Looking for some suggestions(food related)Follow

My roommates and I experimented with a dish today, and while it came out delicious, I think it could be even tastier with the right herbs and spices, but I'll admit that these are not ingredients I cook with often, so I'm more or less just trying things out. First off here's the basic starter for the dish, with non-exact ingredient measures, as we didn't measure, just kinda winged it:

1 cup butternut squash
1 cup carrots
3 large parsnips
1 large sweet potato
2 baking potatoes

Everything was peeled(except the baking potatoes, which we left skin on), cubed, boiled and then mashed with 2 sticks of butter and a half cup of milk, with a bit of salt added. What I'm looking for is some suggestions for herbal and spice additions to make it better. I just winged it and threw in a few "safe" flavors, more mild flavoring agents that I thought might work. It turned out good, but I think it could be great. As I've said, I don't use some of these ingredients very often, so I couldn't choose things I knew would work well with those flavors.

I separated it into two bowls and made two versions. Here's what each had:

Version 1:
Onion Powder
Dried Parsley
1 cup cheddar cheese
black pepper

Version 2:
Nutmeg
Cinnamon
Sugar(was gonna use brown sugar, but was out)

Suggestions for both a sweet and savory version of the dish would be awesome, especially if the squash and sweet potato are things you work with often(the other three ingredients we use often enough). Ingredients don't have to be limited to just herbs and spices. Any suggestions are worth considering. Additionally, we're looking to expand this into more than just a side dish, but as part of an overall recipe for either a full on dessert or one dish meal. These are the ideas we've tossed around, so if you have any suggestions on how to make em work, or other suggestions, those too would be appreciated.

Meal Ideas:
-Some type of "Harvest" Shepard's Pie, potentially with lima beans, corn and a type of meat
-Mixing the mash with a bit of meat and gravy and filling in a pocket pie with it

Dessert Ideas:
-Empanadas, potentially with the addition of pumpkin
-Some sort of pie, potentially topped with marshmallows

Perhaps as a dipping sauce for the empanada idea. We may have to try that one.

Suggestions (but don't do it all at the same time).

I was just about to suggest curry as well.

You could also try an Italian version and throw in Italian spices (oregano, basil, etc.)

Try boiling the veggies in a type of broth. Beef broth for a stronger flavor and chicken or vegetable broth for a milder flavor.

Try using evaporated milk for a creamer texture.

I would do away with the milk and not mash it. Rather, I'd saute up some onions and pepper strips, add it to your veggies and then mix in a can of crushed tomatoes, some wine, clam juice or fish stock and a bunch of shell fish for a nice Mediterranean fish stew (cioppino).

You could also make a good meat pie. Don't mash, add in cream/milk, cubes of cooked meat and sauteed mushrooms and then lay a layer of dough (I shortcut and use Pillsbury) on top, and bake in the oven. Probably at 350 degrees for 10 minutes or so.

I'm not sure about the dashi taste simply because cioppino is more of an Italian or Mediterranean dish and the dashi flavor might make it off.

But now that I think about it. You could do an Asian fusion for this dish. Forego the milk and butter and don't mash. I'd toss with sesame oil or peanut oil. Add in the dashi and Chinese or Thai spices and the shellfish.

For frozen seafood, I'd add in crab, shrimp, scallops and any kind of firm white fish. Squid and octopus would be good too.

Make sure you garnish with strips of nori and diced green onion.

For the curry, definately switch out the milk for yogurt. I'd try with a bit of mint.

Oh yeah! Coconut milk. How the hell could I have forgotten that for the curry!

I'm going to have to experiment this weekend.

I'm quite fond of making a coconut-pineapple sauce for salmon, since you mentioned salmon.

I will. I don't have plans for my next grocery shopping trip til next week(probably Monday or Tuesday), so it won't be til then that I try any of these. I have a feeling we'll very likely try the empanadas and peanut sauce thing though(I mentioned it to my roommates and they liked the idea).

Do you have a favorite recipe for that sauce, or a brand of premade that I might be able to find here?

Also, on the coconut milk curry, I've been keen to try that ever since my ex made some for me many years ago(we were still dating at the time), but she refuses to give me her recipe, says it's a family secret. So since that's not an option, you guys have a favorite recipe for that you'd recommend? When I make curry, I usually just use a slightly adapted Alton Brown vegetable curry recipe that I've substituted the veggies with cooked meat.

I have a hard time writing cooking recipes in english, mostly because herb`s names are so freaking different from portuguese. Not only herbs but everything.

I would try to do something with Chimichurri, Leek, a bit (really really few) of Mustard seed and crushed Coarse Salt.

You can steam the butternut squash and carrot and put them in the blender with the leek and mustard seed (really only a few, otherwise you will be taking moustard juice). You have now a great soup. I would recommend to take it cold, since its really refreshing, but hot wouldnt be bad either.

You can open both types of potato and make then in the oven. I would try to cut them in half, remove a bit of the middle of said potatoes, put chimichurri+olive oil (a really good one) on that little hole, salt with the crushed coarse salt, and curl half potatoe together with half sweet potatoe together with foil. Let it for a while in the oven with the half sweet potatoe on top of the other half, so the flavor goes from one to another.

I hope this sounds right in english, its really hard for me.

I dont have a clue of what a parsnip is. Google translator says to me its called pastinaga in portuguese. Nerver heard of, sorry, dont know the flavor.

Edit to add crazyness:
If you want to go crazy with the soup, you could add a Rose Wine. But you would HAVE to take it COLD. Otherwise, the wine taste is going to be bad on the hot soup.

If you want to go crazy with the potatoes, you could make a sweet mashed potatoe but instead of wilk or water, you would do it with guarana (I hope this is sold @EUA, dont really know). Take one or two handfull of guarana (the fruit, not the seed), blender it with some water, but only a few so its thick. Make the sweet mashed potatoe with that.

I still dont know what the parsnip flavor is, but wikipedia says to me that its similar to the carrot, but more raw. Maybe you could stew it with thyme and Worcestershire sauce. Not sure, though.

Edited, Nov 4th 2010 2:37pm by Brisin