Potato Pahtato!

What a cliche name for a  blog post about potatoes?! Anyways, sorry for being m.i.a. for a couple days. My post today will be about.. POTATOES!!!!!!!! We lovvvvve any form of potatoes - mashed, roasted, fried, boiled... (as a matter of fact, Rosie just had her first run-in with homemade sweet potato puree last week and it was a succes!) Our favorite is sweet potato (chunks, fries, chips). Here is the low down on some varieties of everyone's favorite starch!

1) Sweet Potatoes= also called yams, really hearty and not only for Thanksgiving!!! Known to be orange, a lot of people don't know that there are white and "pink" sweet potatoes. Anyways, here is a really simple way to make delicious roasted sweet potatoes:

-Cut each sweet potato in half the long way. Then cut each half the long way in the middle (can make 2 long cuts, depends on how big the potato is), and then crosswise to make even chunks (try and make them all the same size, to insure even cooking). OR cut in fries.
-Toss all chunks with olive oil, salt & pepper, and freshly minced garlic (figure 1 clove per 3 potatoes)
-Roast at 450 degrees on baking sheets sprayed with olive oil spray for 45 minutes to an hour, tossing potatoes halfway thru cooking, and rotating the pans.
-Sprinkle with garlic salt as soon as it comes out of the oven
-Serve with garlic mayonnaise (don't knock it till you try it!)

Sweet potatoes also make for a delicious soup, but that's for another post :-)

2) Confetti Potatoes/Fingerling= Trader Joe's sells a little bag of mixed potatoes that they call "confetti potatoes." It's a mix of mini Yukon Golds, purple, red, & fingerling potatoes. Fingerlings actually look like- finger shaped potatoes! For these roasted chips I used the Yukon golds & the purple potatoes. Terra Blue Chips, anyone?? Just cut the potatoes in chip shapes, toss or brush with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt & pepper. Roast at 425 degrees for about 30-40 minutes, flip them halfway through, and rotate the pans (same method as above). Sprinkle with salt when you take them out of the oven. Make chips out of any potatoes. I just made sweet potato chips for Shabbos- yummm. 

 3) Red Potatoes= good for use in any of the top methods, but also can be used for this deliciously simple potato salad. I used to screw up all the potato salads I'd ever make, so I gave up for a while. Avi is obsessed with Bagel Boss potato salad, so eventually I sucked it up and made the attempt once more, and believe it was a success:
-9 red potatoes, cut in chunks & put in a pot of water, bring to a boil. Boil for a few minutes until pierced easily with a fork, not too soft though.
-Once cooled, add 1/2 cup of mayonnaise, 3 tbsp. dijon mustard (more if you'd like), and a sprinkle of garlic salt.
-Finish off with chopped dill & scallions. Refrigerate until serving time
(I once made this with roasted, instead of boiled, red potatoes and served it warm, it was delicious!!)

-I don't often use Idaho potatoes, I find they are very starchy and gritty. For mashed potatoes, or regular potato fries I recommend using big Yukon Golds:

-Bake at 425 for 25 minutes

-Get out your graters or food processors and start working on those Chanukah latkas!!!

Till next time,

E  

I have plenty more potato recipes, but will save them for a different time!