Cookbook Challenge # 5- Meat and Potatoes

The latest cookbook challenge took place Sunday night when I decided to make the best use of our KC Fresh Connect fare. We get a wonderful bounty of fresh goods from the online grocery store every week and I admit with our hours, we are sometimes scrambling to make the best use of everything. We decided to blanch some of our broccoli this week so that we could freeze it for soups later. Some schools of thought say it's not necessary to blanch and others say it's a must and we've found it to be the best way to preserve this superfood. We first cut up the broccoli to a little more than one inch size pieces. We do the "immersion blanch" which involves boiling the broccoli for about four minutes and then taking it directly from the boiling water into a large bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process. We then removed the broccoli, drained them and placed them in airtight containers and dated them. They should be used within a year.

Some of the broccoli joined some KC Fresh Connect potatoes and Keith's homegrown chives to make a dish I'd been itching to do. I've been a fan of scalloped potatoes since I was a kid. My Mom made them occasionally and they were great but the ones I always remember were made by a lovely lady named Marie Williams at the church suppers of my childhood. I sought out those potatoes at every church function.

The recipe I went with came from Millie Owen's Herbs, Greens and Aromatics: A Guide For The Gardening Cook (CC#5). This cookbook was published in 1978 and had a scalloped potato recipe that for us, made the best use of our Fresh Connect KC goods. This dish accompanied a roast we did in the oven using some French Onion soup mix, rump roast from Keith's father's cattle and even more KCFC bounty as we finished it off with their carrots, celery and potatoes.

The potatoes were perfect....followed the recipe to the letter and they were a delicious, cheesy goodness. The roast was tender and juicy and was paired perfectly with the roast. Check out the goodness you can get from KC Fresh Connect at http://www.freshconnectkc.com


Chive Scalloped Potatoes and Broccoli

Ingredients

3 large potatoes
1 cup small broccoli florets
3 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
2 cups milk
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup shredded cheese ( we used cheddar )
4 tablespoons chopped chives
salt and white pepper

Directions

Slice potatoes thin and boil them along with broccoli for about 3 minutes (this keeps the vegetables from releasing their liquid into the sauce when baked). Quickly run cold water over vegetables, and drain well.

Grease a 1 1/2 quart casserole with a bit of the butter, then melt the rest in a saucepan. Stir in the flour, and cook, stirring, for a few minutes. Heat the milk, and pour it into the flour mixture. Stir over heat for a few minutes, turn heat down and add sour cream and cheese. Cook gently, continuing to stir until sauce thickens and cheese is melted. Stir in 3 tablespoons of the chives and season to taste.

Place half of the drained vegetables in the casserole, pour half the sauce over, then add remaining vegetables and remaining sauce on top. Bake at 350 for about 1 hour. Place casserole under broiler until top is browned and sprinkle remaining chives on top.