Roasted Garlic Potatoes 13Aug09

I love potatoes. I think I could eat potatoes at every meal. Hash browns, mashed, roasted, baked, fries, home style, soup, endless possibilities really. My favorite combination is garlic and potatoes, mashed or pan fried. Today I bring you, roasted! Roasted garlic with seasoned roasted potatoes, a perfect marriage of flavors. Roasted garlic doesn’t have that harsh don’t kiss me kick and actually adds a nice sweetness. So good just squeezed on top of a slice of crusty bread too!

You could really pair this as a side dish with any meal but I had it as my main dish for dinner. What can I say, I really love potatoes! And it’s technically Winter still, I’m allowed to have an entirely starchy dinner! I usually love a huge dollop of sour cream with potatoes, but this dish is so flavorful, you really won’t need anything else but a fork! Hope you like it!

Ingredients:
1 whole head of garlic
3 cloves of garlic – not from your whole one
6 potatoes, scrubbed, washed, peeled & diced
3 sprigs of fresh thyme
pinch of chili powder
pinch of sea salt
fresh ground pepper
extra virgin olive oil

Preheat oven to 400°F or 200°C.

Step 1: The garlic!
Using a piece of foil, wrap a whole head of garlic but leave a big air pocket in it. So pinch the edges of the foil together to seal the pouch. Now pop that in the oven, you’ll want to do this before cleaning your potatoes. Leave that foil garlic in the oven for a total of about 45 minutes to an hour.

Step 1: The potatoes!
After scrubbing, washing and peeling your potatoes, cut them into about 1-inch cubes and place in a baking dish. Drizzle with about 2 -3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil. Season with a big pinch of sea salt, fresh ground pepper and mix together with your hands. Take 3 cloves of garlic and smack it down with the side of your knife to mash it. Toss those in with the potatoes. Pluck off the leaves off the thyme leaves and add to the potatoes. Sprinkle with a pinch of chili powder, mix and pop in the oven with the foiled garlic.

Step 2: The bake!
Bake the potatoes at 400°F or 200°C for about 30 minutes. Take them out at about 15 minutes and give it a good mix and pop it back in. Take out the dish and the foiled garlic. In the dish, remove the crispy garlic pieces (you can throw them away, they were mostly for flavor). Mix the potatoes up, they should be soft by now. Turn up the heat to about 480°F or 250°C or you can use the broiler, and crisp up the potatoes on the top rack for about 4-5 minutes or golden toasty brown. Once you’ve removed the foiled garlic, carefully unwrap and let it cool a bit while the potatoes are finishing in the oven. Once the potatoes are browned, take them out. Carefully take out each clove of the roasted garlic and just squeeze out the gooey garlicy insides. Mix and serve!

I really wish I had leftovers! But this dish is so easy to make, you can really whip it up in no time. Just takes a little time in the oven, believe me your house will smell delicious! Enjoy!

Posted by: Maggie Ha
Category: baking, food, mmmm, recipes
Tags: baking, cooking, food, potatoes, recipe, recipes, vegetables, vegetarian

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 13th, 2009 at 11:15 am and is filed under baking, food, mmmm, recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.