Clear your calendar. The potatoes are ready.
Sometimes when I get too busy, I end up assigning a lot of tasks to my pretend intern. She is not super-effective. Sometimes I think her lack of effectiveness stems from my own carelessness in having hired the wrong Myers-Briggs personality type for the job. (She’s a total INFP.) Sometimes I think her lack of effectiveness stems from the fact that she is pretend. Either way, today she has only one thing to do. She is clearing my calendar so I can sit at home and eat potatoes.
This isn’t the way the day was supposed to go. I woke up before six, because babies do not appreciate the subtleties of Daylight Savings. (They do not fall back, and they do not fall back to sleep.) I went to the gym. I did weighted walking lunges. This was not a day to mess with me. But since June I have had one of those irresistible little Martha Stewart Living pull-out recipe cards in my files. The kind with the dappled lighting they pretend is filtering through the trees and onto your perfectly adorned picnic table. The kind it is not a day to mess with. And that’s not all. Since July I have had a large bottle of white vinegar in the pantry. And since Sunday’s farmers’ market I have had several pounds of perfect little fingerling potatoes burning a hole in my concentration. Something had to give.
Something gave. It was my schedule.
The recipe below serves four in typical circumstances. Under certain conditions, however, it serves one. And that is all I plan to say about that.
The original recipe calls for finishing these beauties on the grill. Since we’re headed toward colder days, I’ve broiled them instead, which worked out nicely (but feel free to grill them on medium-high heat for the same amount of time if you’re one of those types). I won’t lie—they’re a little intense. In fact, I’d guess that Myers-Briggs would classify them as an ESTJ. They could probably finish my chores in less than half the time my current intern takes. In both of these situations, intensity can be a very desirable characteristic, and I will definitely be hiring back these little extroverts in the near future. For example, at dinnertime.
Salt and Vinegar Broiled Fingerling Potatoes
Adapted from Martha Stewart Living, June, 2009
-serves 4-
Ingredients
1 pound fingerling potatoes, sliced lengthwise to 1/4-inch thickness*
2 cups white vinegar
Extra virgin olive oil
Kosher Salt
Pepper
Method
1. In a small pot, combine the potato slices and vinegar. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer until fork-tender, about 8 minutes. Let cool in liquid for 30 minutes. Then drain well and pat potatoes dry with paper towels.
2. Preheat the broiler with a rack about 6 inches below the heat source. Dump the potato slices onto a sheet pan, sprinkle very generously with olive oil, salt and pepper, and toss to coat. Arrange the potato slices in a single layer. Broil until lightly browned on top, about 7 minutes. Then flip the slices and broil until the underside is lightly browned, about 5 minutes more. Serve warm.
*Please be careful with your own fingerlings when slicing. The potatoes can be a little slippery.
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This has become my default way of cooking potatoes–boiling them first, then doing whatever I feel like with them. I’ve made many a batch of hash browns like this, from cold cooked potatoes I’d been keeping on my fridge (actually, cooling the, lets them dry even more and become even more crispy when you fry or bake). Love the idea of vinegar as flavoring!
I was all ready to volunteer for the intern job, but I am also an INFP.
You may be thinking that I need an intern myself. But I thought maybe, if I were your intern, I could eat some of those potatoes. And, for that matter, some poached Asian pears.
Oooh, wow, those do sound intense. And pretty awesome.
I have always had a love/hate relationship with salt and vinegar potato chips, but I have a feeling that this homemade version would change that. My room mate is obsessed with salt and vinegar, so this seems like a treat worth trying aroung here.
Kudos to you for taking on weighted walking lunges and the intensity of the salt and vinegar combo in one day. These potatoes sound/look well worth all of your effort.
made these last night – DELISH!
This sounds great but does your house stink of vinegar after?
How interesting! I love salt and vinegar potato chips, so I’m sure I’d love this.
Priya, I’m so glad. Thanks for letting us know!
Don, I learned from using vinegar for cleaning that as soon as it dries, it doesn’t smell anymore. That seems to hold for cooking, too.
Just made this, and my boyfriend and I really loved it! So tasty, and easy too! Highly recommended to anyone who loves salt and vinegar chips. I substituted half the white vinegar with apple cider vinegar, and I thought it added just a hint of cider flavor to the potatoes, a nice layer of complexity, if you ask me. Thanks for the recipe!