I adore potatoes – all potatoes. The big drawback for me is that they usually take awhile to cook properly. Oh, sure, you can whip up a bowl of instant mashed potatoes in a few minutes or pop one in the microwave for 5-10 and pretend it’s a ‘baked potato’ – I prefer to start with real, whole potatoes and do it the old fashioned way.
As a consequence of this and occasional lack of pre-planning, I sometimes find myself at the last minute of meal prep scrambling for a side. One of these instances netted this version. The proportions here fed three hungry people – you can adjust for more or less. I used:
Four medium potatoes
About 3 TBSP melted butter
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1 1/2 tsp garlic powder
Scrub the potatoes, skins on, and cut them into fairly small cubes. Coat them with the melted butter. Mix the cheese and garlic powder together, sprinkle over the potatoes, and mix. (I have made it without garlic, too.) Place in a shallow baking pan and bake until browned. The ideal temperature is about 350° so that the potatoes cook through without burning. Small-ish cubes at this temp will take about 30 minutes. If you are really short on time, cook the cubes in the microwave for about 5-7 minutes before coating with butter. This should cut your baking time to about 15 minutes. I like this simple but tasty dish when my meat dish has more heavy flavors (like a marinade); it has enough flavor to avoid plain but does not overpower or compete with the meat. Happy Ending.
