Baharat Smashed Potatoes

Amarante

Fri, Mar 12 2021, 11:24 am

These were a delicious way to make potatoes. Very ingenious to boil and then roast them so they are cooked well but crispy. I had never made them in this way - is this a standard preparation method that I have missed for many years? Very Happy

Obviously the spice mix/flavorings can be whatever you want but I thought I would expand my tastes outside my usual olive oil/garlic/rosemary.

Depending on spices/flavorings used, this could be made for Pesach.

Baharat Smashed Potatoes

Excerpt From: Jake Cohen - Jew-ish

YIELD: SERVES 4
PREP TIME: 15 MINUTES
COOK TIME: 45 MINUTES

Plain and simple, smashed potatoes are the best potatoes. Combining the best aspects of all preparations, you boil baby potatoes for the creaminess of a baked potato, but then smash them to jack up the surface area before roasting, resulting in a level of crispiness even a french fry could not achieve. This is the only recipe that never seems to yield any leftovers, no matter how much extra I make. I personally think the magic is all in the seasoning.

This mixture is my super-simplified recipe for baharat, an essential Arabic spice blend integral in Iraqi Jewish cooking, which combines warm spices like allspice and cardamom with sharper spices like black pepper and cumin. Every family truly has their own blend, so it’s not uncommon to find fennel seeds, rosebuds, nutmeg, chiles, or a laundry list of other aromatics present as well. It’s becoming more and more common to find jars of premixed baharat at specialty spice shops, so feel free to sub 1½ tablespoons of your favorite baharat blend in lieu of the spices called for here.

To finish off these crunchy spiced potatoes, a drizzle of schug on the finished platter helps provide the zip that makes this dish truly irresistible.

2 pounds multicolor baby potatoes, scrubbed
Kosher salt
⅓ cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon ground sumac
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground allspice
¼ teaspoon ground cardamom
Schug (Green Yemeni Hot Sauce), for serving

1 Preheat the oven to 450°F.

2 Put the potatoes in a large pot and add cold water to cover by 2 inches. Season the water with 2 heavy pinches of salt. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat, then cook the potatoes until tender when pierced with a fork, 12 to 15 minutes. Drain, running the potatoes under cold water until they are cool enough to handle.

3 Using the bottom of a measuring cup or glass, smash each potato on a cutting board until ¼ inch thick. Transfer to a half sheet pan, spreading the potatoes out in an even layer.

4 In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, pepper, sumac, coriander, cumin, cinnamon, allspice, cardamom, and a heavy pinch of salt. Drizzle the spiced oil over the smashed potatoes and gently toss to coat.

5 Roast the potatoes, flipping them once halfway through, for 30 to 35 minutes, until golden brown and crisp. Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt.

6 Transfer the potatoes to a platter, drizzle with schug, and serve.

Amarante

Fri, Mar 12 2021, 12:16 pm

challahchallah wrote:

Yes, smashed potatoes are delicious! You always have the most intriguing recipes so I’m surprised you haven’t heard of this preparation before. I’ve never used this flavor profile before though so I may have to give it a try. Thanks for sharing yet another good looking recipe.

I have heard of "smashed" potatoes but for me they were just the simpler version of mashed potatoes where you have more of a texture so not the technique of boiling and then roasting being "smashed".

When I've done roasted potatoes, it's the more standard just roasting and not parboiling. Makes sense though because I have read that the best French Fries are double fried - fried at a lower temperature to cook the fries and then taken out and fried at a higher temperature to crisp up the fries but have the well done creamy interior.

I am not much of a fryer though so that's theoretical information. LOL

I happened to get this cookbook and so came upon the recipe and realized that this technique would be analogous to the double frying French Fries.

Last edited by Amarante on Sat, Mar 13 2021, 9:43 pm; edited 1 time in total

challahchallah

Fri, Mar 12 2021, 2:43 pm

Amarante wrote:

I happened to get this cookbook and so came upon the recipe and realized that this technique would be analogous to the double frying French Fries.

I have definitely done the boil first technique. Here’s a simple recipe for it I like, though they’re called crash not smashed potatoes.
https://www.thepioneerwoman.co.....toes/

I think two forms of cooking potatoes often yields the best results. For roasted potatoes, I often like to par-bake them until tender, then finish on the stovetop so they get extra crispy. This also has the advantage that you can chop and par-bake ahead of time, then pop into a skillet right before serving.

Amarante

Fri, Mar 12 2021, 3:45 pm

Since this has turned into a potato thread, I will put it out here that my best classic potato salad recipe has pickle juice added to the warm potatoes. The pickle juice infuses the potatoes with a wonderful flavor. When the potatoes cool, you just proceed with he rest of the recipe.

To clarify, if you add the juice while the potatoes are still warm the juice is absorbed and so it flavors the potatoes throughout but doesn’t add to the liquid content of the salad. If you wait until the potatoes are cool the liquid won’t be absorbed.

Last edited by Amarante on Sun, Mar 14 2021, 1:57 pm; edited 1 time in total

Amarante

Sat, Mar 13 2021, 9:41 pm

etky wrote:

I make something called 'wedding potatoes' cause they supposedly resemble the roast potatoes commonly served here in wedding halls.
It calls for parboiling the potatoes for a few minutes before roasting. The seasoning includes turmeric to give them that nice golden color.
As far as baharat goes - I use it on rice and in ground meat mixtures but have never tried it on potatoes. Somehow the idea doesn't really appeal to me that much. I think though that Hawayij might be nice (and would go better with the zchug Wink

)

I was thinking that this might be a cultural thing. I don't have much familiarity with the Sephardic style of cooking and spices so I don't have a preconceived notion of what might work with what.

On the other hand, I have very strong feelings about what is appropriate condiments that go with foods that I grew up eating. For example, I can't imagine having a hot dog with ketchup and I definitely have ketchup with a burger or other red meat. Mustard for pastrami - I always think of the classic scene in Annie Hall when she orders pastrami with mayo. Surprised

The thought of mayo on a hamburger is really not appealing and yet it is a *thing* if you grew up outside the East Coast.