The side dish, Oregon red roasted potaoes with lemon and garlic, is a food series inspired by the intereactive story App, Cranberry Moon Empire. Cranberry Moon Empire is a novel set in Oregon. Nina is a character who lives in Portland in the fictional novel Cranberry Moon Empire.
Nina is in the mood for some comfort with lemony flavor with herbs. She loves potatoes, especially red potatoes, well really any potatoes–– yellow, purple, brown. She likes potatoes of all varieties but tonight she wants to make the potatoes just like what she ate in one of those restaurants in that funky Oregon neighborhood. The Greek potatoes that they served were ohhhh….so….good. Yes, the version of their Greek potatoes was just unforgettably tantalizing.
Greek Red Potatoes in Oregon
Nina fell in love with Greek potatoes when she went out with CB and Victoria on a weekend road trip. She can’t remember the name of the restaurant now. But she heard that restaurant is no longer there. That restaurant owner closed his shop and retired and perhaps even moved back to Athens.
Nina visited Athens once, but she was going there back then for the fabulous nightlife. That was when she was in college. Now…she is just about crazy about potatoes as she is about nightlife.
Anyway, she is ready to make those potatoes since she tried at the restaurant… like right now.
She looks out her window from her bungalow style home. The weather now in Portland, Oregon is mostly cloudy with a small bit of fog hovering over her beautiful evergreens. Rain is starting to come down now. She hears it on her roof. She doesn’t mind foggy weather at all, and she likes it especially when there is going to be good hot red potatoes that are going to be ready in under an hour.
The recipe that she is using today is one she picked up from many people, inspired by many fabulous cook, and of course eating in many Greek restaurants. Besides, the last few years, she has been interested in cooking brunches and she wants to add more to her brunch dishes. She is even taking cooking classes and has been loving her cooking classes. She loves the guest cooks in Portland (more about the guest cook on another blog).
Oregon red potatoes for two people
Today, Nina is making potatoes for two people. She has never made the red roasted potaoes own her own. She is going to do it today So, let’s see how her potoates will turn out.
Here we go:
Let’s start on the red potatoes.
Ingredients
12 to 16 small red potatoes
1to 2 cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1/4 th teaspoon of salt or to taste
1/4th of black pepper. For some heat, add crushed red pepper.
1/4th teaspoon of herbs you like- rosemary, parsley, sage, dill, thyme, or all of them
1 tablespoon of lemon juice, preferably fresh squeezed.
Note:
If you don’t like the tangy taste of lemon in your potatoes, reduce it to 1 teaspoon, or skip it.
1 clove of garlic diced in small pieces, you can skip it if you like.
Kitchen Cooking Utensils
Skillet or a pan that can handle 400 degrees oven heat
Turning spoon
Mixing spoon
Tasting spoon/fork
Cooking instructions please
This is the instruction Nina had collected over the years. She looks at a few of those notes that she entered.
Prep ahead for potatoes
Wash potatoes and scrub off any dirt and dry.
How to dry potatoes.
Dry them with a clean towel.
If you are not going to cook the potato until six to hours later, you can leave the potatoes to air dry.
Scrub, wash, and dry red potatoes
Cut the small red potatoes in halves and throw it in a skillet
Half the small red potatoes
Garlic
Dice the garlic very small.
Throw diced garlic on the Oregon red potatoes
Salt and spices
Add salt and herbs, whatever herbs you like–– Italian herbs, rosemary, sage.
Nina used dried parsley.
Toss the garlic, herbs, spices, and oil in the skillet with potatoes.
Mix the herbs, oil, and potatoes with a soft spoon
Squeeze lemon on the herbed potatoes.
Squeeze that lemon slice
Ensure that there is some space in between each of the potatoes.
Place the potatoes in the oven for 20 minutes.
She can hear the potoatoes hissing in the skillet.
In twenty minutes, she pulls it out of the oven and it looks like this.
She turns them over, each one of them and leaves them in the oven for another 20 minutes.
Right at 15 minutes, a phone call came. She answers the phone with a preface, “cooking red potatoes let me call you back.” That was her cousin. Her cousin always call at these delicate moments. Her cousin tells her a few things and they hang up. Now she is looking for her mitten. All that was about extra few minutes.
When she pulls her red potatoes out, it looks like this.
Bloopers, Mistakes, Failures, Errors…How many different ways can one little oversight…
Nina did exactly like they said, but her potatoes burned, burned, burned.
She learned that 45 minutes is too long for these small potatoes and an infinity for the diced itty-bitty garlic.
The garlic burnt to ashes. Of course, some people in my other book, Magic Soup and Purple Juice, would like charred food like charred lemony potatoes, but not her. Nina likes charred food but just around the edges. “Sheez, mightest will eat ash if it is going to be this burnt,” she said to herself, thinking how can I recover from this potato failure.
She can’t be worried about one failure, nooo, not right now.
She has company coming over in about an hour. Thank goodness, her friend is laid back. Anyway, for the love of red potatoes, she will remake her Oregon red roasted potatoes with lemon and garlic after learning 45 minutes is too long for her oven.
There are still some potatoes left. She bought a big bag because she knew she had to test some instructions twice or thrice to make it nice.
A note to retry
She pens a note to herself because she is a beginner.
“Reduce the time to ten minutes first then add the garlic on the second half.
For just 20 small red potatoes, bake it with everything except the garlic for 10 minutes on one side. Now, when the timer goes ding, pull it out. Turn the hot potatoes over with a spatula. Throw the diced garlic on it and stick it back in the oven for another 10 minutes.
If the potatoes are not done in 10 minutes, place it in the oven for five more minutes.”
In another ten minutes, She pulls her side dish out…yea the garlic looks good, the potatoes smell nice. Oh yea, it is going to be a splendid night tonight. Let’s turn on some good music.
Nina keeps popping those potatoes one by one in her mouth. She is claiming to be testing them. In reality, she can’t stop eating them.
Mouth watering potatoes for a rainy and foggy Oregon day
Her friend should have been here, oh about fifteen minutes ago. If she doesn’t show in a few more minutes, the delicious potatoes could be all gone.
Summary of Delicious Victory
This is how Nina’s entry would look like on roasted red potatoes after two tries.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees
- Scrub, wash, and dry potatoes ahead.
- Cut small potatoes in halves.
- Add herbs, spices, and oil to the cut potatoes in a skillet. Add everything but the diced garlic.
- Mix them all up and rub them thoroughly on the red potatoes
- Wait ten minutes
- Squeeze lemon juice, 1 teaspoon for mild lemony taste, more for lemony flavor.
- Place it in the oven for 10 minutes.
- During halftime, pull it out of the oven, and turn over the potatoes, add the diced garlic.
- Place it back in the oven for another ten minutes.
It should be done. If not, leave it for another five to ten minutes.
Hear the hiss of the red potatoes.
Know your oven for good potatoes too.
