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Tuesday, September 6, 2011

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 109ยบ, 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!

17 comments:

  1. Sounds fantastic! Thanks for sharing with us. :)

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  2. I usualy make this with fingerling potatos and duck fat! Really, as long is a potato it's good eats! Thanks!

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  3. My family dug fresh yellow potatoes in the extreme heat last Friday night. This recipe sounds wonderful. I'll give it a try.

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  4. You should purchase a turkey roaster to use outdoors during the summer. Just like a small oven. I use mine to bake pies and cakes, and make beef or pork roasts with the veggies thrown in so it's a one-dish meal. The roaster I use only cost about $80 and we have gotten more than that amount of use out of it. It even sat out in the rain a couple of times and it didn't hurt it one bit.

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  5. mmm, I love potato wedges! my dad used to make them on sundays, it brings back warm childhood memories! This looks delicious!!

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  6. Hi,
    This post is so informative. I would love for you to come
    share it at FAT TUESDAY. I hope you will
    put FAT TUESDAY on your list of carnivals to visit
    and link to each week!

    http://realfoodforager.com/2011/09/fat-tuesday-september-20-2011/

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  7. Looks almost like what I made for dinner - but I did mine in the oven- 400 degrees for 20 minutes, 425 for another 10. I used some Creole blackening seasoning (sugar & MSG free) and it was wonderful!

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  8. These look super yummy, and as a fellow preggers I also have potato cravings.

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  9. just made these and im eating them right now!delish:)

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  10. Help! I've made these three times (go to with your Irish Nachos recipe) and the first time they were *fabulous.* But since then, I can't get the potatoes to crisp up. They get soft, and the bottom of the pan gets all the crispy stuff stuck to it. The first time I thought I maybe hadn't had the pan hot enough when I put them in, but I corrected that problem tonight - and they're still soft but not crispy. Is the pan too crowded? The temperature need to be tweaked? I really want to fix this, though I suppose I could always just try roasting the potatoes in the oven.

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  11. If I put too many potatoes in the pan, mine don't get crispy. You might also want to try adding a little more oil. Another idea is to cook them on medium/high for the first 5 min. or so and then turn them down to medium for the rest of the time (about 15 min), scraping them off the pan avery 3-5 min. I hope that helps!

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  12. Thank you! I made them again last night and they turned out really well. I confess that I *did* probably crowd them again, but I tried cooking them in beef tallow instead of coconut oil, and - stupendous. We love your Irish Nachos! :)

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  13. Oh my goodness, I need these now. I am pregnant with our second and I am totally craving potatoes! I normally don't eat grains or many potatoes, but right now it's the only thing that settles my stomach. I have chicken tortilla soup in the crockpot right now and the smell is just grossing me out so I was wondering what I was going to eat for dinner. Now I know :)

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  14. That's so funny; I totally crave potatoes when I'm pregnant! :) Enjoy!

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  15. This is so simple but one of my favorite blog recipes ever!

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  16. So I have made these many times in my cast iron skillet. And have yet to get them to not stick, badly. Any tips or tricks?

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