Rantings of an Amateur Chef

Food is a great way to connect with others. Most people like to talk about food (what their favorites are, what they had last night, etc…) and often times you can find some shared experience around food. While I realized this long ago, once I started writing the blog it has become a much more common occurrence for me to have food discussions with friends, family and co-workers.

Recently, while I was waiting for a meeting to start, I struck up a conversation with a former boss of mine. She is quite the foodie herself and we quickly went to recently made items. One of her recent menu items, Smashed Roasted Potatoes, intrigued me. I not only hadn’t had them before,I don’t think I’d heard of them. She walked me through the (very easy) recipe and after I got home, I found the recipe online.

These were so easy and sooooo good.

The standard recipe is pretty straightforward in its limited ingredients. I think in the future I may play around a bit with additional spices, or maybe even throw some shredded cheese over them at the end.

You have to cook the potatoes first. A key is the smashing. You want to get the potatoes as thin as possible as long as you retain enough integrity that they hold together. The thinner they are, the quicker they will crisp up.

I like how the colors of the broken skin look on the potatoes.

Crispy Smashed Roasted Potatoes

Makes: 4 as a side dish

Ingredients:

• 12 to 15 baby red or yellow potatoes (about 1-1/2 oz. each; 1-1/2 to 2 inches in diameter)
• 2-3/4 tsp. kosher salt
• 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Directions:

Put the potatoes in a large saucepan (preferably in one layer) and cover with at least an inch of water. Add 2 tsp. kosher salt to the water. Bring the water to a boil over high heat, reduce to a simmer, and cook the potatoes until they are completely tender and can be easily pierced with a metal or wood skewer. Make sure they are cooked through but don’t overcook. The total cooking time will be 30 to 35 minutes.

While the potatoes are cooking, set up a double layer of clean dishtowels on your countertop. As the potatoes finish cooking, remove them individually from the water, and let them drain and sit for just a minute or two on the dishtowels.

Fold another dishtowel into quarters, and using it as a cover, gently press down on one potato with the palm of your hand to flatten it to a thickness of about 1/2 inch. Repeat with all the potatoes. Don’t worry if some break apart a bit; you can still use them.

Cover a large rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil; put a sheet of parchment on top of the foil. Transfer the flattened potatoes carefully to the baking sheet and let them cool completely at room temperature.

Remove the pan of potatoes from the refrigerator, if prepared ahead. Heat the oven to 450°F. Alternatively, if you have a convection function, turn it on and set the temperature at 400°F. Sprinkle the potatoes with about 3/4 tsp. salt and pour the olive oil over them. Lift the potatoes gently to make sure some of the oil goes underneath them and that they are well coated on both sides. Roast the potatoes until they’re crispy and deep brown around the edges, about 30 minutes if using a convection oven, 30 to 40 minutes if roasting conventionally, turning over once gently with a spatula or tongs halfway through cooking. Serve hot.

Nutritional Info:

Size : based on four servings; Calories (kcal): 270; Fat (g): 20; Fat Calories (kcal): 180; Saturated Fat (g): 3; Protein (g): 2; Monounsaturated Fat (g): 15; Carbohydrates (g): 20; Polyunsaturated Fat (g): 2; Sodium (mg): 520; Cholesterol (mg): 0; Fiber (g): 2;

Source: http://m.finecooking.com/recipes/crispy-smashed-roasted-potatos.aspx