Adventures of An American Chef On The Run: Smashed Potatoes

My very best local friend's birthday is coming up and he's asked me to do the honors of catering his party at his house. He's been a fan of my food for a long time, so it's natural he asked me.  I was already planning on making him a cake, so dinner's not much more for me to do for him.  From my understanding last year he had a similar event, that he catered himself.  I've been to one of his home cooked dinners and while he's a phenomenal chef himself, he should spend his day enjoying the day with his friends, not in the kitchen!  I don't know about you but the idea of catering a several course meal on your birthday isn't my idea of a perfect day, even shared with good friends. 

So as soon as he asked I jumped on the opportunity, partially because I want to make him a cake, one that I'll FOR SURE share here, as it's going to be a day long process of epic childhood nostalgia for me, as it was my birthday cake for literally every birthday growing up. Today's recipe is one of my favorite potatoe recipes, one that happens to be the side for the main course entree.  I give you, smashed potatoes. 

The ingredients are simple, it's all in the process. Partially motivated by the fact that small potatoes are currently several pesos cheaper than the big ones and partially motivated by the fact that they're delicious, I've decided to include them as the side to my dinner for my friend's birthday. There's also butter, probably between 1/4 and 1/3 of a cup for the 1.5 lbs of potatoes I used for the two of us.  Salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste and that's it.  You can add bacon and cheese, but they're honestly great by themselves.

Like I said, all in the process with this one.  I wash each small potato and poke them once with a fork before they go into the pan.  Once they're all in there fill to cover with water.  Add a little salt and chicken bullion powder and boil the crap out of them until they're soft.  For me, this is like an hour process as Mexican potatoes are WAY firmer than American potatoes.  

If you get here and try cooking potatoes, don't get discouraged. They often times need boiled before frying unless cut super tiny or shredded. Boiling takes twice as long for the same results.  Mashing is only okay with a mixer and it's a pain in the ass with that.  For whatever reason, I can have mashy soft potatoes in water, drain that water, try to mash them and they're firm again.  Literally have sent milk and butter spritzing around the kitchen dealing with these potatoes before I understood that they just need a lot longer. 

Even boiled for a long time, more than a half hour, these were more firm than I'm used to for this recipe.  In the states when I make this, I boil the potatoes for 20 minutes and barely have to apply any pressure before they smash.  Here, I've got to put a good amount of pressure.  They're cooked, just firm. Once they're cooked, generously butter the bottom of a baking dish.  One by one smash the potatoes in the pan, giving a bit of space between each to avoid over crowding the pan.  They won't really crisp if they're too close together. Top that with more melted butter and broil on high in your oven until they're golden brown and crispy.

You'll notice the smallest bits are golden, nearly brown for the tiniest.  If you flip the potatoes over, you'll see a nice golden crispy skin which is what you're looking for.  I generally season my potatoes after cooking, but a bacon and cheese topping before would be really good.  I've heard of topping with parmesean cheese and garlic powder after, something I'll eventually try.  The point is they're versatile and easy, especially if you've got American potatoes, or softer potatoes in general. Anyone driving to Acapulco wanna smuggle me some potato starts in their luggage? I would probably cry if you did, definately would write an article about it.

I came across this one online a long time ago and it's been one of my favorites.  When we lived with John's aunt a few years ago, I'd always have her kids after me when I made them, so I got in the habit of making LOTS so the kids could have them too, much to the annoyance of the raw vegan leaning parents.  I honestly didn't believe they'd be so good, so I put off making them for a long time.  When I finally did, I felt stupid at what I had left behind.  

When I lived in Cleveland off the grid, I grew a lot of potatoes, many of them tiny.  A stove top variation of this probably would have been amazing, especially with blue organic potatoes.  I regret not doing more creative things with the food I got out of that garden.  I think I'll use my disappointment as motivation to make my current garden better, so I can truly start to experiment. Between writing, glassblowing and gardening there's not much time to go around up here, but I'm doing my best to learn better time management skills. 

Thanks for reading, let me know if you try this.