hello this is chef john from food wishes common with bombay breakfast potatoes
that's right with a little bit of this and a little bit of that we're gonna
turn your classic home fried potatoes into something more beautiful better
tasting and definitely way more exotic and by the way if you're thinking exotic
really isn't my thing you should definitely still watch anyway
since we're gonna be reviewing the proper way to make crispy crunchy on the
outside light and fluffy in the middle home fried potatoes
so with that let's go ahead and get started by mixing up our spice blend
which for me is going to contain some ground cumin some ground coriander some
tumeric and then last but never least some cayenne and that's it we'll go
ahead and take a spoon and give that a mix and we will set that aside while we
move on to prep our potatoes which is going to mean peeling and rinsing a
couple of our dresses which are definitely my favorite potato for this
procedure and what we'll do is very carefully very precisely cut these in
half and then in quarters and then into eighths and eventually sixteenths and by
the way when I'm a keen on exotic home fries I don't cut them this small I
usually just stop at quarters so they don't absorb too much water when they
boil but this time is you're about to see we have a very good reason for that
and then what we'll do once those are cut is transfer them into a saucepan
filled with some cold fresh water along with a very generous addition of salt
okay one of the secrets to delicious home fries is cooking the potatoes in
well salted water and then believe it or not we're gonna add about two thirds of
our spice blend and what's gonna happen is we cook our potatoes is that they're
gonna absorb all these amazing flavors not to mention by the way stunning color
which hopefully will result in a final product that is way better looking and
much more interesting tasting so that's our game plan here and we'll go ahead
and bring those up to a boil over medium-high heat and other than maybe
give it a mister all we need to do is let them cook until they're just barely
almost tender okay tender is fine just barely tenders fine but past tender
where they start getting soft is probably not a good idea so once we
think they're getting close we should go ahead and test them with the tip of a
knife and it should slide in fairly easily
but not too easily which in case you're keeping score at home took me about ten
minutes after they started boiling and then what we'll do once we've determined
they're ready is go ahead and drain those very well at which point we can
transfer those onto a plates to let them cool down to room temp and yes these
really do take on the most beautiful color okay there are certain colors that
have a proven track record of making people happy just by looking at them and
this is definitely one of them and then once he's up cool down we can
move on to the most important step by far which is wrapping these up and
popping them into the fridge until they're thoroughly thoroughly chilled
all right overnight is recommended but as long as they're very very cold you're
good to go and it's this process of cooking the
potato first and then chilling it and having the starches on the outside
surface gelatin eyes that really gives us that crispy crunchiness we're after
so do not under any circumstances cook these well they're hot and then what
we'll do once these have been thoroughly chilled is go ahead and unwrap them and
make a decision do we want to cook these as is and large chunks or do we want to
cut them in smaller pieces okay personally I like to cut them in
half because I consider that the perfect breakfast potato size but as I said this
is technically optional so that's up to you I mean you are after all the vishnu'
of splitting these into but I will say that by cutting them we do create more
surface area which ultimately means more crispness and crunchiness so I did go
ahead and cut these all in half right on the plate like you're not supposed to
and that's it once those are cut we can go ahead and fry them up which I'm gonna
do in some butter and olive oil in a non-stick skillet set over medium to
medium-high heat and even though we boiled these with a good amount of salt
we definitely want to add another big pinch at this point since an under
salted potato is an evil potato and we want to be kind of patient here at the
beginning okay we really don't want to start tossing them and turning them
until they have time to develop a really nice crust okay so once these first go
in give them a good three or four or five minutes before you start to turn
them and then as we proceed and they start to crisp up we can toss them and
turn them more often and if you just want to do this with a spatula no
problem okay there's no shame in your game totally acceptable but if
you have watched our how to flip food video and have mastered that simple
technique once you start to crust and crisp up flipping them is a lot faster
and easier plus if people are watching you that don't know how to do that
they are never not impressed but anyway whether you're a pan flipping or a
spatula turning we're gonna want to cook them until they're beautifully golden
brown and those surfaces get all crispy and crusty and then what we'll do to
finish these once they do reach that point is go ahead and sprinkle in
another spoon or two of our spice mix and of course you're gonna decide how
much and then we will also want to toss in some sliced green onions as well as
some diced or sliced chillies all right I recommend something with a little bit
of heat but mild and sweet would also be fine and that's it we'll go ahead and
cook those for a few more minutes until our onions and peppers just start to
soften up and basically everything is looking and feeling and tasting exactly
how we want it which at this point mine really were in fact that little potato
I'm trying to taste was so crispy I had trouble stabbing it but eventually did
and that's it once we've checked for seasoning we are ready to serve up and
because I'm doing an Indian theme I'm gonna go ahead and finish with some
chopped cilantro but if you're not into that go ahead and use some parsley or
the tops of your green onions and that's it our Bombay breakfast potatoes are
done and ready to enjoy right off the platter because I was starving and that
my friends in taste appearance and texture was just a magnificent home
fried potato all right thanks to our pre cooking and chilling the outsides are
very crispy and crunchy while the inside stay very light and fluffy and by the
way if you're afraid these are going to be too strongly flavored or too spicy
don't be okay those spices we use definitely come through but it is much
more subtle than you would think okay I'm a fairly traditional eater
especially when it comes to breakfast so for me these really do have to taste and
feel and appear like home fries and now withstanding the appearance and all that
stuff we put in these really do and of course once you have a platter of Bombay
breakfast potatoes you're just a poached egg away from a
Bombay breakfast potato bowl which I'm doing here garnish with a little shake
of cayenne plus a completely unnecessary sprig of cilantro which basically just
wilted on the potatoes so I really should have put that on the
egg and I would have if I knew anything about food style but anyway I quickly
forgot about that because I was just about to take these incredible potatoes
and dump them into a glorious runny yolk poached egg which is always an amazing
experience and it really is amazing with just a few extra ingredients how we can
take something that's generally not very exciting or especially memorable and
turn it into something that's still familiar yet much much more interesting
and if you'll excuse me for one second I seriously need to desperate this
because it's still bugging me but anyway that aside I loved absolutely everything
about this so whether you're gonna go ahead and Indian spice ease up or not or
you're just gonna use this video as a reminder for how to make beautiful
crispy crusty home fried potatoes either way I really do hope you give these a
try soon so head over to food wishes calm for all the ingredient amounts of
Morpho as usual and as always enjoy
you