Vargr
Vargr
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Fried Rosemary-Onion Red-Skinned Potatoes
When Booj and the wuffy did the Grill and Smoker session on Saturday, we were looking for a side-dish to go with the grilled London Broil. Your friendly wuff suggested fried red-skinned ‘taters and onions; a dish that seems to go will with 'most anything grilled. The brown bunny suggested adding some olive oil and rosemary to the mix, and since he has a large rosemary plant growing in the front planter, the idea of fresh rosemary definitely perked this wuff’s ears up.
So Vargr put together a quick “impromptu†side to accompany the meat, made from the leftovers of some of the herbs we’d used for the dry rub, some ‘taters from the market, and lots of fresh rosemary from the plant in the front yard. Boojum liked them so much, he insisted that Vargr capture the recipe for future use. Not quite as easy as it sounds, since a lot of the cooking was, “A dash of this, a sprinkle of that, and what else do we have here that looks good?â€
However, to the best of wuffy’s knowledge, here’s what went into the making. Please note that, if you have a large enough skillet, you needn’t do the ‘taters and onions in separate pans at the beginning. But wuff had to improvise a bit to fit the available cooking vessels. And splitting the two up DID let wuff tailor the cooking to suit the individual needs of both veggies.
Ingredients:
5 med-lg Red-skinned potatoes, sliced into sections 1/4 - 3/8†thick and then halved.
1 med-large yellow onion, sliced in half (root to stem) and sectioned 1/8†thick (makes little thin half-rings)
2 Tbl Spoons Olive Oil X2 (one portion for each pan)
1 Tbl Spoon Butter X2 (one portion for each pan)
1 heaping Tbl Spoon (after chopping) fresh rosemary leaves, chopped up very fine
1 teaspoon granulated garlic
2 teaspoons (after chopping) fresh dill weed (the feather fronds), roughly chopped
1- 1 1/2 Tbl Spoon (after chopping) curly leaf parsley, roughly chopped
Salt and Pepper to taste (guessing we used about 1/2-3/4 tsp salt, and a bit more than that (1 tsp+?) of pepper)
Cooking:
Slice up your potatoes and onions and put them in separate containers to store until the pans are ready. Chop up the rosemary, dill and parsley. You can mix the dill and parsley together, but keep the rosemary separate. Setting this up before the pans are heated will make the rest go a lot easier.
Heat 2 med-large (or 1 very large) skillets over medium-high heat. Add 2T Oil and 1T Butter to each pan and allow to warm until the butter is completely melted and starting to just turn a bit brown.
Add the potatoes to the heavier pan (if there’s a difference) and the onions in the lighter/thinner one. Stir both around to thoroughly coat all with the oil and toasted butter mixture. Add salt and pepper to the potatoes, and a dash of salt to the onions.
Stir and sauté both, stirring frequently so the potatoes don’t stick to the skillet and the onions cook evenly. When the onions are completely translucent and just starting to brown a bit, lower the heat to “hold†them (about 6-7 minutes).
Add the garlic and half of the rosemary to the potatoes and stir to distribute evenly. At this point, add about 1/4C water to the potatoes, stir once, and immediately cover, reducing heat to medium, and allow to steam for about 10 minutes. Check the onions occasionally to be sure they aren't browning too much, and stir as necessary.
Remove cover (careful! Steam scalds!), and stir the potatoes about, scraping up any bits that have adhered to the bottom of the skillet. The water should be just about gone, leaving a thick sauce of potato starch, butter, and oil. Stir this around to coat the potatoes, being careful not to mush up the more-tender ‘taters too much.
Add the warmed and slightly browned onions to the ‘taters, and add the rest of the rosemary, and the dill and parsley (reserving a bit of the parsley and dill for garnish). Stir, then taste and adjust salt and pepper as needed.
Continue to fry (may need to raise/adjust heat if necessary), stirring occasionally to keep them from sticking to the pan for another 5-10 minutes or so, depending on the stove heat, until browned in places. Flip and turn them to get some brown bits on all, and to make sure all the ’taters are soft and tender, but not too mushy (careful in the turning. Use “Shovel under and flip†with a sturdy spatula, if possible, to keep from turning these into onion-rosemary mashed ’taters from too much spoon mixing) .
Serve along side the beef, with a sprinkle of the dill/parsley on top for garnish.
Makes 4-5 medium servings.
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These have a very pronounced rosemary flavor, with complex additions of the garlic, olives, and dill. The onions become sweet and tender, and don’t give it the sharp “fresh onion†flavor because we cooked them before adding to the tater mixture. If you want more noticeable onion, add a dash of onion powder during the last stirring just prior to serving.
The bunny was right - they certainly were a tasty and complimentary side dish to the “enhanced Montreal (Canadian) Seasoning rub" we did for the beef. Would have enjoyed both at any restaurant in town, who probably would have made a slightly nicer presentation, but not a better flavor. *grins*
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We grow not old, so long as we continue to chase our dreams.
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