Potatoes squished, delish
I had originally planned a pretty complicated lime mousse recipe for today. It was tangy and fluffy and springy and delicious, but in the end it just seemed like too much work.
Crash Hot Sweet Potatoes, I figured, we might actually make.
Five things I learned:
1. Before I could get too far into this, I needed to figure out what was up with the name. Turns out Crash Hot Potatoes is a popular dish I’d never heard of.
The concept seems to have originated in Australia and was popularized here by vegetarian cooking site http://thepioneerwoman.com. I’m guessing the word “Crash” refers to the fact that small round potatoes or thick potato slices are softened and slightly smushed before you season and bake them: “crashed” rather than “mashed,” I guess.
To serve these, you scoop them up one at a time with a spatula and slide them off onto a dinner plate.
2. If you don’t want to deal with slicing, parboiling, smushing, turning, etc., I guess you can just sprinkle a generous teaspoon of this crackling spice blend on a baked and buttered sweet potato.
That would, however, cost you the crispy texture and caramelized flavors you get from roasting these.
3. These only have to bake half an hour, less time than it takes to bake a potato. I’m not going to tell you it’s going to save you any time, though. With the prep, it’s still going to be about 45 minutes to an hour. Oh, but the crispy, caramelized, crust of goodness.
4. Co-worker Fiona Branton, with whom I often confab about yummy food, said she could eat a whole meal of these.
She said she makes a version of them (not smushed) by just slicing sweet potatoes and tossing them with oil and whatever seasonings strike her fancy. She roasts them at 400 for about half an hour. She doesn’t parboil them first.
I think the parboiling and smushing here is supposed to help the seasonings get nestled into all of the nooks and crannies of the potato while it bakes.
5. The instructions on this recipe said to smush them, gently, with the bottom of a glass. Another recipe I found for them said to use a potato masher.
I think the potato masher would be better. The potato flesh kept sticking to the bottom of my glass and falling apart.
I think the only question left is whether you want to call them “smushed” or “mashed” or “crashed.”
No matter what, they’re a smash.
But potatoes are getting a second look, not only because sustenance once more has become important at a time of thrift, but also for the potato’s not-so-obvious virtue. As more spuds are grown, the truth about them has come out: They are not just brown lumps, the same from any source and the same at any age. Baby new potatoes (the real ones, not old, small ones sold as such) are as much a revelation as fresh tomatoes, peas and corn. Even storage potatoes taste much better when grown with care. When we travel, my husband and I miss the savor of our own, waiting at home in their dark bin.
Good potato flavor is partly a matter of choosing the right variety. I’d start with the ones offered by Southern Exposure Seed Exchange (www.southernexposure.
com), which are well adapted to the D.C. region. But growing practices are even more important. It takes soil rich in organic matter to produce a memorable potato. In the Aran Islands, off the Irish coast, they’re grown in a soil that is almost pure seaweed mixed with sand. It’s the seaweed, rich in a wide range of micronutrients, that makes them great.
Another thing potatoes need is consistent moisture, which not only improves flavor but also heightens resistance against Colorado potato beetles. The wettest summer we ever had was the one where no beetles showed up. We find that, in addition to irrigation in dry weather, a thick mulch of hay will help keep moisture in, as well as reducing weed pressure, keeping the soil cool (another plus) and preventing any heaved-up potatoes from turning green.
If you still can’t seem to make a potato row magically appear in your small plot, here are a few ideas. Plant some in a compost pile, preferably one that is resting while it matures. Growing a few spuds will not rob the pile of its powers, and you’ll get a tasty, abundant harvest. In the garden, accept the fact that you won’t get bushels of them for winter use, but you’ll get some priceless early new ones. Find fertile spots where you can tuck potatoes. The plants, and their pink, purple or white flowers, are an addition to even an ornamental bed. Like my friend, you will love pulling up those roots, dangling with buried gold.
Grow your own fruit and vegetables with Bill & Sheila
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