Anatomy of the Perfect Potato Wedge ~ A Recipe

Every preggers has her cravings.  One of mine happens to be... the potato.  The warmth.  The crispy edges.  The melt-in-your-mouth insides.  The sea saltiness.  Pardon me while I wipe some drool off the keyboard.  It's almost dinnertime; a tricky time of day to be writing about food.  Needless to say, I take potatoes seriously.  I've experimented with a number of different methods to contrive the perfect potato wedge, and in my humble opinion, this is the one.

As I long for crisp, autumn days, we are expecting Friday to hit 109º, so the oven and I are still painfully on sabbatical from each other.  This recipe, however, is cooked on the stovetop.  It's that perfect dish to periodically scrape and stir on the side burner of the grill while you flip some meats and veggies, leaving the house unheated by any food prep.

Before I delve into the recipe, I must share my personal preference on how the potato wedges should be prepared.  Like I said.  This is serious.  First things first.  Don't over-stuff the skillet with potato wedges.    I've learned from experience that too many potatoes leave some wedges barely cooked and others burnt.  I use a 10 1/4-inch cast iron skillet and about six medium red or Yukon Gold potatoes, max.

Next, cut the potato in half lengthwise, and then cut the wedges out about four per half of a potato, as uniform as possible.  You don't want them too thick or else they take forever to cook and you don't get that perfect crispy-on-the-outside, soft-on-the-inside thang goin' on.  That's what we're going for, here.  Okay, I think we're ready for the recipe now...

Perfect Potato Wedges

Serves about 6

6 soft-skinned potatoes (like red or Yukon Gold), sliced in about 8 wedges per potato

2-3 Tablespoons coconut oil (expeller-pressed) or ghee

Seasoning of your choice

Celtic Sea Salt (if your seasoning doesn't have salt in it)

4 cloves garlic, minced (optional)

1. Warm the oil in the skillet on medium-high heat.  Add potatoes and stir to coat the wedges.  Sprinkle your seasoning of choice.  I usually use something from this brand (very clean):  Don't be afraid to use lots of seasoning.  You want flavor.  Here's what mine usually looks like when I've seasoned them enough:
2. Stir well and cover.  Lower heat to more of a medium and less of a high heat.  On my burner with choices 1-10, I set it at a 6-7.  Uncover and stir periodically (about every 3 minutes), scraping the bottom of the pan and kind of flipping the wedges as you stir to get them browning evenly.  You'll know they're done once the outsides are brown and crispy but a wedge can be easily cut in half with your stirring spoon.  It usually takes mine about 20 minutes of cooking.
3. Add optional garlic and sea salt, give it a stir, let it sit a few minutes, then serve.

Enjoy!

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I'm sharing this at Simple Lives Thursday, Fresh Bites Friday, Pennywise Platter, Monday Mania & Real Food Wednesday.