Another Q&E - Cuban Potatoes

When the McDougall Quick and Easy Cookbook was first released, there was a publishing error and 6 recipes went  missing. Eventually those of us who owned first editions found them and subsequent printings naturally included them. I put the copy of those recipes in my AZZ Cardfile and forgot about them. Recently, while skimming through the book, I realized I never added those missing recipes to the book and did an old fashioned cut and paste and put them where they belonged.

Cuban Potatoes is one of those recipes. In all these years I never made these, only because the recipe wasn't in front of my eyes. I decided I finally had to give them a try, and a few weeks ago bought the required bag of red potatoes.

Then I got sick, made some really simple meals when I had the energy to cook, and forgot about those potatoes until yesterday. Some had eyes that were easily removed but the rest were just fine, which is surprising because in this house Russets and Yukon Golds sometimes go bad in less than a week. These reds have been here for a month.

                              Cuban Potatoes

Serving Size  : 4    

  2             pounds  red potatoes, whole -- small
 1/2           cup  raisins, seedless
  3               cans  chopped tomatoes -- 14.5 oz cans
  1         tablespoon  soy sauce, low sodium
  1             medium  onion -- chopped
  2          teaspoons  minced garlic
  1                     red pepper -- chopped
  1           teaspoon  cumin
  3/4           cup  green olives -- chopped
                        black pepper -- to taste

Preheat oven to 375
Cut potatoes into quarters, place in water to cover and cook for 10 min. Drain, reserving 1/2 c of the water.
Combine remaining ingredients in bowl.
Place the potatoes in a casserole dish with reserved water.
Pour the tomato mixture over the potatoes and mix.
Cover and bake for 60 min.

Recipe By Mary McDougall
The McDougall Quick and Easy Cookbook

My changes:
Instead of a red pepper I just used a bit more olives and counted the pimento stuffed in the middle of each slice as my pepper.

Believe it or not, that was the only change, and made only because I had no red peppers in the house.

It made a lot of juice just with the liquid from the canned tomatoes and really didn't need the extra 1/2 cup of water, but the sauce was so flavorful my husband jokingly said to just pour it into a glass and he'll drink it. He wound up dunking bread into his bowl, instead.

This made three nice sized bowls for dinner with just this container (3 cups) left over for today's lunch for me.
                                    
Good thing, too, because my cold, flu, or whatever it is is back. It started yesterday with a sore throat and swollen sinuses and a bit worse this morning. Next week's menus have been changed around so there will be minimal cooking again - leftover stew for the weekend lunches, pasta with jarred sauce for Saturday's dinner, burgers from the freezer for Sunday's. Monday will be the Mexican Casserole from the Engine 2 site. Tuesday will be what I call the Right Food's Casserole taken from this post about Star McDougaller Mike Teehan. I'll use the lower sodium chicken cups, a bag of store brand Southern style hash browns and a bag of frozen peas. Wednesday will again be a pasta with jarred sauce day and if I have the energy I'll defrost a sausage (made from Julie Hasson's recipe), 


slice it up on the diagonal, and fry it up with some (frozen?) onions and peppers and dump them in with the pasta. Thursday is our basic rice and veggie meal, a meal my son makes just fine for me when he has to using 2 bags of Success brown rice in one pot, 3 small bags of frozen peas and carrots nuked up in my 8 cup Pyrex measuring cup for 20 minutes, then all mixed together and served, each of us using our own extras on top, like canned water chestnuts, chow mein noodles, sometimes diced pineapple, canned beans or fried up marinated tofu or Soy Curls, the latter 2 only when I cook them up. We each have our own favorite sauce, too, with hubby reaching for either for full salt soy sauce, teriyaki or that hot "rooster" sauce and me either a lower sodium teriyaki or even salad dressing. Our son eats his sauce-less most times. Friday is usually pizza day and if I'm not up to it (like today) I'll have something else while the boys enjoy a frozen cheesy, meaty pie instead of a homemade whole wheat cheeseless and veggie heavy one. They don't mind the "sacrifice" and might even go so far as to call out and have one delivered.

But for now, time to take my asthma meds, pour a hot cup of tea, then get back to bed. I suspect my Puff Plus tissues and I will become good friends again very soon.