It is hard to pass up the offer of pot roast with horseradish sauce, French peas, and nicely seasoned, crispity-perfect, oven roasted potatoes on a damp and dreary late summer’s Sunday afternoon.
Now, I know that I just recently posted a recipe for (very nice, too) pesto potatoes, which worked a treat alongside butter chicken; but for roast beast, I wanted something a touch more…
traditional?
Hmmm. Mebbe not quite traditional, but still quite tasty!
I began with a recipe I found on da Google for ranch potatoes – made with a packet of the dry salad dressing mix – but I was not happy with the way they treated the potatoes, and, why buy a packet of salad dressing mix when I already have this Chip Dip Seasoning from the nice folk at The Spice House?
Note: the Chip Dip Seasoning does contain MSG, but I believe that is about the most exotic ingredient in the mix. I can also pick up a bag that will more than refill this jar, and make numerous (as in, 10 or so) batches o’ dip and/or roasted potatoes for a touch under $5; so compare that to the ingredients list and cost of one of those packets from the market and see where you come out.
Back to the potatoes!
INGREDIENTS
•2 lbs small Yukon Gold or red potatoes, washed and sliced
•1 tbsp Chip Dip Seasoning*
•1 tsp Aleppo pepper*
•1 tsp dried parsley
•1 tsp black pepper
•1 tsp seasoned salt
•2 tbsp vegetable oil
*If your local spice merchant can’t set you up with either or both of these ingredients, or you don’t want to order them, by all means substitute some of that dry ranch dressing mix for the Chip Dip, and mebbe 1/4 to 1/2 tsp Cayenne for the Aleppo pepper.
Place the prepared potatoes in a large pot, cover with cold water, and set aside to soak for 15 minutes.
Drain and rinse the potatoes.
Now, you have two choices:
1) bring a pot of well salted water to a boil, add your soaked potatoes and simmer for five minutes; or 2) tumble your freshly rinsed potatoes into a ‘wave-fave covered casserole and push the ‘potato’ button.
These first two steps – the soaking and pre-cooking serve two purposes: The soaking and rinsing removes some of the excess starch in the potatoes, and the pre-cooking, I think, gives the potatoes a jump start on roasting, which – to me – gives you better tasting oven roasted potatoes, but, you do what you want.
Once your potatoes have been soaked and rinsed and pre-cooked a bit, add the seasonings and the veggie oil and give them a good toss to coat.
Turn the potatoes out onto a foil-lined large sheet pan and bake in a pre-heated 450º oven for 20 minutes.
Give ’em a stir and back into the oven for another 15 or 20 minutes for some awfully nice – and nicely crispity – roasted potatoes.
Serve as you will; but they were kinda nice with that roast beast…