Potatoes and onions to feed a happy crowd
A roasted simple side dish that everyone is sure to love
Gather for a group meal and you’ll likely gain as much from the shared experience as you will from the food, if not more.
That’s the belief of New York Times editor and food writer Sam Sifton, who has authored an engaging cookbook endorsing regular dinners for family and friends, called See You on Sunday (Penguin Random House, $47).
Sifton’s 200 recipes are well written and beautifully illustrated, and include informative introductions.
Comfort dishes range from a big pot of chili to mushroom lasagna, and from eggplant Parmesan to clam chowder (using lobster stock).
Offbeat recipes include steak and kidney pie made topless and with Guinness, pizza with clams or shrimp, and meat loaf of ground turkey and pork sausage.
He includes essays on necessary kitchen equipment and the well-stocked pantry, and recommends serving the essential garlic bread, big bowl of mashed potatoes, and coleslaw made with a reliable commercial mayonnaise (never Miracle Whip).
Montreal’s Joe Beef restaurant gets credit for lobster butter. “Make a great deal of this stuff if you can and freeze it,” Sifton writes.
The newly fashionable roasted cauliflower merits two recipes — one for the whole cauli, another for florets with garlic and Parmesan.
Sifton also likes to roast brussels sprouts, carrots, sweet potatoes, and this mixture of potatoes and onions.
You can assemble it hours before baking.
ROASTED POTATOES WITH ONIONS AND ROSEMARY Serves: 8
3 lbs (1.4 kg) potatoes
(6 to 8 large), quartered (use Yukon gold, russet or yellow- or red-skinned potatoes) 2 large Spanish onions, quartered 6 cloves garlic, halved 1 tbsp (15 mL) fresh rosemary leaves or 1 tsp (5 mL) dried rosemary leaves (don’t use the ground version) 1/2 cup (125 mL) olive oil Kosher salt Freshly ground pepper
Preheat oven to 425 F (220 C). Lightly oil a large roasting pan.
Add a mixture of the potatoes, onions, garlic, rosemary and oil, spreading evenly in the pan.
Roast until potatoes are golden brown and crisp,
45 to 60 minutes.
If the pan is crowded, the vegetables will take longer to cook.
The onions will come close to burning but not quite.
Season to taste with salt and pepper and tip onto a heated platter to serve.