/23/11
Shared at Easy Natural Food on 12/4/11

Crispy Kale, a Great Way to Enjoy a "Superfood"

        Lisa's Dinnertime Dish has moved.  Please visit me at my new and improved blog site!  The new address is http://lisasdinnertimedish.com.  I look forward to seeing you at the new site!!


      I had a skirt steak in the refrigerator that I really wanted to have for dinner on Sunday.  I figured I'd just have Steve grill it up and it would be delicious.  But we needed something to go with it....hmmm.  So while Steve and I were out and about on Sunday afternoon, we stopped at this small market that has a great produce department, with lots of organic fruits and vegetables you can't always find elsewhere.  We started browsing around, trying to get some inspiration.  That's when I saw the organic kale.  I remembered having it at a restaurant a while back.  It had been sauteed until it was crispy and then it was topped with slices of steak and it was absolutely fantastic!

     The decision was made.  This would go perfectly with the skirt steak.  I'd saute it in some olive oil, until it was crisp, add a little salt and pepper and it would make a perfect bed for slices of our skirt steak to top.

     Well, it was fantastic, just like I remembered from the restaurant!  I was a little concerned that Alex wouldn't go for it, but he had seconds and told me that it was definitely  a "keeper".  When it's cooked until it's crispy, it tastes a little bit like roasted broccoli and a little bit like popcorn and it was a perfect accompaniment with the steak.  I think it could be good just to snack on, too.

     If you think you don't like kale or that your children wouldn't like it, you really should try it this way.  It really is a "superfood" and it's loaded with antioxidants, vitamin A, vitamin C, iron and calcium.

Crispy Kale

• 1 bunch kale, rinsed and dried
• olive oil
• salt and pepper



Chop the kale into bite size pieces.  Coat the bottom of a large skillet with olive oil (about 2 to 3 tbsp) and heat over medium heat.  Once pan is hot, add kale, stirring to coat with the oil.

Cook for about 10-15 minutes until kale is crispy, stirring frequently.

Spoon some of the kale onto a dinner plate and top with slices of grilled steak (I also made some garlic herb butter to top the steak with).

It couldn't be easier OR tastier!

ENJOY!

Everthing's Better With Bacon....Green Beans with Bacon, Tomato and Garlic

       Lisa's Dinnertime Dish has moved.  Please visit me at my new and improved blog site!  The new address is http://lisasdinnertimedish.com.  I look forward to seeing you at the new site!!


      Last night I had to come up with a quick dinner.  I'm sure that sounds familiar to a lot of you, someone always seems to have something going on in the evening, right?  We actually had something very fun that we were doing last night.  Steve, Alex and I were going to the Foo Fighters concert (...yes....I like the Foo fighters....and yes....it was my idea for us to go, but whatever).  The concert was fabulous, but I digress, I'm trying to tell you about my quick dinner.

     My initial plan was definitely something quick, but was definitely a yawner.  I was going to reheat some grilled pork chops that I had in the freezer, defrost some rolls and steam some fresh green beans.  Well, that just wasn't going to do it for me, so I started thinking about how I could ramp up the green beans.  As I thought about it, I remembered that I had some bacon, garlic and a nice roma tomato and I knew I was on to something.

     All I did was saute some chopped bacon (a great tip for bacon is to cut it up and freeze it.  Then when a recipe calls for chopped bacon, just defrost it for a couple of minutes in the microwave and it's ready for your recipe), saute the tomato and garlic, steam the green beans and mix it all together.  It literally took me about 15 minutes to put together.  I actually had to turn the heat off for a few minutes, because we weren't all ready for dinner yet.

     They were very tasty and way better than plain old steamed green beans!  Alex's comment was, "What's wrong with bacon, garlic and green beans?"  I think, nothing!

      So here it is:

   Green Beans with Bacon, Tomato and Garlic



• 2 strips of bacon, chopped
• 1 large clove garlic, finely chopped
• 1 large tomato (I used roma), seeded and chopped
• 1 lb fresh green beans, trimmed and washed (I bought my pre-trimmed and washed)
• salt and pepper to taste

Heat a large skillet over medium heat.  Add bacon and saute until crisp, remove from pan and set aside.  Meanwhile, microwave the beans for about 3 minutes.

Add garlic and tomato to the pan and saute until garlic is fragrant and the tomato starts to break down and form a sauce (you want it to coat the beans).

Add the bean to the pan and toss to coat with the tomato.  Season with salt and pepper.

Place in a serving dish and top with the bacon.  Enjoy!

Shared at It's a Keeper on 10/6/11

A Healthy Post-fair Meal: Grilled Steak and Grilled Vegetables

       Lisa's Dinnertime Dish has moved.  Please visit me at my new and improved blog site!  The new address is http://lisasdinnertimedish.com.  I look forward to seeing you at the new site!!


       After pigging out at the state fair all day on Saturday, I felt we needed to repent and eat a healthy dinner of vegetables along with a lean protein for dinner on Sunday.  What exactly would that be?  I remembered that I had some beef tenderloin steaks in the freezer (that I of course had bought when they were on sale).  So I took them out to defrost and then checked the fridge and found a bag of mixed greens.  Then I was off to Trader Joe's for more veg.  I picked up some bell peppers, zucchini, broccolini, portabella mushrooms and red onion.  We were going to grill!

     Grilled vegetables are so easy to make and they taste fantastic!  If you have picky vegetable eaters in your house, it's a great way to get them to try new veggies.  Something magical happens to the veggies when they're grilled, I don't believe I've met a grilled veggie that I didn't like.  They take on the smoke flavor from the grill and they get nice color on them and things like broccoli or broccolini get a kind of nutty flavor to them.  Try it!

     The nice thing about grilling something like beef tenderloin is that you don't have to do much of anything to it.  It's already tender and it has great flavor.  Last night I seasoned them with fresh cracked pepper and truffle salt.  If you've never tried truffle salt (or truffle oil)  you should.  It is sooooo good!  The one down side to it is that it's pricey.  But I think it's well worth the price, a little goes a long way and so it lasts forever.  Truffles (they're a kind of mushroom) have a very distinctive flavor that's really like nothing else, so it's hard to describe.  Once you've had it, though, you will recognize it as soon as you smell it or taste it and it will make you want to lick your plate!  I have found truffle oil at the grocery store and I found truffle salt at Chef's Gallery in Stillwater.

The menu I came up with for Sunday was:

• Truffled tenderloin steak
• Grilled  vegetables
• Mixed greens salad with balsamic vinaigrette (8/22 post)

Grilled vegetables

You can use whatever vegetables you like, in whatever quantity you like.  I made quite a bit so that I would have leftovers.

• bell peppers
• zucchini
• portabella mushrooms
• broccolini
• red onion
• olive oil
• salt and pepper.

Preheat grill to medium high heat
Cut vegetables up into fairly large pieces, so they don't fall throught the grate on the grill.  It works well to slice the onion into about 1/2 inch thick slices and slice the zucchini lengthwise into about 1/4 inch slices.  I just left the broccolini whole as well as the the mushrooms.  I cut the bell peppers into pieces about 2 inches wide

Brush all of the veggies with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper

A flat pan for the grill works great for onions and peppers, they tend to slip through the grate easily.

Place all of the veggies on the grill and cook for about 15 minutes or until they start to get grill marks and soften up.

Since I had so many veggies, Steve grilled them first and then I put them in an oven set to warm until the steaks were done.

After dinner, I cut up the leftover vegetables and will use them this week for things like a frittata or omelet or top a salad with them.  Check back for details later this week.

Truffled tenderloin steaks

• Four 6-8 oz beef tenderloin steaks
• truffle salt
• fresh cracked pepper

This is what the truffle salt looks like

Grill steaks (1" to 1 1/2" thick) 4 minutes per side for medium rare and 6 minutes per side for medium.  If you want them more done than that, you are on your own. 
Let rest for a few minutes before serving so that the juices have time to redistribute.

It was a delicious meal and one that we didn't have to feel guilty about!