Vegan MoFo Day 4: Roasty Skordalia!

Hey internet.  I'm going to try to keep this brief today (right), because I really need to get back to studying for the midterm I have this evening.  My first exam of grad school round 2!  Oh man!  It's for a class in my specialization (computer networks) and it's material I know quite well AND it's multiple choice but-- I'm still super anxious about it.  Ugh!  Exams!

You know what doesn't make me say ugh?  Dips.  Dips never make me say ugh.  Except maybe delighted ughs, and uggggggghhhhhhh I'm so full I can't take another bite ughs.  Okay, dips make me make good ughs...

Day 4's dip is definitely, definitely a good ugh inducer:  skordalia!



I first had skordalia a year or two ago at a vegan potluck hosted by Amey of Vegan Eats & Treats.  If I recall correctly, we may have been having a dip party, and Alana brought this amazing bowl of what tasted like pureed garlic and potatoes.  Emphasis on the garlic.

Flash forward to uh, yesterday.  I finally look up the ingredients for skordalia and that's pretty much it:  supersmooth pureed potato and garlic with some olive oil and salt to round it all out.  It's sort of like dipping in mashed potatoes, if mashed potatoes were suuuuuuper creamy and wonderful and you put in as much garlic as YOU wanted and not as much as you thought your Thanksgiving guests could handle.  Mmmm.  Garlic.

I went a slightly different road than most recipes I read and roasted my ingredients.  I'll put a quick recipe at the end of this post.  We ate it last night with the muhammara (you can see it in the full table picture) and various dippers.  It makes me feel sorta dirty to dip bread into potatoes (omg carbs), but this is really good with vegetables too.

After roasting the potatoes, I had this huge pile of empty baked potato skins leftover, so I saved them and actually cooked lunch for once in a blue moon:



Fried baked potato skins with slivers of tofurky and kale.  I drizzled mine with a little leftover creamy buffalo dip (I KNOW! there is a lot of dip in my house right now guys!) and it was fantastic.  The Emperor said no to sauce but proceeded to eat 3 bowls full without-- kale, tofurky, and yes, even the potatoes.  Here he is trying his first bite of the kale:



(He absolutely wouldn't touch the skordalia though.  He thinks mashed potatoes are the devil's work.)

The Magician ALSO really liked the kale:



It's nice when I make a point of making E lunch and he actually eats it... While he's not nearly as picky as he got directly after last year's MoFo, he can still be a tough customer.

Well, I think that's it but for the skordalia recipe!  I've got two more middle eastern-y dips lined up and then we'll be through the first week of MoFo.  Whoa!

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Roasty Skordalia
makes like 4 cups

2 lbs russet potatoes, scrubbed and poked
2 heads garlic, top 1/4 inch lopped off
olive oil for drizzling

3/4c water
1/4c olive oil
1 tsp salt (or to taste)
1 clove raw garlic, grated (optional)

1.  Preheat oven to 425F.
2.  Place the potatoes on a baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil to coat.
3.  Place garlic heads on a piece of tinfoil (or in a dish with an oven-safe lid), drizzle with garlic, then wrap tightly.  Place on the baking sheet with the potatoes.
4.  Bake for 45 minutes, then check for doneness.  Larger russets will probably take more like an hour-- but do check at 45 because the garlic may be done and you want it out before it burns.
5.  When everything's done, take it out and let it cool a bit.
6.  Scoop insides out of potatoes and put them in a large bowl.  Set aside skins for another use.
7.  Squeeze the roasted garlic out of the cloves, into the same large bowl.
8.  Mash thoroughly with a potato masher.
9.  Continue mashing while adding water and oil.  Add 3 tbsps of water followed by 1 tbsp of oil, mash/mix thoroughly, then add the next batch.
10.  Stop when you reach your desired consistency.  Add salt, taste for garlic-tastic-ness, and add that last clove of grated garlic if you need a bit of a kick.