Crash Hot Potatoes Recipe

Like I've mentioned before, this blog is really a space for me to share my daily personal experience and joy about food, which is what I'm going to do right now.

On a normal weeknight, my meals are pretty straight-forward. I'm out all day and do MOST of my cooking at night, which is pretty much the same as what all you working folks go through each day. By then, I really only have minimal capacity to cook nothing but seriously simple dishes. I save my "experimental" cooking more for the holidays or the weekends and stick to routine on the weekdays.

Like I said, weekdays are really straight-forward but every dinner normally consists of meat/fish + veg + carbs. But different variations of each. It's just what I've been used to for dinners growing up. Then, I will decide whether I'm doing Asian or Western that night. When it's Asian night, I'd eat (lots of) rice for carbs. For Western night, it'll be potato or pasta.

I've made so much mashed potato over the years for Western night because it's one of the first few things I learned to make for myself. Even though I've done SO many variations, mash is still mash. And I'm so bored of having mash for Western night.

That's why I go to The Pioneer Woman's cooking blog for lots of ideas and inspiration to kick myself out of my rut. She shares recipes that are just as hearty and delicious as they are easy to make, with amazing step-by-step photography and food styling. Truly a remarkable woman.

So today, I invite you to try this Crash Hot Potatoes recipe that I've been making from her site. It's crazy simple and great to make if you want to change things up a bit from your usual potato recipe. You don't even need quantities in the recipe and you'll see why. Like I said, I'm quite bored of doing mash already so I will be trying lots of different things with potatoes from now.

One last thing, the recipe calls for the use of a potato masher, which I don't have. So, what I do is I pierce the taters with a wooden spatula before flattening it with the bottom of a small pot. Not ideal but heck, it works. It may scatter because the bottom is smooth and there's no grip but I just scoop them back together, easy. All good though, because those small crushed bits just gives more surface area of crunch after they're baked, which I love. But, yes. If you do have a potato masher, it's much easier and cleaner to press with.

Enjoy! =)

_________________________________

Crash Hot Potatoes

(adapted from this recipe by The Pioneer Woman)

Ingredients:

Baby potatoes *

Herbs of choice to taste **

Kosher salt to taste

Cracker pepper to taste

Olive oil

* Make as many as you want, as long as they can fit in the baking tray

** I used Rosemary and Dill for this, fresh herbs are preferable

Method:

Preheat oven to 230 deg C. Bring a pot of salted water to boil and add in as many baby potatoes as you wish. Cook until they are fork-tender. On a sheet pan/baking tray, generously drizzle with olive oil. Place tender potatoes on the pan leaving plenty of room between each potato.

With a potato masher, gently press down each potato until it slightly mashes, rotate the potato 90 degrees and mash again. If not, pierce the potatoes with a wooden spatula and make several incisions before pressing it down with a pot. Scoop potatoes back together if they scatter.

Brush the tops generously with more olive oil. Sprinkle herbs on top and crack lots of salt and pepper to taste. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes or until golden brown.

Baked chicken schnitzels with homemade Mushroom & Rosemary sauce, Salad and Crash Hot Potatoes

My complete "Western meal" with meat + veg + carbs. Was totally contented and happy after =)