Adult Home Fries!
Now, who doesn't like home fried potatoes, raise your hand.
As expected, I don't see a single hand up in the air. K-Duh! There is nothing that bonds more pleasantly and perfectly with your morning scramble and coffee.
But why relegate it to to the early dark mornings ghetto, eh? That's the thought I had last night at Chez Billzo when putting together a marinated Dijon and honey pork tenderloin as a sort of faux Easter meal thing. I found a couple of pounds of baby new potatoes in the pantry, the little red/purple one and scratched my head for a way to use em up in a not boring way.
Don't be a sad bunny, eat your home fries!
Eureka, adult home fries were born.
Gawd, I love potatoes. To not misuse a blatant stereotype, it's likely from the Kelly side of my family, the Irish immigrant half that true to stereotype came over to the US during the 19th century great famine.
But man, of all the taters I like, #2, right after my Grandma Faye Kelly's mashed potatoes, has to be new potatoes. They have a certain sweetness and subtle flavor that their larger brethren don't possess without quite the same glimmer of potato-esque authority. New potatoes are like little pieces of candy without the annoying foil wrappers to dig through.
Tonight I decided to dress them up a bit and make a complimentary side to the pork - without having to work too hard. It IS a holiday weekend after all.
To start out, I scooped up a few fist fulls of the little darlings and halved them into tiny half moons and tossed them into a small pot and brought it to a medium simmer.
I had to do a bit of helicoptering pull them off the heat when they lost just the perfect amount of structural integrity - not too al dente, but not too flabby, either. They needed to be almost fully cooked but undone enough to hold up to a fast saute. Hey, was that vague enough for you?
Once done to my liking, drained and slightly cooled, I grabbed a medium-sized pan and melted two tablespoons of butter, hearting them up quickly but not letting them froth or brown at all.
Then in goes the little purple half moons.
After about 20 seconds for tossing and coating with the butter, I added some sliced red onion (again with the sweetness), some finely chopped celery and sliced garlic and tossed and flipped and let all these new neighbors become acquainted.
I dusted with cracked black pepper, a swirl of salt and a chemtrail of cumin and continued spooning the mixture around to let the butter cover all and do its fatty flavor bonding thang.
This doesn't take long. Perhaps 5 minutes total as the taters are around 85% cooked before hitting the pan. Add more butter if it seems to be drying out too fast - it's a delicate line you're crossing between the wonder of butter and they potatoes feeling too slippery. You want them crisping up slightly but not getting crunchy. unless crunchy floats your boat, in which case do it!
Here's the adult part:
Near the end when I've adjusted the pepper and even added one twinge (med pinch) of cayenne for liveliness, I turned the heat up to med-high and poured one full glug (one, alligator...) of dry dry dry sherry for a final sizzle and sigh before turning off the burner and shoveling them onto plate.
Good God almighty they were fabulous, in fact I'm eating the leftovers for breakfast with my eggs this morning.
As expected, I don't see a single hand up in the air. K-Duh! There is nothing that bonds more pleasantly and perfectly with your morning scramble and coffee.
But why relegate it to to the early dark mornings ghetto, eh? That's the thought I had last night at Chez Billzo when putting together a marinated Dijon and honey pork tenderloin as a sort of faux Easter meal thing. I found a couple of pounds of baby new potatoes in the pantry, the little red/purple one and scratched my head for a way to use em up in a not boring way.
Don't be a sad bunny, eat your home fries!
Eureka, adult home fries were born.
Gawd, I love potatoes. To not misuse a blatant stereotype, it's likely from the Kelly side of my family, the Irish immigrant half that true to stereotype came over to the US during the 19th century great famine.
But man, of all the taters I like, #2, right after my Grandma Faye Kelly's mashed potatoes, has to be new potatoes. They have a certain sweetness and subtle flavor that their larger brethren don't possess without quite the same glimmer of potato-esque authority. New potatoes are like little pieces of candy without the annoying foil wrappers to dig through.
Tonight I decided to dress them up a bit and make a complimentary side to the pork - without having to work too hard. It IS a holiday weekend after all.
To start out, I scooped up a few fist fulls of the little darlings and halved them into tiny half moons and tossed them into a small pot and brought it to a medium simmer.
I had to do a bit of helicoptering pull them off the heat when they lost just the perfect amount of structural integrity - not too al dente, but not too flabby, either. They needed to be almost fully cooked but undone enough to hold up to a fast saute. Hey, was that vague enough for you?
Once done to my liking, drained and slightly cooled, I grabbed a medium-sized pan and melted two tablespoons of butter, hearting them up quickly but not letting them froth or brown at all.
Then in goes the little purple half moons.
After about 20 seconds for tossing and coating with the butter, I added some sliced red onion (again with the sweetness), some finely chopped celery and sliced garlic and tossed and flipped and let all these new neighbors become acquainted.
I dusted with cracked black pepper, a swirl of salt and a chemtrail of cumin and continued spooning the mixture around to let the butter cover all and do its fatty flavor bonding thang.
This doesn't take long. Perhaps 5 minutes total as the taters are around 85% cooked before hitting the pan. Add more butter if it seems to be drying out too fast - it's a delicate line you're crossing between the wonder of butter and they potatoes feeling too slippery. You want them crisping up slightly but not getting crunchy. unless crunchy floats your boat, in which case do it!
Here's the adult part:
Near the end when I've adjusted the pepper and even added one twinge (med pinch) of cayenne for liveliness, I turned the heat up to med-high and poured one full glug (one, alligator...) of dry dry dry sherry for a final sizzle and sigh before turning off the burner and shoveling them onto plate.
Good God almighty they were fabulous, in fact I'm eating the leftovers for breakfast with my eggs this morning.
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