Crash Hot Potatoes

baby red potatoes (or other small potatoes)
olive oil
salt and pepper
soft butter
minced garlic

Boil as many potatoes as you want till fork tender. Generously oil a cookie sheet with olive oil. Put the potatoes on it and smash them down a bit with a potato masher or the bottom of a glass. If you use a glass fluff them a bit with a fork, if you use a masher press them once then turn the masher 90 degrees then press down again. Sprinkle the potatoes with salt and pepper, don't be shy potatoes need lots of salt. Mix together the butter and garlic. Place a half tsp or so (more if you want) on each potato. Bake on the top rack at 450 till golden brown, 20-25 minutes.

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Ok, this is yet another one from Pioneer Woman. She originally got the recipe from a reader in Australia. Go on over there to get the whole story if you are interested (and, frankly, better pictures. She takes really good pics.), it's not my tale to tell. I had suggested it to a buddy of mine over at BakeSpace but realized I hadn't made it for myself yet. Wait, what? I haven't mentioned BakeSpace? Surely you jest. I must have, Bakespace rules. It's a site with tons and tons of really friendly, helpful, knowledgeable people who are just dying to talk about food with you. Not to mention the mountain of recipes. And it's free. So why not pop on over? I won't be jealous, I promise. Just come back, you do want to learn how to make these potatoes. They are mad good. Ok, so here we go. Crash Hot Potatoes.

Start by taking some small potatoes, I'm using baby reds, and boiling them till they are fork tender. Fork tender, just so you know, means that you stick a fork in them and they slide off. Basically thoroughly cooked, but not falling apart is the goal. I'm making seven. Then put them on a baking sheet of some type. I used a jellyroll pan lined with foil, because I don't want to wash dishes any more than necessary. Put a goodly bit of olive oil on it, it is the difference between the potatoes sticking and not. You could probably use some kind of spray, but olive oil is the healthy kind of fat, so why mess around? Now you want to smash them down a bit, 3/4 of an inch thick or so. I used a pint glass. If you want good, detailed instructions on how to do it with a potato masher, that's how Ree did it (that's Pioneer Woman. I've linked to her three times, I figure I can use her screen name now. Heh.), so you can check it out there. I used a glass, then fluffed them a bit with a fork to give them crags for browning. I sprinkled them with a good amount of salt and pepper. Then I took about a tablespoon and a half of soft butter and mixed it up with a big clove of minced garlic. I dolloped about a half a teaspoon or so on each potato and tossed them on the top rack of a 450 degree oven. About 25 minutes later I pulled them out. Nicely browned, a couple blackened skin bits and the butter had soaked into the potatoes leaving behind little chunks of roasted garlic. I found the blackened bits added some really good flavor, not nasty bitterness. Then I served them with some bbq steak tips. They were wicked good. Now here is a great thing about these, you can season them however you want. Don't want butter and garlic? Use more olive oil (they do need some kind of fat on top, for browning) and some rosemary. Or sage, or tarragon, paprika, cayenne, oregano, whatever. It's potatoes. Match the seasoning to the dish and you are good to go. Of course, garlic goes good with pretty much everything. Mmmm, garlic.