Posted on 06/24/2015 4:55:21 PM PDT by Jamestown1630
I once attended a wonderful wedding dinner given by a Greek lady for a friend of mine. The marriage was a late-life second marriage for both the bride and groom, and they just went off to the courthouse in the morning and 'got hitched'.
That evening, they were feted with the first authentic Greek dinner I'd ever enjoyed, with about fifty people seated at numerous tables that were set up in the home of the hostess. This lady and her husband managed the cooking and serving of the dinner alone, in a feat of efficient, elegant hospitality that left me in awe. They served leg of lamb, a Greek salad, and potatoes like none I'd ever tasted.
There are many recipes for these Greek-style garlic- and lemon-flavored roasted potatoes, most of them pretty much the same. Some recipes include a little lemon rind in addition to the lemon juice; and some have more or less garlic. I'm still trying to get the balance of garlic and onion down, and next time I'll use more garlic; but this recipe has turned out very well. It's adapted from 'Greek Meze Cooking: Tapas of the Aegean', by Sarah Maxwell:
Garlic Roasted Potatoes
2 lbs. large, waxy Potatoes (like Yukon Gold), peeled
1/4 C. Olive Oil
1/2 C. freshly squeezed Lemon Juice
2 tsps. dried Oregano (If you grow or have access to fresh oregano, use twice as much)
3 Garlic Cloves, minced
Salt and freshly ground Black Pepper, to taste
1/2 C. Water
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Cut the potatoes into quarters or eighths lengthwise, and place in a large baking dish (Use a dish or pan large enough to have the potatoes all in one layer.)
Add the remaining ingredients, and stir to coat (hands are best for this ;-)
Bake at the top of the oven, uncovered, for 1 hour, or until lightly golden, crisp on the outside and soft inside. You need to watch this, so that the potatoes don't become too dry; if they do, rearrange them and add a little water during cooking. A little bit of slight burn on edges doesn't hurt, but you don't want them to be so dry they stick to the plate and can't be turned.
Here is another recipe for the same thing, with slightly different measurements, which I will try next:
http://www.food.com/recipe/greek-potatoes-oven-roasted-and-delicious-87782
When I first became interested in Asian food, and was experimenting with various levels of vegetarianism, I read the exhaustive 'Book of Miso', by William Shurtleff. Miso is a savory seasoning made from fermented soybeans, and used very much in Japanese cooking.
From this book, I learned to make Miso Soup, and the Dashi base of that soup; as well as how to handle Tofu. After learning those basics, I was attracted to a potato recipe in the same book that turned out really well.
The book has now been made available as a free PDF, and 'Potatoes with Miso White Sauce Au Gratin; is on page 136 (scroll down about halfway, to find the download):
Mr. Shurtleff and Akiko Aoyagi also manage the Soy Info Center:
http://www.soyinfocenter.com/aboutus-authors.php
Lastly: a great 'Smashed Potato' recipe.
When my husband and I became aware of all the cooking shows on Cable TV, one of the TV personalities we really liked was Ina Garten; so we bought one of her cookbooks, and her Parmesan Smashed Potatoes immediately became a family favorite:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/parmesan-smashed-potatoes-recipe2.html
(Frankly, we've never made an Ina Garten recipe that didn't turn out very well.)
This week: Spuds!
Posting early because I have a shoulder injury and need some extended time off of typing after tonight. Will read, and be back.
(If you would like to be on or off of this weekly cooking thread, please send a private message.)
-JT
I'm out on a limb here but I think rehydrated potato flakes work perfectly with this. Lots of milk and butter and making sure the filling is of excellent quality and no one will know the difference. Saves time and mess.
Miss M., I’ll eat potatoes any way they come ;-)
(My husband does a Shepherd’s Pie that is low-carb, and uses cauliflower cooked in chicken broth and garlic and then mashed, for the topping...I haven’t quite warmed up to it yet ;-)
-JT
/johnny
Just noticed an error, when I said that I was trying to get the balance of ‘garlic and onion’ down. I meant garlic and LEMON. There are no onions in this recipe.
Sorry of this was confusing,
JT
Great to hear from you, Johnny!
We’ve always got ‘fake’ potatoes in the pantry. Jacques Pepin often uses them as a thickener in soups and stews; and I just LIKE them sometimes :-)
JT
And they are good.
/johnny
Even easier - get a package of Bob Evans mashed potatoes (they’re usually in the same refrigerator case as the sausage and kraut). They’re real mashed potatoes that you’re supposed to just heat up. One covers an average casserole dish. I’ve used them on many shepherd’s pies over the years.
We love those refrigerated potatoes; they’re very handy, and barely different from homemade.
But I have a question: Whenever I’ve made ‘real’ mashed potatoes and had leftovers, I could freeze the leftovers, and they’d be fine for a while. (I have a horror of wasting food, and always freeze some leftover lunch plates after a big holiday dinner.)
When I make ‘instant’ mashed potatoes, they don’t freeze at all well, but just go to a yucky, watery slurry.
Can you freeze the Bob Evans refrigerated ones, either before or after cooking? I’ve never tried that.
-JT
That sounds good ..and I just ate dinner.
Ina is my favorite of the Food TV chefs. I used some of her recipes when I catered.
The only way to “handle” tofu is to toss it in the trash...UGGGGH...
Well, deep fried tofu cubes with a little bit of soy sauce sprinkled on, are very tasty.
But I’m now kind of leery of any Soy that isn’t fermented.
Miso is a wonderful seasoning.
-JT
I occasionally hunger for them also. I drown them in butter and make a meal out of it. I keep a box of potato flakes for when the urge hits me.
My favorite cookbook writer, Laurie Colwin, swore by them when she cooked in a homeless shelter. So it seems no one here thinks they’re nasty.
I think Ina has two somewhat different recipes in her books that she calls “smashed”. The recipe I posted is sort-of ‘mashed’.
-JT
I love crispy, smashed, taters. Boil them till their tender. Drain and let them cool (you can store them in the fridge at this point and cook them later.) Then, put them on a baking sheet, smoosh them with your hand, drizzle with oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Then roast in a 450 degree oven for 20 minutes or until they’re to your liking.
Makes them nice and crispy, crunchy. I like to use the smaller taters myself.
Prepare some hamburger as follows:
Sauté chopped onions and green (red/yellow) peppers until the onions are limp. Add chopped garlic, ground beef, salt, cumin, oregano & black pepper. When the meat is cooked through, drain of any excess oil. Stir in a bit of tomato paste and a drizzle of lemmon juice. (Add chopped olives and raisins now if you want authentic Cuban.) Continue to cook for 2-3 minutes until the mixture is heated through then set aside.
Boil and mash potatoes and season with bouillon or spices and butter then pat into hand size mini “bowls”. Stuff one bowl with the hamburger filling and cover with another bowl of mashed potatoes to create a tennis sized ball (or golf ball). At this point all the ingredients are cooked.
Place in fridge and allow to cool then dip in egg wash and roll in seasoned bread crumbs and fry in EVOO till golden brown. Yum!
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