Today on the blog we’re featuring one of our new cook books, and we have to say, I think it’s going to be one of our favorites! Some quick background on New Kitchen Basics before we dive in: Claire Thomson takes 10 basic ingredients (that I seem to buy, regardless of whether or not I’ll use them) and creates 120 different recipes to bring some variety to your weekly routine!
Courtney and I chose to cook Cajun Potatoes with Buttermilk and Sour Cream; something easy, but out of our routine. Thomson notes “Frying the cooked potatoes in a rich assembly of butter, oil and spices ensures the potatoes suck up all the flavours from the pan.” We were quite happy with the way the recipe turned out, so follow along!
To create this delicious dish, you’ll need:
- 3 pounds small potatoes (unpeeled)
- 5.5 oz. sour cream
- 3.5 oz buttermilk
- 1 small onion
- 2 celery stalks
- Small bunch of flat leaf parsley
- Vegetable oil
- 1 green bell pepper (we used a red one because there weren’t any green bell peppers when we went to the supermarket)
- 1 oz unsalted butter
- 2 teaspoons smoked paprika
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- Big ol’ pinch of brown sugar
- Salt ‘n’ pepper
We started by boiling our little potatoes for 10 minutes. I added large sea salt to the water as I brought it to a boil, then dropped the potatoes into the water, started the timer, and promptly forgot about them.
While the potatoes were boiling, I started working on the sauce. It’s a buttermilk sauce, so it’s super delic, but Thomson makes a note that if you don’t want to splurge on some buttermilk, you can use some yogurt cut with milk as a substitute. To make the sauce I took half the onion, celery, and parsley, and all of the buttermilk and sour cream and whipped them together with my handy dandy whisk until the mixture was smooth.
At this point, I had about 5 minutes left on the potatoes, so I pulled out my wok (though you can use a frying pan if you don’t have a wok), and used enough vegetable oil to cover the bottom. I placed it over medium heat, and added the remaining onions and celery, as well as the entire red pepper. I enjoyed the flavors of the veggies, however, in the future I may add a jalapeno just for an added bit of spice.
I let my veggies cook for about 8 minutes, until the onions were translucent, and then added the butter, paprika, cumin, oregano, and chili powder. Cook for just a sec, then add in your brown sugar. I also put in a dash of salt and pepper.
While this was going on, Court drained the potatoes, and then quartered them. As I was cooking the vegetables, she added the potatoes to the wok. I kept cooking the entire dish until the potatoes took on some of the color of the seasoning. One thing I would recommend is to go just a little past when you think they’re done, just to really ensure the potatoes have soaked up some of the spices.
We removed them from heat, topped the potatoes with the buttermilk sauce and the remaining parsley, and dug in! I really enjoyed this dish, though in the future I’ll definitely add in some cut up chicken, or some small shrimp for some extra protein in this dish!