Stovetop Cracked Fingerling Potatoes

In our house, we love spuds.  Honestly, I love potatoes, boiled, roasted, mashed, and baked. Mmmm, mmm, mmm.  Whenever I shop at Trader Joe's (weekly) I grab a bag of fingerling potatoes. I just love them!  I've been making this version of "Cracked" potatoes for a few years. I saw it on Food Network-- by the winner of "The Next Food Network Star". Sadly, I've forgotten her name-- her show lasted one season, and she quit to move to France.  Anyway, her original recipe used Yukon Gold Potatoes, and a lot more olive oil than I would normally use.  You can certainly use Yukon, or Red Bliss Potatoes-- just try to buy them "small" and uniform in size. The trick is learning how to "crack" each potato without smashing them. The first few times that I made this recipe, I used too much force and I had potato bits flying across my kitchen counter! You can use a rolling pin-- I have learned to use my meat pounder (the edge). What you want is to see a "fissure". This lets the steam escape.  This is one of the first recipes I ever posted on my blog. It had "zero" comments. I can see why, because the photos were done with flash photography (I don't do that anymore) and they weren't very appealing. I made these, tonight, and took some new shots-- using natural light. I thought I'd re-post the recipe for you. Here we go:

Using either a rubber mallet, rolling pin or a heavy pan, "whack" each potato so that you see a small crack (fissure). (Be careful, or pieces of potato can go flying everywhere!)  Heat oil in skillet to a medium high heat.
Add potatoes and season with kosher salt & pepper.  Add fresh herbs-- I use either fresh rosemary or thyme.  Put the lid onto the skillet. Allow the potatoes to cook at medium high for 2–3 minutes; shake skillet every 2–3 minutes until they start to look browned.  Reduce heat to medium low for approx 20–30 minutes. The larger the potatoes, the longer it will take.

When the potatoes are fork tender, remove lid and add garlic and shake the skillet to distribute evenly.
Allow moisture to evaporate, turn off heat and serve.

You might wonder why I just don't roast the potatoes in the oven... simple! It frees my oven for other things ( don't have a double oven), and I like having the skillet on the stove-- it's easier to keep at eye on it. No matter what, this recipe (actually, I think it's more of a technique) is versatile and is a top favorite with my family.

Enjoy!