Why It Works
- Parboiling the potatoes in alkaline water breaks down their surfaces, making a starchy slurry that gives added floor space and crunch.
- Infusing the oil with garlic, anchovies, and lemon zest provides the potato crust additional Caesar taste.
- Tossing the potatoes with Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, and loads of nutty Parmesan cheese simply earlier than serving builds the signature Caesar flavors.
Roasting reveals all the perfect elements of a potato: crispy pores and skin, crunchy edges, and a gentle, fluffy heart. A mound of roasted potatoes merely seasoned with salt and pepper is my favourite consolation meals. However, in case you costume them up with the tangy, briny, tacky flavors of an ideal Caesar salad dressing, this near-perfect meals turns into even higher.
Combining the important thing elements of a wealthy and savory Caesar dressing—anchovies, garlic, lemon, Worcestershire sauce, and Parmesan cheese—with potatoes is a no brainer: Potatoes are the final word starchy clean canvas for large daring flavors. To create this joyful union, I begin with Kenji’s well-known crispy potatoes.
Like a lot of our readers, I’m an enormous fan of those spuds —it’s a foolproof recipe that wants no enchancment. His potatoes incorporate the British technique for roasting potatoes: Chunks of potato are boiled till they’re simply tender, then tossed none-too-gently with fats (right here olive oil) to tough up their floor, then roasted till they’re crisp and crackling. It’s easy and produces superb outcomes. I make them routinely at house, whether or not it’s only for my household’s easy Sunday evening supper or for a big vacation gathering. However I’d be mendacity if I stated that these easy potatoes don’t generally get (dare I say it), a bit repetitive. However with Kenji’s approach, it’s simple to include different flavors to the roasted potatoes, with out compromising the potatoes texture. I’ve tried and examined many taste combos at house, and this Caesar taste variation is my favourite but.
In Kenji’s recipe, he heats garlic and rosemary in some olive oil, cooks the combination till the garlic simply turns golden, strains it, and separates the infused oil from the solids. The potatoes are then coated with the flavored oil earlier than roasting, and the reserved cooked aromatics are tossed with the crispy potatoes after they’re roasted. This eliminates the danger of burning the solids whereas roasting.
Following this technique to include the savory Caesar taste into these potatoes, I gently prepare dinner anchovies, garlic, and lemon zest in olive oil till the anchovies soften, the garlic begins to brown, and the lemon zest infuses the oil with its vibrant citrus taste. The result’s a salty, umami-rich, and zippy olive oil that I toss with the potatoes earlier than roasting. The opposite Caesar elements—Worchestershire sauce, extra lemon zest, plus lemon juice for successful of contemporary taste, and loads of nutty Parmesan cheese—are tossed with the recent potatoes proper after roasting.
I add a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese as a ultimate flourish simply earlier than serving this low-effort, high-reward spin on basic roasted potatoes. Serve them as a facet to a powerful roast or as a starter or occasion snack with a facet of creamy Caesar dip for dunking, as a result of I’m a agency believer you can by no means have an excessive amount of Caesar.
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