Fact is, as a chef, or cook... you find inspiration daily in all sorts of things. Flipping through a cookbook. A walk through a farmers market. A simple stroll through German Village can yield some interesting results, but that's a story for a different time.
There are so many great ingredients and ways of connecting them that it would take several lifetimes to explore them all! Yet, many masters have had many lifetimes to cover most of the bases and chances are, it's been done. But never fear... new worlds of exploration of texture modification techniques have made the possibilities endless! In this way you'll could find yourself collaborating with the great chefs of history.
But on a daily basis... the grind of a day to day kitchen... even the seemingly simple tasks might require collaboration, not just to fulfill volume, but to make it work.
I'd made tater tots on a small scale again and again over the past few years and as the plan for Swoop! developed, I had very reasonable expectations of how to scale the volume up sucessfully. What a simple thing. A wonderful crunchy little thing.
Our plan... my plan, was to par cook our potatoes, shred a portion and finely chop a portion. Then we seasoned the mix, forced it into a pvc pipe, pressed it out in cylinders and retired it to the freezer to set. After the potatoes were frozen, we chopped them into the tots and took a few moments to be proud of ourselves. The tots were GORGEOUS!
The next step was to send them for a ride in the fryer and that's where things began to fall apart, literally. Freezing the tots before there was a crust allowed ice crystals to form on the interior, which as the tots thawed released water, which produced steam... which produced a beautful lace of hash browned potatoes.
Fail. Fifty pounds of useless product and back to the drawing board.
The research on tots began in earnest. I experimented with corn and potato starch looking to bind the structure without, desperate to salvage our plan. The really surprising thing, however, was what my only employee did. My only employee, who's not a cook. My only employee that doesn't want to be in a kitchen. My only employee that has been saving my ass at evey turn. He turned into a tater totspert. He read the history of tots, could probably be certified as a tater tot expert at this point. He figured out ratios for our binder, cooking times that minimize moisture, worked with me to figure out a process to scale a recipe for a pound of potatoes to one that works for 50.
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| See? Gorgeous! |
Tater Tots
1 lb Yukon Gold Taters
1 minced shallot
2 large garlic cloves minced
Salt and pepper (feeling bold? substitute a little cayenne for pepper... boom)to taste
Vegetable oil
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees while you are mincin'
Rinse and cook the potatoes for 8-18 minutes depending on size. What you want is to cook the potatoes exacly 1/2 way. If you cook them all the way, you'll be making mashed potatoes, which are delicious fried, but another recipe.
Remove to the refrigerator to cool, or submerge in an ice bath and dry thoroughly.
Shred 1/2 of the potatoes and mince half. You can pulse them in a food processor if you'd like.
Mix everything together and start rolling.
Keep rolling
Keep rolling
Yeah... keep rolling.
Roll some more.
When you are almost done preheat your oil to 340, then fry in small batches until golden and freeze. About halfway through this process, I promise, you are going to want to quit. "Oh..." you'll say, "I'll just finish tomorrow."
No... just like your parents used to say... you have to finish what you started. If you try to store the mix the salt will draw out enough water to steam your tots apart as they fry. If that happens you can add a little flour or cornstarch until the mix it dryer and a bit sticky.
Once all of your tots are frozen, bag them and prepare them the same way you would a nice store bought tot. You'll like and appreciate them more.
