Greek-Style Potatoes

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Greek style potatoes
Roasted potatoes. Yum!

We knew we wanted potatoes, but were unsure of how we’d prepare them. We did a quick check through a couple of cookbooks, but nothing stood out. Then we thought to scan our food links for something involving potatoes. We look through a lot of cookbooks from the library, and, when we see a recipe we might like to try, we check to see if there’s something similar on the Internet. If so, we bookmark it for later. So, we looked and this recipe stood out.

We’ve had Greek-style potatoes many times when we’ve eaten out at Greek restaurants — they’re the lemony roasted potato wedges often served as a side — and we just love them, so we thought, let’s scratch some up.

We started with a recipe that purported to come from the Moosewood Cookbook, by Mollie Katzen; we won’t give a link because it seemed as if it had been transcribed improperly, and we don’t want you to use a recipe that might be a disaster. Instead, we’ll show you exactly what we did, so your version can turn out perfectly.

Greek-Style Potatoes

Servings: 3 -4 servings
Author: Shawn

Ingredients

  • 2 cloves garlic minced
  • 2 tsp kosher salt
  • 1/4 c fresh lemon juice from about 2 lemons
  • 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 1/2 tsp dried oregano
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 6 medium potatoes cut into wedges

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 400°F.
  • In an 8x8 inch pan, combine minced garlic and salt. Use the back of a spoon to smash the salt into the garlic, forming a paste. Add lemon juice, olive oil, black pepper, oregano, and water. Stir to combine.
  • Add potato wedges and toss to coat.
  • Bake 60 minutes, stirring every 20 minutes, or until water has evaporated and potatoes are tender.

Ingredient discussion:

We used naturally-grown potatoes from our farmer; we knew they’d be free of pesticides, so we didn’t bother peeling them. If they were non-organic, we would have peeled them. Fresh lemon juice is the only choice here and in most cooking. Fresh has a better flavor than the stuff in the bottle. For the oil, you could use a neutrally-flavored oil, such as canola, but we really doubt that Greek cooks would even think about doing such a thing. We used extra-virgin olive oil to make it as authentic as possible.

Procedure in detail:

Preheat oven to 400°F.

adding salt
The easiest way to make garlic paste is to add the salt and crush with a spoon.

Smash garlic. Place the minced garlic in an 8×8-inch baking pan and cover with the salt. Use the back of a spoon to smash and mash the garlic into a paste. We find this the easiest and cleanest way of making something like pressed garlic. The grains of salt act like small knives, quickly cutting the garlic apart and forming a paste.

garlic paste
With just a few pressings using the back of a spoon, the salt cuts the garlic into a paste.
Lemon sauce
Mix the remaining ingredients thoroughly so the salt dissolves and the garlic is well distributed.

Add remaining ingredients. Add the lemon juice, olive oil, black pepper, oregano, and water to the pan. Stir until well mixed.

adding potatoes
We used a variety of potatoes, some red, some gold, and even a few purple.

Add potatoes. Stir in the potato wedges until well coated with the liquid and spices.

Bake. Bake the potatoes, uncovered and stirring even 20 minutes, for about 60 minutes, or until the water evaporates and the potatoes are tender.

We had these potatoes along with some hot bread to sop up the lemony/olive oil liquid, and we cleaned our plates so well that we didn’t have to wash them. Okay, we did wash them, but we didn’t have to scrape off any leftovers. They were nice and lemony, quite tender, tasty, and came very close to replicating the potatoes we’ve had at Greek restaurants (we think those have a bit less lemon). While we list these potatoes as a side, we think they would work as a nice main, too. Just make sure to serve a lot of them because they’re addictive. Five stars.

Worth the trouble?

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