Monday, August 23, 2010

fail!

sigh, i don't even know where to begin. i'm usually a good cook, i don't know what went wrong. i should have taken pictures of my failure but was simply too heartbroken. needless to say, my purple potatoes did not turn out like this...



fork-crushed purple potatoes
via smitten kitchen

1 pound purple majesty potatoes, or other purple potatoes, washed
4 small shallots, minced
2 tbsp fresh squeezed lime juice
6 tbsp good extra virgin olive oil
fleur de sel to taste
white pepper to taste
2 tbsp parsely, chopped

note: i did 3 shallots and some scallions, because that is what i had, and i love scallions. also, smitten kitchen used half the olive oil, i started too but when things weren't working out i think i ended up using it all...

In a large pot, cook potatoes with skins on in heavily salted boiling water until tender, approximately 15 minutes. Remove potatoes from pot, and peel them while still warm. Place potatoes in a large bowl and, using a fork, gently smash them, maintaining a fairly chunky consistency. Fold in minced shallots, lemon juice, olive oil, fleur de sel, and white pepper. Finish with parsley.

so here's where i think i went wrong...
didn't salt the water till there was only a few minutes left
left the skin on when i was gently mashing them (i like the skin and really wasn't sure how to peel hot cooked potatoes)
i used decent evoo, and regular salt

do all those things really matter?

in the article, which you should all read and try and let me know how it turned out for you, it tells us that it is the lemon juice that makes the purple really pop, which is fun. so there i am doing all the steps, and the potatoes are a really light whiteish purple, and when i squeeze the lemon i can see some difference. but it is spotty and not nearly as beautiful as the picture above. so i squeezed more, and more lemon. and then was left with slightly more purple, very lemony potatoes (which weren't bad, but all i could taste was failure).

i am trying it again this week. i will take pictures, even if i fail again. and you should try it too...run by whole foods and pick some purple potatoes up (i think it was under $2 for a pound, so don't let buying them at whole foods scare you). oh, and in other whole foods news, they have my favorite wine back! $7.99, go get some!

3 comments:

Ashley said...

hmm.... other than lemony and not quite as purple as the picture, what was wrong with it? was it textural (my guess, the skins left on) or was it a flavor thing?

i'm happy to be your taste tester next time :)

ps - those potatoes should peel pretty easily once boiled. all you should have to do is rub them with a kitchen towel or paper towel and the skins usually fall off - kind of like a beet.

Marisa said...

I'd heavily salt the water and start checking the potatoes' doneness after 10 minutes. It looks to me like you've possibly overboiled them. And I second Ashley: grab yourself a kitchen towel and rub those suckers to get the skins off.

mariana said...

ok, i will tackle peeling the potatoes. and i do think that perhaps i overcooked them. i will keep you posted on how round 2 goes! thank you both for the input!

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