5 Potato Side Dishes So Good They’ll Steal The Show

Fondant potatoes! That's right, if your grandfather was a European aristocrat, this may have been one of his favorite potato side dishes. So basically what I'm trying to say is this is a very old school recipe, much more popular in England and Europe, probably because it has more than one step. Americans have never really embraced it. But I really do think it's a cool recipe, and you can never have enough potato recipes, okay? So here's what we're going to do. We're going to take some russet potatoes. You have to use the russet. That's just the texture that works best here. Try to get them as uniformly shaped as possible, because what we're going for is perfect cylinders. All right, we're going to cut off both ends, because the next step after we cut the ends off is to turn it up on its side and slice down with your knife, peeling it and giving it some cool edges. All right, so you could just peel this, but this is the traditional method. And of course, the potatoes are going to vary slightly. So as you're doing this step, you're going to try to get them approximately all the same thickness. When you get down to the bottom, just feel free to clean it up like that. And then once those are peeled, you're going to turn those on their side, and we're going to cut them in half as even as you can. All right, that's pretty good. Close enough for YouTube. We're going to throw those in a bowl of cold water and let them sit for about five minutes, just to remove some of the starch from the outside, at which point we'll transfer those onto a paper towel to pat them dry. All right, we don't want any water on the surface when these go in the pan. And once our potatoes are completely dry, we're going to go to a heavy bottom skillet. I'm using a cast iron one. I'm going to set that over high heat. I'm going to put in a couple tablespoons of grapeseed oil or some other high smoke point oil. Canola would work. I think you'd be okay with any vegetable oil. When the oil is very hot and shimmering, we're going to add our potatoes. You want to put your best looking side down. It doesn't really matter, but if one side's a little flatter and better looking than another, put that side down first. At that point, you can lower your heat to medium high, and we're just going to let those sit in there for about five or six minutes until they brown very nicely. While you're waiting, you can generously salt and pepper those. And I don't know exactly how long my first side took to brown. I don't time this kind of stuff. I just go by eye. And we're not talking barely golden. We're talking fairly well browned. All right, so be patient. So that wasn't ready yet. So I let them go another couple minutes. And that's more like it. So when they look like that, you can go ahead and flip those over. And at that point, that vegetable oil has served its purpose. I'm going to take a paper towel and absorb that oil because we're going to replace it with butter. That's right. Always an upgrade. So we're going to throw in a knob of butter with some thyme sprigs. And if you're not sure what a knob of butter is, you can just ask one of your British friends. They know. And again, we're still on medium high heat. And we're going to swish that around the pan. That butter's going to get infused with that thyme. And you want to spoon and or paint with the thyme sprigs over the top. And what we're looking for here is that butter foam at the top to turn from white to a light tan color. It's going to take a couple minutes. All right, while we're waiting, let's go ahead and season this side with a generous amount of salt and pepper. And of course, it's always a good idea to make sure your potatoes are evenly spaced. And as soon as that butter foam just starts to think about turning golden, I want you to dump in a half a cup of chicken stock because these potatoes are going to roast in that stock to finish cooking in the oven. And by the way, all fondant potato means is potatoes that are roasted with stock, or at least that's what they told me in culinary school. And why would they just make that up? So we're going to dump in the stock and immediately place that in a preheated 425 degree oven for about 30 minutes or until your fondant potatoes look like this. They're going to be very, very tender and creamy inside. And of course, the edges will be browned and crusty. The bottom gets nice and sticky from the stock, which imparts a little bit of extra richness into the potato. And of course, if yours aren't cooked yet and your stock's gone and you're worrying about the bottom burning, just add another splash and let it cook a little longer. All right, that's you cooking. I just get you close. You got to figure out the rest. And then to finish, of course, we're going to transfer this onto some kind of serving platter. If I was you, I would totally spoon over a little bit of that thyme butter. And because I have a garden, I'm going to put some blossoming thyme flowers around. I like my food pretty. And then please do as I say, not as I'm about to do right now. To really appreciate these, you have to let them cool down a little bit. This is way too hot to bite into, but I'm going to do it anyway. I got a video to shoot. And if you've never had these before, you're going to be amazed at that texture. So dense and moist and rich. Just really, really cool. Of course, you have that butter and thyme. That's always a good thing when you're talking potatoes. And of course, the real magic is that contrast between those crusty edges. Let's just listen for a little bit. Oh yeah. So it's those crusty edges contrasted with that creamy, moist center. It really is a tremendous potato technique. And of course, I've always wished there wasn't a dish already called scalloped potatoes, because I would call this scalloped potatoes, because it looks like a giant scallop. But because there is, we can't do it. It would be too confusing. Hey, I ordered the scalloped potato, not the scalloped potatoes. So obviously that wouldn't work. There'd be like a whole scene. So we call them fondant potatoes. It's a fine name. All right. So I really hope you give that a try. Head over to foodwishes.com for all the ingredient amounts and more info as usual. And as always, enjoy. Hello, this is Chef John from foodwishes.com with lemon pepper potatoes. That's right. There are good side dishes and there are great side dishes. And then there are side dishes like this that are so incredible. They will literally make you forget what you had as the main course. That really is how amazing these crusty on the outside, creamy in the middle potatoes are. And by the way, if you're someone that enjoyed our very popular fondant potato video, these are extremely similar and possibly better. So with that, let's go ahead and get started by cutting some russet potatoes in half in a very specific way. Okay. What we want to do is lay them down flat and just cut a little bit off either side. And we're doing that so they sit flat in a pan, but also so they can absorb lots of flavor. And then what we want to do very carefully and very accurately is cut these straight down the middle, attempting to get two halves as even as possible. Okay. So take your time. This is not a game of speed. And sure, in case you're wondering, you can cut those the other way to make them wider, but then they might not be as easy to fit in a pan. So I like to cut them to get as narrow a half as possible. And by now you've noticed we're not peeling these, which you could if you want. So we'll go ahead and have those potatoes as shown, at which point we're going to want to transfer those into a bowl of cold water and sort of switch them around to wash off some of that starch. And feel free to do this in the sink. I just did it like this so it was easier to film. But anyway, we'll go ahead and give those potatoes a rinse. And we'll transfer those onto some paper towels and blot off any of the excess moisture. And just like when you're making french fries, the theory is by washing off some of that extra starch, you're going to get a crispier slash crustier surface. And then once our rinsing and drying has been accomplished, we'll go ahead and flip these over so the widest surface is facing up. At which point we're going to season these very, very generously with a whole bunch of freshly ground black pepper. And don't be shy. I mean, we do have pepper in the name. And then besides the black pepper, we'll also hit it with some cayenne, and as much as you like, which for me is a lot. And then last but not least, a very thorough application of kosher salt, or any salt. But be careful with the fine salt, since it's very easy to over salt. All right, one reason chefs love using kosher salt is because it has that large flaky grain, which is just a lot easier to handle and distribute evenly. And what we'll do once that side has been seasoned is prepare our baking dish by pouring a ridiculous amount of olive oil into the bottom. All right, for the amount I'm doing here, that was like a quarter cup. And once that's covering the bottom, we'll go ahead and transfer our potatoes in with that larger seasoned side down. And because I cut them the way I did, they all should fit perfectly in this dish. Except they didn't. In fairness, these were freakishly large potatoes. But nevertheless, I could not fit the last one in, which forced me to decide whether I should switch to my large roasting pan and have an extra pan to wash, or simply microwave that half and use it for home fries tomorrow. Which is what I did. And I really don't think anyone blames me. But anyway, once those potatoes are in the pan, we'll go ahead and brush over a little more olive oil, as well as apply the exact same seasonings. Some freshly ground black pepper, cayenne, and salt. And like so many of these videos are, this really is just a technique, and not necessarily a specific recipe. And as long as you're using some salt, you can pretty much use any herbs and spices you want. But regardless, once we have seasoned the top, we can go ahead and carefully transfer these into the center of a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes. At which point they should look a little something like this. And then very, very, very carefully, we're going to flip these over. And I'm going with the old spatula tongs combo, for maximum safety. Because if there was ever a potato recipe that was built to burn you, it's this one. So we'll want to turn those over very carefully. And then what we'll do is let them sit just like that for about 10 minutes or so, while we prepare our lemon infused braising liquid. Which is going to start with a cup of chicken broth, to which we're going to add some freshly grated lemon zest. And then depending on how tangy you want these, we'll also add the juice of one or two lemons. Okay, I ended up using one big juicy one, which was plenty. But if you feel like doing two, that's up to you. I mean you are after all the common dots, of what's basically just a flatter potato fondant. And then what we'll do once that's all been mixed up, is go ahead and pour this over the top of our potatoes. Making sure each one gets a little splash, before just dumping the rest in. Although be careful with that last dump, we don't want all the lemon zest sitting on top. Especially all on one potato. So I'm going to go ahead and scrape that off into the mixture below, so that our zest is under the rest. And then because I had some beautiful fresh oregano in the garden, I decided to poke in a few sprigs here and there. And no, that does not make these Greek potatoes. For that I believe you have to use dry. Then I gave it one last little sprinkle in a freshly ground black pepper, for probably no good reason. But I did it anyway. And that's it. We'll give it a little slosh, and a quick little old shake-a-shake. At which point we're going to pop that back into the center of our 400 degree oven, for about 15 minutes. At which point we'll give these another and final flip. And as dangerous as that first flip was, this one is even more so because of that hot liquid. So turn these very carefully, always if possible turning away from you, in case there is a splash. And what we'll do once these have been flipped over, is pop these back in the oven, for as long as it takes for the insides to get very soft and creamy, and for the outsides to get nice and crusty and caramelized. And if everything goes according to plan, they should look something like this. And if you're like, hey where did all that liquid and olive oil go? Did you pour it off? No, 100% of that goodness got absorbed into the potatoes. Which really is the magic behind this technique. And as with almost all potato recipes, the only ways to screw it up is to under salt them, or under cook them. So do not do those two things. Okay when that knife goes in, it should feel like it's going into butter. And then let me go ahead and grab some tongs, so I can flip these over, to that gorgeous larger side we'll be presenting up. And man those look good. I mean I was basically one little light spot away from perfection. But that's okay, I'll just stick that one in the back when I put these on a platter. And yes of course you could just serve these in your baking dish, but as you know I'm contractually obligated to take some pictures. So I'm gonna go ahead and arrange them on a platter, and drizzle over some more olive oil. As well as, yes you guessed it, a little more freshly ground black pepper. And then for a final touch, a little more fresh oregano. And that's it, our lemon potato peppers are ready to enjoy. So let me go ahead and grab a fork and knife, and tuck in. By the way that was my Jamie Oliver impression. I know I sound just like him. And that my friends is one of the greatest bites of potato you'll ever experience in your life. Except why am I eating the one in the back? Let me go ahead and move to one in the front. And what makes these so awesome is two things. One is of course that lovely lemon and pepper flavor the potatoes have soaked in. And two is that incredible contrast between the soft creamy center, and that crusty caramelized outside. Oh yeah, fork don't lie. Okay so I cannot stress enough how you really want to make sure these are cooked long enough. Okay what we're going for here is basically a very rich flavorful mashed potato, encased by that crustified surface. And I was not kidding earlier, no one's going to care or remember what the main course was. In fact I didn't even make one. Although that was mostly because I wanted to use the good light for the potatoes. So I did these before my feta roast chicken. Which I'm only mentioning so that you're now thinking about a feta roast chicken video that might be coming up. But anyway that's it. What I'm calling lemon pepper potatoes. Not only are they amazing like this, but if you have leftovers and you cut them up and fry them crisp, those will be the most magnificent home fries you've ever had. But fair warning, you probably won't have leftovers. But either way I really do hope you give these a try soon. So head over to foodwishes.com for all the ingredient amounts and more info as usual. And as always enjoy! Hello this is Chef John from foodwishes.com with German potato dumplings. That's right I'm going to show you my method for making kartoffelküse. Which by the way may or may not be how you should actually make them. Since I've never been to Germany to try the real thing. But anyway I do like how these come out and I think I have the technique down pretty well. Oh and one quick thing before we start. What looks like bacon on the top is not. All right that's the bad news. The good news is for this recipe at least we're going to use something even better. So with that let's go ahead and get started by cooking some potatoes. Which I'm going to be doing in their skins and some salted water. And by the way the times I've these in the past I've actually roasted the potatoes. But since I was filming this I decided to use the traditional method. Which is to boil them whole like this. And that did not go as well as I'd hoped. As you're about to see. But anyway I simmered those until they were just tender. As tested with a knife. And I wasn't bothered by what appeared to be a little bit of the skin splitting on top here. But as I pulled these out with a strainer onto a plate. I realized one of the potatoes had pretty much exploded. As in a major catastrophic rupture. And I was thinking maybe I overcooked them. I mean because look at that. I mean what the heck is that. But I double checked it again with the knife and they were actually perfectly cooked. So at this point I was so confused. But I decided to use them anyway. Mostly out of stubbornness. And to help calm my nerves I decided to watch a stick of butter slowly melt over medium heat in a skillet. Oh yeah that'll relax you. In fact let's just all stare at that. And just feel our troubles melt away. All right that's enough. And then what we're going to do here once our butter melts. But hasn't started turning golden brown yet. Is toss in a couple handfuls of cubed bread. Either fresh or day old. And what we'll do is cook those stirring until they turn golden brown and get very crispy. Which is going to take us a few minutes. So don't rush these. We're going to want these nice and crunchy. And then once that happens and they look a little something like this we will turn off the heat. And we will transfer those into a bowl with a slotted spoon. And do not under any circumstances throw away that browned butter. All right we're going to spoon that over our dumplings later. And then what's going to happen with these cubes. Is we're actually going to use some in the middle of the dumpling believe it or not. And then the rest we will chop up and use for an incredible crispy topping for our dumplings later. But not before we sample one or two of course. Which in the business we call quality control. All right so we'll set those aside and we can move on to peel in our potatoes. Assuming that they're cool enough to handle. And because these were boiled that skin should come off quite easily. Which it did on my non-exploded potato. And I went ahead and added that to a bowl. And went back and tried to attempt to peel the other. Which actually for its condition worked out pretty well. And despite that catastrophic structural failure. It still seemed pretty dry. Which is the whole idea of cooking these in the jackets. Right the theory is they won't absorb as much water. As if you peel them and cut them up. But having said all that I think I'll go back to baking them. But regardless once we have our potatoes in the bowl we'll go ahead and mash them. And for your information the actual proper way to do these is with a ricer. Which you're welcome to use if you have one. And while I do believe that probably does give you a better texture. For the style we're doing I think mashing them works fine. And what we'll do once those are mashed is go ahead and season them up. With some kosher salt. Some freshly ground black pepper. And of course a little bit of cayenne. Which I do not believe they use in Germany. For anything. But one thing they do use would be a little bit of freshly grated nutmeg. So we'll go ahead and add a little bit of that. Followed by two large whole eggs. And we'll go ahead and stir and mash that in. And by the way these potatoes are warm. Which I think is the best temperature for mixing all this stuff together. Okay a little hotter is probably okay. But I don't think we should let the potatoes cool all the way down. Okay I don't think that's going to work out quite as well. So we'll try to do these when the potatoes are just warm. And then what we'll do once our eggs have been incorporated is go ahead and add the last ingredient. Some all-purpose flour. And we'll switch to a wooden spoon. Or our hands if you're not working a camera. And we're going to mix that in just until the flour disappears. Okay I don't want you to get too nervous. But in general we don't want to overwork the flour here. Because theoretically that could make for some rubbery dumplings. And I don't know about you. But the last thing I want my dumplings to be is rubbery. So as soon as that flour disappears we will stop. And at this point we're ready to start forming our dumplings. But we're not going to do that until we've brought some salted water to a simmer. Because as soon as we form our dumplings they're going right into that pot. And make sure you add enough salt. All right just like when we're cooking pasta. That should taste like seawater. And then once that's set we can go ahead and shape our dumplings like this. All right we're going to make sure we wet our fingers. Because as you know from other videos damp hands make smooth balls. Whether those are meatballs or dumplings or whatever. And then we'll scoop a very generous amount of our mixture into our palm. And we'll go ahead and roll that around until it forms a ball. And then what we're going to do is make a little indentation about halfway down in the middle. And then for no apparent reason we're going to add two or three of those crispy cubes into the center. And I'm hoping some of our German friends can explain why. But anyway once those are placed in we will go ahead and surround those with our mixture. And then roll that into as smooth and round a ball as we can. At which point so as not to burn ourselves we'll go ahead and transfer that onto a large spoon. And use that to lower this into our simmering water. Which I think is going to be way safer than trying to drop these in with your hands. And then what we'll do once our dumplings have been transferred in is wait for those to float to the surface. Which is only going to take a minute or two. At which point we're going to cover these. Reduce our heat to medium low. And we will let those simmer gently for 20 minutes. Okay so check your heat. We don't want these at a rolling boil. And I'm not sure if you have to. But about halfway through I like to uncover them and give them a flip. And I'll go around and tip over each one. And as you can see these really have puffed up nicely. And then we'll cover those back up and give them another 10 minutes or so. At which point they looked a little something like this. And we can take a slotted spoon and very carefully transfer these to our serving dish. And then while they're still piping hot we'll go ahead and spoon over our reserved brown butter. As well as copious amounts of our chopped up crispy butter crumbs. Which as I mentioned does look like bacon. Which by the way you could totally use if you want. I mean you are after all the end So bacon would be fine. As would some sautéed onions. Or maybe even a mushroom sauce. But anyway I went ahead and finished that off with some freshly snipped chives. And that's it. My German potato dumplings were done. And way way too hot to eat. But I went in anyway. Because I'm a potato fiend. Especially anything that resembles mashed potatoes. And when you pair that with brown butter and super crispy butter bread crumbs. For me at least it just doesn't get much better than that. And of course we also have those golden brown croutons in the mill. And again I'm not exactly sure why they're there. But I'm sure there's a reason. And while I don't know much about these. I do know the texture improves if you let them sit for about 10 minutes. Okay they tend to firm up a little bit. And have a little more of a dumpling like texture. So I waited a couple more minutes. And plated one up next to some cabbage and sausage. And spooned over a little more of that brown butter. Because that is some delicious nutty goodness. And then before I went in for another bite. I went ahead and primed my palate with a piece of sausage. Which really should have been a German sausage. But it wasn't. It was a piece of andude. Which was lovely nonetheless. And if you're hoping for some kind of complex flavor profile here. This might not be your recipe. Okay this is as simple and basic as it gets. Right we're talking pretty much pure potato. With just enough egg and flour to hold it together. And right here you can probably see what I was just mentioning. That if you let these sit for a few minutes. They really do firm up. And take on more of a dumpling like texture. But not a dense and doughy texture. Right many versions are like that. This one's not. Okay this style is very soft and tender. And while I think these would have been even better. Had my potatoes been a little drier. I still thought they came out very well. Although I'm really not that objective. Since I have a mashed potato fetish. And I've never really had anything like this I didn't like. But anyway that's it. My take on German potato dumplings. Not only will these make for a new exciting and very comforting addition to your potato side dish repertoire. But you will also have a new and very fun word in your vocabulary. Which of course would be Kartoffelküse. Hold on. All right that was pretty close. But anyway for those reasons and more. I really do hope you give these a try soon. So head over to foodwishes.com for all the ingredient amounts and more info as usual. And as always enjoy. Hello this is Chef John from foodwishes.com with Potatoes Romanade. That's right I'm not always certain how authentic the recipes are that I post. But this time I am really certain. Since I was shown how to make this incredible potato side dish by its creator Chef John Sheng. Although now that I'm remembering he did credit his mom back in Buffalo with showing him how to make it. But the point is I learned this directly from him in his steakhouse in Las Vegas about 10 years ago. And it really was one of the most memorable parts of the trip. In that it's one of the few things I can remember. But anyway let's go ahead and get started. By buying some very large russet baking potatoes. Okay except no substitutes. It has to be large russet potatoes for this. And what we want to do is make sure we scrub those very clean. Since we are going to use the skins for this recipe. And then what we're going to do is go ahead and wrap these in foil. And by the way you only need three large potatoes for this recipe. But I'm going to do four since I had four. And I'll just save one to fry with some eggs. So don't let that throw you off. We only need three. And then what we'll do once wrapped is go ahead and give them the old poke poke with some kind of small pointy knife. And that will allow steam from the inside of the potato to escape while these bake. And that's it. Once foiled and poked we can go ahead and pop those into the center of a 400 degree oven for approximately an hour and a quarter. Or until very tender. And of course since we never want to guess in the kitchen we're going to go ahead and test those with a knife. And if that doesn't slide right in they're not done. Put them back in for a while. But these were perfect. And then what we'll do as soon as these are cool enough to handle is go ahead and unwrap them. At which point we want to let these cool all the way down to room temp. Because one of the secrets to this recipe is wrapping these and popping them in the fridge overnight before we use them. And I guess it doesn't have to be overnight. But they really do need to be completely cold when we grate them. All right so this is me the next day pulling them out. And what we'll do is go ahead and grate these with the skins on a cheese grater. And if you're not big on potato skins and you're a little bit worried about this don't be. Okay they're almost imperceivable in the final dish. Although having said that when you get down to the end of a potato you'll probably be left with a large piece of skin. Which you can discard. So I went ahead and grated three potatoes as shown. At which point we can go ahead and start adding the rest of the ingredients. Including some type of onion. And in my case shallot. Which in case you're not familiar sort of looks like a small red onion. And it's often described as a cross between an onion and garlic. But I don't actually love that description. I mean kind of sort of. But it really is a unique oniony flavor. And by the way no matter which kind of onion we use we really do want to dice it very finely with a very sharp knife. Okay because in the classic recipe this does not get cooked before we mix it in. And by the way in the blog post I'm going to talk about all your other options for this. As well as I will also talk about the amounts. Since I used a really large amount and probably more than the average person will want. But anyway bottom line we're going to need some minced onion. And then once that's prepped we'll go ahead and grab a couple forks. With which we're going to mix everything together. And we will go ahead and toss our freshly minced shallots in. Along with what looks like a ridiculous amount of salt. But it's not because that's large grain kosher salt. So it always looks like more than it is. And you really do need like a teaspoon of kosher salt per large baked potato or something like that. And then besides the salt we're also going to want to season this with some pepper. But not freshly ground black pepper. This time we're going to use freshly ground white pepper. Which I don't use a lot of. But that's what Chef John recommended. And then we will also do a little touch of cayenne. Even though that is not in the original recipe. And then what we'll do before we add the rest of our ingredients. Is give this a quick mix. Using the old fork toss and clean method. Which means we dig down underneath with our forks. And then toss everything up. And then after doing that a time or two we clean off our forks. And repeat. And the reason we're using this method. Is one of the secrets to this dish. Is not to mash these potatoes. So we really do want to be gentle. And then what we'll do once that's been mixed. Is stop and add our cheese. Which should be a nice sharp white cheddar. And then once that's in we will mix it until just combined. Using the exact same fork toss and clean method. And sure you probably could use your fingertips for this. But I really do think the forks will cause less smashing and mashing. Oh and can you use a different cheese if you want? Sure. Should you? No. Please use a white cheddar. And for heaven's sake grate it yourself. Okay there are pre-grated cheddars. And there are great cheddars. But there are no great pre-grated cheddars. But anyway we'll go ahead and very carefully mix in our cheese. At which point we can add the last ingredient. Lots and lots of sour cream. And please not the low fat one. We're going to need that fat. And then once we have that dolloped here and there. We'll go ahead and fork that in. Again being as gentle as we possibly can. Okay above and beyond the flavor. One of the things that makes this dish so incredible. Is that if done properly. We end up with the texture of a perfectly baked potato. That has just been freshly mixed with some sour cream. So we will very carefully toss in that sour cream. Until just barely combined. At which point we will stop. And very carefully transfer this into some kind of buttered baking dish. And as we're transferring this in. It's critical not to compress the potatoes any more than it is necessary to get them into this dish. Okay so we want to pile these up as high as we possibly can. And then just kind of use the tip of our fork to settle everything down a bit. And by the way this will kind of sink and settle down as it cooks. So it really literally can't be too hot. And then to finish this off. I'm going to do a little dusting of cayenne over the top. And by the way if you wanted to toss a little extra cheese on the top. Go ahead. But there's so much already mixed in. I really don't think you need to. And I actually think it looks better if you don't. But suit yourself. And that's it. We are now ready to transfer that into the center of a 425 degree oven. For about 30 minutes or so. Or until it's piping hot all the way through. And the top is browned. And it looks just like a magnificent steakhouse side dish. And that's it. We really don't have anything left to do except start eating. And I really would have trouble picking my favorite all-time potato side dish. But believe me this would be way up near the top of the list. And even though it kind of looks like a mashed potato casserole. The texture is not even close. This really is so much lighter and fluffier. And is meant to mimic the texture of a freshly baked potato that you've just mixed with sour cream. And this really is almost identical to that experience. And maybe even more so. Which is all thanks to cooking and chilling and grating those potatoes first. And also of course being very gentle as we mix this. And making sure we're not compressing it. And of course if you wanted to dress this up with maybe a little bit of bacon. Or some chopped herbs. Go ahead. Right this is the classic version. But that's up to you. I mean you are after all the David Hasselhoff of your potatoes Romanoff. And speaking of large chunks of meat. Don't just eat this out of the dish. Use it as an excuse to buy a couple nice big strip steaks. Which you will then sear to a beautiful medium rare. And then serve with the pan drizzled. And that my friends is really how you want to enjoy these incredibly delicious potatoes. Even if you're a vegetarian. Maybe do a cheat day and try this. It really is tremendous. I mean if there's a better protein and starch pairing than this. I really want to try that. But anyway that's it. My 100% authentic version of potatoes Romanoff. So sincere thanks to Chef John. And of course his mom. For showing me how to do this classic. And I have no idea why it took me 10 years to do a video for. Hopefully you do not wait that long. Which is why I'll finish up by saying I really do hope you give this a try soon. So head over to foodwishes.com for all the ingredient amounts and more info as usual. And as always enjoy. Hello this is Chef John from foodwishes.com with baked potato puffs. That's right they said there was no way to do a baked version of these famous french fried potato puffs. Which go by the name Pommes Dauphine. But you know what I think we did. And for the record I'm just assuming that's what they said. I mean no one's ever reached out to me directly. But I'm pretty sure someone said you can't do these in the oven. And you know what? If those people do exist they were just proven wrong. But anyway let's go ahead and get started by making some mashed potatoes. Which I'm going to do by simmering some Yukon Golds in some salted water for however long it takes for them to get very tender but not falling apart. Okay if we cook these too far they're going to absorb water and our puffs might get too heavy. Okay we're making puffs not lumps. So we're going to want to be testing that with a knife. And when they are in fact very tender without falling apart we'll go ahead and drain those and then mash them. Which I'm just going to do using this regular potato masher. All right if we were in culinary school they would make us use what's called a ricer. Which is basically a press that has a screen and you push the potatoes through. And it's nice because you don't get any lumps. And if you have one and you're feeling fancy go ahead and use it. But just a regular masher like this will totally work. And then once that's mashed what we're going to need to do is absolutely nothing. Okay just simply set that aside while we move on to make the other major component. Which is believe it or not the exact same dough we use to make cream puffs and eclairs. No I'm not kidding. So what we're going to do is bring some water and butter and a little pinch of salt to a boil over medium heat. And as soon as our butter is melted and that starts to bubble we'll go ahead and stir in some flour. And then using a wooden spoon what we'll do is cook this for a few minutes still over medium heat. Until it basically pulls together to form a dough. And all that stuff should pull semi-cleanly off the bottom. And a few minutes later if everything goes according to plan you should end up with something that looks like this. And once that happens what we'll do is transfer that into a bowl and kind of spread it out a bit. Because we want to let this cool for about five minutes or so. So it's not too hot for the next step. Which would be to mix in one whole egg. Which as you can probably see I've beaten ahead of time. Because it does mix in a little better that way. And I'm going to go ahead and mix that in with a spatula. And in case you're wondering yes I do usually use a whisk. Which does a much faster job. But once it comes together it all gets stuck inside the whisk. And you have to use a spatula anyway to get it off. So I figured I would save a step. And while it will take a little bit longer eventually if you keep smearing and smashing. Mixing and mashing. Eventually you should end up with a very very soft very sticky dough. And once that's been accomplished we are now ready to mix our two components. So we'll go ahead and take exactly one cup of our mashed potatoes. And add it to our pâté choux. Which I believe is the French name for that dough. And we'll go ahead and mix that with our spatula until well combined. And I should mention you can change the ratio between potato and dough depending on what kind of texture you want to end up with. Okay with less potato you're going to end up with something that's a little breadier. More like a fritter. Or maybe like a potato flavored donut. Whereas with a higher potato concentration you're going to end up with something that's more like a deep fried mashed potato. Which by the way is what I prefer. But anyway we're going to go ahead and give that a mix. At which point we're going to give it a taste for seasoning. Because even though there's a little salt in the dough and we cooked our potatoes with salt. We're probably going to need some more. So I did add some more salt. As well as a little shake of cayenne. Plus a very small but possibly very important grating of fresh nutmeg. Okay just a little touch. Mostly to honor the traditional pomme dauphine recipe. And we'll go ahead and give that one last mix. And by the way if you were going to add something like crumbled bacon. Or green onions or chives or something like that. This would be the point you'd do that. All right I'm just showing you the basic chords here. You have to write your own song. So feel free to accessorize this. I mean you guys are after all the bots of your mashed potato tots. And that's it. Once everything's mixed together we are ready to cook these. Which traditionally would mean scooping this into a deep fryer. But we're not doing that. As you may have heard we're going to bake these. So I went ahead and scooped those into a very well buttered mini muffin pan. And I was really hoping this would work. Because generally baking is a lot easier than deep frying. So I went ahead and scooped those in. And I was thinking about giving them the old tapa tapa. But I didn't. I left those as is. And then I headed to the oven where I popped those into the center. Or sort of the center. Of a very hot 450 degree oven. For about 20 minutes. Or until they were golden brown and puffed. And looked like this. So at this point I was very happy with how they looked. But I was kind of scared they had stuck. But much to my delight they did not. And they actually came out very easily. And as I was lifting these up transferring them onto the cooling rack. I really was amazed at how light they felt. I'm talking feather light. So I thought that was a really good sign. And I couldn't wait to try one. But I did. For a couple minutes. Okay we don't want to eat things that are so hot we can't taste them. So I let those cool for about five minutes. Before breaking one open so you could see what was going on. And what's going on is this. A super light airy fluffy mashed potato. Encased in a buttery golden brown crust. All right what part of that doesn't sound like something you really want to eat? And they really did taste and feel every bit as good as they looked. So I think the name potato puff really fits. Although mashed potato top would be pretty good too. And then as far as serving these. I think there's a lot of different directions we can go. And right here I'm serving them with a green chili aioli. Which is nothing more than my famous green chili pesto. Mixed into some mayonnaise. And yes I should probably show you how to make green chili pesto. But anyway that made for an absolutely spectacular dip for these warm puffs. And since I'm gonna eat all these. I can totally double dip if I want. So as far as doing these as a warm snack or appetizer. They definitely pass the test. But I also think they would make a great and very interesting breakfast potato. Next to a couple fried eggs. And in the spirit of full disclosure. I fully admit I'm a mashed potato fanatic. And love any and all kinds. So I knew I was going to love these. I just didn't realize how much. So these really did work well with the eggs and the dip. But these will also make for a great side dish for something like a steak. Which is basically what the original fried recipes used for. Speaking of which I did save a little bit of the batter. So I could show you what these look like fried. And while I did want you to see the difference. Not enough to actually get my deep fryer out and do these correctly. So as you can see I'm just shallow frying these in a little bit of oil. For a few minutes at let's say 375. Until nicely browned. And while the inside is going to be pretty much the same. Whether you bake these or deep fry them. The outside is definitely going to be darker and crispier. And I would have done the fork scrape. But these were too small. So then I tried rubbing one on the rack. But that didn't work. So you'll just have to settle for the sound of me biting one. And like I said the outside is going to be a lot crispier. Although these could have used another 30 seconds. Since these were still a little bit underdone in the center. Nevertheless I still enjoyed those very much. And they really are amazing fried. Which is something to keep in mind. If you're one of these families that likes to deep fry their turkey. I mean you're already going to have a big vat of hot oil. So why not? But anyway that's it. How to make the classic palm dough feed. Whether you end up deep frying them. Or baking them in the oven. If you like mashed potatoes. And you like puffs. I really think you should give these a try soon. So head over to foodwishes.com for all the ingredient amounts and more info as usual. And as always enjoy!