34. Home Fries

Date Cooked: November 1st, 2008
Page: 659
Rating: A

I’ll start out by saying I loved these! First time through this recipe was a little time consuming but the end result was definitely worth it. So let me tell you how this excellent dish came together. The recipe has a little science lesson on potatoes and water and explains how to get crisp exteriors and moist fluffy interiors to the home fries. So once the potatoes are scrubbed and diced they are plunked into water and brought to a boil. The key here is that the water starts out at room temperature and then gets brought to a boil with the potatoes in it. As soon as the water begins to boil the potatoes are drained and set aside for the next step. The potatoes are not to be boiled.

In a skillet onions are sautéed in butter until browned and then set aside. The potatoes get dumped into the skillet and in a single layer are cooked for about 6 minutes then turned, cooked and turned some more. Once cooked through the onions, salt and pepper and some paprika are added. The ingredients are tossed to coat and then served. Simple and delicious. The potatoes came out perfectly! I admit they might have been a tad overcooked but since I like them a little crispier they were perfect.

I did slightly deviate from the book though in a very subtle way but I think it may have helped. When I was cooking the bacon from a previous post I had one slice left in the package that wouldn’t fit on the baking sheet so I quickly fried it up in the skillet before the potatoes were added. The bacon fat added a little flavor to the potatoes that was nice.

Rating: A. These were great and I look forward to cooking the next couple variations of this recipe. I will definitely be making these more often on weekends.

I’ve been reading through my older posts and I am noticing that I have fewer mishaps in the kitchen while cooking. I feel my posts are actually a little duller because of it. I’m going to have to tackle some harder dishes.