Hedgehog potato how-to

poopiebitch — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 19:03:00 +0000

A few people have asked how I cut/cook my roasted potatoes, so I thought I’d put together a little tutorial. It’s really easy, but for some reason I felt the need to take a gazillion photos. Don’t let the length of this post scare you. ( I apologize in advance for the low quality photos – I don’t have great lighting in my kitchen).

I had never in my life tasted roasted potatoes until I met my husband. Or, rather, my husband’s mother. I learned this ‘hedgehog’ method from her, and I’ve never gone back. So if you like these potatoes, you have my mum-in-law to thank!

First, peel your potatoes:

Next, cut them into fairly uniformly sized pieces, not too small. Tiny potatoes can just be cut in half:

I like to cut one end off of very large potatoes:

Then in half lengthwise:

Then into pieces:

Do the same with the rest of the potatoes. As you can see, you don’t have to be too worried about them being the exact same size, just close:

Now, the fun part! Take a knife and cut several slits into your potatoes, cutting most of the way through, being careful not to cut all the way. Do this down the length of the potato. I find this easiest with a smaller knife:

Continue until you’ve ‘hedgehogged’ all of your potatoes:

If you’re an ‘advanced prep’ sort of person (as I am) you can put the potatoes in a bowl at this point and cover them completely with water. They can be left at room temp for a couple of hours, or put the bowl in the fridge if they won’t be used for a few hours or until the next day (or you can skip this step and roast them immediately, of course!).

When you’re ready to roast your potatoes, preheat your oven to 400?. Pat the potatoes with some kitchen towel if they’ve been in water, just so they’re not soaking wet (a little wet is fine). Spray a foil-lined baking sheet with oil, and plop on your potatoes, slit-side up. Spray with some more oil until fairly well coated (my mum-in-law brushes oil on with a pastry brush, and I did too, until I figured out that I was using way more oil than necessary. You can brush it on if you’d like, but spraying is a bit healthier and the results are just as good):

Pop the pan in your 400? oven, and after about an hour you’ll have a lovely pan of hedgehog potatoes:

A closer shot with the yummy crispy brown bottoms:

See? Easy!

Lots of pictures totally make up for lack of content

poopiebitch — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 18:05:00 +0000

As promised, today I will share my delicious tacos with you. Well, not my tacos themselves, but pictures of them.

First I must tell you about one of my new favorite things: Tofutti sour cream. I bought it not really expecting to like it, but the first time I tasted it I had to go back and check the package to make sure I hadn’t somehow gotten confused and bought real sour cream, or something that had milk in it. Nope, it is a totally vegan sour cream substitute. If you like sour cream, this stuff is da bomb.

Now, on to tacos. I find that when I make tacos, I can never get the amount of filling I want in there without them breaking and falling apart everywhere and making a huge mess. Yes, I like lots of ‘stuff’ in my tacos. So I decided to just cut to the chase and break the shells in half before preparing them. I know this sort of makes them more like a tostada than a taco, but I prefer to call them “open faced tacos”.

Step 1: Toast the broken taco shells (I used blue corn) lightly in a dirty, dirty toaster oven. Hey, I was at work, okay? It’s not MY toaster oven…

Step 2: Spread on some heated refried black beans (or refried pinto beans, if you prefer). I heated mine in the microwave.

Step 3: Top the beans with some vegan soy ‘crumbles’ that have been cooked with taco seasoning. I used Morningstar Farms brand, cooked on Monday and reheated as needed in the microwave.

At this point I also added some taco sauce, but I didn’t get a picture. Use your imagination.

Step 4: Pile on some shredded lettuce. I used pre-shredded out of a bag, because I am lazy.

Step 5: Dollop on some delicious Tofutti sour cream and spread it around with great difficulty on the unstable lettuce. Lick fingers.

Step 6: Top your tacos with some diced (or in my case, chopped) tomatoes.

Step 7: Do I really have to tell you what step 7 is?

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Hedgehog potato how-to

Lots of pictures totally make up for lack of content