- Today I'm gonna teach you
how to make the spiciest potatoes of your life.
Just kidding, they're not that spicy.
But they are called spicy potatoes.
(soft music)
Hey everyone, it's Yumna from Feel Good Foodie.
And because of my Middle Eastern roots,
one of the most popular ways that we eat potatoes,
is this recipe, called Batata Harra.
That literally translates to spicy potatoes,
because these potatoes pack in some heat,
from some crushed red pepper flakes.
They are wildly popular in the Middle East,
and don't require any special ingredients at all.
You'll just need some potatoes, pepper,
cilantro, and a tiny bit of heat tolerance.
But trust me, your taste buds will thank you.
So, let's get started.
Let's start by prepping the potatoes.
So, I'm using here just some nice, yellow Yukon potatoes.
They're pretty large, so, what we're gonna do is,
we're gonna cut them into one and one and a half inch cubes,
just like that.
So, what I'll do is, I'll usually slice it in half,
and I like to keep the skin on,
because they're pretty thin on here,
but if you are using russet potatoes,
feel free to peel the skin off.
And then what we're gonna do is,
just go in to slice them, (knife slicing)
into little cubes, just like that.
Now that we have them all chopped,
the next step is to rinse them.
What we want to do,
is we want to rinse off some of the starch
that's on the outside of the potatoes,
because that starch can actually make the potato sticky,
and we don't want them to be sticky,
we want them to be nice and crispy.
And now that we washed them, we want to dry them.
And I find the best way to do it,
is in any pan that you're using,
it doesn't have to be the final roasting pan,
(dish clattering) just any pan,
to make sure that you can really get in there,
and dry them out.
So, you can use a paper towel, or just a kitchen towel.
And now we're gonna transfer them,
(potatoes clattering) to a larger baking dish.
And we're gonna season them with just some salt.
I'm using a teaspoon of salt.
And about a tablespoon of olive oil.
You can measure this out or you can just eyeball it.
Now use your hands to mix the potatoes
with the salt and olive oil,
until everything is well-combined.
We're going to roast this in the oven at 450 degrees
for 30 minutes, flipping halfway through.
And one bonus tip here is,
if you wanted to,
you can actually preheat the oven,
while preheating the pan as well.
So, that means when the potatoes hit the pan,
they're gonna get extra-crispy.
We didn't do that here,
so I don't burn my hands. (giggles)
While the potatoes are in the oven,
we're gonna go ahead and make the sauce.
So, the sauce is basically made up of olive oil, cilantro,
garlic, and crushed red pepper.
I have here some fresh cilantro,
we're gonna use half for the sauce,
and we're gonna keep the other half
for serving the potatoes.
(herbs crunching)
So, I'm just gonna roughly chop them up.
All right, those are ready to go.
Now, what we're gonna do is,
to a heated pan, we're gonna add some olive oil,
that I just added,
and we're going to add some garlic to this.
I'm using three ginormous,
garlic cloves, (garlic squishing)
and adding them straight to the pan.
You can use minced garlic.
I like to use the garlic press,
just because everything gets nice and pressed,
and it just evenly distributes into the sauce.
We just want to lightly fry the garlic,
(oil sizzling)
until it's fragrant, but we don't want to burn it.
So then, we're gonna go ahead and add a teaspoon
of crushed red pepper.
This is where the spice comes from, you guys.
And we're also gonna add about half a cup
of chopped cilantro.
(mixture sizzling) And mix all of that together.
So, the sauce is all ready,
and you guys, it smells so good.
It's just literally those four ingredients,
but the smell is tantalizing.
When the potatoes are done cooking,
we're gonna toss them immediately with the sauce,
and then we just put it all together and it'll be done.
Just grabbed the potatoes from the oven,
and they're looking so good and crispy.
So, now I'm going to add the cilantro garlic sauce
(spoon scraping) that we just created,
and throw that right on top of the potatoes.
Get all that goodness in there.
And then I'm gonna use a spatula,
(spoon scraping) just to give everything
a nice toss.
So, while I baked the potatoes,
just to be quicker and healthier,
it's more popular to actually deep-fry the potatoes.
So, (spoon scraping)
if you want to do that option,
you can certainly deep-fry the potatoes,
and then add the mixture to it, on top.
I think you get a pretty similar result,
with less of a mess, (potatoes crunching)
when you just bake them.
So, I'm just stirring everything together.
And it's important to do this part
as soon as the potatoes come out of the oven,
because it's going to be nice and hot,
and that sauce is gonna stick right to the potatoes.
And now we're gonna transfer everything to a serving dish,
'cause it's ready to go.
This is gonna be messy.
(potatoes crunching)
(dish clattering)
(spoon tapping)
Not bad.
We missed 10 potatoes.
(pan clattering)
(laughing)
How does it taste, Video Matt?
Awesome. He likes it!
And I haven't even served the dish yet.
But it's very important that we get Video Matt's opinion,
and he already loves it, so, I'm super-excited about that.
I'm gonna clean up the potatoes over here a little bit,
and because it's called Batata Harra,
we're gonna add a little bit extra
crushed red pepper on top, when we're ready to serve it.
So, some of it gets cooked,
and then the rest of it is nice and fresh.
Red-hot chili flakes.
And then I also like to serve it with some fresh cilantro
on top,
because it's a crucial part of the flavor for the dish.
Hit it with some fresh lemon juice.
All right, we already know
how Video Matt feels about the recipe,
he's in love over there,
and I think you guys are gonna be in love, as well.
This recipe is a fun Middle Eastern take
on roasted potatoes,
with a burst of flavor from the cilantro
and the crushed red pepper,
and all that garlic and olive oil and lemon juice.
It just screams so much flavor.
It's a wonderful side dish.
And it's time for me to try some, too.
(chewing)
I'm gonna take another one.
So good.