Smashing Smashed Potatoes(Achari& mixed herbs)

Smashing Smashed Potatoes

Achari & Mixed Herbs

Today I am going to share a very tasty and easy to make snack recipe. In fact if you want you can make two types of snack in one go. Main ingredient for today’s recipe are baby potatoes. Just by altering the marination you can create two types of snacks.

Smashed Potatoes with Mixed Herbs

INGREDIENTS for marination 1:

1/2 kg. baby potatoes

2 and half tbsp. olive oil

1 tsp. finely chopped garlic

1 tbsp. mixed dry seasoning (oregano, basil, thyme, rosemary etc. I have used mixed Italian and Mexican seasonings.)

1/2 tsp. red chilli flakes

1 tbsp. salt for boiling potatoes + 1/4 tsp. salt at marination stage.

Method:

1. Take a pot appropriate (in size) for ½ a kg of baby potatoes. Put all the potatoes in the pot add enough water to cook it along with 1 tbsp. of salt and allow it to come to a boil. I had forgotten to add salt while boiling and found it difficult to adjust the seasoning later on, so make sure to do this. As soon as it starts to boil switch the flame to low and cook for about 15 minutes. It took 25 minutes for these potatoes to cook. But this time can differ slightly for various reasons.

 You can use pressure cooker also but make sure not to overcook the potatoes. We want cooked potatoes but not bursting overcooked ones because when we smash them we don’t want potatoes to disintegrate.

2. Now carefully strain all the potatoes and allow it to cool down for 5- 10 minutes. We are not going to take off the skin of these potatoes because all the nutrients are hiding there.

3. Now the fun part starts, take a clean kitchen napkin and put one potato on it then fold the napkin and smash it lightly with your hand. The purpose is to flatten the potatoes but not so much that they fall apart so try with one potato first. Repeat this process with all potatoes.

4. When all potatoes are smashed, take a big bowl and add olive oil, garlic, chilli flakes, mixed Italian seasoning, mixed Mexican seasoning. I like to add 1/4 tsp.of additional salt at this stage. Mix all ingredients and then add smashed potatoes to the mix and toss carefully so that potatoes are well coated with oil and seasonings. Try to keep potatoes intact. Let everything sit for 10-15 minutes.

5. Meanwhile preheat the oven at 270 degree Celsius for 10 minutes.

6. Put an aluminium foil on a baking tray and grease it with oil. Spread potatoes on the tray individually and put in the oven to bake for about 10 minutes on one side. After 10 minutes when potatoes look brown and crisp turn them over and cook again for 3-5 minutes.

Oven timings can vary slightly from one make to another so please adjust accordingly. Basically potatoes are precooked we just want them to be slightly crisp.

7. Take out the tray and serve hot with coriander chutney, mint sauce or tomato ketchup. I am providing a link to my recipe for mint sauce or chutney down below.  

Mint sauce/chutney recipe

Achari Smashed Potatoes

INGREDIENTS For marination 2:

1tbsp. mustard oil

1 & 1/2 tbsp. olive oil

1/2 tbsp. lemon juice

1/2 tsp. garam masala

1/2 tsp. amchur powder(dry raw mango powder)

1 tsp. kasuri methi

1/2 tsp. red chilli powder

1/2 tsp. kala namak(black salt)

1/4 tsp saunf (fennel seeds), 1/4 tsp. sabut dhania (whole coriander seeds ) & 1/2 tsp. sabut jeera(cumin seeds) ( in a pan dry roast together on low flame for one minute or till it becomes fragrant, cool it and then crush into a coarse powder)

1/4 tsp. haldi powder (turmeric powder)

1 tsp. ginger garlic paste

1 tbsp. salt for boiling potatoes + 1/4 tsp. at marination stage

You can make this variation of above recipe without too much of extra effort. Actually I boiled 1 kg. Of baby potatoes send split them into half for each recipe. You can either make both varieties together or separately it’s your choice.

Method:

Method is same for both recipes up to step three. From this point on wards only the marination ingredients will change rest of the process is same.

After step 3 divide smashed potatoes into equal portions if you are making both varieties together, otherwise continue with step four.

4. Take a bowl  add mustard oil, olive oil, garam masala, amchur powder, kasuri methi, haldi, red chilli, ginger garlic paste,kala namak,saunf, sabut dhania, bhuna jeera and lemon juice. Mix everything well and add smashed potatoes to this mix. Toss these potatoes carefully and let it sit for 15 minutes.

From step 5 to 7 same process will continue.