I envy those with refrigerators chock full of organic vegetables crisp in the crisper, butter beautiful in porcelain bells, fruit freshly-picked and tucked in their rightful drawer. Girls who line up their gourmet dressings in matching bottles (alphabetically!) in their fridge have got their lives figured out. I aspire to such order and elegance.

But instead, I have a happy, humming refrigerator in a messy little kitchen. It’s a source of occasional surprises, and since I quite like surprises, I’ve decided to simply let my fridge (and my life) be.  This morning, I rummaged in there and was quite pleased to discover half a sweet potato that had rolled to the back, along with a bedraggled bunch of kale, a handful of parsley almost (but not quite) withered, three orphaned sausages, plus a whole lot of eggs.

There were all sorts of other delights in there too, but only these made it into this found frittata. It’s a casual, rustic, tossed together sort of dish- no airs here. But with a handful of greens on the side, it’s exactly the sort of brunch or dinner one might find from the fridge of a messy kitchen.

Frittata with Sweet Potato, Kale and Sausage

{RECIPE} FRITTATA WITH SWEET POTATO, KALE & SAUSAGE

A few things to keep in mind while foraging your fridge for this frittata:

1) The ingredients here are flexible.You can replace your sweet potatos with regular potatos, your parsley with other herbs,  your onion with shallots or scallions etc… etc.

2) That being said: your frittata will only be as good as your sausage. If you just happen to have a few fresh chorizo or Italian fennel sausages languishing around your fridge, all the better. If, like me, you only have supermarket turkey sausage on hand… it will do. But your frittata will taste like a supermarket-turkey-sausage-frittata instead of a gourmet-frittata.

3) Remember to cook your sweet potatoes through and through. There’s nothing quite as disappointing as a frittata with half-raw sweet potatoes…. even if it’s a humble fridge frittata.

4) Do not overcook your frittata. There is nothing more  disappointing than a frittata with half-raw sweet potatoes…  than a frittata that is rubbery and overcooked. Trust me. I’ve been there.

5) I like this frittata better with hot sauce.  You might give that a shot.

MAKES} 6 Servings

{INGREDIENTS}

10 large eggs, from happy, free run chickens

1/4 C parsley

salt and freshly ground pepper

3 TB plus 1 tsp extra-virgin olive oil

3 sausages, removed from the casings, then cut into thin slices, or if using fresh gourmet sausages, crumbled like ground meat

1 small red onion, finely diced

1 tsp sweet paprika

1 tsp cayenne

2C diced sweet potatoes, 1/8-inch cubes

3 large kale leaves, stems and inner ribs discarded, leaves coarsely chopped

{DIRECTIONS}

one. Preheat the broiler and position the rack *8 inches* from the heat. (*8 inches is important… too close to the broiler and your frittata will go rubbery. Trust me. I’ve been there.)

two. Crack 10 eggs into a large bowl. Add the chopped parsley, season with salt and pepper, then mix the eggs with a fork until blended.

three. Add 1 tsp of the olive oil to a 10-inch, deep dish, oven-proof skillet over medium-high heat. Add the red onion and saute until fragrant and translucent, about 5 minutes.

four. Add the sausage, paprika and cayenne. Brown and cook through, about 5-8  minutes. Transfer to a plate.

five. Add 3 TB of olive oil to the skillet and heat until shimmering over medium-high heat. (Don’t skimp on the oil… you’ll find that things will stick.) Add the diced sweet potatoes, and brown for about 5 minutes.

six. Add the chopped kale and season with salt.  Toss until softened, about 2 minutes longer.

seven. Return the sausage and onion to the skillet. Cover until sweet potatoes are just cooked through, about 5-10  minutes.

eight. Lower heat to medium and pour the egg mixture into the skillet. Cook for 3-5 minutes, then gently lift the edges of the frittata with a spatula and tilt the pan so that the uncooked egg seeps to the bottom. Cook until the bottom and sides are barely set, another 3-5 minutes.

eight. Place skillet in the oven,  and broil until the eggs are set. Check in every 2 minutes- the top should be lightly browned, and the eggs still barely runny when you remove it from the oven.

nine. Remove from the oven and let sit for five minutes. Cut into wedges and serve hot or warm with a handful of salad greens.

{INSPIRED BY}

Food & Wine Magazine’s Potato, Sausage and Kale Frittata

XE748C2Z9KBP

Colourful Curried Confetti Soup

The leaves have begun to scatter. After yesterday’s rain, they littered this morning pavement like coloured confetti. I can’t help but think that before long, even these leaves will pass, and we’ll be left with nothing but bare branches, grey pavement and even greyer skies for the winter months ahead.

It would be a melancholy time, if not for recipes such as this one for a colourful curried confetti soup, with its flurry of red onion and cabbage, orange pumpkin, yellow sweet potatoes and green zucchini. And for fall company like Lindsay, who  blew into my apartment a few nights ago as if on seasonal cue with a warm grin, girly gossip and a massive green salad from Whole Foods. I love that she’s the sort of friend I can share this sort of messy, unfussy soup with-both of us in comfy sweats, catching up on life and relationships between spoonfuls. Perfect company to colour grey fall evenings.

{RECIPE} CURRIED CONFETTI SOUP

{MAKES} 4 generous servings

{INGREDIENTS}

2 TB olive oil

2 cloves garlic, slivered

1 TB curry powder

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1 small red onion, diced (approx. 1 C)

1 large sweet potato, grated (approx. 2 C)

1 large zucchini, grated (approx. 2 C)

2 C pureed pumpkin

2 C chicken stock

2 C coconut milk

1 C frozen peas

1/2 C purple cabbage, finely diced (for garnish)

salt and pepper to taste

{DIRECTIONS}

one. In a large pot, heat oil over medium heat and add the garlic and red onion. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 2 minutes.

two. Stir in curry powder and cumin.

three. Add grated sweet potato and zucchini to the pot. Saute uncovered for 6-8 minutes, or until vegetables begin to soften.

four. Stir in pureed pumpkin,  then chicken stock. Cover and simmer for 30 to 40 minutes on medium-low heat until vegetables are well softened, stirring occasionally.

five. Add coconut milk and green peas. Simmer on low until peas are bright green and just cooked through.

six. Remove from heat and stir in purple cabbage.

Serve with thick slabs of crusty bread and a crunchy green salad.

Curried Coconut Shepherd's Pie with Slow Roasted Yams

To be honest, every minute of this week has been a hurried-scurry: out the door every morning for a jog before scurrying to and through a day at the office. Scurrying here, there and everywhere to meet friends, or to run those scurrying types of errands that you can’t quite remember after because you were… well… scurrying.

But it’s Friday. The Canadian Thanksgiving weekend lies ahead.

So tonight, instead of scurrying, I came home and slow roasted yams in the oven to top a homemade shepherd’s pie. I gave them their sweet time to caramelize instead of hurriedly boiling them into submission, and added a slow tropical drawl of  coconut and curry. A pot of red cabbage and apple braised slowly on the stove top. My dear friend Jim came over for dinner. We drank a bottle and a half of very good Australian shiraz  and caught up on over a year of life.

So much has happened in this year between Thanksgivings. Our lives have emptied and refilled in ways that neither of us could have imagined.

Between the hurrying and the scurrying, so many changes take place in our peripheral vision, barely noticed until we pause to ponder them with a good friend over good wine, and a shepherd’s pie topped with unscurriedly-roasted coconut yams.

{RECIPE} CURRIED COCONUT SHEPHERD’S PIE WITH SLOW ROASTED YAMS

{MAKES} 6 generous servings (made in a deep 10″ skillet or a 9 x 13″ casserole)

{INGREDIENTS}

6 small yams or sweet potatoes (yielding 5C mashed yams)

1 to 2 TV olive or canola oil

1 large onion, peeled and chopped

1 large carrot, peeled and chopped

2 garlic cloves, slivered

1 1/2  lbs lean ground beef, lamb or a mixture of the two (I used ground beef alone)

2 TB flour

1 TB Madras curry powder

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp fennel seeds

1 C  beef, veggie, or chicken broth

1 C frozen peas

1/4 C coconut milk

salt and pepper to taste

one. To roast yams: preheat oven to 425°F. Place washed, whole yams (with their skins on) into a roasting pan lined with parchment paper or tin foil (to catch the juices). Prick each yam all over with a fork. Roast in the oven for 1 hour or until they begin to soften and caramelize. (If you are short on time, prepare the yams the evening before, or alternatively, peel, chop and boil them into soft submission the evening you’re making the dish.)

two. While yams are roasting, prepare the meat filling: In a deep oven proof skillet , heat a 1 to 2 TB of olive or canola oil and sauté the onion, garlic and carrot over medium-high heat for about 5 minutes or until soft.

three. Add curry, cumin, cinnamon and fennel seeds and stir for 1 minute or until fragrant.

three. Add the garlic and meat and cook for another 5 minutes, until the meat is cooked through and the vegetables are beginning to brown

four. Sprinkle 2 TB of flour on top of the meat mixture, and stir it until it is well incorporated and the mxture simmers and thickens. The meat should be nearly cooked through but should have a touch of pink.

five. Stir in 1C of frozen peas and remove from heat.

(You can pour the meat filling into a baking dish if you’d like and make sure that it only fills it half full… but I simply serve my shepherd’s pie in the skillet to save washing an additional serving dish.)

six. To make the coconut yam topping: Peel yams and mash with the coconut milk. Add salt and pepper to taste.

eight. Using a large spoon or spatula, spread the yam topping over the meat mixture and smooth the top.

nine. Bake for 30 minutes, and then broil the top for 15 minutes or until top is a golden brown.

{AN ORIGINAL RECIPE FROM THE MESSY KITCHEN}
Inspired by Julie’s Lamb Shepherds Pie with Sweet Potatoes

Simply: Sweet Potato Caldo Verde

This is a recipe for the simplest of simple soups.

Onions? None. Garlic? Nada. Notably missing from action: shallots, ginger, curry, coconut milk, chicken stock, carrots, celery fronds, fresh herbs, dried herbs, splashes of lemon, squirts of lime, and all spices beyond a sprinkle of salt and a dash of pepper.

But raise not a skeptic eyebrow until you’ve tried this simple recipe, my friends. With only seven ingredients, this humble approximation  of rustic Portuguese caldo verde warms the spirit on a fall evening, surprises with unexpected textures, and satisfies in a way that only a simple soup can.

{RECIPE} SWEET POTATO CALDO VERDE

{MAKES} 4 to 6 servings

{INGREDIENTS}

2 lbs sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/4 inch thick rounds

1 1/2 tsp course sea salt

8 C water

1/4 C olive oil

generous scattering of freshly ground black pepper

1 lb or approximately 4 links chorizo or Portuguese linguica sausage (I used fresh chicken chorizo from Meinhardt Fine Foods)

1/2 lb or approximately 4-5 C kale, washed, destemmed and very finely shredded

{DIRECTIONS}

one. In a large pot, combine the sweet potatoes, salt and water. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer uncovered for about 15 minutes or until they are are soft and mashable.

two. With a slotted spoon, transfer the sweet potatoes to a separate bowl. Keep the cooking water in the pot for the soup… waste not, want not! With a potato masher, fork, or wooden spoon, mash the sweet potatoes then return them to the pot of water.

three. Stir in the olive oil and add a very generous grinding of pepper.

four. Bring the soup back to a simmer over medium heat.

five. Prick the sausages in a few places with a fork and add them to the pot. Simmer for 15 minutes.

six. With tongs, remove the sausages and slice them into 1/4 inch thick rounds. Set them aside for the time being.

seven. Add the shredded kale to the simmering soup. Boil, uncovered, for just 3 to 4 minutes.

eight. Remove from heat and add the sliced sausage.

nine. Serve in warmed bowls with a crusty, rustic bread to warm a cool evening.

{INSPIRED BY}

Arthur Schwartz’s Caldo Verde recipe in Soup Suppers (HarperPerennial, 1994).