The three greatest potato dishes of all time

[GlorifiedRice]

1) I admit to loving well stirred, well buttered, thick, instant Potato Buds. With tons of American Cheese added.

2) Mickey Dees fries (I pray for a whole sleeve of the soft greasy ones) with lotsa salt and/or Ketchup, or Steak Fries with lotsa salt and Sarsons Malt Vinegar or Cheese.

3) Tiny new potatoes boiled w/skins. Cooled, cut in half, with a dollop of Creme Fraiche and some quality caviar...

I would put another, BUT I cant have it cause my grandmom died and I dont know how she made those dark brown carmely roasted potatoes from the bottom of the roast pork pan...Is it impossible to make with the low fat pork nowadays?

[Ktepi]

1: A good baked potato. I have eGullet to thank for the way I bake potatoes: rubbed with fat of some kind (bacon fat or drippings of some kind, if they're available; goose fat has proven to be the best so far), sprinkled with coarse salt, and baked for an hour or so at high heat.

2: I honestly think that good potato chips are one of the best potato dishes around, and if I have to pick a specific one, I'll go with these chips I don't even remember the name of, except that they may have been from Eagle? They were DARK, and I think kettle-cooked, and had the most potato flavor I've ever found in a chip.

3: The potatoes in chicken vesuvio, especially if you use fingerlings -- garlicky, flavorful, crispy and creamy.

[DCP]

1. Sliced or diced potatoes fried in duck fat (underneath confit de canard, of course)

2. Au gratin or scalloped potatoes

3. Baked potato soup

[Dr. Teeth]

1) Potato Puree at Atelier. Maybe the single best thing I've ever eaten.

2) Other good mashed

3) Good french fries.

EDIT: I'm changing my third. Hash Browns made with onions and bacon.

Edited June 22, 2007 by Dr. Teeth (log)

[Rebecca263]

There hasn't been a dish mentioned that I wouldn't adore. I can't choose three.

But, here is my addition to add to the droolworthiness of this thread...

Large round red potatoes sliced in rounds and baked in cream and butter, then removed with a slotted spoon, sprinkled with fresh cracked peppercorns, broiled lightly, and at service the rounds are topped with a dollop of sour cream and another dollop of caviar. Sprinkled with snipped chives. Eaten before your boyfriend gets to the table, unless he was detained opening the champagne.

Then, he's allowed to partake. Fiddling with the stereo is not an acceptable reason for being late to table for potatoes. He gets an extra slice if he comes to table in a silly hat. The rules at your table may vary. Mine certainly do, at whim.

[Special K]

1. Janssen's Temptation

2. Hash browns with caramelized onions and a ton of butter

3. Oven-baked thick fries, coated with duck fat and sprinkled with rosemary & S&P

And, of course, the humble baked potato, loaded with butter, sour cream, chives, and bits of bacon.

[chileheadmike]

My Mom's German Potato Salad. Only boiled potatoes, hard cooked eggs, a ton of bacon, onions added to the crisp bacon, cider vinegar added to the bacon/bacon fat/onion. S&P. That's it, no sugar/brown sugar/anything sweet of any kind.

Hashbrowns from the local diner, must be the vintage kaola gold.

Fries from Gates and Sons in KC. Not everyone likes their BBQ but I still say they have the best fries in town.

[ruthcooks]

My own mashed potato casserole, inspired by a college cooking class: green onions, parsley and more sour cream than you'd ever dream. My most requested recipe.

Baby new potatoes, freshly dug, braised in a skillet with anything you desire--like bacon, onions, baby green beans, snow peas, chives, butter.

Potato salad. Either the kind with old fashioned boiled dressing, or with potatoes soaked in chicken broth and vinegar, drained and dressed with mayo and sour cream. Lots of onion always.

Hon. mention: Danish caramelized potatoes (boiled and then baked in syrup)

What the heck: I could eat plain mashed potatoes with butter every day of my life and never tire of them.

[rooftop1000]

Damn now I know why I wanted mashed potatoes so bad tonight

made em with roasted garlic and chives

tracey

[ghostrider]

Oh man, now you're talking my language!

1) A rosti in Wengen, Switzerland, at a little restaurant near the train station. (I've forgotten its name but can walk you back there any time.) Their rosti was prepared with a chopped smoky Swiss bacon, onions and cheese. Just divine. The excellent sausage that came with it was almost superfluous.

2) A different sort of rosti in Davos, at a place called Cafe Weber. Nothing but potatoes & really great Swiss butter. Perfectly browned. Pure & simple. A huge portion & I couldn't stop eating it.

3) There was another rosti in Zurich at a place on the river, similar to the Cafe Weber version, almost as good....

When there's rosti in this world, why mess around with anything else?

[Ohba]

I'm glad to see so many people mention new potatoes. I'd go so far as to say that you haven't tasted potatoes until you've tasted new potatoes.

[BDM]

To many choices here. But to answer the question. . .

1. Great homemade potatoe salad with boiled eggs, dijon mustard, Hellman's, etc.

2. Fingerling potatoes sauted in goose fat and then slathered with foie gras sauce in a little bistro in Alsace,

3. Homemade "potatoes Anna" sliced paper thin and sauteed to perfect crispness, with a layer of carmelized onions in the middle to accompany a crisp herb and garlic rubbed hallal chicken on a cold winter night.

[taoseno]

My top 3

The Tartiflette I had in the french alps after a day of skiing.

My moms hash browns on sunday mornings growing up

and i think someone else had mentioned potatoes cooked with a pork roast with fat dripping all over them.

[hjshorter]

I am flattered by Heather's shout out for my pommes.

You're welcome. I love them, but I'm usually too lazy, or too rushed, to do the prep.

My great-grandmother's german potato salad should get a mention. Recipe from the early part of the 20th century. Potatos, bacon, cooked onion, raw onion, sliced radishes, and sweet and sour dressing.

Edited June 24, 2007 by hjshorter (log)

[kalypso]

Oh man, I love this topic! There is not a potato on the face of this Earth that does not have my name on it

#5 - My family's potato salad

#4 - Potatoes au gratin

#3 - and one of my 4 basic food groups - French fries

#2 - a big ol baker with butter, salt, pepper, chive or green onions (sour cream optional)

#1 - Mashers, the perfect blend of mealy potato, milk, butter, salt and pepper. Add-ins welcome. There is a taco shop here in San Diego, Mama Testa's , that does a mean mashed potato taco. They got other really great tacos on the menu but it's hard for me to get past the Empapados that put me in potato paradise

[Mikeb19]

1. Perogies - potato/cottage cheese are my favourite. Served with fried onions and sour cream

2. Potato pancakes

3. Potato bread

Edited June 25, 2007 by Mikeb19 (log)

[Marlene]

Mashed potatoes always top my list. Followed by a potato galette and then a gratin. And then there's maggie's potatoes madalines, or my potato cheese puff. Or rosti, or hash browns, or nice crispy roasted potatoes. Or, or, or......

[Pierogi]

1.  Perogies - potato/cottage cheese are my favourite.  Served with fried onions and sour cream

←

OMG ! *slapping forehead* HOW could I have forgotten pierogies??? Although, in my defense, I usually tend to make ones filled with meat or sauerkraut & mushrooms. But still...

*durf*.....I'm not worthy........

[savethedeli]

I'd have to go with:

Square potato Knish eaten from NYC street vendor

Thin crisp potato latkes with sour cream or apple sauce

Proper puffy oven roasted, rosemary flecked potatos cooked in the fat of the animal it happens to be roasting with.

[pax]

I hate to sound like I'm bragging, but I've perfected a few potato dishes and while I know there is better out there in top notch restaurants, I can't get better in the run-o-the-mill feeding trough.

So...

1. Lemon-garlic-rosemary roasties, parboiled then crisped in the pan under the meat (so it gets dripped on). Especially yummy with pork roast.

2. Potato pancakes, raw shredded drained tattie, minced raw onion, 1 egg per four tatties, just enough flour to hold it together, shallow fried in peanut oil, and salted immediately with coarse sea salt. Take your pic for toppings, my kids like to let shredded cheddar melt on theirs, then sprinkle chopped bacon on. Hubbie likes applesauce. I like them just as g*d intended, red hot, crispy, and right out of the pan.

3. Aunt Helen's German Potato Salad. No other will do. Except maybe my friend's Texas style mashed potato salad.

[slkinsey]

In no particular order:

- gnocchi di patate

- real Gratin Dauphinois

- potato puree

Part of my criteria was for dishes that preserve the "potato-ness" and actually taste of potato. Things like Belgian-style frites and latkes -- both things I love dearly -- don't taste of potato so much as they taste of "fried."

[Pontormo]

^Interesting point about "fried," Sam, but I'm going to have to take issue w the argument since one of the truly outstanding qualities of the potato is its charisma. It gets along with just about everyone and everything and every method imaginable, but forges especially remarkable bonds with fats even though they don't last very long. Married in the deep-fryer or skillet, the Golden Couple is consumed much too quickly after the relationship is consumated.

Nonetheless, thank you for mentioning gnocchi again.

I also agree that three is too limited a number. Many of my favorites have already been mentioned, including the closely related rosti and Pommes Anna.

As far as comfort foods go, I have to praise Marco Polo for the description of his wife's roasties. My British stepfather appalled an ex-son-in-law who was raised by a butcher; though the holiday roast stayed in the oven until all the red and pink escaped from the beef, the potatoes in the pan would make my short list. However, they would not rank as high as the chips (always round) he plunged into a pot of lard until a heart attack and a doctor forced him to throw away the wire basket.

New candidate that would make the cut for the top three: Suzanne Goin's potato & heirloom tomato gratin from Sunday Suppers at Lucques. Oh my!

I made it in early September for a visiting friend from Northern California to accompany a perfectly roasted chicken. Thin layers of beautiful potatoes from Heinz Thomet (a local organic farmer) alternate with caramelized onion, basil and in my case, Purple Cherokees, Green Zebras, Brandywines and other lovely pinkish types. The mixture stays in the oven for nearly two hours, the three main ingredients essentially stewing in an herb-laced cream until the tight seal on the casserole is broken and the top browns.

[jsmeeker]

1. mashed potatoes. Quite possibly, my ultimate comfort food. they can take on a lot of butter and milk/cream. Make it a litte rustic hand have some lumps or make them refined and sily smooth. either way, it's got to be my favorite way to prepare a potato.

2. French fries. they are everywhere and seem to come with just about everything on a lot of menus. done right, they are devine. crisp. fluffy. good stuff.

3. Before I opened the thread, I wasn't sure what my number three choice would be. Then I read Steven's mention of the chicken fat drenched potatoes from a rotisserie. I don't have a rotisserie, but I get something similair when I do a roast chicken by spatchcocking the thing, then roasting it on a broiler pan (the one that comes with the oven) with bottom of the pan loaded up with sliced potatoes. So darn good.

Edited June 25, 2007 by jsmeeker (log)

[Kent D]

I gotta choose only 3? Some days I eat 3 different potato dishes, and they're all great. So many potato choices, so little space...

1) Hash browns: thin in thickness, fried crisp, preferably in bacon grease. My in-laws took me to their neighborhood diner for breakfast one morning, and they recommended the "heart attack special": 2 biscuits w/sausage gravy and crisp hash browns, with the gravy on everything. I nearly died, it was soooo good. Place closed, can't have them any more.

2) My Mom's potato salad. She's given me "a" recipe, although she says she doesn't necessarily follow it (now I know where I get it...), I've tried to duplicate it. Just never the same. The "secret" is pouring some Italian dressing over the still-warm potatoes before mixing everything else in: eggs, celery, onion, diced pickle, mayo, a little mustard, celery seed...

3) Grilled potatoes: Thinly-sliced potatoes, skin on, wrapped in foil with sliced onion and bell pepper, vigorously seasoned with salt, pepper, paprika and garlic, a few dabs of bacon grease or a drizzle of olive oil, and grilled with whatever we're having. Hard to say how long to cook, it depends on the thickness of the potato & the heat of the grill. But when they're done, the peppers and onions are tender, and the potatoes have developed a yummy brown coating from the paprika.

Honorable Mention: thick, crisp french fries, light on the salt, with mayo for dipping. Oh, wait...kettle-cooked potato chips - malt vinegar/sea salt or jalapeno variety...no, mashed potatoes with cream cheese, butter, garlic, and chives...

[Lady T]

This is difficult. However...

1. Baked: one really nice oval organic russet, washed and perforated to avoid explosion, baked at 350 F for 1.5 hours. Apply S + P and sweet butter to taste. Matchless.

2. Boiled: enough washed tiny new potatoes, until done to taste. Add S + P and sweet butter to taste, plus coarsely chopped flat leaf parsley to taste. Add salmon baked in white wine and steamed asparagus. It's spring. Even if it isn't.

3. James Beard, in his 1974 book Beard on Food, published one of the most indecent, luscious things a body can do with the potato: Potatoes Byron. Involves several baked potatoes (scooped out of their shells, which then should be saved, cut into strips, and crisped for hors d'oeuvres), plus -- heh, surprise! -- salt and pepper, a *whole* lot of butter and cream, plus Parmesan cheese (I've done it with a Gruyere/Parmesan mix with herbs of choice: even better). Joyous.

Yum.