Photograph: Fir002 via Wikipedia, GNU Free Documentation License.

The year we were poor enough to dig potatoes we had to drive there,

then wait for the men to leave who let fires go out.

There’d be one good hour of daylight, the rough straight rows running into

shade.

We’d work the ground until the sun was a single line.

The Foundry Garden, Stanley Plumly, Now That My Father Lies Down Beside Me: New and Selected Poems

This is today’s post on Brooklyn Memories Most Green.

Visit me there for more recipes and lots of good Brooklyn memories.

Budget-wise in Brooklyn or anywhere doesn’t necessarily mean the same old meat-and-potatoes, or boiled and mashed, or fried dishes ubiquitous in the Standard American Diet (S.A.D.). And, I don’t believe potatoes are bad for us. Potatoes have gotten a bad rap, probably because of the tendency we have in the (S.A.D.) to fry them or mash them with butter, cream or milk, or to served with sour cream or full-fat cheese.  It’s the way we prepare potatoes that makes them fattening and artery-clogging.  Inherently, potatoes are good: tasty, chock full of vitamins and fiber, versatile, and easy on the budget . . . Since a wheat-and-gluten free diet is expensive, such modest meals may be very welcome by some.

Here I present three traditional (read peasant) dishes which incorporate potatoes.  Each dish is wheat-and-gluten free, either naturally so or adapted to accommodate the diet of those with Celiac Disease or wheat-and-gluten sensitivity. As you shall see, they are also, or can easily be, vegan.

STRING BEANS WITH TOMATOES, Loobiyeh bil zeyt, vegan and wheat-and-gluten free

From my Lebanese grandmother

This recipe

Serves four

In my experience this dish is generally made as a stew with lamb, Loobiyeh bil Lahmeh. In the days when our family was more omnivore than we are today, I would save the bone from a leg of lamb and use that to flavor the stew. Despite the fact of posts for meat-based recipes, on an everyday basis we don’t each much if any meat. So now, moving more and more toward non meat-based meals, we find this vegetarian version just as satisfying. For the best quality experience, get the freshest vegetables you can find.  If the string beans don’t make a snapping sound when you break them, they’re old.  Don’t buy them.

The recipe:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 pound fresh string beans, tip, top, string and snap in half
• 4 large boiling potatoes, cut in quarters
• 2 large onions, cut in dice
• 1 15-oz can crushed tomatoes
• 16 oz canned or homemade gluten-free veggie broth, or use water
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• salt to taste
• Aleppo pepper to taste
• 1 large onion, slice thin and mix with 2 tablespoons olive oil
• juice of 1/2 a fresh lemon
• soy or dairy yogurt

Prepare the stew:

Saute the garlic in the olive oil in the bottom of a dutch oven or other pot large enough to hold all the ingredients. When the garlic is lightly brown, add the sesame oil and all the other ingredients with the exception of the potatoes, sliced onion in oil and the yogurt.

Bring the pot to a boil, and then lower to a gentle simmer.  Watch to make sure the liquid doesn’t cook away.  Add water if necessary. It shouldn’t be as watery as a soup, but it should still have some liquid when cooked.  After about twenty minutes, add the potatoes.

Simmer until the vegetables are tender, about 20 more minutes. When it’s done, stir in the lemon juice.

While the stew is cooking brown the sliced onions.

Serve the stew:

Dish out the stew in soup bowls, top with the browned onions, and serve the yogurt on the side as a condiment.  The yogurt is topped with a little raw olive oil and a dusting of smoked paprika.

POTATO PIE, Kibet batata, Vegetarian, Wheat-and-Gluten free

This recipe

Serves four

This is the Lebanese version of the English Shepherds Pie.  It is usually made with lamb.  My version in a veggie version.  I fill the pie with carrots, onions, dill, and toasted pine nuts instead of lamb. Once cooked, I top it with minced, fresh cilantro. (Tip: It easily becomes vegan if you use your favorite egg-replacer.)

I use Earth Balance Buttery Spread.  It’s vegan. It’s gluten-free. It has no trans fats. It does have Omega 3. It’s widely available in the U.S.

The recipe:

• three pounds boiling potatoes, cut into quarters (I just scrub them.  I don’t peel them.)
• 1/2 cup dairy or non-dairy milk of your choice
• 1/2 cup of Earth Balance Buttery Spread
• 1 egg (whipped)
• 1 pound of carrots, sliced into rounds and then quartered
• 1/2 dry dill weed
• salt to taste
• black pepper to taste
• 2 large onions
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 cup cilantro, finely minced

1 well-greased 12″ x 8″ baking pan

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees farenheit

Boil the potatoes until tender. Drain and mash with milk, Earth Balance, salt and black pepper and, finally the egg or the egg replacer.  Spread half of the potato mixture over the bottom of the baking pan.

Steam the carrots and, while they are steam, sauté the onion and the pine nuts in the olive oil. Brown slowly.  When the carrots are tender, mix them with the onions, pine nuts, dill weed, salt and black pepper .  Pour into the pan on top of the potatoes.  Top the carrot mixture with the remaining potatoes. Brush with some melted Earth Balance.  Lightly salt.  Bake for thirty minutes or until the top is nicely browned.

Serve the pie:

Top each portion with a sprinkle of fresh cilantro.

Variation: You can just use browned onion to fill the pie and/or any other favorite vegetable or combination of vegetables.

POTATO AND GARLIC SAUCE/DIP, Skorthalia, vegan, wheat-and-gluten free

This is a delicious and simple Greek sauce that is traditionally used to top fried fish or as a dip with bread. It can be used to good effect as a toping for almost any steamed vegetable.  The texture should be creamy, smooth, and somewhat thick.  It is most easily made in a food processor; but, you can mash the potatoes by hand and do the garlic in with a mortar and pestle, the old fashioned way. That’s the way I do it.

The recipe:

• 6 large cloves of garlic, mashed or minced
• 1 1/2 pounds boiling potatoes, peeled, quartered, boiled and mashed
• 1/2 cup Wild Wood Soy Creamer
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil, the best quality you can afford
• salt to taste

Prepare the sauce:

Put the potatoes, garlic, and creamer in the food processor and puree.  Then slowly add the oil and the wine, alternating a little of each until it’s all incorporated.

Serve as dip:

Place in a small bowl on a large platter surrounded by crudités and/or bread slices.

Serve as sauce:

Top your choice of steamed vegetables with the sauce.  Thin if you need to with water or milk.  Or, use as a toping on pan fried or batter fired fish or batter-fried vegetables.