Fingerling Potato Nachos - with Garlic Sour Cream

Wait do you mean you put potatoes on your nachos? No, the potato is the chip of the nacho. Although, now that I've tried this it doesn't sound like as weird as it did before. I mean think about it, we take french fries and turn them into cheese fries, poutines, and what have you. 

What you will need:

approximately 10-15 medium sized fingerling potatoes

1 tablespoon a good aromatic olive oil

1 teaspoon rosemary 

1 chive stalk

1 tablespoon sour cream

1/4 teaspoon fine garlic powder or finely chopped fresh

1/4 of a red onion

4 strips bacon (cooked and chopped into bits)

1/4 cup white cheddar

1/4 cup gruyere

[mind you, you can use any cheeses you like]

Slice the fingerling potatoes with the mandolin fairly thin, as pictured above. And while you have that neat slicer gadget out, slice up that red onion on the thinnest setting. In the picture below, I sliced more than half of it, but didn't use it all and stored some for later. You will only need about 1/4 an onion for this job, but if you really like slicing things on a mandolin and get carried away (like I do) just finish the thing. 

Ok that was fun, and hopefully you still have most of your fingers. Set the oven to 400ºF. At this time, you should grate the cheeses.

Take your potatoes and toss them in the olive oil, chopped rosemary, and add a dash of salt & pepper. Feel free to use any and all herbs as you like—the more the better. Once the oven is pre-heated, cook just the potatoes for 5-6 minutes on a greased pan. 

Top those potatoes with the bacon, red onions, and cheese. Mmm yea, like that. Toss it back into the oven at 400ºF for another 5-6 minutes until the cheese is just starting to brown and the outer rim of the potatoes crisp up. 

Now, mix the sour cream with the garlic and chop the chives. Once the potato nachos are out of the oven, drizzle on the sour cream and top with the chives. And now is the great part where you get to enjoy all the hard work you just did. 

The toppings you can add to these nachos are endless. Go traditional with some corn, salsa, and jalapeños. Go Italian with olives, capers, and marinara. Have some fun, because really you can't go wrong. 

Lobster, Gruyere, Bacon, Mac & Cheese Pasty - Lemon, Butter, Dill Sauce

For glutenized folks in the Phoenix area, there is an amazing pasty place called Cornish Pasty Co. If you don't know what a pasty is, think calzone with a hot pocket type crust. And at this restaurant they have literally all kinds of different pasties: lamb and mint, chicken tikka masala, carne asada, eggplant parmesan, peppered steak, a ruben, one called the 'Royale with Cheese'. Am I making your mouth water yet?

When Julie and I saw this, we said to each other, "Ok, seriously, how can we make these gluten-free? Cause we have to do this." Then, we asked, "how can we change up what they have and make something original to us?" So the lobster-gruyere-bacon-mac-and-cheese pasty was born. 

And I know what you are thinking, I said it too: that is way too many heavy flavors to pair with the sweet buttery-ness of lobster. But forget all your preconceptions, and don't miss out on this amazing dish. 

Let me tell you, this recipe is a labor of love. We made our crust from scratch, a three cheese béchamel, and cooked some bacon, but trust me: we bought lobster meat already cooked. If that's your kind of thing, go for it, but I don't like screamers. 

[About .3lbs {4.8oz} of lobster for 6 pasties] 

First put a pot of water on the stove. Then, when boiling, add 8oz pasta. We used brown rice pasta, but everyone has their favorites. Cook pasta according to the instructions. I find that adding some olive oil right after draining the pasta helps it to not stick together. 

For the béchamel, we used fresh mozzarella, gruyere, and white cheddar, but you can make your own mix. It has to cool before you put it in a pasty, so I recommend doing this first, and cooking up some bacon....lots of bacon. I'm suggesting at least 5 slices of bacon, it could have used a tad more, but you can add more or less or none if you choose. 

1 cup gruyere

1/2 cup fresh mozzarella

1/2 cup white cheddar

2 cups milk

1/4 cup butter

3 tablespoons Jewel's gluten-free all purpose flour

salt & pepper to taste

Melt butter in a sauce pan on medium low. Mix in the flour, whisk till smooth, slowly add milk and cheeses. Make sure the temp is low enough not to boil; you just want it to slowly melt into gooey awesomeness. Add salt & pepper.

Fold the béchamel into the noodles, and wait for it to cool. While you are doing this, make the pasty dough. 

1 tablespoon yeast 

1 tablespoon granulated sugar 

1 cup warm water 

2 tablespoons vegetable or olive oil 

1 teaspoon salt 
1 egg for egg wash

3 cups Jewel's all-purpose flour 

Dissolve yeast in warm water, add sugar. Let it set for a few minutes until foamy. Then stir in oil, salt, and flour. If the dough feels too dry, you can add more water, or if it's too wet you can add more flour. It should feel like a soft play dough. Knead 5 minutes. Let sit 5 minutes. 

This part is time sensitive, and I would set the oven to 375F at this point. You don't want the dough to dry out while you are rolling them out one by one and stuffing them. Take the mac & cheese, cooked lobster, and bacon and mix them together in a bowl. 

Divide dough into 6 pieces. Roll/pat each piece into a 6- inch circle. Using a mold is easiest. If the dough gets too dry, pat with a little oil.

 Eye judgement is best when stuffing the dough, you want about 1/2 cup of lobster mac, but you want to be able to close it. Place stuffing in the middle of the 6in round, and rub edges with whisked egg. Gently pick up both of the sides and group them in the middle, pressing softly. However, if this isn't working for you, or you just want something a little easier, you can press into empanadas. Like this: 

  

Before you put them all in the oven, brush them heavily with egg yolk. I added some fine garlic powder to the egg yolk, about 1/2 teaspoon, to add some garlicky goodness.  

Cook for 20-25 minutes. Check at 18-20 for brownness. Let them cool, because they are molten lava. At this time you can make the sauce, trust me, you want to make the sauce. 

1/4 cup butter

1 teaspoon flour

1 tablespoon milk

1 small lemon fresh squeezed

pinch of salt

pinch of garlic 

pinch = 1/4 teaspoon

Serve sauce over top, or along side. Some tips I have for you after I made these: a squeeze of lemon over the cooked lobster before you add it in to the mac wouldn't hurt. Also, while stuffing them, before you close it up, a small amount of cheese won't hurt either. 

When lobster is 39.99 a pound and a good slab of gruyere costs 12 bucks, this is a special event type of meal. But like I mentioned about the pasty restaurant, you can put anything in these crusts. Some ideas:

cheesy pepperoni pizza
meatballs & marinara
spinach cheese and parmesan
any and all types of veggies
or try out one of the ones I mentioned

And you might have some left over mac & cheese, but you probably won't kill me because of it. You could also use the left over mac to make more pasties! These are all good to reheat later. So a quick pop in the oven at 350 for about 10-12 min. will do the trick. 

Don't already have a bag of Jewel's All Purpose flour? You can order some online and thank me later

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