Listen to this article:
Audio PlayerYou’ve got to give this 2-step cooking of potatoes a try. I think you will like it and make it often as a side dish, particularly for your weekend roasts and bakes.
I aimlessly picked up a couple pounds of potatoes last week just because they looked good. I know. Don’t ask. I do not know if you have been experiencing the same thing where you are, but for several years now, the English potatoes that we have been getting all look old and unattractive. Some of them you can see the skin on the cusp of wrinkling. They look sorrowful. Therefore, when I saw what looked like new potatoes – skin thin, firm and full – I picked up a few as if to simply acknowledge and show my appreciation for the spuds. There are so many things to make with potatoes and so many ways to cook them that one does not really need a plan to buy potatoes. Having said that, for several years now, I have only been buying potatoes when I need to cook them the same or next day because of the poor quality.
(Photo by Cynthia Nelson)
Last week Sunday, I couldn’t make up my mind how to cook the aloo (see how many names we have for potatoes). Potato salad, potato choka, mashed potatoes, roast potatoes, fried potatoes and homemade fries are all ways I thought of cooking the potatoes, but I took things a step further in my consideration given my restructured way of cooking and eating these days. What that means is that I had to think of cooking them in such a way that I could reheat and eat them for a couple of days. And so I started thinking…
Potato salad – appealing. No reheating required and I can add boiled eggs to the salad. Don’t know that I wanted potato salad to eat more than one day though.
Potato choka – that’s usually nice the same day and time it is made. After that, blah.
Roast potatoes – another one of those preparations that is best on the same day. Nah.
Mashed potatoes – preferred on the same day only for me. I could turn it into a filling for roti (aloo roti) or pot bake. Okay, but I wasn’t feeling it. The thing is what to make that I wanted to eat on the day itself!
Fried potatoes – sliced thinly and sautéed on low heat until soft. Yeah, this would work but what about the day(s) after. I was drawing a blank.
Homemade fries – yes! Big yes. But wait, what to do with the fries the next day? They are never the same no matter how much care you take in reheating them in the oven.
I then asked myself what it was that I wanted to have in eating the potatoes regarding taste and texture. I wanted the flavour that potatoes have when they develop a crust through scorching at the bottom of a pan or roasting. I also wanted the potatoes to be in large pieces and soft. Borrowing techniques from roasting, frying and sautéing, I set about cooking my potatoes. Here’s how things happened.
Potatoes were peeled and cut into large chunks. Smaller spuds were simply halved. I wanted the potatoes to have the size of roast potatoes. They were rinsed and left to drain in a colander then transferred to a large plate lined with kitchen paper towels and pat dry.
The bottom of a cast iron skillet was coated with a thin film of oil and placed over medium heat until light wisps of smoke appeared. Working in batches, the potatoes were laid cut side down to fry and get brown, as if roasted. They were turned over to get some colour too. Each batch was seasoned with a sprinkling of salt as soon as they were removed from the pan.
When all the potatoes were browned, they were added back to the heated pan over medium heat, covered, and the heat was reduced to low and left to cook for 20 minutes or until a knife inserted easily (without resistance).
Once cooked, the cover was removed and the heat raised back to medium so that water from the condensation could evaporate and the potatoes touching the bottom of the pan could again begin to crisp up a little before being removed from the heat.
The potatoes were very tasty and extremely moreish. The browning of it made you think of roast potatoes and the soft-cooked flesh made you think of homemade fries. A winning combo. These potatoes were especially good. They were only seasoned with salt but the flavour developed from the browning and then the final crusting took it to another level. You’ve got to try making these potatoes.
The plus side of making these potatoes are:
No long cooking
Very little oil to cook them
Easy to make
The leftovers were cut into small pieces and turned into hash and eaten with eggs and another day, the small pieces were tossed into a pan with a light drizzle of oil and cooked until the outside was crispy. The small crispy nuggets were ridiculously good.
I’m definitely making these potatoes again.
Cynthia
cynthia@tasteslikehome.org
