Tater Tots - A Recipe for Success

The last time I tried to do tater tots, I blew it. Not a few weeks after I posted my failed recipe, Kenji Lopez-Alt posted his guide to making tater tots. It is from that guide that I draw this successful recipe.

Peel a couple of pounds of potatoes.

Chop the potatoes into medium sized chunks, and rinse to get rid of the extra starch.

Fry up these for about 4 minutes, or until they just get golden.

Throw the fried potatoes into a food processor to get a very fine chop. 

Add a little sugar, corn starch, salt, pepper, and seasonings of your choice (maybe even bacon), and toss.

Form into tots using your hands, and fry for another 4 minutes. Behold the glory.

Ingredients:

2 pounds of potatoes, russet or other good frying potatoes

1 tablespoon of corn starch

1/2 tsp sugar

salt and pepper, to taste

Procedure:

1. Peel and chop the potatoes into large chunks

2. Fry the potatoes for about 4 minutes, or until they're just golden

3. Throw the potatoes in a food processor batches. Chopping finely.

4. Season with salt, pepper, and add corn starch as a binder.

5. Form the potatoes into tots.

6. Fry for another 4 minutes, or until golden and crispy.

Dry Rub Ribs

One of the least appreciated ways to prepare rubs is the dry rub. You treat the ribs with a dry mixture of spices and seasoning, and cook, adding sauce, if any, later. Another great thing about dry rubs is that there's no one right way to make it.

In this mixture we've got salt, pepper, chili powder, cumin, and garlic powder. Paprika and mustard powder are also very common ingredients in a dry rub.

I mixed up the spices and seasonings, and added brown sugar and espresso salt. The brown sugar is normal in dry rubs, the espresso salt was to give some added depth.

Apply the dry rub to ribs or spare ribs, and cook via your favorite method. Due to a stunning lack of both spare time and slow cooker, I threw it in the oven for about 90 minutes at 300 F.

The result was one of the best spare ribs I've ever had. It was bananas.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons kosher salt

1 tablespoon cumin

1 tablespoon ground pepper

1 tablespoon powdered garlic

1 tablespoon chili powder

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1/2 tablespoon espresso salt

Procedure:

1. Mix all the seasonings and spices, and apply to meat.

2. Cook meat.

Caesar Salad Dressing

DISCLAIMER: This recipe includes raw egg yolk.

This salad dressing is a huge step up in complication from the vinaigrette. Which doesn't say a lot.

Worcestershire sauce (not pictured) is also typically among the ingredients. It's also typically something in my cabinet. Imagine my surprise. The dressing works perfectly well without it.

Separate an egg yolk and place it in a bowl.

Add 2 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice, 1/2 teaspoon of minced garlic, 1/4 teaspoon of finely chopped anchovies (it's like half an anchovies), a pinch of salt, and a grind or two of fresh pepper.

Whisk that all up, and start to drizzle in a half cup of olive oil. Continue whisking while drizzling the olive oil in, and you'll soon get an emulsion. 

If you need to stop pouring for a second to mix better, feel free. Fold in sever hearty shakes of parmesan cheese and toss with romaine lettuce.

Serve with croutons.

Ingredients:

1 large egg yolk

2 Tablespoons lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon minced garlic

1/2 of one anchovie, finely chopped

a pinch of salt

a couple of grinds of fresh pepper

3 shakes of parmesan cheese

1/2 teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce, if you don't forget it.

Procedure:

1. Mix everything put the olive oil and parmesan cheese.

2. Drizzle in the olive oil while whisking vigorously. 

3. Fold in the parmesan cheese.

4. Toss with the salad.

Vinaigrette

Vinaigrette is probably the quickest salad dressing you can whip up. And the one your make will be at least as good as any store bought brand. This took me maybe two minutes start to finish.

That's pretty simple. I also put some fresh ground pepper in (not pictured).

I used the Ruhlmanian ratio of three parts (by weight) oil to 1 part vinegar. 

By volume you'll use a lot less vinegar, being water based it is much more dense than the oil. Add a pinch of salt, and a few grinds of fresh pepper.

Beat for 30 second to a minute with a wisk, and it will be nice and even.

Toss the salad with the vinaigrette, then plate and top with croutons.

This has a remarkably clean and simple taste that really pops. Feel free to play around with different oils and vinegars, including balsamic vinegars.

Ingredients:

60 grams olive oil

20 grams red wine vinegar 

a pinch of salt

a couple of grinds of fresh pepper

Procedure:

1. Combine in a bowl

2. Mix 

3. There is no step 3.

Salsa

Tack salsa up on the list of absurdly easy AYearFromScratch recipes. This can also hardly be called a recipe. It's more a collection of things you like.

Start with some of your favorite fresh ingredients. White onion, tomato, red and yellow peppers, cilantro, salt and pepper for seasoning, lime to keep things from browning and whatever hot peppers you like and your guests can handle.

Most of what goes into a salsa is the dicing. So, here are a few tips.

Cut into the skin of the tomato, and cut around the center. You'll get a fillet of tomato.

Go over it once more to cut out all the seeds and juice. Reserve that and the core for some other use (like tomato soup, or tomato paste).

Now cut the tomato to even sticks, between 1/8 and 1/4 inch thick depending on your preference. I like chunkier salsa when I make it at home.

Take a subset of those tomato sticks and cut them in the other direction, making even squares.

The process for the pepper is almost identical. For non-hot peppers, cut off the top and bottom, then split the pepper open and cut out the white core.

Look familiar? It should. Cut it into even sticks, and then into a dice.

As your going, throw the finished veg in a bowl. Keep on adding things until you think you have enough. Toss with salt and pepper, and then squeeze lime into the mixture to taste. 

Make sure you don't include the stems of the cilantro when you chop that. And, if you're cutting hot peppers either be very careful, or wear gloves. I'm dead serious here. Also, the capsaicin can linger on the cutting board, so when you go to clean up, don't stop being careful.

When all is said and done, it should look something like this.

This will be the freshest tasting salsa you've ever had. That is because it's the freshest salsa you've ever had.

Enjoy.