Roasted New Potatoes

The recipe demonstrates once again a fundamental truth that potatoes must be blanched before being cooked at high heat. If you put the potatoes directly in the oven and blast them, they’ll end up mushy or chewy. I don’t really know why. Blanching in water first does something like explode the starch packets contained inside the potato, ensuring a fluffy interior, regardless of how crispy you make the exterior. This recipe can be followed with red bliss potatoes or any kind of waxy potato – russets seem to lose their shape and mash up too much – if you leave the skins on and cut them into pieces. Also, it’s important to use a thick-bottomed dish for these – I once made them for a large group in a disposable aluminum tin, and found out that the ones touching the bottom didn’t crisp up at all. Ideally, you want something that’s going to absorb the head of the oven, hold it, and thus transfer it to the potato (as well as to the water that exits the potato, therefore forcing it to evaporate rather than collect on the bottom). The thin aluminum wall seemed to allow the heat to dissipate too quickly to collect, and therefore I did not achieve the desired effect. In fact, this is probably a good rule for all casserole dishes, and a notable drawback of the disposable aluminum ones.

In recent years I’ve started using a potato seasoning mix that I brought back from Greece, in addition to everything else, and it does lend a distinct flavor. This directly violates one of my core philosophies, which is to know what you’re putting in your food, and avoid pre-made mixtures. I don’t always go so far as to make my own ketchup and Worcester sauce, but spice mixes like this I do generally avoid. In this case, I actually think it’s powdered mustard, oregano, basil, and thyme, but I might be wrong. It’s old school(ish) and Greek and I like the flavor, so what the fuck? and if you find it you could certainly add it, but it is by no means crucial.

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs new potatoes, scrubbed and cut into halves or quarters, depending on their size, so that they’re in roughly 1.5” chunks.
• 4 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
• 2 sprigs fresh rosemary
• 1 small bunch fresh thyme
• ¼ cup olive oil
• 2 TBSP white wine vinegar
• Salt and pepper
• Optional: 2 TBSP Greek potato seasoning

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 450. Place the scrubbed and cut potatoes in a pot of cold water, add a generous amount of salt and bring to a boil. Once the water is at a rolling boil, begin tasting the potatoes frequently. When they are about half-cooked, drain the potatoes and place in large bowl. Keeping your thumb over the top so that you reduce the flow to drips, sprinkle the potatoes with the vinegar, tossing while you do, so that everything is absorbed equally. Vinegar is an important component to enjoying potatoes, and they will absorb it most uniformly while they’re hot.

Next toss with the olive oil, garlic, and herbs. Make sure to salt and pepper generously. Pour the whole mixture into a casserole dish (it’s ok if a bit of oil pools at the bottom), scraping the spices and remaining oil from the bowl on top. Shake the casserole sharply once or twice from side to side, so that everything settles, and place in the oven. After about 10 minutes, or when you see that things on top and bottom are getting a nice brown crust, stir the mixture once to redistribute what’s on top and what’s on bottom. Leave it in the oven for another 15 minutes (this is remarkably forgiving, and will remain delicious were you to leave it in well after the 15 minutes have elapsed, but don’t go crazy with it), then remove from the oven. Serve and enjoy within 15 minutes!