Potatoes Unmashed

When you order potatoes on the side, most people expect either mashed potatoes, or a baked potato that you usually…  mash.  With another recipe from Hungary, here’s a different and flavorful way of preparing your potato side!

All the ingredients

The ingredients you will need:

• 1 large or 2 smaller potatoes (I used Russets)
• 3-5 cloves of garlic
• salt
• parsley flakes or freshly chopped parsley (see below)
• oil (vegetable or olive)

First and foremost, peel the potatoes and the garlic, then cut the potatoes into 1/2″ cubes.  I prefer using a chef knife for this.

In the meantime, put a small-size pot on the stove, and heat about a tablespoon of oil – just enough to cover the bottom of the pot – over medium to medium-high heat.  Load most of the garlic into a garlic press, or mince it very fine with a knife, and when the oil is hot, add them to the pot and start roasting them.

The half-inch cubes

Roast the garlic - be careful not to burn it tho!

When the garlic just started to roast, and the kitchen starts to smell really delicious, add the potatoes and stir them with a spatula or wooden spoon until they get all coated with the garlic oil.  Put a lid on the pot and drop the heat to just above medium-low.  Steam the potatoes like this, stirring them every now and then, until they are soft even in the center.  You can test that by poking one of the larger pieces with a knife – if it slides right in, you’re ready for the next step.

Take about this much dried parsley flakes:

... or about twice as much if youre using freshly chopped parsley.

Toss them into the pot with your potatoes, and stir them together so all the potatoes get their share of the flakes.  It should look about like this:

Your potatoes should look like this with the parsley

Add in the rest of the garlic, too, and put the lid back on for another 2-3 minutes, letting the dried parsley “reconstitute”, and to release its flavor, along with the extra garlic.  Then take off the lid, turn the heat back up to about medium-high, and start stirring the potatoes.  As it starts to sizzle and the potatoes get a nice roasted color, all there is left to do is to serve it.

The ready and served parsley potatoes

These potatoes are an excellent companion to most foods.  I especially recommend trying it on the side of grilled or roasted fish – the parsley compliments the flavor excellently, or to refresh the most common mashed potatoes/gravy side to fried chicken.

Enjoy your meal!

About these ads