Potater Tots

Time: Approx. 30 min. total
(15 min. prep/11-12 min. cook)

Ingredients
2 russet potatoes
1-2 finally chopped green onions, green and white parts (optional)
1-2 cloves of garlic (optional)
2-3 Tb. olive oil
salt to taste
Note - any herbs you like with potatoes could be substituted here, as long as you use a large enough amount. Garlic tends to burn a bit, but green onion is great.

Equipment needed
glass bowl
Iron skillet (or something else that can be used both on the stove top and in the oven)

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 425 F.

2. Grate the potato, skin and all. You can use the regular size grater, but using two different sizes on the grater works better to help hold things together. The teeny, tiny grater size and the regular grater size (medium? Large? Not sure what it's called). You want about a 1:2 ratio of tiny gratings to regular gratings. Mix these together until the tiny shreddings are mixed evenly through the grated potato pieces.

3. Put the iron skillet on the stove top, add the oil, and set the temperature to med-medium high IF you have an electric stove and need some time to warm up the skillet. If you have a gas stove, you can wait a little so the oil doesn't burn while you are working.

4. While it is heating, pick up the grated potato by the handful and squeeze out the excess liquid. You can save the liquid for making your own potato starch, or just wash it down the drain. Then put the squeezed potato in a clean mixing bowl.

5. Add the green onions, garlic, salt, and/or whatever seasonings you are using to the bowl with the potato. Salt alone is just fine, if you're in a rush. Mix with your hands.

6. Flick some water on the skillet to make sure the oil is hot enough to make it sizzle. When it is, taking a small amount of potato shreds at a time, form them into small cakes about 1/2 inch thick, and carefully slide them directly into the skillet. Use about 2 inches wide if you want more potater tot sizes, but about the size of the bottom of a coffee mug if you want more of a potato cake size. A medium sized skillet will usually hold 3-5 larger potato cakes with no problem. Because there is no egg or flour helping these hold together, they have to be treated a little more gently or they will fall apart. To help, press down just a bit with a spatula, after they are in the pan.

7. Fry them on the skillet for 1-2 minutes, until they are nice and crispy brown on the bottom. If there is more oil, the entire bottom with be nicely brown. If there's less oil used, the browning will be more spotty. Flip them over and cook for another minute or so, just browning a little bit. Then take the entire skillet and move it to the oven. Cook for 8-12 minutes or until done.

Makes about 24-27 'tots'

Shauna's Notes:
Inspired by: The idea of using the iron skillet is all Gluten Free Girl, from her Potato Pancakes recipe, as well as the idea for using green onions rather than regular onions (Yeah, don't try to use those. Not so great). Using different sized shreds helps compensate for the lack of starch used int he original recipe.

What worked: The taste is awesome, a bit greasy (that's a good thing, as far as I'm concerned), and totally makes me think of the Ore-Ida Tater Tots that I can't eat any more. Crispy on the outside, soft on the inside.

What didn't work: While I like the taste of garlic, it has a tendency to burn if you overcook it at all, so I tend to do onion on its own, or even more often, just salt because I'm tired and don't want to cook much.

What could be done to improve it: If there is a pepper you can use, that would be tasty, I think.

Overall, this recipe gets a thumbs up.

SULFITE FREE  - Many folks with sulfite sensitivity can't have onions or garlic, so just omit it. I like to add chile peppers or other herbs, instead.

ACCOMPANIMENTS - One thing that I have really enjoyed eating with this is a kind of quick pickled red bell pepper and jalapeño. I just juice 1-2 lemons into a large mug, add a good amount of salt, enough water to fill the mug 1/3-1/2 way, and then quickly chop and add red bell pepper and jalapeño to it to soak. If it can soak for 15 minutes or so, that's usually enough. I just take a bit of this along with a bite of potato and it's quite good.