SHEET PAN DINNER - FOR THOSE NIGHTS WHEN YOU ARE TOO EXHAUSTED TO BREATHE

 

Hello. I am writing this in the wee hours on a dark, wintry morning, plagued, as I often am, with insomnia. The quiet of the early hours is lovely and almost makes up for my bleary-eyed stupor.  How are you? I hope you are getting along okay.

Over the years, people have frequently told me, with a slight sneer and a certain haughtiness that "I must have A LOT of time on my hands if I cook for myself", I am  perplexed as I have always cooked out of practical necessity and I assumed that most other people did that also. Most of us are not independently wealthy. As a young adult, I did not have enough disposable income, no, make that, I had NO disposable income, that would allow me the luxury of eating in restaurants every day. And I did not wish to subsist on a steady diet of prepackaged food, loaded as it often is with trans fats, preservatives, salt and sugar. Take out, while a lovely treat, now and again, (who doesn't love the occasional pizza or Thai curry?) tends to be greasy and heavy. I cannot eat that way every day, nor do I wish to.

 I enjoy cooking much of the time, I am not ashamed of the pleasure I derive from domesticity or domestic routine, but hey, I am HUMAN like everyone else. There are days when I come home from work exhausted and it takes my last ounce of available energy to lift a kitchen knife.  

On those sleep deprived days, I defer to either my cache of freezer batch cooking (more on that in future posts) or my "one pan wonders", that is protein, vegetable and/or starch, that I prepare in a single vessel, in this instance, a sheet pan. This particular dish, which has been in my regular repertoire for decades, adapted from Chatelaine Magazine, takes all of ten minutes to prepare. I slice a yam into fat coins, toss it with some rosemary and a glug of olive oil. Later, I add chopped apple (you don't have to peel it) and a couple of sausages.  You can defer to your spice cabinet if you do not have the fresh herbs listed in the recipe but, I would suggest using fresh rosemary rather than dried if at all possible. Dried rosemary tends to have an unappetizing texture and a soapy, dusty aftertaste.

For a dish containing few ingredients, the results are transformative. The yam and apple become tender and caramelized from their blitz in the hot oven while the sausages remain plump and juicy. This is the magic of cooking, this alchemy, this transformation of a few humble ingredients into something spectacular.  Bonus this dinner is not only a no brainer, it is inexpensive to make. I guarantee you will save a few dollars on your grocery bill if you add this to your dinner routine.

TIP/HACK: If you cover your sheet pan with baking parchment, you will lengthen the life of the pan and you will save time on washing up. As this is a "one pan, two plates" kind of dealio, clean up should already be a breeze!

That is it for today folks.. I will be publishing my weekly "happy list" on Saturday  rather than Friday going forward. The recipe is listed below.

SAUSAGE, YAM AND APPLE BAKE - Serves 2 but can easily be doubled.

Ingredients

• 1 large yam
• 1 apple , preferably Gala or Granny Smith
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1 tsp fresh rosemary
• 1/4 tsp dried thyme or 1 tsp fresh chopped thyme
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 to 4 sausages , preferably pork, Italian works well. Vegetarians might try Field's chorizo.

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 375F (220C). Peel yam and slice into rounds, about 1/2 in. (1 cm) thick. Slice unpeeled, cored apple into wedges, then set aside. Place potato in a bowl. Drizzle with oil. Sprinkle with dried rosemary, thyme and salt. Toss until coated. Place on a large baking pan.
• Add apple wedges to bowl and stir to coat with any leftover oil and seasonings. Set aside. Nick sausages and arrange around potato slices.
• Roast, uncovered, 20 min. Then turn potato and sausages. Add apple to pan. Continue roasting until sausages are cooked and yam coins are tender, 20 more min. Sprinkle with chopped fresh rosemary.
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