Fishy Potato Skins

 Remember potato skins? They are great football tailgating food, usually covered with cheese and bacon. But what if you just wanted a little bite of something to tide you over before dinner? And what if you were not into meat, but were okay with fish? Here's where these tasty gems can shine!

You will need:
1 1/2 pounds small potatoes 

   (I used Private Selection Petite Gold, 

   but any color will do, as long as they 

   are small enough to be bite-sized)

1-2 T olive oil
4 oz hot-smoked salmon (not lox)

8 oz Daisy sour cream
2-3 T cotija cheese (or any cheese will do)

3-4 T chopped chives 

   (or fennel or dill fronds, or rosemary)

Preheat your oven to 400ºF. Cut each potato in half, maximizing surface area at the plane of the cut. Toss all of the cut halves with the olive oil. Line a large baking sheet with aluminum foil, and  spread out the potatoes, cut side up. Roast for 20-30 minutes. Divide the smoked salmon evenly among all the potaotes. Top with a small dollop of sour cream with the cheese mixed into it. (You won't use all of it, but you can use the leftover cheese/sour cream tomorrow for a full-sized baked potato.) Sprinkle with tiny green things, and serve.

Tiny GF pies!

For Page's birthday, and as a needed break from moving activities, we had a little fish taco feed on the back deck. For dessert I pulled out these little fancy tart molds that had been hiding in my bottom drawer for who knows how long. I had lots of eggs and lemons, so lemon meringue pie seemed inevitable, but I also whipped up some Guinness pot de creme for a second choice of flavor. Just a few weeks later, we had friends on the deck for steak. It wasn't quite strawberry picking season, but I had some good jam from last year's haul, so I cut up some giant tasteless strawberries and drowned them in jam for the win! Two more weeks elapsed and Cash flew into town for a visit. We found a bag of frozen blueberries in the bottom of the garage freezer and half a can of crushed pineapple in the door of the kitchen freezer...sounds like blueberry piña colada pie to me! (Too bad we didn't take pictures, but I'll add them if when we make them again.)

For the crust:
3 oz cream cheese
4 oz (1 stick) butter
1 cup Pamela's gf flour*

1/4 t xanthan gum

Blend together until it forms a ball of dough.

Divide into 24 pieces. Press one piece in to each of 24 tiny tart molds. 

Bake all the mini tarts on a cookie sheet for 1/2 hour at 325º F

Note: You could totally use a mini-muffin pan instead.

*If you don't need gf, just use regular flour and skip the xanthan gum

For Lemon filling:*

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/3 cup cornstarch

dash of salt

3 egg yolks (reserve whites)

1/3 cup fresh lemon juice

1/2 t lemon zest

1 1/2 cups hot water

1-2 T butter

     Mix sugar, cornstarch and salt in a saucepan until well blended. Set aside. In a medium bowl, mix together egg yolks, lemon juice and lemon zest. Set aside. Add the hot water to the dry ingredients in the saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture starts to bubble and thicken. It will look thick and cloudy. Add egg mixture gradually and bring back to a bubble, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and add butter. Stir until butter is melted. Cool for about 10 minutes, then pour into the baked pie shell.

For the Meringue:

3 egg whites (reserved from above)

1/4 t cream of tartar

1/4 cup plus 2 T powdered sugar

1 t lemon juice, or 1 t vanilla

grated lemon zest as desired

     Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Beat the egg whites until foamy. add cream of tartar. Continue peating until whites form soft peaks. Add sugar and lemon juice or vanilla, and continue beating until stiff peaks form. Spread meringue on top of pie and sprinkle with grated lemon zest. bake for about 12-15 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool, then refrigerate until ready to serve.

* I clipped this recipe from The Oregonian newspaper in 2005 when "Million Dollar Baby" was up for some awards at the Oscars. It is from The Dinah Shore American Kitchen and credits Virginia Martin for the recipe. It is the best lemon meringue pie recipe I have ever had! This makes a 9-inch pie. It's actually way too much for 24 mini-pies, so I ended up with jars of lemon curd in my fridge for later.

NOTE: For the tiny tarts, I put the meringue in a giant ziplock bag and snipped off a piece of the corner and then piped it onto the little tarts before baking. It only took a bout ten minutes to get golden.

For the Pots de Creme filling:*

4 large eggs

2 cups (12 oz) semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/2 t kosher salt

1 t vanilla

1/2 cup heavy cream

3/4 cup Guinness Extra Stout

   (also great using Cold Fire Brew Co. bourbon barrel aged Imperial Stout)

     Blend eggs, chocolate chips, salt and vanilla in the blender for one minute to completely chop the chocolate. Heat the stout and cream in a small saucepan over medium low heat until small bubbles appear on the sides. Pour into the blender, cover and blend for 2-3 minutes until the chocolate is completely melted and the mixture is silky. At this point, normally I would divide among 8 ramekins, cover, and chill for at least 4 hours. Serve with whipped cream. But this time we used the filling to fill 24 little tarts, chilled them, and still served with whipped cream.

* I first had this at JaneAnne's book club, but the recipe came from here http://www.alwaysorderdessert.com/2013/03/dark-chocolate-guinness-pots-de-creme.html

These are fabulous without any crust, but it turns out they make a terrific filling for tiny tarts too!

For the Strawberry filling:

1 pound of fresh strawberries, cut into pea-sized dice

8 oz strawberry rhubarb freezer jam (see June 2019 of this blog)

     Heap lots of little dice into each prepared shell, and top with some of
the freezer jam. Serve with whipped cream. Like I said, I didn't take a picture! But just imagine a tiny little version of this delicious looking pie.

For the Blueberry Piña Colada filling:*

2 cups frozen blueberries

3/4 cup canned crushed pineapple, drained

3 T piña colada mix

2 T sugar

1 1/2 T cornstarch

1 T Myers Rum 

pinch of salt

     Mix all together in a small heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat and cook until the blueberries all pop and the mixture becomes dark and thick. Spoon into prepared baked shells and top with flaked coconut. Chill before serving.

*This recipe is a pared down version of one of my favorite pies from Ken Haedrich's excellent book, Pie.