I love potatoes, especially fresh potatoes dug from the earth with the past day or so. They have an ineffable sweetness and you can even taste the earth they grew in. We forget that as well as potatoes keep, they’re best when absolutely fresh.

But freshly dug or not, here are a few of my favorite potato recipes:

Potatoes O’Brien: This recipe is great way of using up leftover boiled potatoes. In fact it’s such a great way of doing so that I often cook too many potatoes so I’ll have some leftover. I got this recipe from a book named Mrs. Rasmunssen’s Book of One-Arm Cookery that my mother gave my grandmother and my grandmother eventually passed on to me.

Maine Fries: This dish is one of the best ways of cooking potatoes I’ve ever had. Unlike the usual fried potatoes (including the Potatoes O’Brien above) these begin with raw potatoes and are slowly cooked until very crisp outside and buttery inside. Apparently it’s often eaten as a main dish in Maine.

Potato/Carrot Gratin: I don’t recall where this recipe came from, but I’ve been making it for around 20 years. It’s not only delicious but looks great on a plate making it a good choice for dinner parties. On the other hand, it’s easiest enough to make to be a good choice on a week night if you have a little extra time.

Patatas Bravas: I love Spanish food and this is a great example. The potatoes are sauteed in olive oil with bell peppers, dried chiles (hence the bravas), onion, and then finished with a beer glaze. As you’ll see in the recipe, I often serve them with a Spanish lamb dish named Cochifrito.

German Potato Salad: Another great way to used leftover potatoes, my approach is to cook some bacon, then brown potatoes and onion in the bacon grease until lightly browned. Deglaze the skillet with apple cider vinegar and stir in sour cream. In fact, I frequently have this as supper with at most a green salad or some steamed cabbage.

Horseradish Mashed Potatoes: An English friend told me about these and so I had to try them. They are extraordinarily (even spectacularly) good — far better than garlic mashed potatoes — and couldn’t be any easier to make. The horseradish flavor is a delightful complement to the mashed potatoes, offering a similar earthy flavor, as well as a surprising foil to the potatoes inherent blandness.

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | seriously good | side dish | potatoes

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