A mix of small potatoes ready for a little oil and roasting. With the amount of taters shown, I might have been better off using a 9 by 9 pan to keep the potatoes more closely packed so they would steam each other more evenly in the first 15 minutes of covered baking, but this worked fine.
Mark Guydish | Times Leader
Sage, thyme excellent additions but you can use any herbs
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Roasted, seasoned and ready to serve, these potatoes are easily varied with different herbs of your choice.
Mark Guydish | Times Leader
While I opted to whip up some sloppy Joes, these roasted potatoes with some seasoned (herbed) salt could complement many entrees.
Mark Guydish | Times Leader
Mark Guydish
Times Leader Test Kitchen
This simple recipe from America’s Test Kitchen provides a freshly seasoned alternative to most potato recipes while giving a nearly sure-fire way to roast fingerling potatoes of varying size all at the same time, with no worry about uneven done-ness. The chef’s on the episode I caught promised as much, and on first try the promise was fulfilled.
I decided to try the recipe because — by coincidence — as I watched the episode we had a handful of small potatoes of various types sitting on the counter. They had come from our weekly visit to my West Hazleton homestead, where my sister was visiting from her adopted South Carolina residence. She had the uncooked potatoes and two shallots left over from some meal.
Schiel’s Family Market didn’t have any fingerling potatoes, at least not the type that are often long and odd shapes, but they had plenty of bags of small round-ish taters of variable sizes.
The key is to tightly seal the potatoes in the roasting pan with tin foil on top. This keeps the moisture in and actually steams the potatoes for the first 15 minutes. After that, removing the foil allows them to roast until the skins get a little crisp, but not too much.
And the simple seasoned salt was a pleasant surprise. I doubt I ever would have considered using sage and thyme as the herbs for roasted potatoes, but it was an excellent pairing. As the TV chef’s noted, you can use any herbs you want, but I’d encourage trying this variation if you have access to fresh sage and thyme (we’ve had a sage bush in our herb garden for years, and usually plant some thyme annually, though this year we have yet to do that, so I got some at the store).
And while the salt adds the predictable flavor, it serves a second purpose, keeping the herbs from sticking to your fingers and thus spreading more evenly over the spuds.
As long as you have potato lovers at the table, this would make a good side for most meals. In our case, I whipped up some of my eldest brother’s version of sloppy Joes (Uncle Jake’s Favorite Recipes, to regular readers).
Dobru Chut!
Roasted Fingerling Potatoes (America’s Test Kitchen)
2 pounds fingerling potatoes
3 tablespoons vegetable Oil
2 teaspoons sage, minced
2 teaspoons thyme
½teaspoon salt
Heat oven to 450°.
Put potatoes in 13 by 9 baking pan. Add oil and toss to coat. Settle into single layer, packed close together. Cover tightly with foil and put in oven for 15 minutes. Uncover and shake. Return to oven and bake about 20 minutes, shaking again about half way through. Cook until spotty brown, and a knife goes through largest potato without resistance.
Mix sage, thyme and salt to make a seasoned salt. Salt will keep herbs from sticking to your fingers when you sprinkle on the potatoes.
Pour potatoes into a bowl, making sure to get as much oil as possible out of the pan. Sprinkle on seasoned salt and toss. Serve.
Reach Mark Guydish at 570-991-6112 or on Twitter @TLMarkGuydish
