Garlic and Shallot Smashed Potatoes

By commercecook

The potatoes will brown on the bottom and are delicious as a side dish. As you read further, you can see how to prepare them earlier in the day, a real advantage to preparing for a dinner party.

Ingredients

• 25-30 baby red potatoes
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 2 shallots
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• All of these amounts are very flexible. I found that I used the above amount for only half as many potatoes. I used additional olive oil to brush on the finished potatoes as well.

Preparation

Step 1

Boil the potatoes in salted water until just tender. Drain and set aside.

While potatoes are boiling, mince the garlic and shallots into small pieces. Add olive oil, salt, parsley, and pepper. Stir. Mixture will form a kind of loose paste.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Line a baking tray with parchment paper. Place potatoes on tray. Place another sheet on top. Take a similar sized tray and press down lightly until you feel the potatoes smash under the tray. Don't press too hard. (These are the original directions. I found this almost impossible to do so put the potatoes on parchment paper, then took a smaller sheet of parchment and individually hit each potato with a meat mallet or tenderizer. I was able to control the amount of smashing better this way.)

Remove the top parchment. Top each potato with a spoonful of the garlic/shallot mixture. Bake at 425 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until topping is lightly brown and potatoes appear crisp. After they came out, I brushed a little olive oil on each potato.

( I boiled the potatoes earlier in the day and smashed them after they cooled a bit. Then, I covered them with plastic wrap. I made the garlic mixture earlier in the day. Before going in the oven, I spooned on the garlic and popped in the oven.)