Are these gorgeous or what? I was so impressed with myself when they came out of the oven that I had to call Yankee Bill over to ooohhh and aaahhh over them, which he thoughtfully did 🙂
Potatoes are an inexpensive food in most parts of the country-as well as one that stores well-so they should be a staple in most frugal pantries. I tend to use them either mashed, or cubed and boiled in various dishes or as a side with a bit of butter tossed on. This was a nice way to add a bit of variety to my repertoire.
The recipe is so embarrassingly easy that I hesitate to call it a recipe. All you do is cube up raw potatoes (approx 1 inch-I left the peels on but you don’t have to), rinse and soak in cold water for a little bit then drain and pat dry (this isn’t strictly necessary, but I read once that it gets rid of the surface starch and makes the outside crispier-I don’t know if it is true, but that’s what I did), toss the cubes with some oil and spices of your choice (I threw in seasoned salt, pepper, rosemary and garlic powder), place on an oiled pan (I used my stone cookie sheet) and bake at 400 for 45 minutes.
That’s it. The hardest part is remembering to start 45 minutes before you want to eat!
Oh, and a quick tip! You can go ahead and cube (and peel) potatoes whenever you have a chance during the day, and then just put them in water to cover. This will keep them from browning and is a fine way to store them until you are ready to use them. If you want to be even more prepared you could throw the oil and spices together in a plastic bag big enough to hold the potato chunks-a bread bag is fine as long as there are no holes. When ready to cook, just squish the spices around in the oil to distribute, then toss the potato chunks in and shake. So you can get the prep done at 1030 in the morning if you want and then 45 min before you want to eat dinner you only have to spend about 3 minutes getting it together and thrown in the oven.
Silly question but do you guys have roast potatoes over there, the fattening, crispy, absolutely yummy version, as part of a sunday roast like we do here in the UK?
It sounds like you don’t… if so you need educating! 🙂
Ok, from a quick look on recipezaar.com it doesnt look like you do.. sooo….
cut potatoes into large chunks (a couple of mouthfulls each, kinda thing). leave skins on or don’t – typically you take them off but I leave them on. parboil them til theyre just soft enough to get a fork into but not at eating stage. when they’re ready, put about 1/2″ of oil into a deep sided tray (some use lard, goosefat etc), and heat til its smoking in the oven. drain the potatoes in a metal colander and shake around until they’re slightly ‘fluffy’ all over. dump into the hot oil, stir, and then roast til theyre gorgeously crisp all over (about 30-40 mins).
most brits just wouldn’t eat a sunday roast without these 😀
i’ll go with what lightisfading said. with one proviso. the hotter the oil, the better, so.. use a good thick tray (i use a cast iron frying pan with a cast iron handle that can go in the oven) and lard, which can tolerate a high temperature. I get teh pan as hot as possible, put the lard in to melt. Goose fat is another good one. OH likes me to put in some garlic cloves to give a garlicy flavour, but fish em out before you put them in the oven cos burnt garlic is bitter and trust me, these will burn (they’re so small). then spoon the fluffy potatoes into the hot fat, one at a time, stir or spoon the hot fat over and then pop into the oven.
mammmmamia. i want some now.
keth
xx
We eat these a lot and we do a lot of oven fries here too. I just got one of those Pampered Chef fancy cutting gadgets (for less than half price through someone who was weeding out their kitchen supplies) and we made waffle fries these week.
Those potatoes are so good in all different ways and you can reheat them in a little oil in a skillet to go with your eggs in the morning 😉
I do a lot of baked potatoes for lunch too- they certainly keep our grocery budget low!
Tater tots are good and cheap too.
lightisfading & kethry-Wow, those sound AMAZING. Unfortunately for me, I’m trying to cut calories and lose weight right now, so no trying yummy fried crispy potatoes!
Amy-You know, I never thought about doing baked potatoes for lunch. Duh. Sometimes the simplest things sneak past me. . .