Rosemary Thyme Potato's

 

What I like about new potato's is that they absorb flavor really well. Here I'm making an awesome potato dish where I put the rosemary, thyme and garlic in the sauté pan with the potato's and them cook together. When the potato's are done cooking, I discard the sprigs of rosemary and thyme, but the flavors stay with the potato's.     

 

Ingredients:

1 pound medium white new potato's
1 sprig of fresh rosemary
2 or 3 sprigs of fresh thyme
3 - 4 rough chop garlic cloves
1 tablespoon butter
Olive oil
Salt and pepper


Preparation:
Take a 12" sauté pan and add 1 inch of water and bring to a boil. Wash the white new potato's and slice in half and add to the sauté pan. Add the rosemary, thyme, garlic, butter and a grind of salt and pepper. Bring the water in the sauté pan to just above a boil, partially cover with a lid and cook until all the water evaporates, about 15 minutes.

 

When the water is gone, the potato's are basically done cooking and now you just want to brown up the potato's. Remove the rosemary and thyme and add some olive oil. Turn up the heat to medium high and sauté until the potato's are nice and golden brown.
 

To serve, place the potato's on a serving plate and drizzle on some olive oil. Grind on a little fresh ground salt and pepper. Garnish with fresh thyme and a small sprig of rosemary.

Garlicky Parsely Potato's

I love these tiny red and white potatoes for a simple side dish. I steam them for a hour and they're so soft and creamy. Finish them off in a sauté pan with olive oil, garlic and salt and pepper, so good!

Ingredients:

1 pound red and white potatoes, size 1" - 1-1/2"

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 crushed garlic cloves

Salt & pepper

 

Preparation:

Wash the potatoes and place into a stove top steamer and cook on medium for 1 hour.

 

Take a 12" sauté pan and add the olive oil and garlic and cook on medium low for a minute, you don't want to burn the garlic so keep the heat down. Add the potatoes and toss until coated in the olive oil and garlic and you're done.

 

To serve, place the potatoes on a serving plate or bowl and garnish with chopped Italian parsley.

The Best Ever Red, White and Purple Potato's Fully Loaded

I made this recipe back in  May of '14, then I made it again recently, but in addition to the red potato's I added white and purple potato's, a few more toppings and it was awesome. I got this recipe from watching America's Test Kitchen. These potato's take in the garlic and bay leaf essence and they really are the best potatoes ever!

Ingredients:
1 pound red, white & purple potatoes 1" to 1-1/4" size
1 tablespoon butter
2 whole garlic cloves
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon chopped Italian parsley
6 green onions diced
1/8 cup shredded cheese
1/4 cup lite sour cream
Pinch red pepper flakes
Salt and Pepper


Preparation:

Wash the potatoes and slice in half. Place the potatoes flat side down in a 12" sauté pan. The potatoes will remain flat side down for the entire cooking process. By doing this you will end up with a crispy golden brown potato on one side and creamy in the middle. Next add the butter, garlic, bay leaf and water to just cover the top of the potatoes.

 

Cover the potatoes and cook at just below a boil for 15 minutes. Remove the lid and raise the temp to a slow boil and cook until all the water evaporates. Once the water has evaporated, remove the bay leaf and garlic cloves. Add a touch of olive oil, cook until the bottom side of the potato is golden brown.  Take the garlic cloves and rough dice them and toss on to the potatoes. To serve, place the potatoes on a plate or shallow bowl, top with the chopped Italian parsley, diced green onions, shredded cheese, red pepper flakes and sour cream. Finish the dish with a grind of salt and pepper

Scalloped Potato Stack

I guess I have a thing for scalloped potato's or maybe the mandolin I use to slice the potato's. In any event, I've made this a few times and it really makes for a nice way to serve scalloped potato's.

Ingredients:
1 large or 2 medium russet potato's
Shredded cheddar cheese
Slivered yellow onion
Lite sour cream
diced green onion

Preparation:

Peel the russet potato's and use your mandolin to slice the potato's very thin. Use the mandolin to also slice some yellow onion, you don't need much.

I use a metal 3" ring mold to make this scalloped potato dish. Place the ring molds on to a baking pan and spray the inside of the ring mold and bottom of the baking pan with olive oil or canola oil.

Place slices of potato in the ring mold about 1/3 of the way to the top. Add a couple of slivered
yellow onion, it doesn't take much. Add a little sprinkle of shredded cheddar and a pinch of salt and pepper.

Create another layer by adding more potato till your about 2/3's the way up to the top followed by a few slivered onions, cheddar cheese and salt and pepper. Top the scalloped potato with a little more cheese.

Cover the potato's with aluminum foil and bake in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes. Remove the aluminum foil and bake for an additional 15 minutes.

When done cooking use a oven mitt and hold the ring mold and use a sharp knife to cut the potato loose. Take a spatula and take the ring mold to the serving plate and slide the ring mold off.

Top the scalloped potato with lite sour cream, sprinkle of cheddar cheese and green onion.

This go wonderfully with a grilled steak!

Coffee Crusted Grilled New York Strip Steak

Roasted Fingerling Potatoes with Whole Roasted Garlic Cloves

Fingerling potatoes are very interesting because they have a tough skin like a russet, but have a soft creamy texture like a new potato. Preparation is about as easy as it gets and it amazing how good these little suckers are..

 

Ingredients:

1/2 pound fingerling potatoes

10 -12 garlic cloves

1 tablespoon olive oil

Salt and pepper

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Wash the fingerling potatoes and cut them in half. Place the potatoes in a large bowl and add the olive oil and a grind of salt and pepper. Place the potatoes in a baking pan and cook for 20 minutes stirring occasionally.

After 20 minutes add the garlic cloves to the pan. If you were to add them in the beginning they would over cook and burn. Cook another 20 minutes and you're done.

The Best Red Potatoes Ever

I got this recipe from watching America's Test Kitchen and they really are the best red potatoes ever!

Ingredients:
1 pound red potatoes 1" to 1-1/4" size
1 tablespoon butter
2 garlic cloves
1 bay leaf


Preparation:

Wash the potatoes and slice in half. Place the potatoes flat side down in a 12" sauté pan. The potatoes will remain flat side down for the entire cooking process. By doing this you will end up with a crispy golden brown potato on one side and creamy in the middle. Next add the butter, garlic, bay leaf and water to just cover the top of the potatoes.

 

Cover the potatoes and cook at just below a boil for 15 minutes. Remove the lid and raise the temp to a slow boil and cook until all the water evaporates. Once the water has evaporated, remove the bay leaf and garlic cloves. Add a touch of olive oil, cook until the bottom side of the potato is golden brown.  Take the garlic cloves and rough dice them and toss on to the potatoes. To serve, place the potatoes on a plate or shallow bowl, top with light sour cream, green onion and chopped Italian parsley.

Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes

When you consider how easy it is to make mashed potato's, it's a wonder that most people only have them a couple times a year, mostly on holidays. The key to making mashed potato's is to peel and cut the potato's into small pieces about 1" x 1" and let the potato's cook in water until completely softened. When the potato's are cooked properly, you will only need a potato masher and spoon, not a electric hand mixer to make creamy mashed potato's.


Ingredients
2 - 3 large russet potato's
1 cup 1% milk, more if needed
1 tablespoon butter
1 whole garlic clove
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
 

Preparation:
Peel the potatos and cut them into small pieces about 1' x 1". Place the potatos in a large stock pot with plenty of salted water. Bring the water to a boil and reduce the heat to simmer and cook for about 20 minutes.

Take your garlic clove and cut off the top. Cut a piece of tin foil, make it into a bowl shape and place on a baking pan. Place the garlic clove into the tin foil cup and drissel with olive oil and a grind of salt and pepper. Loosly close the top of the tin foil cup over the top over the top of the garlic clove and bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes. The roasted garlic will be done when the cloves are golden brown and soft as butter.

 

Place the cooked potatos into a large mixing bowl. Add the milk, butter, roasted garlic cloves and salt and peppper. Use your potato masher and mix until creamy smooth. If you find the potatos are still too thick, so add more milk to achieve the proper consistancy. Salt and pepper to tase and your ready to serve. 

Oven Baked Steak Fries with Organic Catsup

I was watching football over the weekend and saw a commercial that made me crave french fries, it' s not just me..is it? I don't typically eat fast food, let alone french fries so I made some of my own baked steak fries.

The key to making your own baked fries is that you have to coat them in corn starch right after you cut the fries. Second, you use just a touch of spray canola oil during the cooking process. The combination of the corn starch and spray canola oil is what makes these baked fries crispy on the outside and perfectly cooked on the inside. Yumm!

Ingredients:
Large russet potato's

Canola spray oil
2 tablespoons corn starch

Preparation:

Peel and cut the potato's into 1/2" x 1/2" thick and whatever the length of the potato happens to be. Take the cut potato's and put into a large bowl and sprinkle with the corn starch. All to the potato sides should be well covered with corn starch, if not add more corn starch until well coated.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Coat the baking pan with a thin layer of spray canola oil and then add the cut potato's to the baking pan in a single layer.

Lightly spray a coat of canola oil on the fries. Place in the oven and bake until some of the potato's start to turn a golden brown color. If they're not cooked enough, they're likely going to be sticking to the baking pan. Give the fries a little more time to cook and they'll release from the pan. Turn the fies a couple of time and each time spray a thin layer of canola oil, it doesn't take much

 The fries are done when they are golden brown on all sides. Remove from the baking pan to a plate, salt and serve with organic catsup.

Main Course Suggestion:
Santa Fe Chicken Sandwich

Scalloped Potatoes

Scalloped potatoes are one of my favorite side dishes to serve with grilled steak. There really is no instant scalloped potato product that is as good as just making it yourself. When made correctly, the potatoes will be dense, but tender with a hint of onion flavor.

The key to the dish is that the potatoes are sliced really thin. The best way to do this is with a mandolin like the one pictured. Not only does the mandolin offer perfect consistency, but it slices the potatoes really fast. You should be able to put this whole dish together and in the oven in 10 minutes.

Ingredients:

3 medium russet potatoes

1/4  small yellow onion

1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

2 tablespoons butter

1 cup 1% milk

Salt & Pepper

Preparation:

Peel the potatoes and onion. Use a mandolin set at 1.5 millimeters to slice the potatoes and onion.

Begin assembly by buttering the inside of an 8" x 8" ceramic baking dish. Place the sliced potatoes in the bottom of the dish making a layer about 3/4" thick. Place a few of the sliced onions, just a few, 1/3 of the shredded cheese and a grind of salt and pepper. Take 1 tablespoon of butter and cut it into 4 pieces and put on the potatoes. Repeat the process making a second layer. Use the remaining potatoes to finish the top layer. Pour in the milk and cover.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes. Remove the lid from the baking dish and sprinkle on the remaining 1/3 of the cheddar cheese. Put the potatoes back in the over for 10 minutes while the cheese melts.

Garlic Home Fries

I don't suppose I'll ever forget the garlic fries at Gordon Biersch restaurant or SF Giants baseball park, they're amazing. The key to garlic fried or in this case garlic home fries is that you don't cook the garlic with the potatoes. You prepare the olive oil, garlic and chopped Italian parsley sauce and pour directly on the home fries, toss and you're done. Here's how I garlic home fries.

Ingredients:
3 large russet potato's
2 tablespoons olive oil
12 garlic cloves
1/8 cup chopped Italian parsley
Salt & pepper

Peel and cut the potato's no larger and 1/2 cubes. Take your largest sauté pan and add a tablespoon of olive oil. When the oil is hot, add the potato's and fry until all sides are brown and crispy. Because the pieces are small the potato's will cook fairly quickly.

Peel and chop the garlic and add to a small microwave proof bowl. A small glass bowl works well for this step. Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil to the garlic and microwave until the olive oil and garlic start to bubble.

When the potato's are done, add the garlic, olive oil and parsley to the potato's. Toss until well mixed and serve.