For my next dish, I wanted to make something that could be eaten during Christmas dinner; a last minute side to something like chicken or steak. I was drawn to Jeff Smith's potato recipes because he explained the intricate background of the starch, mentioning, "The bulb was brought to the American colonies during the early 1700s, and it proved to be a lifesaver. It also proved to be a problem. People began to depend upon the potato for daily food..." (Smith 246). Potatoes are very versatile and because of their lack of a sharp taste, can be blended into many dishes. So, I decided to make Jeff Smith's old French style potatoes.
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| Chopped potatoes |
After washing the potatoes, I peeled and cut them into eighths instead of fourths, since they were quite large. Smith mentions to parboil the potatoes in salt water, which reduces cook time in the oven to around twenty minutes since uncooked potatoes take longer to fully cook (Smith 250).
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| Parboiling in salt water |
After parboiling the potatoes, I mixed a sauce with olive oil and flour. Smith advised adding parsley, but I chose rosemary since we didn't have any other fresh herbs. I advise you to really whisk this vinaigrette well, because the oil doesn't always fully mix with the salt and flour.
I first added lemon rind into the sauce per Smith's recipe, but then the sauce became very bitter so I decided to omit this ingredient. Instead, I decided to add garlic powder when I re-made the vinaigrette.
After mixing the vinaigrette, I put the potatoes on a buttered baking pan and poured the sauce on top, then mixed them. Jeff Smith's recipes suggest cooking them in a 450 degree oven, but since the potatoes weren't as crispy as I wanted them, I put my oven on broil and crisped them for a good three to four minutes after cooking them for twenty minutes at 450.
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| The finished product |
I really enjoyed this recipe! The potatoes came out really flavorful and it was fun to experiment with tastes rather than fully follow a recipe. You shouldn't feel that you have to follow a recipe completely when cooking, because some of the best dishes turn out to be improvised!
Would you try improvising in the kitchen after reading this? Which dish have you made that was improvised?
Smith, Jeff. “The Potato.” The Frugal Gourmet, Ballantine Books, 1984, pp. 246–250.
Hi Fahimah! That dish looks delicious! I really enjoy potato dishes and that seems to be an easy, but delicious one which I might try to make sometime. I am not much of an improviser with recipes, but after reading your post, I can see how at times improvising can create an even greater outcome. I might improvise with my cooking from now on by just changing one or two ingredients to suit my taste. When you said that you had to throw out the vinaigrette because it was too bitter, did it take a lot of lemon rind to make the vinaigrette bitter or did you just add a little and it became very bitter? Do you think adding lemon juice would have been better or did lemon just not seem to fit in with the flavors of the dish? Thanks for a great post! :)
ReplyDeleteHey, Claire! My mom usually cautions me to not zest the lemon too aggressively, because the white part of the rind underneath the peel is bitter. I ended up doing this, and it only took a small amount of rind to make the vinaigrette bitter. I think adding lemon juice would have added a nice zest to the dish, but since I was wary of using lemon again I took it out of the recipe. Rosemary and garlic was a great substitute. Thanks for reading!
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