Nesting

I know I have been neglecting my blog. The truth is that life has given me a swift punch in the stomach recently. Things have been so crazy around here. Our landlord called and said he needed to break our lease because his wife was pregnant and they needed to move back into our condo before she was due. I didn't want anything to do with a pregnant lady living in a cardboard box so we quickly started looking for a new place to live. A couple days into the search my mom landed in the hospital. She is OK, but it was quite a scare nonetheless. Shortly after that drama we had to travel out of town for my little brother's college graduation, then my sister came in town for work and stayed with us and now Forrest is headed out of town for his little brother's college graduation. I will move as much as I can over the weekend in his absence and when he returns we will hustle to get the big heavy furniture out of the house utilizing the muscles of he and his friends. I won't be in the kitchen until at least the end of next week because as soon as I post this recipe I am starting to pack my pots into boxes for the move to the new place that will be sans electricity until then. So please be patient. I promise to return to the kitchen and this blog like gang busters!

And to hold you over I have decided to present a fitting recipe to help celebrate our soon to be new "nest"!

Potato Nests with Sour Cream and Smoked Salmon
Adapted from All You 2006

Yield

8 Servings

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 pounds large russet potatoes (about 2 large)
  
• 1/4 cup thinly sliced smoked salmon (2 oz.), plus a small amount for garnish
• 1 tablespoon grated lemon peel
• 3/4 cup sour cream
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Pinch black pepper
• Small parsley leaves
  

Preparation

In a large saucepan, bring unpeeled potatoes and enough cold water to cover to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat, cover and simmer potatoes until just cooked, about 25 minutes.

Drain potatoes, let cool and then refrigerate for at least 1 hour, until cold.

Meanwhile, pulse smoked salmon and lemon peel in a food processor, scraping down bowl.

Add sour cream and process until combined.

Refrigerate, covered, until ready to serve.

Preheat oven to 425°F. Lightly grease 32 mini-muffin-tin cups. Peel and coarsely grate potatoes.

Gently toss potatoes with salt and pepper in a bowl. Place about 1 heaping Tbsp. potato mixture into each muffin cup

and press against bottom and up sides (I used the top of a cocktail shaker to form the mixture into the bottom of the tins), allowing some mixture to extend above rim. (Do not spread mixture too thin or holes will form while baking.)

Bake potato nests until edges are dark golden, about 20 minutes. The original recipe recommended baking them longer. And although my oven is pretty true to recipe timing, I found my nest to appear a little overdone. They didn't taste bad, but they looked a little dark so I decreased the cooking time in this recipe to 20 minutes.

Cool nests in pans for 10 minutes. (Nests may be made up to 4 hours ahead, and I even made mine the night before and stored in an air tight container until the next day.)

Preheat oven to 375°F. Place potato nests on a clean, large baking sheet and bake until heated through and crisp, 6 to 8 minutes. Transfer potato nests to a platter. Using a small spoon, dollop about 1 tsp. sour cream mixture into each potato nest

and top each with a tiny strip of smoked salmon and a parsley leaf. Serve right away.