One thing I’ve heard is that for crispy outsides, after parcooking you want to shake ’em up aggressively so that there’s a pasty substance on the outside like in this image. It provides more surface area for browning.
This post from Serious Eats has some other tips that you might be interested in.
shaken in colander on your advice to rough up the surface
placed into an iron skillet along with olive oil and herbs
fried while stirring frequently for maybe 20 minutes (not super exact, I didn’t time this part)
And… despite some issues, they were very nearly the best potatoes I’ve ever made! Perfectly soft and melty inside, better than the best outcome I’ve had with the regular frying method. Not quite crisped enough on the outside, but that’s because I made a mistake and ignored Opus’s advice to put the spices in at the end. (Because the spices were in there from the start, I had to take the potatoes out of the pan before they were really done crisping, otherwise the spices would have burned.) But ohh the insides were so good, I was snacking on them while I prepared the rest of the food.
I’ll try again tomorrow and see how big a difference fixing the spices makes.
I did this twice more, both times adding the spices at the end. It makes a huge difference! Instead of having a vague “paprika and rosemary taste” hidden behind layers of char, they actually taste bright and, well, like themselves. (A bit too much so in fact; my spice usage is calibrated to the old technique and I need to use less.) The third time I tried mixing the salt into the oil while it was frying and I found that improved the result (salt doesn’t burn, but it does need time to dissolve and permeate the food).
That makes sense. Yeah from what I understand spices vary in how much time they can spend being sauteed. Ground spices have more surface area exposed and so will burn faster.
I’ve heard and experienced that freshly ground spices are notably better than pre-ground. It’s relatively easy to do in a mortar and pestle or with a spice grinder. And sometimes it’s good to dry roast them before grounding in order to “wake them up”.
That’s great to hear!
One thing I’ve heard is that for crispy outsides, after parcooking you want to shake ’em up aggressively so that there’s a pasty substance on the outside like in this image. It provides more surface area for browning.
This post from Serious Eats has some other tips that you might be interested in.
Okay, so, reporting back! Here’s what I did
boiled for about 8 minutes
left to sit in the colander for a few minutes
shaken in colander on your advice to rough up the surface
placed into an iron skillet along with olive oil and herbs
fried while stirring frequently for maybe 20 minutes (not super exact, I didn’t time this part)
And… despite some issues, they were very nearly the best potatoes I’ve ever made! Perfectly soft and melty inside, better than the best outcome I’ve had with the regular frying method. Not quite crisped enough on the outside, but that’s because I made a mistake and ignored Opus’s advice to put the spices in at the end. (Because the spices were in there from the start, I had to take the potatoes out of the pan before they were really done crisping, otherwise the spices would have burned.) But ohh the insides were so good, I was snacking on them while I prepared the rest of the food.
I’ll try again tomorrow and see how big a difference fixing the spices makes.
I did this twice more, both times adding the spices at the end. It makes a huge difference! Instead of having a vague “paprika and rosemary taste” hidden behind layers of char, they actually taste bright and, well, like themselves. (A bit too much so in fact; my spice usage is calibrated to the old technique and I need to use less.) The third time I tried mixing the salt into the oil while it was frying and I found that improved the result (salt doesn’t burn, but it does need time to dissolve and permeate the food).
That makes sense. Yeah from what I understand spices vary in how much time they can spend being sauteed. Ground spices have more surface area exposed and so will burn faster.
I’ve heard and experienced that freshly ground spices are notably better than pre-ground. It’s relatively easy to do in a mortar and pestle or with a spice grinder. And sometimes it’s good to dry roast them before grounding in order to “wake them up”.