Ever since spring began, I've been in the mood to cook something with asparagus. I decided to try a Jamie Oliver recipe for an asparagus and potato tart (classified, for reasons unknown, as a Royal Wedding celebration dish). Made up of a crisp filo dough crust spread with a layer of cheesy mashed potatoes and topped with asparagus spears, it was supposed to look a little something like this:
Instead, I ended up with a crust-less, improvised mashed potato casserole that looked more like this:
As the filo dough ("now in new, easy to use sheets"), crumbled into tiny, unusable pieces in my hands, I thought about tossing the entire dish. Luckily, I decided to try my hand at salvaging the meal by eliminating the crust and baking everything else in a deep casserole dish. All in all, I felt pretty good about my kitchen ingenuity.
Most importantly, I came away with a few lessons from this misadventure. I learned that TV chefs who rave about the ease of frozen filo dough are lying (Giada, Ina, I'm looking at you). I learned that I should probably invest in a potato masher so that I can stop looking silly using the attachments from my hand mixer as a substitute. I learned that using an elaborate arm flourish to sprinkle spice into a dish will likely result in an overabundance of nutmeg. And I learned that cheese infused potatoes are never a bad thing, no matter what form they take.
Instead, I ended up with a crust-less, improvised mashed potato casserole that looked more like this:
As the filo dough ("now in new, easy to use sheets"), crumbled into tiny, unusable pieces in my hands, I thought about tossing the entire dish. Luckily, I decided to try my hand at salvaging the meal by eliminating the crust and baking everything else in a deep casserole dish. All in all, I felt pretty good about my kitchen ingenuity.
Most importantly, I came away with a few lessons from this misadventure. I learned that TV chefs who rave about the ease of frozen filo dough are lying (Giada, Ina, I'm looking at you). I learned that I should probably invest in a potato masher so that I can stop looking silly using the attachments from my hand mixer as a substitute. I learned that using an elaborate arm flourish to sprinkle spice into a dish will likely result in an overabundance of nutmeg. And I learned that cheese infused potatoes are never a bad thing, no matter what form they take.
It looks so delicious and healthy! Cheese and potatoes!? Perfect mix! xoxoxo
ReplyDelete