Crazy Cooking Challenge: Roasted Smashed Potatoes

This month's crazy cooking challenge was "Mashed Potatoes."  In case you are wondering, the crazy cooking challenge is the brainchild of Tina's from moms crazy cooking. Each month you are given a theme (last month was chocolate chip cookies) and you are to be inspired from another persons blog.  Genius!  I love being able to support another fellow blogger!

So, mashed potatoes is the theme for November and there are tons of different recipes out there!  Even my meat and potatoes loving husband enjoyed this challenge! The first recipe I tried was for a twice baked potato that used a package of Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing.  Oh yeah! It was definitely a keeper recipe and one I will share with you all in the future.  But I was looking for something a bit more different to put up for this challenge and was torn between trying Deep Fried Mashed Potato Balls and one called Roasted Smashed Potatoes.  Laziness won out in the end and I nixed the deep frying for the time being.  Roasted Smashed Potatoes was a bit time consuming, but really quite easy. Be sure to check out Chad's  blog, there is a plethora of information on it.   This was an interesting challenge. It will be nice to have a few new recipes to switch up side dishes from time to time. The idea behind this recipe is to have a crispy exterior and a creamy interior.... crazy as that sounds, it worked!  Super duper yummy!

Roasted Smashed Potatoes

http://www.chadchandler.com/roasted-smashed-potatoes/

2½ pounds baby reds or small Yukon gold potatoes (1½-2 inch in diameter)
3/4 cups water
3-4 tablespoons olive oil
fresh rosemary, thyme or sage for garnish

salt & pepper to taste
freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

Move the oven rack to the top and bottom positions and preheat the oven to 500°. Place the potatoes on a baking tray and add the water.The potatoes should be fairly small, but if need be you may cut potatoes in half.  Cover pan  tightly with foil so that the potatoes will steam. Place the potatoes on the bottom rack in the oven and cook for about 25 minutes.

Take them out of the oven, remove the foil, and let the potatoes cool down for a few minutes.Drain off water.  Once cooled, drizzle potatoes with olive oil and roll them so that potatoes are evenly coated.
Space them evenly across the tray. Place another baking tray on top of the potatoes and smash them down until they’re only about ½ inch thick. Season them to your own taste; Add more olive oil and a generous amount of salt and pepper so that all the seasonings run into all of the cracks and depressions. I used some rosemary but it is really to your own preference what seasonings you would like to use.  I think garlic would also work really well with this!

Place the tray back in the oven and cook for about 15 minutes on the top rack. Switch to bottom rack and cook an additional 25 minutes . The bottom of the potatoes should be crisp. If desired, use the broiler on top rack to crisp up the tops more.  Remove from oven and sprinkle tops with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.