Tuesday, October 20, 2020

The Impatient Chef Recipe: Syracuse Salt Potatoes

Surely everyone puts a little salt on their potatoes, right? 


What sets these little flavor bombs off from ye olde basic spuds with a little salt and butter on them is entirely a matter of the cooling method.  

Oh, wait...  There are a few other considerations.  
  1. The quality of your water.  If your local water turns your sink green, or smells like you could do your white wash in it, filter it, or buy it.  
  2. Use Kosher salt.  Iodized salt has a slight metallic taste.  
  3. Don't even consider using margarine.  Butter is your friend, unless you are a vegan. Then you can use margarine (The Impatient Chef spent 17 years as a vegetarian, so he understands).
  4. Don't break the skins of the potatoes.  I mean it.  

Ingredients:

  • 2 pounds New, or Fingerling potatoes.  The smaller the better.   I like to get the mixed potatoes that have red, white and purple.
  • 2 ounces kosher salt

Directions:

  1. Use a wide cooking pot that is deep enough to give at least an inch or two of water under the potatoes.  Add the water, spuds, and salt, and turn it onto high heat.  Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally.  You should notice the potatoes floating a little higher in the water.  This is due to the amount of salt.  Once it is boiling, cover and reduce heat.  
  2. Cook for 20 to 25 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  3. DON'T PRICK THEM TO SEE HOW DONE THEY ARE.  I mean it.  If you do, you must not return the one you pricked back into the water until step 5.  This means that if it isn't done, too bad.  The point of keeping the skins whole is so that too much salt will not get inside.
  4. Once they are done, pour most of the water off of the potatoes, leaving about 1/4" to 1/2" of water in the pan (along with the potatoes).
  5. Turn the burner to medium high, and cook off the rest of the water, stirring the spuds, or shaking them around in the pan.  Keep them moving until the water is gone.  
  6. Serve with melted butter.  
These babies are like tiny balloons of mashed potatoes.  Enjoy the heck out of them. 


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