Our old mathematician-and-occasional-blogger will testify to this oft-repeated statement anytime after having spent 6 months in the Sooner State. (Gulp, he is 30 now-but let us quickly move on.) Indeed, the Oklahoman Swede-Pole recently entertained a visitor from Berkeley in sunny CA, and in order to welcome the Californian-Swede, Stillwater decided to cover itself with a thin layer of ice and a slightly thicker layer of snow on the day of his arrival. The two Swedes felt just like home! Talk in the math department given, Stillwater bar scene and classic beef restaurant in Oklahoma City experienced, our blogging postdoc's visitor departed, and less a week later, summer came to Stillwater.
Believe it or not, our hero spend most of yesterday outdoors, biking around and running errands. A high point of that 77F day was an hour spent in the shade of a tree outside his apartment, playing guitar and remembering those first summer days in Stillwater. So much has changed since then. As always, some changes may turn out to be more permanent than others, and they may not be the changes one would expect. Now a winter storm warning has been issued for tomorrow, so it may be a while before there's another opportunity for this kind of retrospection.
But some things are always present in our blogger's life, whether blogged about or not-music and food, for instance. Then again, a friend claimed that these two things are the only topics present in the Facebook status updates of our Swedish-Poles. (Include coffee in the food category, and this may well be an accurate statement.) In any case, between work and social calls, there has been little time for updating this blog lately, but now that the weather is taking a turn for the worse, it may just be time for culinary writing again.
This blog post constitutes self-plagiarism, in a way. Sitting under that tree yesterday, he felt an inexplicable craving for mustard, and, since it was essentially summer in Oklahoma yesterday, a French-style potato salad came to mind. Today, it was discovered that half a block of feta cheese was also available, and with a winter storm approaching, roasting root vegetables in the oven felt appropriate-again. (See a post from last year's blog.) Out of this confusion was born today's mix of wintry potatoes and carrots and summery capers and mustard.
Ingredients:
4 potatoes
1 carrot
1 red onion
3 cloves of garlic
1 block of feta cheese
Dijon mustard
baby spinach
olive oil
salt and pepper
thyme
pickled capers
Turn on the oven; make it hot. Wash the potatoes and cut them into wedges, leaving the skin on and chop up the carrot also. In a glass cooking pan, smother the potato wedges and carrot sticks in a generous amount of olive oil. Season with salt, ground pepper, and thyme. And then, into the oven the pan goes. (See an earlier blog entry for pictures.)
Now for the mustardy part of our meal. Slice the onion; we want thin rings here. Cut the garlic cloves in half. Then, in a frying pan, caramelize the onion and garlic. Use moderate amounts of olive oil, and try to get the capers a little crispy at the same time.
Once you're happy with the onion's state of caramelization, add a little mustard to the mix. Don't overdo it, two or three teaspoons should do it. Stir gently for a minute or so, and then remove the pan.
Take a little break and pour yourself a glass of wine. Then check on the potatoes; you want them getting crispy before proceeding to the next step. Once this is the case, chop the feta cheese into large cubes, add them on top of the potatoes and grill the mix until the cheese starts going soft and possibly crispy around the edges. Turn off the oven and take out the cooking pan.
Finally, return to the frying pan, turn up the heat, and sautee the baby spinach in the onion/mustard mix. The spinach leaves should be soft, but they should not lose all of their texture. An extra spoon of mustard might be a good idea. And then we're done.
Serving suggestions: Anna von Hausswolff, "Singing from the grave" on the side. A glass of red wine.
