Guest writer: Pamela Walker, writer and local farm and food activist (www.GrowingGoodThingsToEat.com)
I love potatoes probably more than just about any other vegetable. And I love Jacques Pepin and James Beard and have enjoyed their books and recipes for many years. I’m also a fan of the James Beard Foundation. What a delight, then, to get this recipe, with draws on Pepin’s version of many years ago, in a recent email newsletter from the James Beard Foundation. It’s from Joshua McFadden’s cookbook, Six Seasons: A New Way with Vegetables, a 2018 Beard Foundation award nominee.
For excellent Yukon Gold potatoes, I rely on Romero Farms. And for garlic, I recently bought some fabulous dried garlic slivers from Loretta Sandoval of Zulu’s Petals.
Crushed and Fried Potatoes with Crispy Herbs and Garlic
Yields 4 servings
Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 pounds small medium-starch potatoes, such as Yukon Gold
- Extra virgin olive oil
- 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
- 1 tablespoon rosemary leaves
- 1 teaspoon thyme leaves
- Kosher salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon dried chile flakes
- 4 lemon wedges
Preparation:
- Heat the oven to 400°F.
- Spread the potatoes on a baking sheet and bake until fully tender when poked with a knife, about 30 minutes, depending on how big they are.
- Let the potatoes cool enough so that you can handle them, then crush each one with your palm or the back of a pan. You want to create a patty shape, with lots of craggy surface area to crisp up in the hot oil. If you have larger potatoes, tear them up into smaller pieces after smashing.
- Heat 1/2 inch of olive oil in a large skillet until quite hot. Put a corner of a potato into the oil to test the heat; if it sizzles nicely, the oil is ready. Working in batches, fry the potatoes until nicely browned on one side.
- Flip and cook until both sides are browned, about 5 minutes total, but about 30 seconds before the potatoes are done, toss in some of the garlic, rosemary, and thyme.
- Transfer the potatoes to paper towels to drain. Continue frying the potatoes, scraping out the bits of garlic and herbs between batches so they don’t burn.
- Season with salt and black pepper and the chile flakes. Serve with a lemon wedge for each diner.
Excerpted from Six Seasons: A New Way with Vegetables by Joshua McFadden (Artisan Books). Copyright © 2017. Photographs by Laura Dart and A.J. Meeker.