Balls and Walnuts
more than you ever wanted to know
Squashed potatoes
. . . or as Cooks Illustrated calls them, “Smashed Potatoes.”
These came out great and were really very easy to put together. Buy a bunch of little potatoes, 1.5 inch to 2 inches diameter. They recommend the little red ones but I bought the little yellow ones. Two per person should be more than adequate as a side dish.
Preheat your oven to 500 F. Yes, 500 F. These potatoes are forged in hell.
Line a cookie sheet with foil. Add the potatoes and about 1/3 cup water. Cover with foil and crimp the edges. Pop it in the oven for about 30 min, or until a knife easily pierces your largest potato. For my potatoes (which were more like 2.5 inches diameter), it took 40 min.
Remove the foil and carefully flip your potatoes — they’ll have begun to brown on the bottom. Coat all over with olive oil (a paint brush helps). Smash each potato with something heavy. Cooks Illustrated recommends using another cookie sheet to smush down the potatoes all at once; I used my 4 cup Pyrex measuring cup.
Now slather onto each potato even more olive oil. Add salt, pepper, and a pinch of thyme to each potato.
Pop back into the oven until everything looks good and crispy. Cooks Illustrated did 15 min on the top rack, 20 min on the bottom rack, but this seemed like overkill. I took mine out after the initial 15 min on the top rack and they were wonderful — crispy on the outside and bottom, tender on the inside.
Yummy!
And aren’t you proud of me? I found a YouTube video featuring live maggots in some poor soul’s nose, but I posted this recipe instead.
D.
I made this tonight, only I boiled the tatties in a pan, drained, salted and then added them to a hot pan and seasoned up with rosemary (I have no thyme), chicken seasoning and olive oil. The kids declare these their new favourite potato preparation.