For the fourth of July I made a potato and fennel salad. Only a waxy or waxyish potato works in this dish, and I used Yukon Golds cut in about six long wedgies each--boil first to about 80% done, then toss with a bit of oil, salt and pepper and roast on cookie sheet until golden brown and crispy. But I made way too many, and would have normally tossed out what we didn't use (potatoes are cheap) but there were so many in this case, I thought maybe I could turn them into a potato salad or something.
Yesterday I came across the roasted potatoes in the fridge. I took one out of the bag and noted that it tasted like a finer version of a frozen French fry, so I threw one in the toaster oven to see if it would recrisp. Not only did it, but it was delicious--not at all the flavor, due to having been precooked in water, of a leftover dry-baked potatoes which is not a flavor I like. It tasted FRESH. So all the rest of them went into the big oven for recrisping and we had a "French fry" first course with a homemade BBQ sauce for dipping. Fantastic!
In the future, not only will I not worry about having leftover potatoes when doing this method of roasted potato, I'll make sure I have leftovers! Also, it's a great do-ahead method if one wanted to do a big batch of 'fries' for an outdoor party.
