MS Iron Chef: Battle Potato - Whose Cuisine Reigns Supreme?

[Haschel Cedricson]

Welcome to Scummer Stadium, where we will be hosting the first of what hopefully becomes a series of cooking competitions. The idea is simple. Each contest will have a theme ingredient. Your job is to cook a certain number of dishes that feature that ingredient. As you cook, you will take pictures of the cooking process, share the recipe, post a picture of the completed dish, and tell us how it tasted. At the end of the month there will be a poll where scummers will be able to vote for which dish they think deserves to win.

For our first contest the theme was chosen by Aristophanes: the humble potato. Any type of potato will do - Russet, Yukon Gold, Red, those weird purple ones - the supermarket is your oyster.

This contest will require you to make

TWO

ONE

potato dish

es, at least one of which must be a main course. You are not required to eat them both at the same meal but you can if you want.

To enter, post your submission in this thread. Hopefully either tomorrow or Sunday I will have my own entry done to show you an example.

You have until

September 30

to post your entry. The winner will get to choose the theme ingredient for the next contest.

If you have any questions ask them here.

[Aristophanes]

Imma have to go get groceries now...gdi XD

[Haschel Cedricson]

Imma have to go get groceries now...gdi XD

I will admit part of the point was to make you specifically buy groceries.

[Aristophanes]

Imma have to go get groceries now...gdi XD

I will admit part of the point was to make you specifically buy groceries.

[xofelf]

/ego

May do something for this, but equally may not. but I'm interested in watching.

[Aristophanes]

It'll be quite the show I'm sure

[Haschel Cedricson]

Imma have to go get groceries now...gdi XD

I will admit part of the point was to make you specifically buy groceries.

[Aristophanes]

I laughed far too hard at that! Amazing XD

[PJ.]

Ego

[caledfwitch]

im a little interested!

[T3]

ego
dunno if i'll actually do anything, but sure

[pirate mollie]

/in!!!!

Hell, yes!

Come on, y'all, it's poe-tah-tahs

[Haschel Cedricson]

A few people have told me that it is too difficult to either come up with a potato entrée or to come up with two dishes. As such,

Rule Change! You need only make ONE potato dish, and I don't care what it is!

Additionally, I have the first official submission. Please enjoy

Roasted Potato Medallions

!

First off, gather your ingredients.



Here I have a bunch of potatoes, butter, chicken broth/stock, thyme, rosemary, salt, pepper, and garlic. The potatoes I chose are Yukon Golds; they are smaller than traditional baked potatoes but the texture is a lot smoother and they are fantastic for roasting. Take your potatoes and peel them.



Once they are peeled, you can cut them into medallions. Ideally you want them to be over 1/2'' thick.



Meanwhile in a bowl melt about 1/3 cup of butter. Add in the herbs and spices. The exact ratio isn't important but I did a teaspoon each of thyme/salt and 1/2 teaspoon of rosemary/pepper.



Stir the butter/herb mixture and coat each medallion on both sides before moving it to a baking sheet.

MAKE SURE THIS IS A BAKING SHEET AND NOT A COOKIE SHEET!

When you are done you will have a baking sheet full of buttery potato medallions.



Get your oven

hot

. I went 475 degrees. Put the pan in and roast it for 15 minutes.



They will start to crisp slightly. Use a pair of tongs to flip them over and put them in for another 15 minutes. Once the timer goes off, flip them yet

again

and add the chicken broth and garlic to the pan. I'm not gonna give you an exact amount of broth but basically add enough to that the potatoes are sitting in it but not so much that it spills out of the pan. Return it to the oven for 15 minutes.



When you pull it out of the oven, the outsides will be incredibly crisp while the interior will basically be smooth as silk. Plate it up next to your protein of choice and your favorite non-starch vegetable and enjoy!



I made these for my family over Labor Day weekend and they were a huge hit. The chicken broth adds a fantastic flavor that really elevates the already-delicious tastes of the Yukon Gold. They are texturally perfect and if I'm being honest may have one of the favorable effort-to-taste ratios of any side dish I've ever made.

In conclusion, you should all try making these.

[Haschel Cedricson]

Come on, people, the month is almost over! Let's see some recipes.

[Haschel Cedricson]

Bump.

[Who]

ego

[Aristophanes]

I actually went shopping like a month ago when this was proposed but I haven't cooked anything since. I have a plan for this.

I'll definitely get to it soon!

[Aristophanes]

Is it okay if I still aim for the 2 recipe thing or nah?

[Haschel Cedricson]

Is it okay if I still aim for the 2 recipe thing or nah?

Go for it!

Honestly at this point I'm desperate for entries and will take anything that has a potato in it.

[Farren]

The limit of my cooking skills with potatoes (or most foods in general) would start something like ...
1) Preheat oven to 450 F;
2) Open bag of frozen potato product ...

... I am presuming that you're not *that* desperate.

But hopefully someone will come along, see this, and go "I can do better than that!" and be motivated to do so. To that someone: I'm rooting for you.

[Aristophanes]

Is it okay if I still aim for the 2 recipe thing or nah?

Go for it!

Honestly at this point I'm desperate for entries and will take anything that has a potato in it.

I promise, you will regret this post XD

[Who]

The limit of my cooking skills with potatoes (or most foods in general) would start something like ...
1) Preheat oven to 450 F;
2) Open bag of frozen potato product ...

... I am presuming that you're not *that* desperate.

But hopefully someone will come along, see this, and go "I can do better than that!" and be motivated to do so. To that someone: I'm rooting for you.

The problem is that we automatically compare ourselves to Haschel's high effort fancy potatoes rather than your low effort potato product. Though I was going to cook a thing involving potatoes today anyway so I'll document and submit it so that I can lose to Haschel. I'm not sure I will do better than you would have done.

[Farren]

I suppose that depends on how the poll is structured. If it's just a straight-forward "Which of these dishes is the best?" then I'll concede that Haschel's dish will be difficult to beat. If it's more of a "Rank these dishes on a scale of 1-10" type poll, I'd predict that as long as your potatoes are neither moving of their own accord nor on fire, they'd beat Chez Tater Tot.

[Aristophanes]

I mean, the point here is to share stories and strategies and results, good or bad. I think as long as we enter we have won!

[xofelf]

I do have a thing I plan to try to make, I just needed to be able to pick up a couple of the ingredients. It is basic as shit, but that's kinda the whole point there.