Have we discussed my compulsive need to boil potatoes lately? I don’t think we have.
I constantly have a need for little, tiny, baby boiled potatoes in my fridge. Throwing them in a pot of salted water, boiling until tender, allowing them to cool and dry until completely stone cold, and then stowing them away in the fridge is as autopilot to me now as giving that polite yet soberly vacant nod and smile to someone walking past you with a dog, when you’re walking your own.
Dog owners, you understand the plight.
Okay so I really am trying to keep these little monologues above the recipe to a minimum on the website. Not because I’ve been beaten down with memes recently making fun of food bloggers who over-articulate (fuck y’all) but because I’m working on TWO new projects (don’t ask… but kinda do ask) which basically involves a lot of writing, a lot of feelings, and a lot of that over-articulation that some seem to hate, some seem to love, and some who, like I, seem to live for.
So I will literally just say two things here: the first being that kimchi is a beacon of hope that we all need in our kitchens, and there are other more appropriate food writers who can tell you about it’s wonders and perhaps offer a good recipe – try Hyosun’s recipe here.
The second is that a bowl of cold boiled baby potatoes is a life raft in an ocean of hunger. I really tried with that metaphor. Squashed slightly under the weight of a saucer and fried in butter, halved and combined with some yogurt, sour cream, mustard, and dill for a banging potato salad, roasted under a swollen, fat leaking chicken, tossed up with some ginger and soy and served with a baked white fish – they are little, carby soldiers that can accompany anything at a moments notice.
Also just dunked straight into a small bowl of aioli and eaten like crudité. Alone, in the dark, standing by the fridge. Title of my forthcoming memoir.
But anyway, in the name of NOT monologuing before the recipe, here’s a recipe that’s really not a recipe, but thrills and excites me either way.
Serves 1
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 – 5 boiled baby potatoes (cold)
2 tablespoons kimchi (from a jar)
1 egg
2 spring onions
- On a medium heat, warm 1 tablespoon of the olive oil in a medium pan with high-ish sides. I go cast iron (her name is Tammy Skillette) but that’s my choice.
- While the oil warms, slice the potatoes into rounds, I’d say the thickness of pound coins.
- Drop the potato coins in the warm oil so that they all lay flat, and fry untouched, just peeking after 2 – 3 minutes to see if they’re starting to brown underneath. Once they’ve started to turn crispy and golden on one side, flip them all over and cook for another 2 minutes on the other side.
- Once the potato coins are all crisped up and bronze, carefully remove them from the pan to a bowl and put the pan back on the heat.
- Spoon in the kimchi and fry for literal seconds, I’d say like 10 or 15 or something, just to warm it. Toss the potatoes back into the pan and stir through the kimchi so that the potato coins are coated in the fiery red stain of the kimchi.
- Empty the kimchi and potatoes back into the bowl, and put the pan back on the heat. Add the last tablespoon of olive oil to the pan, and then fry the egg. I won’t tell you how to fry eggs, because everyone likes theirs different, but I go for 3 – 4 minutes.
- Carefully slide the egg into the bowl of potatoes and kimchi, snip over the spring onions with a scissors, and serve.
MIKEY AND THE KITCHEN. 