Tapioca with Coconut Jam and Caramelized Rum Bananas + Crushed New Potatoes with Capers, Mint, and Roasted Garlic

Matt and I were recently invited to join a cookbook club. We said, "yes!" The chosen cookbook was Nopi. Yay! we thought. We love Ottolenghi! And then we had to make a couple of complicated dishes, and were like: WTF did we get ourselves into. / I can't believe we used to do this kind of thing all the time.

That being said, both dishes were incredibly delicious. I mean, I doubt I'll ever make the tapioca dessert again, but I'm glad for the experience? 

The coconut jam was the real star, and to be honest, I might make that component again. But only if I substituted the palm sugar with regular sugar and if Matt were around to shred all of that fresh coconut. We used a box grater for this, but I wonder if you could get a similar result using a food processor?

The potatoes were a bit fussy as well, but it was enjoyably so, e.g. roasting garlic cloves in olive oil and boiling potatoes with a ton of fresh herbs that made the house smell minty and lovely.  Bonus: I mashed this up and fed it to Isaac. (Isaac also happily ate a good deal of the coconut tapioca pudding.)

In non-food news, Matt and I've been getting into a bunch of interesting debates around the house. Some are about gymnastics(!), some political, some about our debate styles. I bring this up because in this highly-charged political atmosphere, I feel so lucky to have someone I can debate with and even disagree with and yet not feel ill-will toward (mostly). It reminds me to leave some space open to the possibility that I may be (gasp!) wrong. This, in turn, reminds me of some lines from one of my favorite ee cummings poems: "for even if it's sunday may i be wrong / for whenever men are right they are not young."

Put another way, in the words of the poet-philosopher, David Whyte: "Put down the weight of your aloneness and ease into / the conversation." And speaking of, thank you to those of you who read my last post. I especially loved reading your thoughts and comments. 

(I actually borrowed my copy of Nopi from the library and already returned it. So, I don't have the tapioca recipe on hand. I, do, still have the potato one though, which I adapted. Here ya go!)

Crushed New Potatoes with Capers, Mint, and Roasted Garlic adapted from Nopi

1 head garlic, cloves separated and peeled
1/3 cup olive oil
1/3 oz. teaspoons fresh thyme
2 1/4 pounds new potatoes, unpeeled
3/4 oz. mint, whole stalks and leaves, plus a few tablespoons mint leaves, finely chopped
2 oz. capers, rinsed and left whole
2 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons lemon juice
about 1/2 cup parsley leaves, chopped
2 teaspoons peppercorns, crushed (The recipe calls for pink peppercorns, which I totally would have used if I'd had them.)
coarse sea salt

Preheat the oven to 375°F.

Place the garlic cloves in a small ovenproof frying pan or in a small baking pan with the olive oil and half of the thyme. Place in the oven and roast for 15 to 20 minutes, basting the garlic once or twice during cooking. Remove from the oven and, once cool, strain the oil into a large frying pan. The garlic cloves need to be set aside, but the thyme can be discarded.

Place the potatoes in a large saucepan along with the whole mint stalks and the remaining thyme. Add a tablespoon of salt, cover with water, bring to a boil, and cook for 15 minutes. Drain, discard the mint and thyme, and cut the potatoes in half.

Place the pan with the garlic oil over high heat. Once hot, add the potatoes and fry for 8 to 9 minutes, stirring from time to time, until they start to break apart and are golden brown all over. Add the capers, roasted garlic cloves, and butter. Cook for a further minute before adding the lemon zest and juice, parsley, shredded mint, 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt, and the peppercorns. Stir everything gently together, cook for a final minute and serve.