Potatoes are one of my absolute favorite foods and I find this to be one of the best ways to cook them. They stay soft and fluffy on the inside while getting crispy on the outside. The sausage also imparts lots of flavor and it is important to get a good quality one without a ton of cheap additives like soy, dairy products, wheat and MSG. I like to use dinosaur kale for the salad because it is a very rich dark green but you can use any kind of kale or the traditional romaine. The dressing makes 1 1/2 cups so there will be extra but it can be stored in the fridge for 2-3 days. I recommend the brand Gold Seal for the anchovies, they are wild, good quality, the cans are BPA free and the company follows sustainable fishing practices.
Cornmeal Crusted Potatoes and Sausage with Caesar Kale
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
Serves: 4
INGREDIENTS:
- Potatoes and sausage
- 4 cups potatoes chopped
- 1 small kielbasa or chorizo sausage chopped (about 2 cups)
- 2 tablespoons cold-pressed olive oil
- 2 tablespoons corn meal
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 4-5 small sprigs of rosemary
- 5 sage leaves
- Salad
- 8 cups of dinosaur kale (about 1 very large bunch) rinsed, destemmed and torn to bite size pieces
- optional: parmesan or hemp hearts to sprinkle on the salad
- Dressing
- 1 cup cold-pressed olive oil
- 3 wild anchovy fillets packed in water or olive oil
- 2 tablespoons lemon zest freshly grated (about 2 lemons)
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice freshly squeezed (use the same lemons as for zest)
- 3 garlic cloves
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- a few twists of fresh ground pepper
DIRECTIONS:
- Potatoes and sausage
- Preheat oven to 425°. Steam the potatoes in a double broiler for 7 minutes. Dump directly into a large bowl and coat with the cornmeal and salt. In a large skillet heat up the olive oil. You never want it to be hot enough to smoke but it is ready if it sizzles when you put a drop of water in. Sautée the rosemary and sage for 1-2 minutes to flavor the oil. Dump in the potatoes and place in the oven for 5 minutes (still in the skillet). Add in the sausage, stir around and bake for another 10-20 minutes. They will be ready after 10 minutes but nicely browned and extra crispy after 20. If you have leftovers do not heat them up in the microwave! Use the oven to reheat or else the crispiness will be lost.
- Ceasar
- Mince the anchovies (check first for bones), garlic and lemon zest together until it forms a paste (you can use a food processor if you have one). Add in the egg yolk, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Now comes the arm workout. Whisk continuously as you pour the oil into the bowl in a very slow stream. This emulsifies the dressing, if you skip this step and do it too quickly the oil will separate from everything else. Pour ¼ to ½ cup of dressing over the kale and massage. Now I don’t mean lightly fluff around, I mean painful RMT massaging, get your hands in there and get dirty. This will make the [/i]kale soften up nicely and reduce severely in size. The bowl below was overflowing before the massage. If you want more dressing at this point, feel free to adjust to your liking. Because of the raw egg, this dressing should be eaten within 2-3 days.
