Wannabe Writer's Ink

Wannabe writer with hobby of art. Stay and you'll glimpse a small piece of my heart.

Roasted Potatoes

One day, Sergey and I were ravenously hungry and--surprising nobody--we went in search of a recipe that could use more garlic. And this time, we opted, not for more mushroom, but for a more flavorful oil. Pop quiz, what made old-style McDonald's fries the best?

Feeds 3-4 people who want a lot of side dish

Ingredients:

  • 5-6 lbs mini red potatoes
  • 3 oz garlic
  • 5 tbsp beef tallow
  • 3 tsp salt
  • 3 tsp pepper
  • 3 tbsp rosemary
  • 1 tbsp garlic powder

Directions:

  1. Wash potatoes, then cut all potatoes in quarters.
  2. Par-boil the potatoes (starting in cold, salted water) until a sharp knife can pierce them with little/medium resistance. Test if you can fluff the surface of the potato, but don’t keep it in so long that it’s cooked all through.
  3. Run dried rosemary through a mortar and pestle or chop fresh rosemary finely. Measure out all the spices in advance. Dice the garlic fine.
  4. Keep checking potatoes. When ready, drain potatoes in a colander and stir/stab roughly with a large metal spoon to fluff the surfaces of the potatoes. If you are dedicated, cross-hatching every cut surface of the potatoes with a fork yields better results.
  5. Melt the tallow in a small saucepan over low heat.
  6. In a large bowl, combine potatoes and tallow. Once well coated, add the spices and keep mixing until potatoes are evenly coated.
  7. Line 2 or 3 baking sheets with foil and arrange potatoes on the baking sheets. They should not overlap, but touching is fine. One cut side should be facing down for each piece.
  8. Convection roast at 450 degrees for 45 minutes. At that point, check the oven every 5 minutes until potatoes are crispy-looking and excess garlic is turning black.
  9. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes. More salt & pepper to taste, then serve.

Note: If your oven does not convect, then pre-heat to 450 degrees and roast for 45 minutes.
Cleaning: To clean tallow out of your bowl and utensils, run hot water over the surfaces, then toss the water outside. Never let it run down the drain.

Recipe amalgamated from You Suck at Cooking recipe book and Jesspryles Best-Ever Roast Potatoes recipe.