Fried Potatoes - bring on your ideas!

Morning Glory

Morning Glory

Obsessive cook
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Fried potatoes are a great thing. I'm not talking deep-fried here but pan fried. What is your favourite way to cook them? Do you parboil first? What kind of potatoes and oil do you use? Do you add flavourings such as spices and herbs?
 
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I like to use the big cast iron skillet, turn the heat down real low, add some canola oil, a little butter & add the taters sliced, & some finely chopped onions, green pepper & celery with a little garlic powder. seasoned salt, black pepper & some paprika.

Let it cook low & slow until the taters are nice & soft, stirring gently, once. :wink:
 
morning glory said:
Fried potatoes are a a great thing. I'm not talking deep-fried here but pan fried. What is your favourite way to cook them? Do you parboil first? What kind of potatoes and oil do you use? Do you add flavourings such as spices and herbs?
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Not really a fan to be honest. Had some yesterday at a local eatery - they reminded me of undercooked chips.
 
My mom made the best fried potatos. Thinly sliced taters, throw in some onion, pour some peanut or canola oil into a pan, add lots of salt and black pepper, fry till they get brown, flip and fry some more. They are just as good warmed up the next meal. I can make them but not as good as mom's, she had a knack with potatos...my knack is with beans. I can't even cut a potato decently...she could get those thin slice with just a knife...i need to use a mandolin cutter.
 
I have many dishes that I prepare with pan fried potatoes as an ingredient. Egg and potato dum; potato curry; aloo ghobi; egg chips and beans (http://freebeerforyorky.com/Spuds.html#Chips); potato tortilla; potatoes and cumin; potato and onion bhaji; Bombay potatoes; crispy ginger potatoes; aloo matar; crispy potato bhaji; dry potatoes and cauliflower; patatas bravas; potato kielbasa; bratkartoffeln; pork and potato curry; potato and okra jhalfrezi; fondant potatoes; the list is endless.....

I like potoatoes.
 
epicuric said:
Not really a fan to be honest. Had some yesterday at a local eatery - they reminded me of undercooked chips.
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I think they are best parboiled first. New potatoes are great if pan-fried and not at all like chips. Black pepper potatoes comes to mind...
 
I use the microwave to parcook potatoes. A little bit of water in a large microwave safe container, covered with plastic wrap for 3-4 minutes.
 
I eat these a lot. Here's my method:

Don't peel the potatoes - I don't understand why anyone does this, you lose most of the flavour. Just cut out any obvious blemishes and cut the spuds into rounds of about half a centimetre. Parboil for 9 or 10 minutes then leave to drain in a sieve for as long as possible. The colder the potatoes are when you fry them the better.

Put about a gloop and a half of EVOO in a frying pan (a gloop is a much more tangible measure than a glug - I've no idea what a glug is) and fry gently, turning fairly frequently until browned. I usually add a pinch of dried thyme while they're cooking - if nothing else, the kitchen smells nicer for it - and some sea salt. I often add some smashed garlic a couple of minutes before the end. Sometimes I've chucked in some cumin seeds instead of dried thyme. They work too.

I usually eat them as an accompaniment to something else but they're great in a sandwich too. My buckwheat/caraway bread makes for a perfect fried potato sandwich - the potato/caraway combination is spectacular but apparently only known to the Germans. But you also know about it now.
 
morning glory said:
What kind of potatoes are you using in the above dish?
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The cheapest.... finding out what the spuds actually are isn't easy here (they're sold by 'usage' rather than type) but I often find that they're Agata. I certainly wouldn't use good potatoes, like Charlottes, for frying. I could give you a whole list of cheap potatoes that I buy here but I don't recognise any of the names as spuds that I once bought in the UK.

If you mean are they floury or waxy, then that distinction is hard to make. Have you ever baked a Kerr's Pink? My favourite potato of all time ...

morning glory said:
this depends on what kind of potato and what I am doing with them.
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I never peel spuds. Roast (or rather bircher) potatoes are much better unpeeled. I've been making mashed potatoes without peeling them for nearly 40 years now and I wouldn't dream of doing them any other way.

Under what circumstances do you find tasteless (ie peeled) potatoes attractive?
 
I'm not fond of the peel unless it is a very thin peel...like on red potatos...but i don't like red potatos all that much but we have a white potato with a very thin peel. Actually, me and my sis had a debate on if mom left the peel on or peeled it off...i think she peeled them cause i don't remember picking the peels out...and i would of picked them out...sis thinks they were unpeeled so she makes hers with the peels and i take the peels off.
 
We could derail this thread by continuing the discussion about peeling spuds - another thread @morning glory ? "do you peel your potatoes?"

As all the goodness of the potato lies just under the surface (or so I believe) I can't understand why anyone would choose to remove the goodness and most of the taste of a potato and throw it onto the compost heap (assuming that members recycle vegetable waste...?).

There you are if you want - hoik this para out and start a new thread (or two if you want to discuss recycling as well).
 
My grandmother used to make the best home fried potatoes with onions in a cast iron skillet. She fried them up in either duck fat or chicken fat. Delicious! I enjoy potato pancakes with onions and sometimes grated Apple added to the mix. I don't parboil, though. Seems like extra unnecessary work. I usually bake or roast them.
 
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My wife makes excellent home fries. She starts with par boiled, cubed spuds (no skins), adds bacon fat and butter to a hot frying pan, then sweats some diced onions and bell peppers before adding in the prepared potatoes.

They are stir fried for a minute or two, then allowed to sit for another minute or so until a good crust forms on the bottom.
 
If I'm using slices of potatoes, I don't parcook, just start them out at just under medium heat, cover and cook until a little over half cooked, then uncover to finish browning and crisping.

Cubes or chunks get parcooked as above in the microwave.
 
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