The Tater Tot Topic

[suzilightning]

rained out of the hawkwatch on friday so we went to run errands and hit up whole foods. DAMN YOU JASON!! had glanced at this thread the night before and bought cascadian farms spud puppies (they have a K in a box - does this mean kosher?) ate them for dinner last night and finished them tonight. baked them twice as long as instructed and they were hot, crispy-crunchy on the outside and still like riced potatoes inside. AAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH... a new addiction to find a program for

[fifi]

OK... Head on comparison between Ore-Ida "extra crispy" and Safeway brand, Safeway brand wins hands down. This is in a DeLonghi convection oven. The Ore_Ida doesn't seem to have enough fat to really sizzle. The taste is somewhat funky as well. Maybe they would do better in a deep fry test. But... They really don't have that good potato flavor. (How did they manage to get rid of that?)

[stephenc]

http://www2.foxsearchlight.com/napoleondyn...e/epk/index.php

click on multimedia, video, then watch the video "go find your own"

Edited November 19, 2004 by stephenc (log)

[Toliver]

Slightly off-topic, I saw this toy and immediately thought of this discussion:

"Darth Tater"

Whatta hoot! Though Amazon doesn't have them in stock, you can find gobs of them on eBay.

[mizducky]

"Napoleon, give me some of your tots!"

I would dearly love to know if sales of Tater Tots showed any kind of a spike when that movie came out. I know I found myself wandering into the frozen-food aisle shortly after seeing it. The power of suggestion?

P.S. Those things really are pretty damn good. Especially for late-night munchies.

Edited April 4, 2005 by mizducky (log)

[kellycolorado]

We usually get the 365 brand here- less scary ingredients.

My husband likes to bake them and smash them into a breakfast burrito he makes with eggs, cheese and Hatch green chiles.

Anyway...now that I have them here, let's compare ingredient lists.  WF brand lists:  potatoes, palm oil, salt, apple juice concentrate, citric acid (to retain natural color).

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Ore-Ida Crispy Crowns (same as tots, only flatter): potatoes, partially hydrogenated vegetable oil (soybean and/or canola), salt, precooked wheat flour, yellow corn flour, natural flavoring, dehydrated onions, maltodextrin, autolyzed yeast, dextrose, disodium dihydrogen pyrophosphate (to retain natural color).

This thread inspired me to buy tots for the first time in years. We had some the other night with roasted halibut. Tonight, on my own for dinner, I baked a pan of crispy crowns at 450. Tipped into a shallow bowl, topped with grated cheddar, back in the oven for a moment. Added salsa and sour cream. Tasted good...

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[CaliPoutine]

I really hate to admit this, but I make a tater tot hot dish that won me first prize in a turkey recipe contest( i use ground turkey).

This was my description submitted with the recipe " It looks gross, but tastes fabulous"

[maggiethecat]

I really hate to admit this, but I make a tater tot hot dish that won me first prize in a turkey recipe contest( i use ground turkey).

This was my description submitted with the recipe " It looks gross, but tastes fabulous"

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Hie thee to RecipeGullet.

[redfox]

I don't think I had had tater tots since my elementary school cafeteria, where I found them unappetizing. But we had something of a failure to get around to dinner tonight, and then finally got hungry. Went to the drugstore around the corner and there were the Ore-Ida minis. I thought of this thread and took the plunge. Now I am eating a veggie burger (or, as we call it, a "food disk") and the minis cooked within an inch of their lives. So good! I love the proportion of crust to innards.

[jm chen]

As a kid: when they served chicken sandwiches and tater tots in the school cafeteria, I ate the chicken patty first and then made a tater tot sandwich with the bun. Delish!

As an (overweight) young adult: Ore-Idas baked in the oven, dipped in blue cheese dressing. Mmmmmmmm.

Now: as an occasional treat, I'll stop by the Duplex Diner and order their appetizer plate of tater tots and pigs-in-blankets. How much starch and fat can one girl take? More! More!

For home recipes, I guess anything with potatoes could have tots subbed in. Tater Totiflette sounds awesome. Go heavy on the bacon!

[fifi]

I forgot to report that I did try thawing some, then breaking them up with a fork into crumbs. I left them in the DeLonghi oven to get all crunchy and used them (liberally) on an impromtu salad made with left over chicken. Tot gibbles may become a staple in the fridge for just such uses, right next to the bacon crumbles. A quick pass through the DeLonghi crisps them right up.

[snowangel]

Linda, I will send what you said about safeway tater tots. I bought our local store brand (Cub) and they were better.

I'll have to try making them into crispy bits. Would be good for topping a casserole, I think.

[Daniel]

Chili cheese tots at Real Chili Madison, Wisco...

[Jason Perlow]

Wow, that looks really good from a lowbrow perspective.

[Daniel]

You trying to call me lowbrow...

Edited July 5, 2005 by Daniel (log)

[Jason Perlow]

Hey, we all can't have foie gras terrines all the time, dude.

[potsticker]

thanks to this thread, i have to stock up on tater tots every time i'm at the store.

those chili cheese tater tots look soooo delicious. all it needs is a dab of sour cream and some diced green onions.

[lesfen]

thanks to this thread, i have to stock up on tater tots every time i'm at the store.

those chili cheese tater tots look soooo delicious.  all it needs is a dab of sour cream and some diced green onions.

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My thoughts exactly. If it weren't so #@$&*!$ hot here, I'd make some myself. It's just not worth heating up the fryer, or the oven... Not even for delicious, crispy, greasy tots. Mmmmm... tots.

[megwoo]

Okay, I'll admit it. I love tater tots on certain occasions. I eat them with a sprinkle of truffle salt and they are sublime!

[Toliver]

I saw this recipe for "Parmesan Taters" coming up on the Food Network and it sounds like it might actually be good (and easy to make).

Of course, parmesan anything sounds good, too.

[Sony]

For dinner, I steamed a pile of broccoli...and then balanced it out by roasting up some Tater Tots (or whatever version of them McCain makes)....after rolling them in a little melted duck fat.

I think it's interesting that the package warns,"DO NOT OVERCOOK". I typically bake them 2-3 times longer than the directions recommend to get them as crisp and toasty as I like.

After they came out of the oven, I sprinkled them with a little garlic and tossed them with a few springs of lemon thyme (I have a plant that's going nuts!).

Man, they were good. (Of course, the broccoli was too )

[rlibkind]

Some more tater tot ideas from this Atlantic Journal & Constitution article package last month:

Chefs take the humble Tater Tot to the next level

Make your own Tater Tots

[slo_ted]

Thanks, Bob, for unearthing this thread. I spent too much time searching for it 3 days ago without success. For reasons never made clear, I have a bag of Tater Tots in my freezer and they are definitely on the menu for Sunday dinner. They should go well with braised short ribs, especially if it keeps raining.

[jende]

Add me to the list of people who hasn't even thought about Tater Tots for 25 years, but couldn't stop obsessing about them since reading this thread. I couldn't bring myself to buy Ore-Ida, even for the sake of sentiment, but I found a "healthy" brand that only listed a few ingredients besides potatoes, and no trans fat.

I'm going to bake them up nice and crispy with a beer-marinated sirloin and a nice arugula and avocado salad. My husband is psyched.

[JaclynM]

Hi all,

I am only an occasional poster to the forums, but I had to chime in and say that I've always loved tater tots! My husband and I have them occasionally with a weekend lunch.

Last spring some friends of ours had a potluck brunch, and one of the dishes that the wife served used tater tots. She just beat a couple of eggs lightly, and then poured them over some tater tots that had been spread into a single layer of a casserole dish or baking pan. Then she baked them in the oven. It was delicious!

I've tried making it myself at home for lunch. For a single serving, I used a loaf pan, because it's big enough to get all the tots in a single layer, but small enough for me to use my toaster oven. I bake the tots by themselves for about 5 minutes (according to whatever temperature is listed on the package). Then I pour over the eggs, and turn the tots with a fork to make sure they are all coated. Then I bake until the eggs are set. Yum!

Edited March 4, 2008 by JaclynM (log)