Margie's Alaska Grown Potatoes

Margie’s Potatoes If you have the space and the inclination, you can make a productive garden. Besides the pleasure of flavorful vine ripened vegetables, more so than those supermarket specimens, you can save a lot of money on the family food bill. Depending on your location, some extra work may be required to make your garden bloom. On such place is Alaska. With a very short growing season and cool soil temperatures,

gardening in Alaska requires some

 special techniques and a lot of work. One such garden belongs to my neighbor, Margie. Margie stopped by the other day to deliver some potatoes from her garden, a neighborly gesture. Some weeks earlier she had been of great assistance with a project I have going in my yard. I have wanted to do something to express my thanks. She had cast her potatoes on the water and I decided it would be a nice gesture to invite her to dinner and make a dish that featured her potatoes, to return her potatoes tenfold.

I decided to make a variation on scalloped potatoes. The day before dinner, I peeled the potatoes and sliced them with a mandolin into a bowl of cold water. I added a couple of russet potatoes to her Yukon gold and red potatoes she had given me. I swished the slices to remove any surface starch. I drained that water and covered them with fresh cold water. I used a technique I learned from my Aunt Margie. When she would prepare potatoes for Uncle Carroll to cook on the outdoor griddle, she would prepare them the night before soaking them in cold water seasoned with onion powder and white pepper. I added onion powder and white pepper to my bowl of potatoes as well as a couple of cubes of chicken bouillon. On preparation day I drained the potatoes in a colander. In swabbed the bottom of my glass casserole dish with a bit of olive oil. While the slices were draining I cut a thick slice of red onion and cut it into rough chunks.

I cut and removed the seeds and membrane from the jalapeno that had accompanied the potatoes from

Margie’s garden. I fine chopped the onion and jalapeno in the food processor. I made a layer of overlapping

potato slices in the bottom of the casserole. Then I made a layer of cheese slices covering the potatoes. On top of that I placed the onion and jalapeno. I layered the potatoes and cheese until I filled the casserole.

Season with salt and pepper. I added milk to fill about half of the casserole. It was an eight minute spin in the microwave (pulled just before the milk was going to boil over) to bring everything up top temperature before covering with aluminum foil and baking in a 325 degree oven for 45 minutes. I then removed the foil and covered the surface with a layer of four-cheese blend. Back into the oven for five minutes to melt the cheese

and then garnished with sliced scallions. That was how I made the scalloped potatoes but dinner needed more… I chose to make grilled chicken prepared in a sort-of Polynesian-style. The night before, I prepared two boneless, skinless chicken breasts by first butterfly cutting them and using the tenderizing mallet to even out the thickness. I then placed them in a brine made of salt,brown sugar and white pepper and let them

soak in the brine overnight in the refrigerator. The next day I grilled pineapple slices and prepared a garnish of red onion and red, green and yellow sweet pepper slices sautéed in butter and then mixed with just a bit of sweet and sour sauce. When it was time to cook the chicken I removed the breasts from the brine and patted them dry with a paper towel. I preheated the gas grill, then turned the gas down to medium. I grilled in minute and a half increments; one side, turn the chicken over, turn 90 degrees, then turn over again, for a total cooking time of 6 minutes. On the last two turns I brushed with a light coating of sweet and sour sauce.

For serving I placed a chicken breast on the plate, added two grilled pineapple slices and then garnished with the onion and sweet pepper sauté. To go with the bright and varied colors of the chicken, I made a vegetable medley of whole kernel corn, peas and carrots. Although there was nothing from my garden in this meal, it is satisfying to prepare a meal with food you have grown yourself. More often than not the taste and flavors will be superior to the supermarket varieties. It just feels good to make that connection with the land much as our forefathers did not all that long ago. It was also an opportunity to share a meal with a neighbor who is a good friend; a pleasant interlude to discuss the daily trials and tribulations of life in this rugged but compellingly beautiful land called Alaska. Oh, and by the way, Margie came bearing dessert. She made a lemon pudding and fresh raspberry pie. And wouldn’t you know it, the raspberries were from my garden.