Home Fries

A couple of weekends ago I saw someone on Food Network making this recipe as I was wondering in and out of  the family room. I’m almost positive it was Tyler Florence. At least I hope so. It’s not my own original recipe and I always want to give credit where credit is due! So, if someone out there is reading this story and you know absolutely that it was not Tyler Florence, please let me know and I’ll correct that asap!

Regardless of who the cook was, I knew right away that this was something BeeBop (and, yeah, me too) would just love. After all, it’s potatoes and BeeBop is a meat ‘n ‘taters guy. Also, it reminded me so much of the fried potatoes we had everywhere on our trip to Ireland. Really, no matter what you ordered it came with fried potatoes. I began to wonder when I ordered the bread and butter pudding for dessert (the absolutely best dessert I’ve ever had anywhere, by the way) whether it would come to the table with a side of fried potatoes. No joke. And without exception all those potatoes were fantastic!  Believe me, the Irish know what to do with potatoes!

This recipe doesn’t give specific amounts because it’s one of those things that you just have to sort of feel your way through. You know what I mean, right? Kind of like making toast. You just know what is enough butter and know when it looks done, don’t you? So it’s the same with these home fries. Try them once and you’ll immediately “get it.”

Potatoes
Butter
Olive Oil
Salt
Pepper
Thyme
Paprika

I use 1 1/2 medium or 1 large potato per person for this. So for the two of us, that would be 3 medium or 2 large potatoes. For that amount of potatoes I would use 1 tablespoon of olive oil and 1 tablespoon of butter. Make sense so far? Great!

Wash and dry the potatoes. I don’t bother to peel them. Cut your potatoes into approximately ¾-inch cubes. That’s right, exactly 3/4-inch cubes. Get a ruler and measure every cube just to be sure. (I hope you see that I’m laughing right now. The potato police are not going to show up if you don’t cut your potatoes exactly. Just get them into cube shapes, ok?) Place the cubed potatoes in a microwave safe bowl, cover with plastic wrap and microwave on high for about 10 minutes. Start checking potatoes for doneness after about 8 minutes. You want them to be cooked through but still able to keep their shape.

Remove potatoes from the microwave and set aside. They should look something like the photo above.

Melt the butter and olive oil in a nonstick frying pan.

Add the potatoes. Using a spatula, lift and toss the potatoes to coat with the butter and oil. Be careful not to break the potatoes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Continue tossing the potatoes every few minutes to prevent burning.

When the potatoes are a golden brown, remove the pan from the heat and sprinkle with fresh thyme (about a 1/2 teaspoon dried or 1 teaspoon fresh)…

… and dust with paprika.

These potatoes are good with nearly anything. Except maybe bread and butter pudding.

Enjoy!

–Recipe from the show Tyler’s Ultimate on Food Network