Crash Hot Potatoes

Meet SoupAddict’s favorite way to prepare white potatoes. Sweet potatoes are another story, but for white potatoes, these crash hot potatoes are the real deal.

Stolen shamelessly from The Pioneer Woman, SoupAddict has tested these over and over for the last six months. They come out perfectly every time – simple and delicious.

SoupAddict will put this bluntly: you must try these. They’re not quick (plan on an hour’s total cooking time), but totally worth it.

Small potatoes are all the rage these days, whether red new potatoes, fingerlings, or small Yukon golds. It doesn’t matter – SoupAddict’s tried them all, and it’s all good. Just make sure to use small potatoes.

SoupAddict loves when just a few ingredients come together to make volumes of deliciousness. All you need is olive oil and your favorite seasonings. SoupAddict always uses salt and pepper, and then switches off between fresh, chopped rosemary and dried Herbes de Provence.

SoupAddict did not photograph the first potato prep step: a picture of a boiling pot is never interesting. (Trust me, people. It’s just not.) Lately, though, SoupAddict has been steaming her potatoes. She could totally be imagining it, but they just seem more flavorful, more potato-y (but no more interesting photographically. Actually, that’s not true. The potatoes were quite cute snuggled in their silicone steaming basket. But SoupAddict’s camera battery had run out and was being charged during steaming.).

The fun kicks in after the potatoes have initially boiled or steamed. Break out the masher (or a big fork) and smoosh, first in one direction …

… then in the other.

Brush all the smooshies with olive oil.

Then sprinkle with pepper …

… salt …

… and your favorite herbs.

Then into the oven for another half hour. Total hands-on time: maybe 5 minutes (depending on how fast you can scrub). This is a great dish to serve with something labor-intensive, because it’s so not.

It’s hard for SoupAddict to even look at regular baked potatoes now. Not when this is so fantastically easy and tasty.

Crash Hot Potatoes

Adapted from The Pioneer Woman

Ingredients
12 small potatoes, well-scrubbed. New potatoes or fingerlings are terrific (figure 3 to 4 potatoes person)
Olive oil
Black pepper, freshly ground
Coarse sea salt
1 sprig fresh rosemary, leaves only, finely chopped

Instructions:
1. Boil or steam* the potatoes until a fork or knife easily pierces a potato all the way through (about a half hour). Towards the end of the cooking time, preheat the oven to 450°

2. Transfer potatoes to a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Use a potato masher or a large-tined fork to gently flatten the potato. Turn the masher or fork 90° and press again. Scoot stray potato pieces back to their pile. (The baking process will bind the pieces together in a tender-crispy little disk.)

3. Brush each potato with olive oil. Sprinkle with black pepper, salt and rosemary (or your herb of choice).

4. Bake in the preheated oven for 20-30 minutes, until crispy, but not darkly browned. Serve immediately.

*Interesting factoid: a chef-friend of SoupAddict’s told her that steaming something even as bulky as a potato takes no longer than boiling it. Which makes perfect sense, because steam is hot, just like boiling water (ever get a steam burn? SoupAddict’s advice is, don’t try this at home. Or anywhere. Even professionals on a closed course don’t do steam burns. They freakin’ hurt.)